Due South

I was very disappointed to hear in 1995 that "Due South" was being canceled, because it was one of the few interesting Canadian/American endeavors to hit the tube in years. Paul Gross and David Marciano were well-matched as partners, and were what made the series fun. It's surprising that "Due South" rated so poorly in both Canada and America, because it had a wit and humor that is often lacking in some of the more popular American dramas. Benton Fraser (Gross) and Ray Vecchio (Marciano) launch pithy one-liners off of each other, never batting an eyelash when the other does something that seems outlandish to them. Fraser can be a tad over-exaggerated as a result of the American desire to create the stereotypical Canadian, but this seems to decrease somewhat in the second season, after the US stepped away from the show. Marciano continues through both seasons to be well-written and funny, both with his personal fashion sense and his large, over-bearing family. A nice get-away from the usual violent cop show.

The spirit of the pristine countryside out of which Paul Haggis' contemporary vision of the stalwart Mountie emerges was summoned to an unlikely place--downtown Chicago--and from it, "Due South" was born. My cynical side gave in to the sense of snow and suggestion of rarefied air, and the crisp figure of Paul Gross against them, as the character he plays--Constable Benton Fraser--greets the squalor and disorder of the big city with uncommon graciousness. Haggis must have intuited this gallantry would soon trigger the gag reflex of people like me, and mercifully introduced a comic turn, so his conception wouldn't turn insufferably "noble." Enter David Marciano as Chicago detective Ray Vecchio, and this vehicle burns rubber. You don't mind Haggis turning your disbelief on its head with Ray around. He's the lever that balances our doubts against the heroics that ensue. That is to say, if Ray doesn't mind being the butt of Haggis' jokes, why should we? And the laughs make the unwelcome moral at the end of each episode stick in a way it wouldn't with a graver approach.

I'm a sucker for themes where fathers try to redeem themselves in the eyes of their children, but if it's mawkish, I head for the remote control. There are at least two episodes like these that I can remember, both handled well. The one with the ex-con (and his partners-in-crime) soaked in gasoline contemplating suicide with a lit match in his hand, so his son can be set for life with the booty he's collected made my heart stop. The way Fraser talks him out of it had me swallowing hard. It was spellbinding.

I regret this series leaving the air. Gross and Marciano make for smashing buddy-buddy interplay--and I usually hate this kind of stuff. But Haggis turned me around, and had me feeling that good things were at stake, that with every day lay an opportunity to save it, that there was something to this zeal for justice and pursuit of love and self-respect, that when Haggis headed south, he was really aiming for Heaven. "Due South" was my favorite TV series from the 90's.

This ranks up there as one of the best TV dramas of all time. Honestly, I can't recalls details about plots and so forth but I distinctly remember the way in which this show hooked me. Great music, great acting and one of the best on-screen relationships between two men I have ever seen, Due South has always been greatly missed in my life since it ended -- especially with the crap that is on TV these days. It's a shame that no network has picked up reruns of this great show but a person can always hope.

In my opinion this is probably the best TV show ever made, which explains why it didn't last that long. Originality is the key even though it sits within the much copied police genre. A mountie, on the trail of his fathers killer, winds up in Chicago where he befriends a streetwise detective and together they solve the crimes, both big and small, of the Windy City. It's the fact that humour and characterisation take first place over gritty realism (Overrated to be honest) that separates it from, well, every other cop show ever made. Benton Fraser is undeniably one of the greatest characters ever to grace the small screen and his relationship with Ray Vecchio is both touching and humourous. I admit that the dramatic episodes, such as 'Victoria's Secret' and the magnificent 'Juliet is Bleeding' overwhelm the other, lighter, episodes but that is simply because they are so brilliantly written. When Ray and Fraser are sat in the hospital at the end of 'Juliet' and Ray speaks out about his childhood romance with the deceased Irene (Incidentally played by 'The Matrix's' Carrie Anne Moss) you can honestly feel his pain and the expression on Frasers face says more than any amount of comforting words could. It's little scenes like that which show up the show as truly great and worthy of more than three seasons. My favourite scene however, is at the end of 'The Deal' when, after Fraser is badly beaten by the local Mafia boss, Ray takes revenge on his age old nemesis by humiliating him in front of his subordinates, even though he knows that that action might cost him his life. The bonds of friendship between the two have always been shown to be tighter than steel, that's why the show was so great.The acting too was always top notch and if life is even remotely fair both Gross and Marciano should have no problem finding other work. I love this show and it always made me feel good inside. Even though it's gone I'll always have a special place in my heart for it's warmth and humour. It will be sorely missed.

I loved the show first-run and was thrilled last December (2002) when a local tv station in southern Sweden began to replay every episode as a daily filler. It's extremely clever, with wonderful, witty dialogue. The exchanges that Fraser has with the deaf Dief and his father's ghost are priceless as is the subtle (and not so subtle) sarcasm.

Just a few complaints:

*My favorite storyline was "Victoria's Secret" -- but what happened to Victoria? There should have been an ending there.

*By the time I got used to the "other" Ray (Stanley) being in the cast, they made him cartoonish and dumb.

*I think at the end, there was too much junk about women mooning over Frasure. All the googly-eyed stuff from his superior just plain embarassed me.

*Fraser should have ended up with a woman -- a good woman who would make him more human and save him from his own perfection.

It was a clever, clever bit to use actor Paul Gross' (Fraser) real-life wife as the ghost of his mother in the last episode. I have read that Gross "is sick of" this show and resents being remembered for it. If it's true, that's a shame. "Due South" will forever be one of my favorite television programs.