Due South: the review master list
{FILM DIARY}
"Due South" (Canada/USA, 1994-1996)
Runtime: around 45′ per episode
Creator: Paul Haggis
Cast: Paul Gross, David Marciano, Beau Starr, Catherine Bruhier, Tony Craig, Daniel Kash, Gordon Pinsent, Camilla Scott, Ramona Milano
Production House: Alliance Atlantis Communications, Baton Broadcasting Incorporated (BBS), CBS Productions, CTV Television Network, Paul Haggis Productions
Themes: Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Police, Crime, Chicago, Canada, Wolf
Plot: The adventures of Constable Benton Fraser (an upright Canadian mountie), Detective Ray Vecchio (a cynical American policeman) and Fraser’s wolf Diefenbaker as they fight crime in Chicago.
Style: It’s the standard 90s TV kind of thing, nothing quirky.
Driven By:
- Characters
Like with most serials - if you don’t get into the characters then you’re unlikely to get hooked.
General Comments:
“Due South” is a series I used to love when I was in my teens and now that I’m watching it once again, I’m finding I still do. I have loads of nostalgic feelings for it, but also it was actually a damn good series *grin*
As it’s a very long serial which evolved a lot over time, I figured the review would make more sense if it was broken up into a couple of posts. I originally intended to break it up by season, but I’ve ended up with a division that looks completely random :] The season with “the new Ray” will be reviewed as something completely separate, as there are some very major differences even in basic info (imdb also lists them separately as two different serials).
I’ll be applying different ratings in the different reviews rather than giving one rating for the whole series. This might seem a bit counter-intuitive, but giving one rating to 30-40h of something that was shot over a period of years and kept evolving, wouldn’t have carried much information anyway.
Review List:
I’ll be editing in the links as I watch the series and write the reviews. I’m not entirely sure where I’m going to make the split in some cases as I haven’t watched all the episodes yet. And take my divisions with a pinch of salt - the series evolved gradually, so it’s impossible to pinpoint exactly in which episode general tendencies changed.
