CBC is facing a new television season without coroner-turned-mayor Dominic Da Vinci for the first time in eight years – but not without the mind behind Da Vinci's Inquest and Da Vinci's City Hall. Intelligence, the new series from creator, writer, and executive producer Chris Haddock, debuts Tuesday, Oct. 10 at 9 p.m., following the Sept. 26 rebroadcast of last year's two-hour movie.

Despite dipping into the crime genre again, Intelligence is miles away from Da Vinci in tone and subject matter, with a focus on espionage and the drug-running underworld. But it's not just spies versus gangsters, it's also spy versus spy, and the criminals are occasionally more honourable than the agents trying to bust them. Both spies and spied-upon live in a shadowy world, figuratively and literally in the stylishly shot series.

Perched on stools in the downtown Vancouver strip club that doubles as the show's fictional Chickadee Club, Haddock and I chatted in surroundings that, under the bright TV lighting, were almost disappointingly unseedy in person, but look suitably gritty onscreen.
"I'm trying to borrow from the noir style, because I think we're in similar kinds of times as when noir was born, post-WWII when the world was anxious and a little bit cynical about the experience of world war, and still anxious from the bomb," Haddock explained while keeping a sharp eye on the on-set action. "We're starting to hear conversations about the bomb again, and there's so much war, and so much anxiety and uncertainty in people's lives. I think it's psychologically similar."

Recently nominated for five Gemini Awards, the Intelligence movie set up the intertwining stories and rich characterizations, particularly of the two leads, whom Haddock refers to as antiheroes. "There's good in the bad guys and bad in the good guys," he said. "And I think that's true to the nature of humanity. I think we're also in times where people are looking for the kind of heroes that are a little less certain in their moral decisions."

"I think when you can clearly identify with the adventures of the heroes and the antiheroes, you can really have a good time, and that's entertainment. So I'm mixing it up. There's times when you can sign on completely with the adventure, and there's other times when you think, 'wow, would I do that?'"

Played winningly by Ian Tracey (Da Vinci's Inquest, Milgaard), crime boss Jimmy Reardon is "a good bad guy," a devoted father who struggles with the violence and deceit of his criminal activities. He's fiercely protective of his family, which is both his most endearing quality and his biggest vulnerability.

"He plays this hard guy to perfection, but he's also got a lot of empathy, so he's really easy for people to identify with, that essential good nature of him," Haddock said of his charismatic leading man.