"Due South" (1994) TV series 1994-1996

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Creator:

Paul Haggis

Seasons:

1 | 2

Release Date:

15 September 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Family | Comedy | Drama

Plot:

The cases of a cynical American police detective and a upright Royal Canadian Mounted Police constable in the city of Chicago.

Plot Keywords:

Rcmp | Mounted Police Officer | Police Officer | Chicago Illinois | Wolf Hybrid

Awards:

17 wins & 32 nominations

Cast

Paul Gross	...	Constable Benton Fraser (41 episodes, 1994-1996)
David Marciano	...	Ray Vecchio / ... (41 episodes, 1994-1996)
Catherine Bruhier	...	Elaine Besbriss (40 episodes, 1994-1997)
Beau Starr	...	Lt. Harding Welsh / ... (37 episodes, 1994-1996)
Tony Craig	...	Jack Huey (34 episodes, 1994-1996)
Daniel Kash	...	Louis Gardino / ... (28 episodes, 1994-1996)

Also Known As:

Direction: Sud (Canada: French title)
Due South: The Series (Canada: English title) (working title)

Runtime:

60 min (68 episodes)

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M (some episodes) | Australia:PG (some episodes)

Filming Locations:

Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Company:

Alliance Atlantis Communications

Trivia:

While Constable Fraser has sustained various injuries during the run of the series, they have only happened when he chose not to wear his hat, or it had been knocked off his head through various circumstances. This has earned his hat the nickname, "The Stetson of Invulnerability."

Quotes:

Fraser: [Repeated line] That's just silly, Ray.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Final Sacrifice (#10.10)" (1998)

Soundtrack:

Robert Mackensie

My favorite TV series from the 90's

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.