Due South : Season 1 by Paul Gross
Catherine Bruhier, Larry A. McLean, Paul Haggis, Steve DiMarco, Richard J. Lewis, George Bloomfield, Jim KaufmanCatherine Bruhier, Larry A. McLean, Paul Haggis, Steve DiMarco, Richard J. Lewis, George Bloomfield, Jim Kaufman
Number Of Discs 3
Runtime 17 hours and 6 minutes
Due South was a twist on the cop-buddy drama created by Paul Haggis back in the mid-1990s. It was supposed to just be a two-part TV movie, but when it aired on CBS it got good enough ratings that it was picked up for a regular series run. It starred Paul Gross as Benton Fraiser a tried and true member of the Royal Candian Mounted Police. When his father, also a mountie, is killed he traces the killer to Chicago and enlists the help of a wise-cracking detective, Ray Vecchio, played by David Marciano. Fraiser ends up installed at the Canadian consulate in Chicago, and along with Ray, his wolf, and the hallucination of his dead father (played by Gordon Pinsent) solve crimes with their clashing styles providing hilarity along the way.
Due South: Season 2 by Paul Gross
The second season of Due South was the last one to be broadcast on CBS. It kept the case-of-the-week procedural format but did have callbacks to prior storylines. One of which resulted in the wonderful mid-season episode Juliet is Bleeding, which returned to the storyline between Ray and Frank Zuko, and guest-starred Carrie Ann Moss, who would of course go on to star in The Matrix in a few years. The Victoria storyline was mentioned a couple of times but never revisited, which I think was unfortunate. This season also introduced new characters that would appear multiple times throughout the series' remaining run including Camilla Scott as Fraiser's new boss, Inspector Thatcher, and bringing back the compulsive liar, Ian MacDonald, from season one. Leslie Nielsen also made his first appearance as the Mountie Sgt. Buck Frobisher. Romana Milano who played Ray's sister Franchesca also had a larger role this season.