Category Archives: Entertainment and Media

Staycations often center on television, movies, and theater. We’ll talk about what’s worth your time and money on TV, on stage, and in the theaters.

Intelligence – A Refreshing Police Drama

Intelligence
Jimmy Reardon & Mary Spalding

If you’ve grown tired of the cop shows on network television, I have a gem for you.  Its a Canadian series called “Intelligence” that I stumbled across in my Netflix recommendations due, no doubt, to my heavy viewing of British detective series like “Prime Suspect”, “A Touch of Frost”, “Wire in the Blood”, “Inspector Morse”, and so many others.

“Intelligence” revolves around the Organized Crime Squad (OCS) in Vancouver.  Headed by Mary Spalding (Klea Scott), an ambitious black woman who’s smart enough to get ahead in the macho culture of a modern police department.  Mary’s in line to be promoted to head the Asian/Pacific section of Canada’s nascent foreign intelligence service, but first she has to prove herself worthy.  Toward that end, she develops her own group of confidential informants, the most important of which is Jimmy Reardon (Ian Tracey), a local drug kingpin whose rivals are constantly threatening his business.  But at least Jimmy’s enemies are out in the open.  Mary doesn’t have that luxury.  The OCS is riddled with leaks.  Ted Altman (Matt Frewer), her number two, is playing all sides against each other by plotting with Roger Deakins (Tom McBeath), who’s struggling to hold on to the job Mary’s after, and the CIA.  Meanwhile, Jimmy’s got his own mole in the police so he can keep Mary honest.  So everybody’s in bed with somebody, and often its hardly an exclusive relationship.

The storyline is complicated, but keeps you wanting more.  I went through more than 10 episodes in less than a week because it was so compelling.  The good guys are hardly as pure as the driven snow, and the bad guys aren’t all bad.  You never know what’s going to happen next with this series.

If you’ve grown weary of the never-ending stream of “Law and Order” and “CSI”, where the outcome is never a mystery and the cops and criminals are cardboard cutouts with no depth, check out “Intelligence” on Netflix.

“The Over The Hill Band” Playing This Week

The Over The Hill Band
The Sisters of Love

The Oscars are a great way for casual films buffs like me to hear about small indie and foreign films that don’t get a lot of publicity.  This week, one such film is playing at the Edina Theater.  It’s a film from Belgium called “The Over The Hill Band”.  It’s the story of a recently-widowed woman named Claire, aged 70, who has two sons.  The elder son, Miche, is the down-to-earth stalwart with a good job and a family.  The younger son, 40 year-old Sid, is the dreamer who has never held a steady job and aspires to be a pop musician.  He’s been living far away from home, but returns for their father’s funeral.  The family arguments return and the three part ways with all of their old wounds suitably renewed.

Sid from The Over The Hill Band
Sid

However, left to face her new life alone, Claire reaches out to her younger son.  She visits him for the first time, and asks to hear some of his music.  As you’d expect, Sid’s hard-core blend of rap and R&B isn’t really Claire’s cup of tea.  She and two friends used to have a girl group back in the day called “The Sisters of Love”.  But Claire’s affection for Sid and her desire to help him find his way through life inspires her to suggest that she get the girls back together and merge with Sid’s small band.  And so they create “The Over The Hill Band”.

 

The Over The Hill Band
The Over The Hill Band

Hearing these spry ladies speaking in Flemish, but singing in English certainly evokes the spirit of ABBA, and the story had me thinking of “Mama Mia” with Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski, Pierce Brosnan, and this year’s Best Actor winner Colin Firth.  The film has some good notices, including being an Official Selection into the Palm Springs Film Festival.  It’s struck me more than once how the teens of today share more musical roots with their parents than any time in the past 150 years, and this film brings that fact home.  Claire’s declaration that inside she still feels 17 years old struck a very familiar chord with me.  “The Over The Hill Band” is a touching story of how the Rock and Roll generation deals with aging in the modern world.   The film runs March 4th through the 9th at the Edina Theater near 50th and France in Edina.  There’s plenty of free parking in the area, and great restaurants close by, so it’s a great Twin Cities Staycation.  See the Edina Theater Website for tickets and showtimes.