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'''Fraser''': "That we care, sir?"
'''Moffat''': "Exactly, and people don't fear people who care."
'''Fraser''': "I'm sorry, sir. I wasn't aware that we wanted the Americans to fear us." |''
A [[Buddy Cop Show|Buddy Cop]]
▲A [[Buddy Cop Show]] / [[Odd Couple]], where the [[Odd Couple]] is an American detective and a Canadian Mountie. The series lasted from April 1994 to March 1999; a total of 67 episodes in four seasons.
The Mountie, Constable Benton Fraser, came to Chicago on the trail of the killers of his father; and, for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, remained attached as liaison with the Canadian Consulate, working with local detective Ray Vecchio - who, for various reasons having to do with actor availability, is later replaced by Stanley (Raymond) Kowalski. Yes, that is his name (his dad was a fan of [[Marlon Brando]]). He even married a woman named Stella, though they had divorced by the time Ray K moved to Chicago.
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Cst. Benton Fraser (rhymes with "razor", though Ray V usually pronounces it "[[Frasier]]") is the living incarnation of almost every Mountie stereotype ever conceived. He's polite to a fault, can track a man for months across an Arctic waste, fights honorably, doesn't lie, is almost always impeccably clean, even after climbing out of a sewer. He almost always wears the formal red dress uniform, which in real life is only worn for special public occasions or for publicity.
Ray Vecchio is, in his own way, also the quintessential cynical American cop: from his attitudes and his eating habits, to his clothes and his car. He's not above kicking a man in the crotch while he's distracted, and prefers to fight dirty against criminals.
Ray Kowalski is similar in many ways, but more prone to wear his heart on his sleeve, has a unique manner of speaking ("I'm gonna jump Bogart all over you!") and is just as good a cop as Ray V. Both Rays are fiercely loyal to their families and friends, and especially to Fraser.
''
It also included some elements of magical realism, most notably Sgt. Bob Fraser (usually called "Fraser Sr.", "Dead Bob", or "OFDM" (for "Our Favourite Dead Mountie") by the fandom), the ghost of Fraser's father. Only Fraser ({{spoiler|And his half sister, who only appeared in one episode}}, and possibly the Chicago PD's coroner, who probably didn't notice that he was extracting fingernail scrapings from a ghost) could see and hear his father, unless Fraser Sr. wanted to show himself to someone else (this happened four
[[Due South/Recap|Recap page is here.]]
----
{{tropelist}}
* [[All a Part of the Job]]: Fraser is baffled and uncomfortable when his heroics draw media attention. When reporters ask how he feels about having prevented a horrible disaster (in "Red, White, or Blue", referencing the events of "All the Queen's Horses"), all he can come up with is "Fine."
* [[Always Gets His Man]]: Fraser, naturally.
* [[And the Adventure Continues...]]: ''{{spoiler|"If we do find his Hand, the reaching-out one, we'll let you know."}}''
* [[Artistic License: Law]]: On at least two occasions people with vendettas are satisfied when they get the person who killed their loved one to confess in front of a police officer. This ignores the fact that the admissibility of a confession extracted at gunpoint is highly dubious - any competent lawyer could argue that his client was willing to say just about anything if it got his tormentor to put the gun away. On one occasion the person doing this was a police officer and should have known this.
* [[Axe Crazy]]: Randall Bolt, the crazy White Supremacist terrorist
* [[Bad Bad Acting]]: Fraser and Ray K., when they realize Ray's apartment has been bugged
* [[Badass Grandpa|Badass Grandma]]: Ruth, aka {{spoiler|Nautilus}} from "Spy Vs. Spy"
* [[Barehanded Blade Block]]: In "[[Recap/Due South S 3 E 05 Seeingis Believing|Seeing is Believing]]," Fraser catches a knife thrown at him.
* [[Bash Brothers]]: In the series finale {{spoiler|Detectives Ray Vecchio and Ray Kowalski partner up with each other briefly.}}
* [[Beard of Sorrow]]: In "[[Recap/Due South S 1 E 12 A Hawk And A Handsaw|A Hawk and a Handsaw]]," Fraser mentions that after his mother died, his father quit shaving for a while
* [[Beleaguered Childhood Friend]]: Fraser's friend Mark Smithbauer, in "[[Due South/Recap/S1
* [[Big Badass Wolf]]: Averted much of the time with Diefenbaker, but played straight a time or two, when Fraser was in danger, and when he had a girlfriend he was protecting.
* [[Blind Without'Em]]: Kowalski can't fire his pistol without wearing glasses.
* [[Bigger on the Inside]]: Fraser's closet has all of Canada in it, or at least just his father's new cabin. May not technically count since it's all in Fraser's head. [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Or is it?]]
* [[Book Ends]]: Two for the show as a whole.
** The [[Pilot Movie]] has Fraser pursuing the man who killed his father, and the series finale has Fraser pursuing the man who killed his mother.
** The pilot had Fraser starting in the Canadian wilderness and moving to Chicago, and the series finale has Fraser (accompanied by Ray <s>Vecchio</s> Kowalski) deciding to go back to Canada.
* [[The Boxing Episode]] in "Mountie and Soul"
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'''Bank robber''': Hey kid, I robbed a lot of banks. }}
* [[California Doubling]] (Toronto for Chicago, amusingly inverted when a Toronto-set episode was filmed in... Chicago.)
** The Chicago-for-Toronto doubling may very well have been an intentional joke - the producers were not above doing that kind of thing, such as when every shot of the Canadian consulate in Chicago was actually shot outside the American consulate in Toronto.
* [[Canada, Eh?]] / [[Eagle Land]]: The series is a commentary on, and gentle ribbing of, Canadian AND American approaches to policing and life.
{{quote|'''Bush pilot''': You sure they were Americans, eh?
'''Fraser''': They were all wearing new boots, they were driving a Jeep Wrangler, and they carried big guns.
'''Bush pilot''': Americans it is.|"[[Due South/Recap/S1
* [[Canine Companion]]: Diefenbaker
* [[The Cape (trope)]]: Fraser, of course.
* [[Cast Incest]]: Paul Gross is married in real life to the actress who played his character's mother.
* [[The Cast Showoff]]: Paul Gross co-wrote and sang at least two songs in the course of the series. See also [[Written by Cast Member]].
* [[Catch Phrase]]: Quite a long one, too. Starting in season three, whenever someone asks Fraser what he's doing in America (see [[Once an Episode]]), he usually responds:
{{quote|'''Fraser''': I first came to Chicago on the trail of the killers of my father; and, for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, I have remained, attached as liaison officer with the Canadian Consulate.}}
*** Often as not, somebody else gives this or some variation as an explanation. "This is Fraser, he first came to Chicago on the trail of the killers of his father, etc."
** Also "Oh dear", whenever anything is about to go wrong, and "thank you kindly".
** [[Subverted]] when, in one episode, Fraser complains about the supposed Mountie [[Catch Phrase]] "We always get our man".
* [[Celebrity Paradox]]: Buck Frobisher's resemblance to "legendary Canadian actor Leslie Nielsen" is remarked upon in "[[Due South/Recap/S3
* [[Chained Heat]]: Fraser and Inspector Thatcher in ''All the Queen's Horses'' and Fraser and [[Ray V]] in ''Red, White or Blue''
* [[Character Tics]]: Fraser has a few, including cracking his neck and touching his ear when he's nervous, thinking, or repressing the urge to do or say something.
* [[Chekhov's Gun|Chekhov's]] ([[It Works Better with Bullets|Unloaded]]) [[Chekhov's Gun|Gun]]: In the "[[Recap/Due South S 1 E 1 Pilot|Pilot]]," Fraser pulls out his gun in a Chicago bar, then explains that it's empty because he doesn't have a local permit. {{spoiler|Later, when his father's killer grabs the gun in a fight and tries to shoot him, it isn't loaded}}.
* [[Chick Magnet]]: Fraser.
* [[Christianity Is Catholic]]: [[Justified]], as Ray and his family are Italian American, and thus very likely would be Catholic. Fraser also appears to be Catholic
* [[Chronically Crashed Car]]: Ray V's mint-green 1971 Buick Riviera.
* [[Chronic Hero Syndrome]]: Fraser's partners frequently bemoan his spontaneous interventions in dangerous situations that he encounters, reminding him that he has no jurisdiction or they are not on duty. In "[[Recap/Due Souths 2 E 17 Red White Or Blue|Red, White or Blue]]," Fraser admits that he realizes his inability to stop helping people bothers Ray, but he can't help himself. Furthermore, a heartbreaking moment occurs {{spoiler|in ''Victoria's Secret'', when he refuses to help someone who appeals to him directly for aid.}}
* [[Clingy Jealous Girl]]: Ray V's sister, Francesca ("Frannie") Vecchio, pursued Fraser
** Inspector Thatcher, though less clingy and more jealous; Francesca never got upset with Fraser for bringing strange women home or working with exotic dancers.
* [[Clip Show]]: "Flash Back." "Red, White Or Blue" is not exactly this trope, but it does contain a significant amount of footage from "All The Queen's Horses" and a few other episodes.
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Constable Turnbull tends to be one of these. See also [[Genius Ditz]].
* [[The Comically Serious]]: Fraser understands the ''existence'' of sarcasm, and even displays the occasional flash of dry wit, but his default behaviour is still to take everything very literally.
* [[Confessional]]:
** Fraser, in "[[Due South/Recap/S1
** Played for laughs by Francesca in ''The Deal'', where she attempts to pre-emptively confess for a sin she plans to commit (seducing Fraser). The priest, exhasperated, points out that she can't keep confessing for that when she never follows through.
** [[Inverted]] in the same episode when Fraser asks the priest what he thought of [[The Mafia|Don Zuko]]. His answer, as vague as it is, implies that he has gone to confessional himself for wishing harm upon Zuko.
* [[Cool Car]]: Vecchio's 1971 Buick Riviera, [[Running Gag|which kept getting]] [[Every Car Is a Pinto|blown up]], and later Kowalski's GTO
* [[Cowboy Cop]]: Ray V has shades of it occasionally. The "imminent danger" trick he pulls in [[Due South/Recap/S1
** This has actually gotten him in trouble a few times as it makes his word less than trustworthy: in ''Witness'' he is suspected of intimidating a witness, while in ''Duel'' he is suspected of fabricating evidence. Not to mention, his actions in ''The Deal'' [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|eventually lead]] to {{spoiler|the deaths of Detective Louis Gardino and Irene Zuko.}}
* [[A Crack in the Ice]]: This happens to Ray K in the show finale.
* [[Crazy Prepared]]:
** From the episode "[[Recap/Due South S 1 E 12 A Hawk And A Handsaw|A Hawk and a Handsaw]]":
{{quote|'''Fraser:''' I sharpened my buckle.
'''Ray:''' You were anticipating cutting your way out of a rubber room?! }}
** From the episode "[[Due South/Recap/S2
{{quote|'''Fraser:''' I've been making calculations based on its thickness, the depth of the existing hole and the reflection of the tonal input as it percusses against my tuning fork.
'''Ray:''' Where the hell did you get a tuning fork? }}
* [[Dating Catwoman]]: For Fraser, Victoria Metcalf ("[[Due South/Recap/S1
* [[Dead Person Conversation]]: With Fraser Sr., ''very'' frequently. Ray V also spoke occasionally with the ghost of his own father, though their relationship was much more antagonistic than the Frasers'.
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Ray V and Sergent Buck Frobisher
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* [[Dork Knight]]: Fraser, oh so much.
* [[Drives Like Crazy]]: Pike in "Spy Vs. Spy"
* [[Drowning Pit]]: "[[Due South/Recap/S2
* [[Embarrassing First Name]]: Played straight with Stanley Ray Kowalski, who shared his name with the protagonist of ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire]]''. [[Subverted]] with Fraser, who had an ''odd'' first name ("Benton"), but wasn't even remotely embarrassed by it.
* [[Enhance Button]]: Averted in "[[Due South/Recap/S1
* [[Estrogen Brigade Bait]]: Fraser was this in-show as well as amongst fans.
* [[Every Car Is a Pinto]]: [[Running Gag|Every]] 1971 Buick Riviera seems to be, though to be fair {{spoiler|One of them was [[External Combustion|rigged with a bomb]]}}
* [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]]: Although they did refer to him by name a few times in ''The Deal'', more often than not, Joey Paducci is referred to as "The Shoemaker".
** Many of the Chicago police officers and people from Fraser's neighborhood will also refer to Fraser in the third person as "The Mountie", though they also just often refer to him by name. [[Justified]], as he really is one of only three or so mounties in Chicago at any given time.
* [[External Combustion]]: {{spoiler|Poor Louis}}.
* [[Facing the Bullets One-Liner]]: The plot that sets up the whole show.
{{quote|''You'll shoot a Mountie? [[Determinator|They'll hunt you to the ends of the Earth,]]''}}
* [[Fake American]]: While Fraser's original partner is a genuine native-born American, Ray Kowalski is portrayed by Canadian Callum Keith Rennie, and his Canadian accent is audible at times.
** Also, Ramona Milano (who played Francesca) is from
* [[Fan Nickname]]: common ones include
** OFM ("Our Favourite Mountie"): Benton Fraser
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** It is pointed out in the pilot that Fraser had trouble adjusting to life in a ''small'' city the one time they assigned him to work in one. If anything, he seems to adapt ''better'' to a big city for some reason.
** Inversely, neither of the Rays seem to do so hot themselves when they end up in the Canadian wilderness, though [[Fan Nickname|RayV]] did much better than [[Fan Nickname|RayK]].
** It get's worse if you know more about mounties, all members of the RCMP are allowed to carry guns in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130114212730/http://purpleslinky.com/offbeat/the-royal-canadian-mounted-police/ states]
*** Why does Fraser only have Canadian currency on him, even if he only gets paid in Canadian money for some reason he could get it converted when he cashes his pay check at the bank. Also becomes funny when you realize mounties (and other Canadian law enforcement) are paid almost twice what American cops make but Fraser keeps borrowing money from Ray.
*** Well, yes. Fraser's paid in Canadian, and Chicago people generally don't accept Canadian money. Still leaves the problem of converting it to US dollars, though.
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* [[Genius Ditz]]: Turnbull, while not an idiot, is not that great at his job. However, he is very good at art, cooking, trivia, and perhaps cleaning. Doesn't help that he's a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] to boot.
** Frannie as well. She may not get the jargon right or even understand some basics of policing, but she's good at finding information. Thankfully, that's her job, so she's a step ahead of Turnbull.
* [[Gentle Giant]]: the large prisoner who helps out Fraser and Ray in "The Witness" is a variation on this: he's not exactly gentle (we see him throttling a lunchroom attendant when he tells him to move along because he doesn't have any food left), but he does keep the bad guy away because he was impressed with Fraser's courtesy
* [[Get Into Jail Free]]: A key witness is behind bars and Fraser's partner is jailed for contempt. Fraser gets himself arrested to join them and be in position to protect them. He's such a straight arrow that he can't bring himself to shoplift a candy bar, and his police friends have to plant it on him.
** In another episode, he gets himself interred in a mental hospital ([[It Makes Sense in Context|to help break Ray out]]) by showing up in his RCMP uniform and telling them the [[Sarcastic Confession|unaltered truth of how he ended up in Chicago]].
* [[Go Among Mad People]]: "[[Due South/Recap/S1
* [[Going by the Matchbook]] - A variation in ''Chicago Holiday'', averting the typical [[Clingy MacGuffin]] quality of plot-important matchbooks.
* [[Good Is Not Dumb]]: Fraser, of course.
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* [[Hero Ball]]: It's the Mountie national sport.
* [[He's Back]]: "[[Recap/Due South S 2 E 09 The Edge|The Edge]]"
* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]: Jane Krakowski (of ''[[Ally McBeal]]'' and ''[[30 Rock|Thirty Rock]]'') played a distracted bride-to-be in "[[Recap/Due South S 1 E 18 An Invitation To Romance|An Invitation to Romance]]." Melina Kanakaredes (of [[Providence]] and [[CSI: NY]]) played Fraser's love interest in "[[Due South/Recap/S1
* [[Hollywood Voodoo]]: in "Mojo Rising," although they seem to have done their homework fairly well.
* [[Honor Before Reason]] : Fraser. [[You Should Know This Already]].
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* [[I See Them, Too]]: Whenever anyone other than Fraser sees his father.
* [[If My Calculations Are Correct]]: In "Vault," Fraser begins with "Now, I don’t have the specifications for the door, Ray. But I’ve been making calculations based on its thickness, the depth of the existing hole and the reflection of the tonal input as it percusses against my tuning fork." Several scenes later, after much bickering, he concludes with "That is, providing they maintain a constant rate of drilling."
* [[Impersonating an Officer]]:
* [[Impossibly Cool Clothes]]: In reality, Fraser's RCMP uniform is the Red Serge and it is nowadays only worn for special ceremonies or for publicity purposes and ''never'' for regular police duties.
* [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]: In the episode ''Bird In The Hand'' Fraser is able to throw a knife so precisely it plugs the barrel of a gun.
** Similarly, in ''Mountie On The Bounty'', when a ship Fraser and Kowalski are on sails into Canadian waters, Fraser catches a tossed handgun and proceeds to [[Blasting It Out of Their Hands|prove himself an expert marksman.]]
* [[Improbable Parking Skills]]: Ray puts his 1972 Buick Riviera into a controlled skid over a large field of ice to bring it sliding to a stop immediately next to Fraser and the guest star. Both of them give him a mild [[What the Hell, Hero?]], which he casually shrugs off.
* [[Inevitable Waterfall]]: "[[Recap/Due South S 2 E 01 North|North]]" and "[[Due South/Recap/S3
* [[Informed Self Diagnosis]]: "[[Recap/Due South S 2 E 01 North|North]]"
* [[Intangible Man]]: Fraser Sr., though this was to some degree under his control.
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* [[Intimate Healing]]: Fraser tells a story (twice) about how he found Victoria freezing to death on a mountain, and shared body heat with her so that they could both survive.
* [[Jerkass]]: Frank Zucco, who manages to be an extortionist mafia don [[Smug Snake]] [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|who cheats at basketball]] who has the gall to act like a [[Knight Templar]]. And the two FBI agents.
* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: Ray Vecchio.
* [[Jurisdiction Friction]]: Though maybe because the two Feds sent were incompetent [[
* [[Karma Houdini]]: Victoria is a borderline case. On the one hand {{spoiler|she escaped scot-free after framing Ray and Fraser for murder and theft and putting Fraser's life in danger in order to launder some of the money to get diamonds, and Fraser still tried to go with her}}, on the other {{spoiler|she's now a wanted criminal for the same murder and theft, she lost all of the money and got none of the diamonds, and Fraser didn't go with her (admittedly because Ray accidentally shot him}}
* [[Knight in Sour Armor]]: Ray
* [[Knight Templar]]: Frank Zucco pretends to be one, claiming that everything he does is in service to his neighborhood, as opposed to his extortion business
* [[Land Mine Goes Click]]: in the episode "The Edge".
* [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]]: In the episode "[[Due South/Recap/S2
** [[Crowning Moment of Funny]]: Fraser confronted with the unfurnished apartment in which he and his half-wolf sleep on the floor: "Why do I live like this? Am I being punished?"
* [[Stupid Good]]: Against all reason, usually averted by Fraser. He is evidently a spectacular judge of character with some highly noteworthy exceptions. In the pilot episode, he loans a large sum of money to a complete stranger with a likely story, only to have him approach him days or weeks later to pay him back. This is mostly guided by [[Rule of Funny]], as it serves to annoy the unholy hell out of [[Ray V]] for the sheer unlikeliness of it.
* [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall]]: In the episode "[[Recap/Due South S 1 E 12 A Hawk And A Handsaw|A Hawk and a Handsaw]]," when someone asks Fraser how a mountie came to live in Chicago, he replies that it's a long story which takes exactly two hours to tell (i.e., the length of the pilot). In the episode "[[Due South/Recap/S2
* [[Literary Allusion Title]]: The title of the Christmas episode "[[Recap/Due South S 1 E 10 The Gift Of The Wheelman|The Gift of the Wheelman]]" is a reference to [[O. Henry]]'s ''[[The Gift of the Magi]]''. In case the reference wasn't clear, the opening shot also includes a store called "O. Henry's Gift Shop."
** Also, the wheelman in question is one [[wikipedia:O. Henry|William Sydney Porter]].
* [[Locked in a Freezer]]: "[[Recap/Due South S 1 E 04 They Eat Horses Dont They|They Eat Horses, Don't They?]]"
** In a variation, [[Due South/Recap/S2
* [[Long Lost Sibling]]: {{spoiler|Fraser}} meets his half-sister in "[[Recap/Due South S 4 E 21 Hunting Season|Hunting Season]]", the penultimate episode of the last season.
* [[Lottery Ticket]]: in "[[Due South/Recap/S2
* [[Love Martyr]]: {{spoiler|Fraser let Victoria go, and almost went with her, even after all she put him through and proved herself to be a fairly terrible person.}}
* [[Machiavelli Was Wrong]]: ''The Deal'', After Don Zuko gives his [[Hannibal Lecture]] to Fraser about how people respect him, Fraser points out that there is a difference between being ''respected'' and being ''feared''. That is to say, [[Foreshadowing|fear can be overcome.]] <ref>
* [[MacGuffin]]: In "Chicago Holiday", with copious [[Lampshading]]. Another, less heavily lampshaded reference is provided in "An Invitation To Romance.
* [[Magic Realism]]: Throughout (see [[Spirit Advisor]]), but also in such episodes as "[[Due South/Recap/S1
* [[Malaproper]]: Francesca Vecchio is constantly misquoting typical police jargon (for instance, saying "broiling" rather than "grilling" a suspect). In "Mountie On the Bounty," this is weaponized, as a suspect finally cracks after listening to her do it constantly for minutes on end
* [[Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot]]: Fraser once talks Ray V into ticketing a guy who had parked in the fire lane. A little later they find out that the trunk of the illegally parked vehicle is full of guns.
** On at least two occasions Fraser brings in a guy on a charge that while technically true, is a mild description of the actual crime (a man who was dynamite fishing for 'fishing over the limit (by 2 tons)', and a man who was illegally dumping hazardous waste for 'littering').
* [[Mistaken for Murderer]]: Fraser, in "[[Due South/Recap/S1
* [[Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize]]: Actually discussed by Vecchio in "They Eat Horses Don't They" when talking about one of the suspects. Fraser is annoyed when this works.
* [[New Old Flame]]: Ray V has Irene Zuko ("[[Recap/Due South S 2 E 07 Juliet Is Bleeding|Juliet is Bleeding]]"); Fraser has Victoria Metcalf ("[[Due South/Recap/S1
* [[Nice Hat]]: Fraser's stetson, nicknamed the Stetson Of Invulnerability by the fandom. As Kowalski said, the hat is sacred.
{{quote|Fraser: ''She shot me in the hat, Ray.''
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Ray: ''We can do that, Fraser.''
Fraser: ''Thanks, Ray.''
''
** One of Fraser Sr.'s greatest regrets about being dead is they cut off the back of his favorite hat in order to fit it on his head in his coffin, and now he's stuck with it like that for eternity.
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: In the climax of ''The Deal'', Ray {{spoiler|beats the crap out of Don Zuko in his own gym, and promises not to tell everybody he sees about it in return for Zuko promising no harm will come to the Shoemaker.}} <ref>
* [[Noble Savage]]: Quinn subverts this trope in ''Easy Money'', portraying himself in this manner and then commenting to Fraser "I've been getting into this native roots and it seems to work. Besides, I thought the Tonto act might impress that little jackass." But he also embodies the trope, as he was a very formative mentor to Fraser and he does the right thing in the end.
* [[Not Even Bothering with the Accent]]: All of the Haitians in "Mojo Rising" speak with essentially American accents.
* [[Not the Fall That Kills You]]: In ''Call of the Wild'', Fraser and Ray {{spoiler|jump and is pushed by Fraser, respectively, from an airplane without parachutes, but they are not injured because the snow is "bottomless."}}
* [[Not with the Safety On, You Won't]]: in "[[Due South/Recap/S1
* [[Now or Never Kiss]]: in "[[Due South/Recap/S2
* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: Almost everyone believes Fraser's putting on an act by being such a stereotypical Mountie in order to con people, because no one is ''really'' that honest, polite and noble.
** And sometimes, very rarely (see "Bird in the Hand," "Odds"), he actually does let the mask slip.
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* [[Reverse Arm Fold]]: Fraser, constantly
* [[Running Gag]]
* [[Sarcastic Confession]]: In "Hawk and a Handsaw", Fraser manages to get himself committed in a psych ward (
* [[Scarily Competent Tracker]]: Fraser, even in the middle of a city.
* [[Sherlock Scan]]: It's like a mountie-superpower.
* [[Shout-Out]]: The oft-repeated line, [[Airplane!|"that's not important right now."]]
* [[Sister Becky]]: The journalist Mackenzie King was played by two actresses; Ray's boss Lt. Welsh was re-cast after the [[Pilot Movie]].
* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]: Waaaaaay over on the idealistic side. So much so that the times when it does even a slightly dark or ambiguous episode then they come across as a [[
* [[Snarky Non-Human Sidekick]]: Diefenbaker, although a strictly non-verbal role the reactions of the rest of the cast (principally Fraser) and good direction by the animal handler somehow manage to make him fit this trope.
* [[Smug Snake]]: Frank Zucco, who likes to appear to be a suave business man who only cares for his community (as opposed to his extortion business), but after seeing him blatantly cheat while playing basketball with Fraser, it is impossible to see him as anything but a [[Smug Snake]]
* [[Spirit Advisor]]: Fraser Sr.
* [[Stealth Hi Bye]]: Fraser, in "[[Recap/Due South S 1 E 09 A Cop A Mountie And A Baby|A Cop, a Mountie, and a Baby]]".
* [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]] (Ray is replaced for the final two seasons, for valid in-show reasons. Fraser spends most of the first episode trying to [[Only Sane Man|prove that the person who is manifestly not Ray is indeed not Ray]] while [[The Other Darrin|all the other characters pretend not to notice]].)
* [[Take Five]]: When Vecchio wants to talk with Zucco in private after Zucco had Constable Fraser beaten to a pulp, Zucco tells his men to go get him and Ray some coffee. Ray proceeds to [[Police Brutality|beat Zucco senseless.]]
* [[Take My Hand]]: Fraser Sr. to the man who had him killed, in "[[Recap/Due South S 2 E 04 Bird In The Hand|A Bird In The Hand]]". [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]]: {{spoiler|Fraser Sr. is a ''ghost''. His hands are intangible, just like the rest of him. [[Reality Ensues|You don't have to be a Mountie to deduce what happens next.]]}}
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** This, incidentally, being a serious [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].
{{quote|'''Fraser:''' But right now, my friend, you're in the Dominion of Canada.}}
* [[That Didn't Happen]]: The "contact" in "[[Due South/Recap/S2
* [[That Was the Last Entry]]: Fraser reads his late father's journals occasionally throughout the series, and in "Easy Money" he tells a friend, "There's a short entry in one of my father's journals that reads 'My adversaries appear ready to listen. I'm nearing victory.' And that entry was written the day before he was shot."
* [[Theme Naming]]: The writers were quite fond of this. Names often had some sort of reference or pun, but were generally not [[Meaningful Name|MeaningfulNames]]; once you "got" the joke, there was usually no further significance to the name.
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** Ray's two rival detectives in his precinct are initially named Det. ''Huey'' and Det. Louis "''Louie''" Gardino. Ray dubs them the Duck Boys. After Louis is killed, he is replaced by Det. Dewey.
*** Notably, nobody claims to call Huey and Louis the Duck Boys because of their names. Supposedly, it's because they're so smooth, nothing sticks to them, not even water. Ray did have cause to be snarky when he made that claim though.
** Other episodes would give the guest characters have all "artistic" names, all "Canadian hockey player" names, etc.
* [[Theme Tune]]
* [[There Was a Door]]: Fraser, all the time.
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* [[UST]]: Fraser and his boss, Inspector Margaret "Meg" Thatcher.
* [[Verbal Tic]]: Frannie's messing up of police jargon, Ray K's trouble with remember words, Fraser's 'thank you, kindly', etc.
* [[Welcome to the Big City]]: Fraser in the pilot movie, except
** In "White Men Can't Jump To Conclusions," Fraser has to leave his boots behind in a bad part of the city in order to save a kid that's been
* [[Western Terrorists]]: in "All the Queen's Horses," a train carrying a whole bunch of mounties is captured by a White Supremacist group. Randall Bolt, the leader, later returns to cause chaos at his trial
* [[What Could Have Been]]: Originally, the real life wreck of the ''Edmund Fitzgerald'' was going to be used in 'Mountie on the Bounty', but after talking to the families, Paul Gross opted for a fictional ship. Also, if the show had ended after season one, it was indicated Fraser would have been said to have died after being shot.
* [[What You Are in the Dark]]: "You see, no one knew that I had found her. The police didn't even know her name. I could just let her go and she could walk away that night."
* [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]]
* [[Whole-Episode Flashback]]: In an episode appropriately called "[[Due South/Recap/S2
* [[Whole-Plot Reference]]: "Chicago Holiday" was an affectionate remake of the [[Audrey Hepburn]] classic ''[[Roman Holiday]]''.
* [[Worst Aid]]: A man is hit by a car and Fraser carries him to the hospital, hoisted over his shoulders. Maybe they don't have ambulances in Canada?
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* [[You Fail Linguistics Forever]]: in "[[Recap/Due South S 1 E 12 A Hawk And A Handsaw|A Hawk and a Handsaw]]," Fraser says that the Inuit have over 60 words for snow. (Linguist Geoffrey Pullum estimates that [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000405.html the actual number is around five], roughly the same as in English.) The trope is somewhat averted in that this is a very widespread myth, but Fraser's character is a stickler for detail who grew up in a part of Canada with a large Inuit population; you'd think he'd have noticed the 50-some-odd missing words for snow, at some point.
** [[Fridge Brilliance]] or [[Wild Mass Guessing]]: Maybe the Inuit guys decided to pass the time making up words for snow to mess with the gullible white guy?
* [[You Have Failed Me...]]: In the episode ''Gift of the Wheelman'', the leader of the bag guys pulls this one out of the villain's playbook.
* [[You Killed My Father]]: Fraser's motivation for going to Chicago to begin with was to make sure the Chicago Police Department were making an effort to find his father's killer. He ended up getting involved in the investigation, and things spun off from there.
** Fraser faces the man responsible for his father's death in "[[Recap/Due South S 2 E 04 Bird In The Hand|A Bird In The Hand]]". There's even a wonderful subversion in that, after Fraser takes off the guy's cuffs for [[Honor Before Reason]] reasons, Ray V promptly re-cuffs him, to Fraser's dismay.
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[[Category:Canadian Series]]
[[Category:The Nineties]]
[[Category:Buddy Cop Show]]
[[Category:Dramedy]]
[[Category:Cop Show]]
[[Category:Crime and Punishment Series]]
[[Category:Dramatic Hour Long]]
[[Category:Magic Realism]]
[[Category:Due South]]
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