northern exposure
This isn't about the hit 1990s series about the kooky residents of Cicely, Alaska. In fact, since I've only ever seen one episode of "Northern Exposure" -- and that one I watched only because it was required by my grade-12 English AP teacher -- I'm not really qualified to comment on the show.
No, this is about another '90s show, "Due South." As I've mentioned before, I'm working my way through the entire series on DVD. This week, I started on Season Three, which I understand originally aired in Canada as Seasons Three and Four.
The one-hour show is about a Canadian Mountie who is transferred to the consulate in Chicago and teams up with a local detective; hilarity ensues. Actually, it ensues more in the third season than in either of the first two -- I have found myself, all this week, consistently impressed by the marked improvements in story and production and humour (it has to be spelled "humour" because it's Canadian).
I remember being impressed when I saw the show at university in the '90s by the way they handled the transition between Old Ray and New Ray -- David Marciano had originally played the Chicago cop, but had wanted out, so they replaced him. Ordinarily I hate this sort of thing, when they replace an actor with another and expect their audience not to notice. Come on, people. We're not stupid.
But "Due South" did it differently. We were never supposed to think New Ray was really Old Ray. It was a clever set-up: They put Old Ray undercover with the mob, and New Ray was to be a kind of double-cover. You know, so if somebody came looking for Detective Ray Vecchio, everybody could say, "Oh, he's right there."
Realistic? Maybe not. Effective as a TV-writing tool? Definitely. In fact, the whole Season Three premiere centers around Constable Fraser trying to deduce what happened to Old Ray, since everybody's telling him that New Ray is Old Ray.
And the freshness of that approach is present throughout the whole third season. I'm not sure if they brought in new writers or had a better budget or different producers and directors -- and, frankly, I'm too lazy to look it up right now -- but whatever it was, it worked.