Although Due South was cancelled more than 6 years ago, it's legacy lives on DVD, albeit not the best DVD sets ever made.
Now that I have seasons 1 and 2 on DVD, I started watching the episodes all over again. It feels so fresh! It's wonderful to laugh once more at the best jokes, to ponder about some unusual quote delivered by our favourite mountie (OFM), to pay attention and to understand several layers of symbolism in the most "brainy" episodes...
What do we get from Due South? We get several quirky stories, from solving crimes to convincing people to do the right thing. We get wonderful and inspirational music, with some Canadian artists who are now big names, such as Sarah McLachlan and Loreena McKennitt. We get heart-felt monologues of Constable Benton Fraser using some Inuit tale to inspire people to do good. We get several early appearances of now household names, such as Melina Kanakaredes and Jane Krakowsky.
Some double length episodes would have been excellent movies in their own right. The Pilot speaks for itself (not included in Season 1, bad Alliance).
"Victoria's Secret" (towards the end of Season 1) is an excellent story of betrayal and lost love. It has two of the most poignant scenes ever on TV (SPOILERS!): 1. Fraser imagines Victoria through a revolving door while snows falls on her, all with McLachlan's Possession playing in the background. 2. After being shot, Fraser recites a poem, over and over again, just as Victoria had done when he had saved her life years back.
"All the Queen's Horses", with Leslie Nielsen, blends a great comedy with a very good action story, including an incredible scene in which OFM and Inspector Thatcher tried to free themselves from ropes using one her hairclips.
There other memorable scenes, such as OFM hypnotizing people to find out what they had seen earlier, scenes from the perspective of OFM's deaf wolf (Diefenbaker) and a 1972 or 71? green Buick Riviera exploding in three different occasions.
In short, bite the bullet, get the DVDs even if there are no extras and the packaging isn't the best and witness what TV should really be like.
PS: Paul Gross (The Mountie) is amazing. He produced Seasons 3 and 4 and also wrote most of the episodes of those seasons. He also played Hamlet in the Canada's Stratford Festival to rave reviews.
Now that I have seasons 1 and 2 on DVD, I started watching the episodes all over again. It feels so fresh! It's wonderful to laugh once more at the best jokes, to ponder about some unusual quote delivered by our favourite mountie (OFM), to pay attention and to understand several layers of symbolism in the most "brainy" episodes...
What do we get from Due South? We get several quirky stories, from solving crimes to convincing people to do the right thing. We get wonderful and inspirational music, with some Canadian artists who are now big names, such as Sarah McLachlan and Loreena McKennitt. We get heart-felt monologues of Constable Benton Fraser using some Inuit tale to inspire people to do good. We get several early appearances of now household names, such as Melina Kanakaredes and Jane Krakowsky.
Some double length episodes would have been excellent movies in their own right. The Pilot speaks for itself (not included in Season 1, bad Alliance).
"Victoria's Secret" (towards the end of Season 1) is an excellent story of betrayal and lost love. It has two of the most poignant scenes ever on TV (SPOILERS!): 1. Fraser imagines Victoria through a revolving door while snows falls on her, all with McLachlan's Possession playing in the background. 2. After being shot, Fraser recites a poem, over and over again, just as Victoria had done when he had saved her life years back.
"All the Queen's Horses", with Leslie Nielsen, blends a great comedy with a very good action story, including an incredible scene in which OFM and Inspector Thatcher tried to free themselves from ropes using one her hairclips.
There other memorable scenes, such as OFM hypnotizing people to find out what they had seen earlier, scenes from the perspective of OFM's deaf wolf (Diefenbaker) and a 1972 or 71? green Buick Riviera exploding in three different occasions.
In short, bite the bullet, get the DVDs even if there are no extras and the packaging isn't the best and witness what TV should really be like.
PS: Paul Gross (The Mountie) is amazing. He produced Seasons 3 and 4 and also wrote most of the episodes of those seasons. He also played Hamlet in the Canada's Stratford Festival to rave reviews.