“You’re going to shoot a Mountie? They’ll hunt you to the ends of the Earth!” The last words of Sgt Robert Fraser before he’s murdered in the snow by hidden rifleman to cover up a crime. Events which spur his son Constable Benton Fraser to hunt his killer to Chicago and a partnership and friendship with Detective Ray Vecchio. As well as the short lived but fantastic tv Due South.
I watched this amazing tv show as a teen in the 90, and to be honest it was the first and best shows that really opened my eyes to the real world on tv. After the scifi and fantasy of Transformers or He-Man, the larger than life adventures of Knight Rider or The A-Team where no one ever really seemed in danger or anything word than a bruise or a broken nose. I guess because of my youth, tv never really seemed that raw, or dangerous, real or heartbreaking.
I have many fond memories of Due South, what struck me about it is how down to earth and real it seemed. After the hook of a RCMP Constable out of his element in the mean streets of Chicago. Or was he more in his element than even the jaded residents of the ‘Windy City’, who had seen it all, like any of us I suppose.
Fraser brought his down to Earth nature of understanding and patience to the people who were so jaded by hurt and crime and broken hearts. Which seems like a contradiction to his character, who seems cut from the cloth of many frontier characters who may be more jaded and untrustworthy as an outcast. He seems like a Wild West hero. But he brings to everyone he encounters values and a second chance that they seemed to had lost faith in.
The charm of the show is seeing Fraser make a change in people and making the world a better place. Beyond the buddy cop drama cliches. In the many many small ways where he gives people another chance, to chase redemption when they lost faith in winning it for themselves. To be better people.
What’s amazing is the show, having been nearly 25 years old has lost none of its charm and retains all of its quality. To me Due South is a high watermark of tv in general on both sides of the Atlantic. And what’s a deep shame is that Sony, whom I believe holds the rights to home video releases, haven’t released it on Blu ray! Nor is it on any of the streaming apps to my knowledge!
The good news is it’s currently in out of order repeats on the Sony Channel! So you can catch it on there. If you have sky I recommend recording all the episodes and then watching them in order. There’s only 67(!). There should have been 200!
I can’t sing my praises of the show enough without waffling and boring you all so I’ll end it here. Give the show a watch while you can. Try to catch the Leslie Nielsen episode, he shines as a legendary RCMP, the episode where Fraser goes undercover in an asylum, the crackpot comedy where he gets caught up in a mob boss’s wedding affair, the gut wrenching heartache when his true love comes to Chicago and Fraser has to hunt her down…and more. It’s superb!
High winds, northern sky will carry you away…
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Geeks Never Say Die 