Parting Company - 'Due South' flexes its creative muscles with a breathtaking two-parter

By Allan Johnson
Tribune Staff Writer

A tale set on the high seas fuels one of the most ambitious episodes of "Due South," the syndicated adventure series about a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman operating in Chicago.

Okay, so maybe the two-part episode is set on the high waters of Lake Superior. That doesn't diminish the pulse-pounding action that is set up in a small, personal way.

The show kicks off in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" fashion: Constable Benton Fraser and Chicago police detective Stanley Raymond Kowalski (Paul Gross and Callum Keith Rennie) are eluding gun-toting guys, taking shelter from bullets high atop a building. Their only escape is jumping dozens of feet into a body of water. Ray, of course, can't swim.

"The quality of the water alone will probably kill us," Fraser says.

"Does this conversation seem strangely familiar to you?" Ray asks.

The two escape, but an argument between them ensues, ending in a punch. The unusual partnership is jeopardized.

Fueling speculation that the pair's days together are numbered is the arrival of transfer papers for both. The Mountie is supposed to return to his native Canada. The cop is supposed to go to another division. For Ray, who has taken the identity of another detective who is under deep cover, the change would return him to his own life.

Before the two can part company, they stumble into one more case: A man with a knife in his back, a patch on one eye, a hook on one arm and the two last words from his lips: "treasure...chest...."

Before it's done, they'll become entangled in ghost freighters, gold bullion, a sinking ship, fistfights, a legendary, lost boat and lots of Canadian Mounties. The seeds of their discontent are woven throughout.

The episode marks another thoroughly enjoyable outing for this quirky Canadian-based series, which began life on CBS in 1994, was canceled twice, left American television while continuing as an international hit and made its way to syndication with fresh episodes this season.

And through it all, "Due South" has never lost its sense of whimsy, with lighthearted, imaginative, cleverly written episodes powered by the engaging quality of Gross. The fact that he manages to keep the by-the-book, annoyingly polite and innocent-yet-worldly Fraser such a non-caricature in the light of his added duties this season is a testament to the actor-writer.

Gross serves as executive producer this season with R.B. Carney. The two wrote the teleplay for the episode "Mountie on the Bounty," expertly directed by long-time "Due South" collaborator George Bloomfield.

If overseeing the series has been a burden to Gross, it hasn't shown on screen. This episode, which concludes next week, is proof. Fraser is as funny, commanding and fussy as ever. Also, hilariously ingenious is Gross' way of getting the reason for Fraser's being in Chicago in the first place in practically every episode.

"I first came to Chicago on the trail of my father's killers," Fraser says to a group of guys in "Mountie on the Bounty." Usually he adds that for reasons which he won't go into, he decided to stay in the city and work for the Canadian Consulate.

If there is one misstep with "Due South" this season, it is the way Fraser's former partner, Ray Vecchio, was dispatched. Because former co-star David Marciano couldn't come to terms on returning to the series, it was written that his character is under deep cover in the mob. A later episode explained Vecchio has taken the place of a high Mafia official whom he resembles, a plan that has been years in the making.

Kowalski, in the meantime, has been posing as Vecchio (Kowalski goes by his middle name of Ray, a twist on the plot device of one actor replacing another in the same character "Bewitched-like). Everybody now pretends that Vecchio has gone from a gangly, balding brunette to a compact blond with a full head of hair.

The plot device is annoying at times, and stretches the boundaries of the series.

But, this doesn't stop "Due South" from being as much fun as ever. Gross has said he's giving up the series after the end of this season. Although lesser-known than another star who's also closing his top-rated comedy at season's end, they both achieve the same goal: Going out while creatively on top.

As for next week's episode, it delivers in the way that all good two-parters should, with a breathtaking "Poseidon Adventure"/"Titanic"-like escape. And that happens in the first act.