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Intelligent Commentary
Commentary on Intelligence TV Series, June 20th, 2009, by Madeline Bruce.
Episodes 1 & 2 hurl us with great velocity into the fast and dangerous world of high stakes drug smuggling and the legal counterpart that tries to control this – the Organized Crime Unit. One cannot help but see parallels in these 2 opposing worlds: intrigue, back stabbing, internecine organizational power struggles, and a hollowness in the emotional lives of the protagonists and their cohorts. Power and big money seem to provide the motivation for both sides, and perhaps an addiction to danger too, such as compulsive gamblers experience.
Mary Spalding, (Klea Scott) the head of the Organized Crime Unit, wields her growing influence and power with tremendous sang-froid and elegance. She never raises her voice, or forgets her good manners, while the men jockeying for the position she is being groomed for are gnashing their teeth and sweating all over the furniture.
But what is lost when one has such a perfect and steely persona? Nobody really penetrates emotionally into Mary, and neither does she penetrate into anybody.
Francine Reardon, on the other hand, can shake up her estranged husband Jimmie like he is her spinning top. She is the resident bad girl and drug abuser, but she represents the shadow side of Jimmie, (Ian Tracey) in that as a dope pusher he is encouraging and enabling drug addiction and depravity on a vast and daily basis, while he stands back and acts like Mr. Aloof and Mr. Okay Guy. He wants to stamp out Francine’s irresponsibleness, and take custody of their daughter, but this is like a projection of his own weakness onto her. Like the spouses of alcoholics, Francine takes on his projection, and her self-esteem sinks lower and lower. They operate as a system even though they are separated. If Jimmie could reassure Francine, bolster her confidence, tell her when she is being a good mother, she would gain strength. But he will not throw her a crumb.
I don’t understand why young women would want to dance in a strip club, and be viewed by strange men, or any men, like that – as objects of impersonal lust. It is dehumanizing. I guess having those girls around makes the strip club owners – Jimmie and Ronnie Delmonico, feel in control of women. But they can never grow up in that situation, because to grow up means to marry and raise a family. The definition of their situation is masculine, and I am making a feminine definition of it. Jimmie wants to take custody of the daughter, he purportedly cares for her, but the way he lives shows the opposite of respect for women. He has a tremendous need to lord it over women, and a terrible fear of being penetrated, emotionally, by them. Notice the way he only peers at the strippers from behind the Venetian blinds. He is an emotional scaredy cat.
Well, that stirred up the pot M. Bruce. Good to have a fresh point of view. For whatever the characters lack makes them fascinating. Instead they are all action and so as interesting to watch as panthers. There is a quote somewhere and it says that the panther looks at his prey lovingly just before eating it.
This is the world of psychopaths. Everybody is curious about their behaviour because we get mauled by them and hardly know what happened. We cant know because we have a conscience. Jimmy is capable of dealing misery to vast numbers of people without a thought and at the same time cares for his daughter. So how is that? I think it would be interesting to have a spin off about his wife. How come all the guys are so richly portrayed and the women dont have hardly any substance? I guess the criminals have to have some redeeming qualities or we would not watch.
This show is so good. The music is just right. It doesnt overwhelm the fast paced action and at the same time it contrasts the violence and cold steel feel of the characters with sensuality and rhythm.
What woudl happen if someone got redeemed? I dont mean churchy. It would be like sticking a blockin a spinning wheel. Afterall, Jimmy is trying to fight organized crime and has to play the ganster. When he stops and tries to cope with humanity it goes sideways.
This is such a great production. I wish it had not been cancelled. Really disillusioning when Canada can produce something of this quality: complex, great construction, fabulous music, rich characters, filmed in Vancouver, edgy, thought provoking and…... cancelled? There go another group of giften artists down to the States I guess.
I am sure there is some jungian explanation for Jimmy looking at the strippers behind the venetian blinds. That is a good shot. He is stuck there unable to access his sensuality or his humanity. Boy I hope he isnt dead. There is lots more could be done with that.
B.
#1. Posted by bev in port alberni,bc on June 30th 2009 at 12:13pm
Your question, “What if somebody got redeemed?” is interesting. In the movie Pulp Fiction, one gangster does start spouting a biblical passage in a quite startling way. His briefcase is opened during a robbery in a restaurant, and seems to be illuminated inside. The robbers are awestruck by its contents. What those contents are is not revealed. I always thought it was a Bible. Also, the criminals in that movie are shown over and over to be capable of loving a woman, which makes them more complex constructions, and not so easy to categorize. Spirituality is one of the potent missing components in Intelligence.
#2. Posted by Madeline Bruce in Nanaimo, B. C. on July 3rd 2009 at 9:18am