This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Charming and brutal

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

I just wanted to give you an example of how terrific the writing was for this show. (This may not be an exact quote, but it's close enough for you to get the idea).Frasier and Ray are chasing the bad guy through the streets of Chicago, and the bad guy gets away in a car.Frasier and Ray, being on foot, decide to hail a cab and pursue him.They pull the cab over, get in, and Frasier says to the cab driver (wait for it): "Follow that car".The cab driver takes one look at them and says "Do you have any money?"Frasier pulls out a $20 bill and hands it to the cab driver, who looks at it and says "I can't take this. It's Canadian!" Ray says to the cab driver: "So, drive 20% slower".

I fondly recall the engaging Pilot episode when it aired as a two-hour television movie, but it was only toward the end of season one that I was hooked for life, with the two-hour episode, "Victoria's Secret." Victoria's Secret is still in my experience the single best television episode of any series. It made Melina Kanakaredes (Victoria) a star. The haunting use of Sarah McLachlan's music (among others) was then a novel intertwining of musical tone and lyrics with the visual story. The technique is now common place, and it is easy to forget how compelling it was upon first exposure. Due South was that innovative show for me. Victoria's Secret was the very definition of spellbinding.The buddy combination of Fraser and Vechio (Paul Gross and David Marciano) created characters I suddenly cared about deeply. As a series, the episodes were a bit uneven in tone, but the highs of drama and comedy were superb. The moral at the kernel of each episode tended to be both persuasive and inspired. I liked that the show had a positive moral viewpoint. Due South tended to put life into perspective. There are shows you miss when they are gone, even mourn. Due South was one of those for me.To Paul Haggis and the rest of the Due South cast and crew, "Thank you, kindly."

I'm sorry to say this, but I feel that seasons 3 and 4 were not up to the same quality of the 2 earlier seasons. I'm fortunate in that ITV 3 have spent the last 6 months showing the seasons back to back(and again for good measure). I must admit that while I recall liking Due South back when it originally aired, I seemed to have remembered the show perhaps through rose tinted glasses. Now that I have had the opportunity to watch the show in it's entirety, I can see a marked difference after the loss of the David Marciano. Don't get me wrong, Rennie brought a new dynamic to the show but the very qualities that originally drew me were lost. Season 3's highlight was the popular Mounty on the Bounty but by series 4 the show had morphed into a parody of itself. I'm not suggesting that every episode had to be as dark and intense as Victoria's Secret, but it seemed to get progressively sillier and at times it was almost embarrassing to watch. Already part way through season 3 I'm fed up of hearing the stale "I came to Chicago on the trail....", it was funny a couple of times but virtually every episode?!....Nooooooo! Rennie and Paul Gross worked well off each other and I can't fault him as an actor or his portrayal of the character. It just seems that the scripts suffered, the story lines per se however did not falter as can be seen by the final episodes COTW. It would be nice if they could gather the cast together and do a one-off 10 years later special. Still, I live in hope!

Why is it all the good shows get canceled early?Due South was no exception.I didn't even watch the show's first season. I had never paid any attention to it being on. Only after catching an episode of the second season on tape at a friend's house was I drawn into this quirky show. Who would have thought that a TV show starring a Dudley Do Right cloned member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (a mountie) who lives by the rules and a sharp tounged Chicago Detective who lives to bend the rules could be such a fantastic show? This is a prime example of a fantastic show that was canceled way too early.But we had it for 4 years and that is better than nothing.