thesnowleopard

This is a decent-enough historical overview of Jerusalem and the earlier portions reflect recent research. There is also some lovely photography. But the coverage of the post-Roman periods is uneven, uninspired and marred greatly by out-of-date stereotypes, particularly the treatment of the three religions who share the city: saintly-victim Jews, benevolent Muslim overlords and bloodthirsty Christian crusaders. When a documentary completely glosses over the destruction of Muslim Arab culture in the Levant perpetrated by 12th-century Kurdish general Saladin, in order to concentrate only on his eventual contest with the "foreign" Christians, you know there's a lack of balance. When the subsequent eight centuries are skipped over in the space of five minutes, to concentrate on how "wonderful" things are today, that shows some truly lumpy coverage. It's a two-hour documentary. There's just no excuse for practically ignoring that period. Not that any one group in the Holy Land was wonderful at all times--nor is it necessary to ignore the good points of the Muslim occupations of the city--but there are so many holes in this documentary that you'd probably learn more about Jerusalem from what they left out than from what they put in. Too bad. It's still recent and could have been so much better.

From the literally up-in-the-air first scene to the rueful end-of-the-day drink between reluctant allies, smuggler Jimmy Reardon (Ian Tracey) and his top-cop handler Mary Spalding (Klea Scott), in the series opener, this show moves with startling speed. Those who found last year's Da Vinci City Hall and the Intelligence pilot off-putting in their complexity should enjoy the series anyway. The pilot juggled maybe too many balls and sometimes felt jagged as a result. The show does not have that problem. It goes down smooth as Irish whisky.

The look is cool and different, with a sinuous style--think Miami Vice in 21st century Vancouver. Tracey is fascinating as the conflicted, but ultimately good-hearted, Jimmy. Talk about a guy trapped in a pit full of snakes. Scott is similarly fine as the professionally and personally beleaguered Mary. If you've been missing Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect, you'll quickly get hooked on Mary's tough, no-nonsense style. The fact that she's not your usual little-girl-lost blonde we seem to get in every cop show these days certainly doesn't hurt. It's really nice to get a modern noir story with protagonists you actually like. Jimmy and Mary, at least so far, are the good guys. It's just that they're very unusual good guys.

This is the kind of show that could claim a wide range of audience if it can get half a chance against the heavy-hitters on Tuesday night. Let's hope.