This was a group presentation given for my third year Canadian film class at Queen's University. In this presentation we look at the first two episodes of season 1 of CBC's hit TV show Da Vinci's Inquest.

1. Da Vinci’s Inquest: Sex, Crime,
and Sex-Crimes
Lisa Aalders, Ben Bourgon, Caroline
Klimek and Megan Svarich-Knights

2. Overview
• Released: October, 1998
• Runtime: 44 mins.
• Ran from 1998-2005: 7 seasons
• Spinoff: Da Vinci’s City Hall
• Won Gemini Award for Best Dramatic Series for
five of six seasons
• Made USA debut September 17, 2005
• Airs in Australia, Ireland, Iceland, United
Kingdom, Finland and Spain

3. Larry Campbell
Coroner, Mayor, Senator

4. “This week we watched DaVinci's inquest and
apart from my hatred for all crime scene
shows it was surprisingly good. The cases
were interesting, especially because they had
Canadian content that I could relate to after
reading newspapers and watching news
programs about the downtown Vancouver
area”.
- Cicely Johnson

5. Vancouver’s Eastside
“The Poorest Postal Code”

8. Facts:
• Population of Downtown Eastside: 17,000
• Number of single-room occupancy rooms in the
Downtown Eastside: 5,000
• Monthly shelter allowance for people on welfare: $375
• Monthly rent for SRO room in the Downtown Eastside:
$375
• Monthly living allowance for people on welfare: $185
• Number of addicts in the Downtown Eastside: 4,000-
5,000

9. • Rate of injection drug-users in the Downtown
Eastside with Heptatis C: 9 out of 10
• Rate of injection drug-users in the Downtown
Eastside who are HIV positive: 3 out of 10
• Average amount spent per day on drugs
(cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin and crystal
meth): $200-$400
• Number of detox beds for men in the
Downtown Eastside: 23
• Number of detox beds for women in the
Downtown Eastside: 6

10. “It seems like as long as we can remember, television
viewers have been fascinated with the prospect of
peering, albeit briefly, into the seedier side of society.
We get a glimpse of how the “other” world lives in the
cities we inhabit and get a little bit frightened by what
we see. In the format of the majority of crime dramas,
this involves attaching the audience’s perspective to
the investigators as they work together, or against one
another, to solve the mystery of whom, how and
sometimes why”.
- Ben Bourgon

11. Missing Women from Vancouver’s East Side
http://www.missingpeople.net/home.html documents the missing
person cases and events leading up to Pickton trial.

13. Robert Pickton
“Canada’s most prolific serial killer”

14. Facts
• Number of women on official police list of missing women since
1978: 65
• Number of women who have turned up alive: 4
• Number of women Pickton is charged with killing: 26
• Age range of the women Pickton is charged with killing: 20 to 46
• Number of tips received by the Missing Women Task Force: 12,700
• Number of DNA samples processed by the RCMP crime labs:
200,000
• Number of swabs used to capture DNA: 400,000
• Number of cubic yards of soil sifted by investigators: 383,000
• Number of RCMP crime labs used: 6 – Vancouver, Edmonton,
Regina, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Halifax

15. • Number of media involved: about 378 accredited
for the trial
• Number of prosecutors working for the Crown in
court: 7
• Number of defense lawyers working for Pickton in
court: 11
• Cost of investigation to date: about $100 million
• Number of judges involved in the case so far: 4
• Number of Crown witnesses: 240

16. Astoria Hotel

17. In Good Company…
• Russel Johnson • Allan Legre
• John Martin Crawford • Paul Bernardo
• Clifford Olson • Marc Lepine
• David Threinen • Michael Wayne McGray
• Henry Williams • William Patrick Fyfe
• Gary Leo Genereaux • Alan Legere
• Leopold Dion • Dr. Thomas Neill Cream
• Wayne Boden • Nelson Earle Leonard

18. “The shows firmly establish themselves in the
cities they are shot in (Vancouver for ‘Da Vinci’s
Inquest’ and Baltimore for ‘The Wire’), which are
not the typical crime-show cities we are used to
seeing. Multiple references are also made to both
cities, show many establishing shots of these
cities, and deal with city-specific issues within the
drama (arguably, prostitution as a problem is
commonly associated with Vancouver; drugs and
gangs in Baltimore).
- Sam Fernandes

19. Questions
• How does the show represent Vancouver?
• What is the value of this kind of realism?
• What are the ethical implications of
representing actual people and events
especially considering their violent nature?

20. TV Crime Genre

22. Top of the Charts: A Pervasive TV
Genre

24. A Mass-Cultural Discourse on Real
Crime?

25. Questions
• Does Da Vinci’s Inquest (or at least these three
episodes) diverge from the crime genre
formula?
• Is there anything distinctive or noteworthy
here?

26. Dominic Da Vinci
Played by Nicholas Campbell

27. “DaVinci’s Inquest seems to really want to sell its title star
Nicholas Campbell to the audiences. This Canadian Ray
Liotta is headlining a pretty talented cast of actors, in a
seriously gritty cop show that does not play out like your
typical procedural detective series. Unlike the many shows
that would soon multiply like rabbits after the millennium
(Law and Order/CSI, originals and spinoffs), this show
follows more of an NYPD Blue strategy; giving balance to
the cases as well as the character’s personal lives. The
sentimental moments required for character development
mainly revolve around the show’s main character Detective
Dominic Da Vinci, and his struggle to keep his family
together, typical of many cop series’”.
- Keith Saunders

28. Questions
• How does the flaws in Da Vinci’s character add
to his appeal?
• Do we like Da Vinci? What are the qualities
that turn him into a hero?

29. Charlie Josephs
Played by Eric Peterson

30. Questions
• How was your relationship with Charlie
developed throughout the episodes? How
does this extensive characterization affect our
reaction to the ending?
• How does the fact that we know the
perpetrator affect our viewing? Is this new to
the genre?

31. Visual Style
Law and Order vs. Da Vinci’s Inquest

33. Questions
• What is the effect of the lighting,
cinematography and/or music in this
sequence?
• Do you agree with the idea that the show
combines realist and noir aesthetics? What is
the effect of this?

34. Questions
• Do you agree that the show invites viewers to
see the world it portrays as being “realistic”
• What are some possible consequences of
this?

35. Questions
Maria Siano in The People are Represented
suggests that the television crime genre
promotes a “tough-on-crime message” and that
the shows “serve to create and reinforce a
connotation of ‘the criminal’ in society that often
makes is difficult for criminals to assimilate back
into society” (2).
• Do you agree with her? Do these shows influence
the way we understand actual crime or is T.V. just
T.V.?

36. Justice Outside the Justice System?

37. Questions
• What do you think about how the characters
find justice outside the justice system?
• Why do we respond to these kinds of stories
where an individual fights for justice against
the system (Think Die Hard)?

38. Analysis of Other-ing

39. Questions
• “Little Sister”: Does it spread awareness of
Aboriginal issues in Canada?
• Or, does it support the Other-ing of Aboriginal
people and issues?

42. Questions
• Does the laugher and general light mood
(supported by the music feel inappropriate to
you as a viewer? Why or why not?
• Does the body deserve more attention?
• How does the characters’ behavior, and your
reaction to it, change when the radio is turned
off? Does it alter your viewing of the body?

46. Questions
• Has the brother been manipulated to kill? Or is it
a well intentioned but unfortunate series of
events?
• What is the brother’s relationship to the city of
Vancouver in this scene and throughout the
show?
• We know that we are more attached to Charlie’s
character because we have seen more of him.
How does this affect our interpretation of his
death (implied to be done by the brother)?

47. Discussion Questions
• How does the show represent the Canadian
Justice System?
• What is the effect of not showing explicit
violence considering the “realness” of this
case? How does this affect your interpretation
of the TV show and the historical event?
• Does the show offer a catharsis/ending for Da
Vinci, the Aboriginals, prostitutes, the Robert
Pickton case and the other characters?

48. Discussion Questions
• What is the role of the secondary stories?
(heroin baby, father suicide etc.)
• Given the fact that this case spans two and a
half hours of viewing what if anything makes
these three episodes different form a feature
length film?