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** 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').
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** 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 4 tons)', and a man who was illegally dumping hazardous waste for 'littering').
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* The Vamp: Victoria Metcalf was this to Fraser.
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* The Vamp: TheVamp: Victoria Metcalf was this to Fraser.
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* The Vamp: Victoria Metcalf was this to Fraser.
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* Adorkable: This is a big part of Fraser's charm.
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* Adorkable: {{Adorkable}}: This is a big part of Fraser's charm.
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* Adorkable: This is a big part of Fraser's charm.
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* IdealHero: Fraser is basically the idealized Mountie version of a KnightInShiningArmour.
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* NiceGuy: Fraser is so darn nice all of the time that he sometimes irritates other characters.
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* NiceGuy: Fraser is so darn nice all of the time that he his behaviour sometimes irritates other characters.
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* StupidGood: 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 RuleOfFunny, as it serves to annoy the unholy hell out of [=RayV=] for the sheer unlikeliness of it.
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* NiceGuy: Fraser is so darn nice all of the time that he sometimes irritates other characters.
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* StupidGood: 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 RuleOfFunny, as it serves to annoy the unholy hell out of [=RayV=] for the sheer unlikeliness of it.
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* BadassBookworm: Fraser uses his smarts to solve crimes, and he can handle himself very well in a fight.
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* BadassBookworm: Fraser uses his smarts to solve crimes, and he can handle himself very well in a fight.
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* BadassBookworm: Fraser uses his smarts to solve crimes, and he can handle himself very well in a fight.
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* EncyclopaedicKnowledge: Fraser knows a lot of facts of just about any subject that you can think of. Justified because his grandparents were librarians.
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* EstrogenBrigadeBait: Fraser was this in-show as well as amongst fans.
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* MrFanservice: Fraser is portrayed as being ridiculously attractive to women InUniverse ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOfqirmcoBM this commercial for Season 3]] even states that "Women can't resist him"), and the same can be said of the character's fans in real life.
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* FairCop: Fraser almost never looks less than dashingly handsome.
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* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: Subverted--Fraser had no legal authority in the US and went out of his way to point this out and abide by it.
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* NoBadgeNoProblem: Benton ''is'' a police officer in Canada, but the show is set in Chicago. He does frequently remind people that he is acting purely as a private citizen, but acts as if he does have police powers.
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* ShirtlessScene: Fraser has one while he's reading his father's journal in ''The Deal.''
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* TallDarkAndHandsome: Fraser is tall, dark-haired and ''strikingly'' handsome.
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The Format/Genre box is outdatted coding.
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->'''Moffat''': All this do-gooding, Constable. Picking up litter, rescuing kittens, saving people's lives. What sort of message do you suppose that sends to the Americans?
->'''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.
->'''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.
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->'''Moffat:''' All this do-gooding, Constable. Picking up litter, rescuing kittens, saving people's lives. What sort of message do you suppose that sends to the
->'''Fraser''':
'''Fraser:''' That we care,
->'''Moffat''':
'''Moffat:''' Exactly, and people don't ''fear'' people who
->'''Fraser''':
'''Fraser:''' I'm sorry, sir. I wasn't aware that we wanted the Americans to fear us.
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[[quoteright:350:~~DramaticHourLong, BuddyCopShow, {{Dramedy}}, MagicRealism~~]]
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* EstablishingCharacterMoment: This is how Benton Fraser is introduced (in a two part introduction) to the audience: first, having established that he's chasing down a criminal on a dogsled in a horrendous blizzard (and that his coworkers think he's crazy), the door bursts open to reveal Fraser, fresh from the blizzard with the fugitive slung over his shoulder, delivering the immortal first line: "That's the last time ''he'll'' fish over the limit." However, once that's had a minute to establish itself in everyone's minds, he politely explains to his apoplectic boss that the man was in fact ''dynamiting'' the streams with plastic explosive and nitroglycerin, which Frasier has confiscated. Oh yes, and he's donated the resultant four-and-a-half tons of fish to the nearest Native village, who are very happy with the police force about now. Benton Fraser: completely insane, but a hell of a cop.
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HL is not \'villainous speech\' or general breaking speech. It\'s only for captives against captors
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* MachiavelliWasWrong: ''The Deal'', After Don Zuko gives his HannibalLecture 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.]] [[spoiler: By the end of the episode, after [[GoodIsNotNice Ray]] [[PoliceBrutality Vecchio]] [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beats Zuko senseless]] in his own gym, Zuko suddenly finds that he is no longer respected ''or'' feared. This has consequences in the next season of the show.]]
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* MachiavelliWasWrong: ''The Deal'', After Don Zuko gives his HannibalLecture BreakingSpeech 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.]] [[spoiler: By the end of the episode, after [[GoodIsNotNice Ray]] [[PoliceBrutality Vecchio]] Ray Vecchio [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beats Zuko senseless]] in his own gym, Zuko suddenly finds that he is no longer respected ''or'' feared. This has consequences in the next season of the show.]]
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** {{Subverted}} when, in one episode, Fraser complains about the supposed Mountie CatchPhrase "We always get our man".
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** {{Subverted}} when, in one episode, Fraser complains about the supposed Mountie CatchPhrase Motto "We always get our man".man" - it's actually "Maintiens le droit"[[note]]Defending The Law, although Fraser states it as Defend The Right[[/note]], regardless of what everyone, including his dead father, seems to think.
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* PunnyName: The coroner's name is Mort.
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* TheBusCameBack: Ray Vecchio, in the finale.
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* LotteryTicket: in "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E10WeAreTheEggmen We Are The Eggmen]]".
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* NeverWinTheLottery: in "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E10WeAreTheEggmen We Are The Eggmen]]".
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~~DramaticHourLong, BuddyCopShow, {{Dramedy}}, MagicRealism~~
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* CoolCar: Vecchio's 1971 Buick Riviera, [[RunningGag which kept getting]] [[EveryCarIsAPinto blown up]], and later Kowalski's GTO
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* CoolCar: Vecchio's 1971 Buick Riviera, [[RunningGag which kept getting]] [[EveryCarIsAPinto blown up]], and later Kowalski's GTOGTO.
* CountingBullets: Frasier does this once when facing off agaisnt an armed opponent. Thatcher, Kowalski and Welsh where apparently counting too but each gives conflicting numbers adding to the confusion.
* CountingBullets: Frasier does this once when facing off agaisnt an armed opponent. Thatcher, Kowalski and Welsh where apparently counting too but each gives conflicting numbers adding to the confusion.
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* StrangeCopInAStrangeLand: The premise of the show: A Canadian Mountie working in the city of Chicago.
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* WholePlotReference: "Chicago Holiday" was an affectionate remake of the AudreyHepburn classic ''RomanHoliday''.
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* WholePlotReference: "Chicago Holiday" was an affectionate remake of the AudreyHepburn Creator/AudreyHepburn classic ''RomanHoliday''.
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Hottip mark-up is broken. This doesn\'t even need to be a hottip.
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* NiceJobBreakingItHero: 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.]] [[hottip:*: One of Zuko's lieutenants witnesses the beatdown, evidently loses all respect for him, and in the second season episode ''Juliet Is Bleeding'', this causes a chain of events that result in the murder of Detective Gardino, the accidental killing of Irene Zuko, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the destruction of Ray's]] [[RunningGag first or second]] [[CoolCar prized 1972 Buick Riviera]]]]
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* NiceJobBreakingItHero: 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.]] [[hottip:*: One of Zuko's lieutenants witnesses the beatdown, evidently loses all respect for him, and in the second season episode ''Juliet Is Bleeding'', this causes a chain of events that result in the murder of Detective Gardino, the accidental killing of Irene Zuko, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the destruction of Ray's]] [[RunningGag first or second]] [[CoolCar prized 1972 Buick Riviera]]]]Riviera]].]]
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* TraumaInducedAmnsia: Fraser,after a hit on the head,spends a whole ep recovering his memory.
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* TraumaInducedAmnsia: Fraser,after TraumaInducedAmnesia: Fraser, after a hit on the head,spends head, spends a whole ep episode recovering his memory.
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-->-- ''DueSouth'', "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E18AnInvitationToRomance An Invitation to Romance]]"
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-->-- ''DueSouth'', ''Due South'', "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E18AnInvitationToRomance An Invitation to Romance]]"
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''DueSouth'' is both a buddy cop comedy and a drama and handles both genres quite well. Fraser and both Rays play well off of one another, and make each other's more exaggerated characteristics work.
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-->''DueSouth'', "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E01FreeWillie Free Willie]]"
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/due-south.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:So very pretty.]]
->'''Moffat''': All this do-gooding, Constable. Picking up litter, rescuing kittens, saving people's lives. What sort of message do you suppose that sends to the Americans?
->'''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.
-->-- ''DueSouth'', "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E18AnInvitationToRomance An Invitation to Romance]]"
~~DramaticHourLong, BuddyCopShow, {{Dramedy}}, MagicRealism~~
A BuddyCopShow / OddCouple, where the OddCouple 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 (Canada and the rest of the world) or three seasons (US), depending on location.
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 MarlonBrando). He even married a woman named Stella, though they had divorced by the time Ray K moved to Chicago.
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.
Rounding out the cast is Diefenbaker, Fraser's half-wolf CanineCompanion, who is deaf (but can read lips).
''DueSouth'' is both a buddy cop comedy and a drama and handles both genres quite well. Fraser and both Rays play well off of one another, and make each other's more exaggerated characteristics work.
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 could see and hear his father, unless Fraser Sr. wanted to show himself to someone else (this happened four times--he appeared to his killer, to his wife's killer, to his best friend from the force, and to Ray Kowalski), or they were also related to him (happened once). Ray V's dad's ghost also popped up once or twice,and interacted with Fraser Sr once, though he was never a regular character.
[[Recap/DueSouth Recap page is here.]]
----
!!Provides examples of:
* AllAPartOfTheJob: 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."
* AlwaysGetsHisMan: Fraser, naturally.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: ''[[spoiler:"If we do find his Hand, the reaching-out one, we'll let you know."]]''
* AnotherStoryForAnotherTime: Fraser's "But that's not important, what ''is'' important..."
* ArtisticLicenseLaw: 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.
* AxeCrazy: Randall Bolt, the crazy White Supremacist terrorist.
* BadBadActing: Fraser and Ray K., when they realize Ray's apartment has been bugged.
* [[BadassGrandpa Badass Grandma]]: Ruth, aka [[spoiler: Nautilus]] from "Spy Vs. Spy".
* BareHandedBladeBlock: In "[[Recap/DueSouthS3E05SeeingisBelieving Seeing is Believing]]," Fraser catches a knife thrown at him.
* BashBrothers: In the series finale [[spoiler: Detectives Ray Vecchio and Ray Kowalski partner up with each other briefly.]]
* BeardOfSorrow: In "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E12AHawkAndAHandsaw A Hawk and a Handsaw]]," Fraser mentions that after his mother died, his father quit shaving for a while.
* BeleagueredChildhoodFriend: Fraser's friend Mark Smithbauer, in "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E16TheBlueLine The Blue Line]]".
* BigBadassWolf: 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.
* BlindWithoutEm: Kowalski can't fire his pistol without wearing glasses.
* BiggerOnTheInside: 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. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Or is it?]]
* BookEnds: Two for the show as a whole.
** The PilotMovie 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 Kowalski) deciding to go back to Canada.
* TheBoxingEpisode in "Mountie and Soul"
* BrickJoke: In ''The Deal'' Fraser mentions a schoolyard bully from his childhood menacing kids with a dead otter. Five episodes later, in ''Letting Go'', a physical therapist is scrutinizing his body for past injuries and discovers an odd scar which he says was caused when he was struck by an otter at age 10.
* BritishRoyalGuards: Constable Benton Fraser would mimic these guards' "statuesque" reputation whenever he stood on guard duty at the Canadian Consulate, as did his junior, Constable Renfield Turnbull in Season 3. Once in season two, when Fraser was [[TimmyInAWell stuck in a (metaphoric) well]], he sent his half-wolf/half-dog Diefenbaker to get help; Dief patiently waited in front of one unnamed Mountie until his tour was up, at which point he finally barked the news about Fraser to him and said Mountie was able to respond.
* BulletproofFashionPlate: Fraser, which drives Ray completely up the wall.
** Also, his fashion renders him bulletproof. While Fraser is injured several times in the show, he is never once injured while he is wearing his hat. This has caused the hat to be dubbed the 'Stetson of Invulnerability' by fans.
** Although his hat is not bulletproof, and he has reacted to it being damaged as if he had been shot in an actual body part
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Fraser, and it's not always just an American point of view of Canadian ways thing, either, since he has baffled the Canadians as well. Examples include his habit of licking things and talking to his dead father. Granted, the other characters don't know he's doing the latter, so he just looks like he's talking to thin air.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: The serial bank robber that [=RayK=] pursues in "Eclipse".
-->'''Ray''': I don't believe this, you don't remember me.
-->'''Bank robber''': Hey kid, I robbed a lot of banks.
* CaliforniaDoubling (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.
* CanadaEh[=/=]{{Eagleland}}: The series is a commentary on, and gentle ribbing of, Canadian AND American approaches to policing and life.
-->'''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.
-->--"[[Recap/DueSouthS1E0Pilot Pilot]]"
* CanineCompanion: Diefenbaker
* TheCape: Fraser, of course.
* CastIncest: Paul Gross is married in real life to the actress who played his character's mother.
* TheCastShowoff: Paul Gross co-wrote and sang at least two songs in the course of the series. See also WrittenByCastMember.
* CatchPhrase: Quite a long one, too. Starting in season three, whenever someone asks Fraser what he's doing in America (see OnceAnEpisode), he usually responds:
-->'''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 CatchPhrase "We always get our man".
* CelebrityParadox: Buck Frobisher's resemblance to "legendary Canadian actor LeslieNielsen" is remarked upon in "[[Recap/DueSouthS3E01BurningDownTheHouse Burning Down the House]]".
* ChainedHeat: Fraser and Inspector Thatcher in ''All the Queen's Horses'' and Fraser and [=RayV=] in ''Red, White or Blue''.
* CharacterTics: 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.
* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's]] ([[ItWorksBetterWithBullets Unloaded]]) [[ChekhovsGun Gun]]: In the "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E1Pilot 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]].
* ChickMagnet: Fraser.
* ChristianityIsCatholic: {{Justified|Trope}}, as Ray and his family are Italian American, and thus very likely would be Catholic.
* ChronicallyCrashedCar: Ray V's mint-green 1971 Buick Riviera, much to his aggravation.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: 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/DueSouths2E17RedWhiteOrBlue 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.]]
* ClingyJealousGirl: Ray V's sister, Francesca ("Frannie") Vecchio, pursued Fraser aggressively--at one point even telling people that they had slept together. (In case simple common sense isn't enough to convince you that they hadn't, WordOfGod has confirmed it.)
** Inspector Thatcher, though less clingy and more jealous; Francesca never got upset with Fraser for bringing strange women home or working with exotic dancers.
* ClipShow: "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 GeniusDitz.
* TheComicallySerious: 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 "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E20and21VictoriasSecret Victoria's Secret]]"
** 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 [[TheMafia Don Zuko]]. His answer, as vague as it is, implies that he has gone to confessional himself for wishing harm upon Zuko.
* CoolCar: Vecchio's 1971 Buick Riviera, [[RunningGag which kept getting]] [[EveryCarIsAPinto blown up]], and later Kowalski's GTO
* CowboyCop: Ray V has shades of it occasionally. The "imminent danger" trick he pulls in [[Recap/DueSouthS1E20and21VictoriasSecret Victoria's Secret]] comes to mind.
** 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'' [[NiceJobBreakingItHero eventually lead]] to [[spoiler: the deaths of Detective Louis Gardino and Irene Zuko.]]
* ACrackInTheIce: This happens to Ray K in the show finale.
* CrazyPrepared:
** From the episode "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E12AHawkAndAHandsaw A Hawk and a Handsaw]]":
-->'''Fraser:''' I sharpened my buckle.
-->'''Ray:''' You were anticipating cutting your way out of a rubber room?!
** From the episode "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E02Vault Vault]]":
-->'''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?
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Indicated with Turnbull. he seems dumb onscreen but he somehow passed military *paratrooper* training.
* DatingCatwoman: For Fraser, Victoria Metcalf ("[[Recap/DueSouthS1E20and21VictoriasSecret Victoria's Secret]]"). Ray V, in "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E11YouMustRememberThis You Must Remember This]]", has a brief romance that seems to be this trope, but ends up subverted as [[spoiler:his love interest turns out to be an undercover agent running a sting, not a thief.]]
* DeadPersonConversation: 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'.
* DeadpanSnarker: Ray V and Sergent Buck Frobisher
* {{Determinator}}: Both Fraser and Dief. As the saying goes, they always get their man. On at least one occasion, Fraser has worried that Dief will literally run his paws off rather than give up pursuit.
* DinnerAndAShow: Ray V's family.
* DisguisedInDrag: in "Some Like It Red"
* DisappearedDad: Fraser Sr. wasn't around much in Benton's childhood because of his job as a Mountie. Interestingly enough, Benton mostly views this with regret rather than bitterness, and his dad honestly seems more bothered by it than he does.
* DitchTheBodyguards: The plot of ''Chicago Holiday''.
* DoorstopBaby: "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E09ACopAMountieAndABaby A Cop, a Mountie, and a Baby]]"
* DorkKnight: Fraser, oh so much.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: Pike in "Spy Vs. Spy"
* DrowningPit: "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E02Vault Vault]]"
* EmbarrassingFirstName: Played straight with Stanley Ray Kowalski, who shared his name with the protagonist of ''AStreetcarNamedDesire''. {{Subverted}} with Fraser, who had an ''odd'' first name ("Benton"), but wasn't even remotely embarrassed by it.
* EnhanceButton: Averted in "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E16TheBlueLine The Blue Line]]." Fraser asks a technician to enlarge a frame from a video tape so he can identify a face in a crowd. The technician says it would be pointless because the resolution is too low.
* EstrogenBrigadeBait: Fraser was this in-show as well as amongst fans.
* EveryCarIsAPinto: [[RunningGag Every]] 1971 Buick Riviera seems to be, though to be fair [[spoiler: One of them was [[ExternalCombustion rigged with a bomb]]]]
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: 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|Trope}}, as he really is one of only three or so mounties in Chicago at any given time.
* ExternalCombustion: [[spoiler: Poor Louis]].
* FacingTheBulletsOneLiner: The plot that sets up the whole show.
-->''You'll shoot a Mountie? [[{{Determinator}} They'll hunt you to the ends of the Earth,]]''
* FakeAmerican: 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 Toronto--which makes a crack she makes near the end of the series about how there's no life in Toronto all the funnier
* FanNickname: common ones include
** OFM ("Our Favourite Mountie"): Benton Fraser
** OFDM ("Our Favourite Dead Mountie"): Bob Fraser
** Dead!Bob: Bob Fraser again
** [=RayV=]: Detective Ray Vecchio
** [=RayK=]: Detective Ray [[TheOtherDarrin Kowalski]]
* FauxAffablyEvil: from "All the Queen's Horses," Randall Bolt, the psychopathic White Supremacist terrorist who captures a whole train of Mounties in order to send it into another train full of radioactive fuel rods, who is willing to [[spoiler: kill his men, including his girlfriend]], all with a broad smile across his face
* TheFettered: Fraser
* FingertipDrugAnalysis: Fraser would taste anything. He even licked the bottom of a boot once to figure out where the wearer had been. Ray K and Ray V were both disgusted and tried to stop him.
* FishOutOfWater: Fraser had trouble adjusting to life in a bustling city after being a backwoods policeman.
** 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 [[FanNickname RayV]] did much better than [[FanNickname RayK]].
** It gets worse if you know more about mounties, all members of the RCMP are allowed to carry guns in the [[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.
**** This may have to do with the fact that it is a lot easier to pay for stuff with American money in Canada than the reverse, but Canadians will still expect to be able to use their own currency in the US
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Fraser wasn't quite this bad, but he came close sometimes.
* GeniusDitz: 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.
* GentleGiant: 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
* GetIntoJailFree: 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 ([[ItMakesSenseInContext to help break Ray out]]) by showing up in his RCMP uniform and telling them the [[SarcasticConfession unaltered truth of how he ended up in Chicago]].
* GoAmongMadPeople: "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E12HawkAndAHandsaw Hawk and a Handsaw]]"
* GoingByTheMatchbook - A variation in ''Chicago Holiday'', averting the typical ClingyMacguffin quality of plot-important matchbooks.
* GoodIsNotDumb: Fraser, of course.
* GoodOldWays
* HeroBall: It's the Mountie national sport.
* HesBack: "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E09TheEdge The Edge]]"
* HollywoodVoodoo: in "Mojo Rising," although they seem to have done their homework fairly well.
* HonorBeforeReason : Fraser. YouShouldKnowThisAlready.
** "That's the last time ''he'll'' fish over the limit..."
* ISeeThemToo: Whenever anyone other than Fraser sees his father.
* IfMyCalculationsAreCorrect: 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."
* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: Subverted--Fraser had no legal authority in the US and went out of his way to point this out and abide by it.
* ImpossiblyCoolClothes: 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.
** Generally averted in earlier episodes, where he would wear a less showy brown uniform whenever he wasn't specifically dolled up for [[BritishRoyalGuards guard duty]] or some formal occassion. It has been joked that his capabilities directly correlate with how he dresses. Civilian clothes, he's a good samaratan who helps others. Brown uniform, he's a badass cop. Red Serge? He is a full on ''superhero''.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: 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 [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands prove himself an expert marksman.]]
* ImprobableParkingSkills: 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 WhatTheHellHero, which he casually shrugs off.
* InsigniaRipOffRitual: Thatcher cuts Fraser's lanyard when she's handing down punishment for Fraser disobeying orders and helping his sister Maggie when she breaks into the consulate.
* InevitableWaterfall: "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E01North North]]" and "[[Recap/DueSouthS3E01BurningDowntheHouse Burning Down the House]]"
* InformedSelfDiagnosis: "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E01North North]]"
* IntangibleMan: Fraser Sr., though this was to some degree under his control.
* InterserviceRivalry: The 27th Precinct quickly came to appreciate the frequent presence of Canada's Deputy Liasion Officer but they never worked well with the FBI, and there were problems among the Secret Service, Chicago police and Mexican officials in ''The Edge''.
* IntimateHealing: 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 SmugSnake [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking who cheats at basketball]] who has the gall to act like a KnightTemplar. And the two FBI agents.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Ray Vecchio.
* JurisdictionFriction: Though maybe because the two Feds sent were incompetent [[JerkAss jerkasses]]
* KarmaHoudini: 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).]]
* KnightInSourArmor: Ray
* KnightTemplar: Frank Zucco pretends to be one, claiming that everything he does is in service to his neighborhood, as opposed to his extortion business
* KnightTemplarBigBrother: One episode revolves around Fraser and RayK solving a murder that may very well have been committed by RayV. The reason they think RayV might have done it? The dead guy is implied to have tried to rape Frannie.
* LandMineGoesClick: in the episode "The Edge".
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: In the episode "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E18Flashback Flashback]]", Fraser loses his memory. He can't remember who he is, his personal history, or his manners. When Ray tells Fraser about himself, Fraser thinks he sounds like a moron.
** CrowningMomentOfFunny: 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?"
* StupidGood: 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 RuleOfFunny, as it serves to annoy the unholy hell out of [=RayV=] for the sheer unlikeliness of it.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In the episode "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E12AHawkAndAHandsaw 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 "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E02Vault Vault]]," Ray remarks, "In the last two years you’ve risked our lives 24 times," (i.e., the number of episodes to that point in the series).
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The title of the Christmas episode "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E10TheGiftOfTheWheelman The Gift of the Wheelman]]" is a reference to OHenry's ''Literature/TheGiftOfTheMagi''. 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 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._Henry William Sydney Porter]].
* LockedInAFreezer: "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E04TheyEatHorsesDontThey They Eat Horses, Don't They?]]"
** In a variation, [[Recap/DueSouthS2E10WeAreTheEggmen We are the Eggmen]], Fraser and Inspector Thatcher get locked in an incubator
* LongLostSibling: [[spoiler:Fraser]] meets his half-sister in "[[Recap/DueSouthS4E21HuntingSeason Hunting Season]]", the penultimate episode of the last season.
* LotteryTicket: in "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E10WeAreTheEggmen We Are The Eggmen]]".
* LoveMartyr: [[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.]]
* MachiavelliWasWrong: ''The Deal'', After Don Zuko gives his HannibalLecture 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.]] [[spoiler: By the end of the episode, after [[GoodIsNotNice Ray]] [[PoliceBrutality Vecchio]] [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beats Zuko senseless]] in his own gym, Zuko suddenly finds that he is no longer respected ''or'' feared. This has consequences in the next season of the show.]]
* MacGuffin: In "Chicago Holiday", with copious {{lampshading}}. Another, less heavily lampshaded reference is provided in "An Invitation To Romance.
* MagicRealism: Throughout (see SpiritAdvisor), but also in such episodes as "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E19HeavenAndEarth Heaven and Earth]]", where a homeless man's clairvoyant powers appear to be genuine.
* {{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
* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: 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').
* MistakenForMurderer: Fraser, in "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E20and21VictoriasSecret Victoria's Secret]]".
* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize: Actually discussed by Vecchio in "They Eat Horses Don't They" when talking about one of the suspects. Fraser is annoyed when this works.[[invoked]]
* NewOldFlame: Ray V has Irene Zuko ("[[Recap/DueSouthS2E07JulietIsBleeding Juliet is Bleeding]]"); Fraser has Victoria Metcalf ("[[Recap/DueSouthS1E20and21VictoriasSecret Victoria's Secret]]").
* NiceHat: Fraser's stetson, nicknamed the Stetson Of Invulnerability by the fandom. As Kowalski said, the hat is sacred.
-->Fraser: ''She shot me in the hat, Ray.''
-->Ray: ''She shot you in the'' hat?
-->Fraser: ''I can feel air coming in through the hole.''
-->Ray: ''She shot you in the hat, all right.''
-->Fraser: ''We'll have to go home and get my other one.''
-->Ray: ''We can do that, Fraser.''
-->Fraser: ''Thanks, Ray.''
-->''DueSouth'', "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E01FreeWillie Free Willie]]"
** 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.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: 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.]] [[hottip:*: One of Zuko's lieutenants witnesses the beatdown, evidently loses all respect for him, and in the second season episode ''Juliet Is Bleeding'', this causes a chain of events that result in the murder of Detective Gardino, the accidental killing of Irene Zuko, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the destruction of Ray's]] [[RunningGag first or second]] [[CoolCar prized 1972 Buick Riviera]]]]
* NobleSavage: 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.
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: All of the Haitians in "Mojo Rising" speak with essentially American accents.
* NotTheFallThatKillsYou: 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."]]
* Main/NotWithTheSafetyOnYouWont: in "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E01FreeWillie Free Willie]]"
* NowOrNeverKiss: in "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E14AllTheQueensHorses All the Queen's Horses]]"
* ObfuscatingStupidity: 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.
* OncePerEpisode: Defenestration (someone/something going through a window), particularly in the first two seasons, and also Fraser's {{CatchPhrase}}s, especially the longer one in latter seasons (see above).
* OneofOurOwn: In ''Eclipse'', ''Dead Guy Running'', ''Victoria's Secret'' and ''Heaven and Earth''.
* OnlyBarelyRenewed: after season one.
* TheOtherDarrin: Diefenbaker was played by three different animals, the first in the pilot really was half-wolf (and noticeably so) but was thought to look too fierce so was replaced by a pure-bred Siberian Husky, who was also replaced with a lookalike after the show's hiatus.
* PilotMovie
* TheRashomon: "Seeing is Believing," where Ray K, Thatcher, and Walsh all witness an argument between two men and a woman which ends with one of the men stabbed to death. Ray K thinks the young guy did it, Thatcher thinks the young woman did it, and Walsh thinks the two conspired to kill the other man as part of a mob war. [[spoiler: it was actually a fourth man who created a distraction and then threw the knife at the victim]]
* RearWindowWitness: Fraser witnesses a crime through his hospital window in one episode.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: how Fraser ended up in Chicago after pissing off his entire chain of command. Chicago seems to be a dumping ground: Constable Turnbull seems to be too stupid to serve anywhere else, and even Inspector Thatcher isn't too keen on being there, and wants to transfer back to Toronto as soon as she can.
* ReverseArmFold: Fraser, constantly
* RunningGag
* SarcasticConfession: In "Hawk and a Handsaw", Fraser manages to get himself committed in a psych ward (intentionally--he's going undercover) simply by showing up in full dress uniform and telling the precise truth about his past.
* ScarilyCompetentTracker: Fraser, even in the middle of a city.
* SherlockScan: It's like a mountie-superpower.
* ShoutOut: The oft-repeated line, [[{{Airplane}} "that's not important right now."]]
* SisterBecky: The journalist Mackenzie King was played by two actresses; Ray's boss Lt. Welsh was re-cast after the PilotMovie.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Waaaaaay over on the idealistic side. So much so that the times when it does even a slightly dark or ambiguous episode it can come across as a BizarroEpisode.
* SnarkyNonHumanSideKick: 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.
* SmugSnake: 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 SmugSnake
* SpiritAdvisor: Fraser Sr.
* StealthHiBye: Fraser, in "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E09ACopAMountieAndABaby A Cop, a Mountie, and a Baby]]".
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute (Ray is replaced for the final two seasons, for valid in-show reasons. Fraser spends most of the first episode trying to [[OnlySaneMan prove that the person who is manifestly not Ray is indeed not Ray]] while [[TheOtherDarrin all the other characters pretend not to notice]].)
* TakeFive: 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 [[PoliceBrutality beat Zucco senseless.]]
* TakeMyHand: Fraser Sr. to the man who had him killed, in "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E04BirdInTheHand A Bird In The Hand]]". [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]: [[spoiler: Fraser Sr. is a ''ghost''. His hands are intangible, just like the rest of him. [[RealityEnsues You don't have to be a Mountie to deduce what happens next.]]]]
** However, despite being a ghost, Fraser Sr. is able to punch out the guy who murdered his wife.
* TechnicalPacifist: Fraser rarely used a gun, but this was because he didn't have a license for one in the US. After they crossed the border into Canada, he turned out to be a very good shot.
** This, incidentally, being a serious CrowningMomentOfAwesome.
--->'''Fraser:''' But right now, my friend, you're in the Dominion of Canada.
* ThatDidntHappen: The "contact" in "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E14AllTheQueensHorses All the Queen's Horses]]"
* ThatWasTheLastEntry: 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."
* ThemeNaming: The writers were quite fond of this. Names often had some sort of reference or pun, but were generally not {{MeaningfulName}}s; once you "got" the joke, there was usually no further significance to the name.
** Many of the Canadian characters are named after Canadian politicians or explorers: Fraser, Frobisher, Mackenzie King, Diefenbaker, etc.
*** Not just Canadian, either - Margaret Thatcher?
** 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.
* ThemeTune
* ThereWasADoor: Fraser, all the time.
-->'''Ray V:''' Do they not have doors in Canada?!
* ThoseTwoGuys: Detectives Huey and [[InsistentTerminology Louis]]. Later, Huey and Dewey.
* TimmyInAWell: Diefenbaker can read lips in English and Inuktitut.
* TraumaInducedAmnsia: Fraser,after a hit on the head,spends a whole ep recovering his memory.
* TrouserSpace: Mild example played for [[RuleOfFunny laughs]]. Fraser sneaks a case file past some obstructive FBI Agents by shoving it down his pants.
* {{Tsundere}}: Inspector Maggie Thatcher. More coldly contemptuous than easily angered, but aside from that it's a fairly apt description of her
* TurnInYourBadge: Happens to [=RayV=] in ''Victoria's Secret'' and Fraser in ''Hunting Season''.
* TwoScenesOneDialogue: In ''Red, White or Blue'', Fraser and Ray each spill out their frustrations aloud in their separate homes, and their words form one dialogue. In ''Seeing is Believing'' Fraser's interviews of Inspector Thatcher, [=RayK=] and Welch blend smoothly from one to the next in midstream.
* UnCancelled: ''Twice'', believe it or not. Creator/{{CBS}} canceled it after its first season, un-canceled it when CBS's next season lineup bombed, and then canceled it ''again'' after its second season. In both cases, the show's producers (Canadian company Alliance) saved it thanks to international funding, because of its success in Canada and elsewhere (hence financing from TheBBC and Germany's ProSieben).
* UnPaused: In the notorious train episode. An entire train car full of Mounties is gassed and pass out while singing early in the episode. Right before the climax, every single one of them wakes up simultaneously, at which point they resume singing the chorus.
* {{UST}}: Fraser and his boss, Inspector Margaret "Meg" Thatcher.
* VerbalTic: Frannie's messing up of police jargon, Ray K's trouble with remember words, Fraser's 'thank you, kindly', etc.
* WelcomeToTheBigCity: Fraser in the pilot movie, except that -- as befits the general theme of the show -- some of it ends up coming out right in the end (e.g., the panhandler he "loans" $100 to returns it at the end of the episode).
** 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 shot--and his boots disappear. Fraser is certain that some Good Samaritan picked the boots up off the street in order to find him [[spoiler: and at the end of the episode is proven entirely right]]
* WesternTerrorists: 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
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: 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.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: "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."
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue
* WholeEpisodeFlashback: In an episode appropriately called "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E18Flashback Flashback]]".
* WholePlotReference: "Chicago Holiday" was an affectionate remake of the AudreyHepburn classic ''RomanHoliday''.
* WorstAid: 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?
* WrittenByCastMember: "All The Queen's Horses," "Red, White Or Blue," "Burning Down The House" and the two-parters "Mountie On The Bounty" and "Call Of The Wild" were written or co-written by Paul Gross.
* {{Yandere}}: Victoria
* YouCanSeeMe: In "Hunting Season", Constable Maggie [=MacKenzie=] can see the ghost of Fraser's father. "All The Queen's Horses" had a variation of sorts, with Fraser and Buck both surprised the other could see Bob.
** Mama Lala appears aware of Bob's existence as well in "Mojo Rising"
* YouFailLinguisticsForever: in "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E12AHawkAndAHandsaw 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.
** FridgeBrilliance or WildMassGuessing: Maybe the Inuit guys decided to pass the time making up words for snow to mess with the gullible white guy?
* YouHaveFailedMe: In the episode ''Gift of the Wheelman'', the leader of the bag guys pulls this one out of the villain's playbook.
* YouKilledMyFather: 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/DueSouthS2E04BirdInTheHand A Bird In The Hand]]". There's even a wonderful subversion in that, after Fraser takes off the guy's cuffs for HonorBeforeReason reasons, Ray V promptly re-cuffs him, to Fraser's dismay.
** A variation gets brought up as a [[BookEnds book end]]. In the series finale, Fraser and the gang (including [[BashBrothers both Rays working together at one point]] go up against the gun runner who killed his mother.
* YouLookFamiliar: Maury Chaykin plays secret agent Pike in "Spy Vs. Spy" and shipping depot [[spoiler: and sweat shop]] owner Gutman in "Mojo Rising"
** Also, Martha Burns as a Russian spy/terrorist and then as Fraser's mother
* YouWouldDoTheSameForMe
----
[[caption-width-right:350:So very pretty.]]
->'''Moffat''': All this do-gooding, Constable. Picking up litter, rescuing kittens, saving people's lives. What sort of message do you suppose that sends to the Americans?
->'''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.
-->-- ''DueSouth'', "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E18AnInvitationToRomance An Invitation to Romance]]"
~~DramaticHourLong, BuddyCopShow, {{Dramedy}}, MagicRealism~~
A BuddyCopShow / OddCouple, where the OddCouple 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 (Canada and the rest of the world) or three seasons (US), depending on location.
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 MarlonBrando). He even married a woman named Stella, though they had divorced by the time Ray K moved to Chicago.
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.
Rounding out the cast is Diefenbaker, Fraser's half-wolf CanineCompanion, who is deaf (but can read lips).
''DueSouth'' is both a buddy cop comedy and a drama and handles both genres quite well. Fraser and both Rays play well off of one another, and make each other's more exaggerated characteristics work.
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 could see and hear his father, unless Fraser Sr. wanted to show himself to someone else (this happened four times--he appeared to his killer, to his wife's killer, to his best friend from the force, and to Ray Kowalski), or they were also related to him (happened once). Ray V's dad's ghost also popped up once or twice,and interacted with Fraser Sr once, though he was never a regular character.
[[Recap/DueSouth Recap page is here.]]
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!!Provides examples of:
* AllAPartOfTheJob: 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."
* AlwaysGetsHisMan: Fraser, naturally.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: ''[[spoiler:"If we do find his Hand, the reaching-out one, we'll let you know."]]''
* AnotherStoryForAnotherTime: Fraser's "But that's not important, what ''is'' important..."
* ArtisticLicenseLaw: 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.
* AxeCrazy: Randall Bolt, the crazy White Supremacist terrorist.
* BadBadActing: Fraser and Ray K., when they realize Ray's apartment has been bugged.
* [[BadassGrandpa Badass Grandma]]: Ruth, aka [[spoiler: Nautilus]] from "Spy Vs. Spy".
* BareHandedBladeBlock: In "[[Recap/DueSouthS3E05SeeingisBelieving Seeing is Believing]]," Fraser catches a knife thrown at him.
* BashBrothers: In the series finale [[spoiler: Detectives Ray Vecchio and Ray Kowalski partner up with each other briefly.]]
* BeardOfSorrow: In "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E12AHawkAndAHandsaw A Hawk and a Handsaw]]," Fraser mentions that after his mother died, his father quit shaving for a while.
* BeleagueredChildhoodFriend: Fraser's friend Mark Smithbauer, in "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E16TheBlueLine The Blue Line]]".
* BigBadassWolf: 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.
* BlindWithoutEm: Kowalski can't fire his pistol without wearing glasses.
* BiggerOnTheInside: 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. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Or is it?]]
* BookEnds: Two for the show as a whole.
** The PilotMovie 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 Kowalski) deciding to go back to Canada.
* TheBoxingEpisode in "Mountie and Soul"
* BrickJoke: In ''The Deal'' Fraser mentions a schoolyard bully from his childhood menacing kids with a dead otter. Five episodes later, in ''Letting Go'', a physical therapist is scrutinizing his body for past injuries and discovers an odd scar which he says was caused when he was struck by an otter at age 10.
* BritishRoyalGuards: Constable Benton Fraser would mimic these guards' "statuesque" reputation whenever he stood on guard duty at the Canadian Consulate, as did his junior, Constable Renfield Turnbull in Season 3. Once in season two, when Fraser was [[TimmyInAWell stuck in a (metaphoric) well]], he sent his half-wolf/half-dog Diefenbaker to get help; Dief patiently waited in front of one unnamed Mountie until his tour was up, at which point he finally barked the news about Fraser to him and said Mountie was able to respond.
* BulletproofFashionPlate: Fraser, which drives Ray completely up the wall.
** Also, his fashion renders him bulletproof. While Fraser is injured several times in the show, he is never once injured while he is wearing his hat. This has caused the hat to be dubbed the 'Stetson of Invulnerability' by fans.
** Although his hat is not bulletproof, and he has reacted to it being damaged as if he had been shot in an actual body part
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Fraser, and it's not always just an American point of view of Canadian ways thing, either, since he has baffled the Canadians as well. Examples include his habit of licking things and talking to his dead father. Granted, the other characters don't know he's doing the latter, so he just looks like he's talking to thin air.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: The serial bank robber that [=RayK=] pursues in "Eclipse".
-->'''Ray''': I don't believe this, you don't remember me.
-->'''Bank robber''': Hey kid, I robbed a lot of banks.
* CaliforniaDoubling (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.
* CanadaEh[=/=]{{Eagleland}}: The series is a commentary on, and gentle ribbing of, Canadian AND American approaches to policing and life.
-->'''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.
-->--"[[Recap/DueSouthS1E0Pilot Pilot]]"
* CanineCompanion: Diefenbaker
* TheCape: Fraser, of course.
* CastIncest: Paul Gross is married in real life to the actress who played his character's mother.
* TheCastShowoff: Paul Gross co-wrote and sang at least two songs in the course of the series. See also WrittenByCastMember.
* CatchPhrase: Quite a long one, too. Starting in season three, whenever someone asks Fraser what he's doing in America (see OnceAnEpisode), he usually responds:
-->'''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 CatchPhrase "We always get our man".
* CelebrityParadox: Buck Frobisher's resemblance to "legendary Canadian actor LeslieNielsen" is remarked upon in "[[Recap/DueSouthS3E01BurningDownTheHouse Burning Down the House]]".
* ChainedHeat: Fraser and Inspector Thatcher in ''All the Queen's Horses'' and Fraser and [=RayV=] in ''Red, White or Blue''.
* CharacterTics: 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.
* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's]] ([[ItWorksBetterWithBullets Unloaded]]) [[ChekhovsGun Gun]]: In the "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E1Pilot 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]].
* ChickMagnet: Fraser.
* ChristianityIsCatholic: {{Justified|Trope}}, as Ray and his family are Italian American, and thus very likely would be Catholic.
* ChronicallyCrashedCar: Ray V's mint-green 1971 Buick Riviera, much to his aggravation.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: 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/DueSouths2E17RedWhiteOrBlue 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.]]
* ClingyJealousGirl: Ray V's sister, Francesca ("Frannie") Vecchio, pursued Fraser aggressively--at one point even telling people that they had slept together. (In case simple common sense isn't enough to convince you that they hadn't, WordOfGod has confirmed it.)
** Inspector Thatcher, though less clingy and more jealous; Francesca never got upset with Fraser for bringing strange women home or working with exotic dancers.
* ClipShow: "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 GeniusDitz.
* TheComicallySerious: 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 "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E20and21VictoriasSecret Victoria's Secret]]"
** 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 [[TheMafia Don Zuko]]. His answer, as vague as it is, implies that he has gone to confessional himself for wishing harm upon Zuko.
* CoolCar: Vecchio's 1971 Buick Riviera, [[RunningGag which kept getting]] [[EveryCarIsAPinto blown up]], and later Kowalski's GTO
* CowboyCop: Ray V has shades of it occasionally. The "imminent danger" trick he pulls in [[Recap/DueSouthS1E20and21VictoriasSecret Victoria's Secret]] comes to mind.
** 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'' [[NiceJobBreakingItHero eventually lead]] to [[spoiler: the deaths of Detective Louis Gardino and Irene Zuko.]]
* ACrackInTheIce: This happens to Ray K in the show finale.
* CrazyPrepared:
** From the episode "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E12AHawkAndAHandsaw A Hawk and a Handsaw]]":
-->'''Fraser:''' I sharpened my buckle.
-->'''Ray:''' You were anticipating cutting your way out of a rubber room?!
** From the episode "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E02Vault Vault]]":
-->'''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?
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Indicated with Turnbull. he seems dumb onscreen but he somehow passed military *paratrooper* training.
* DatingCatwoman: For Fraser, Victoria Metcalf ("[[Recap/DueSouthS1E20and21VictoriasSecret Victoria's Secret]]"). Ray V, in "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E11YouMustRememberThis You Must Remember This]]", has a brief romance that seems to be this trope, but ends up subverted as [[spoiler:his love interest turns out to be an undercover agent running a sting, not a thief.]]
* DeadPersonConversation: 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'.
* DeadpanSnarker: Ray V and Sergent Buck Frobisher
* {{Determinator}}: Both Fraser and Dief. As the saying goes, they always get their man. On at least one occasion, Fraser has worried that Dief will literally run his paws off rather than give up pursuit.
* DinnerAndAShow: Ray V's family.
* DisguisedInDrag: in "Some Like It Red"
* DisappearedDad: Fraser Sr. wasn't around much in Benton's childhood because of his job as a Mountie. Interestingly enough, Benton mostly views this with regret rather than bitterness, and his dad honestly seems more bothered by it than he does.
* DitchTheBodyguards: The plot of ''Chicago Holiday''.
* DoorstopBaby: "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E09ACopAMountieAndABaby A Cop, a Mountie, and a Baby]]"
* DorkKnight: Fraser, oh so much.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: Pike in "Spy Vs. Spy"
* DrowningPit: "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E02Vault Vault]]"
* EmbarrassingFirstName: Played straight with Stanley Ray Kowalski, who shared his name with the protagonist of ''AStreetcarNamedDesire''. {{Subverted}} with Fraser, who had an ''odd'' first name ("Benton"), but wasn't even remotely embarrassed by it.
* EnhanceButton: Averted in "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E16TheBlueLine The Blue Line]]." Fraser asks a technician to enlarge a frame from a video tape so he can identify a face in a crowd. The technician says it would be pointless because the resolution is too low.
* EstrogenBrigadeBait: Fraser was this in-show as well as amongst fans.
* EveryCarIsAPinto: [[RunningGag Every]] 1971 Buick Riviera seems to be, though to be fair [[spoiler: One of them was [[ExternalCombustion rigged with a bomb]]]]
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: 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|Trope}}, as he really is one of only three or so mounties in Chicago at any given time.
* ExternalCombustion: [[spoiler: Poor Louis]].
* FacingTheBulletsOneLiner: The plot that sets up the whole show.
-->''You'll shoot a Mountie? [[{{Determinator}} They'll hunt you to the ends of the Earth,]]''
* FakeAmerican: 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 Toronto--which makes a crack she makes near the end of the series about how there's no life in Toronto all the funnier
* FanNickname: common ones include
** OFM ("Our Favourite Mountie"): Benton Fraser
** OFDM ("Our Favourite Dead Mountie"): Bob Fraser
** Dead!Bob: Bob Fraser again
** [=RayV=]: Detective Ray Vecchio
** [=RayK=]: Detective Ray [[TheOtherDarrin Kowalski]]
* FauxAffablyEvil: from "All the Queen's Horses," Randall Bolt, the psychopathic White Supremacist terrorist who captures a whole train of Mounties in order to send it into another train full of radioactive fuel rods, who is willing to [[spoiler: kill his men, including his girlfriend]], all with a broad smile across his face
* TheFettered: Fraser
* FingertipDrugAnalysis: Fraser would taste anything. He even licked the bottom of a boot once to figure out where the wearer had been. Ray K and Ray V were both disgusted and tried to stop him.
* FishOutOfWater: Fraser had trouble adjusting to life in a bustling city after being a backwoods policeman.
** 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 [[FanNickname RayV]] did much better than [[FanNickname RayK]].
** It gets worse if you know more about mounties, all members of the RCMP are allowed to carry guns in the [[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.
**** This may have to do with the fact that it is a lot easier to pay for stuff with American money in Canada than the reverse, but Canadians will still expect to be able to use their own currency in the US
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Fraser wasn't quite this bad, but he came close sometimes.
* GeniusDitz: 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.
* GentleGiant: 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
* GetIntoJailFree: 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 ([[ItMakesSenseInContext to help break Ray out]]) by showing up in his RCMP uniform and telling them the [[SarcasticConfession unaltered truth of how he ended up in Chicago]].
* GoAmongMadPeople: "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E12HawkAndAHandsaw Hawk and a Handsaw]]"
* GoingByTheMatchbook - A variation in ''Chicago Holiday'', averting the typical ClingyMacguffin quality of plot-important matchbooks.
* GoodIsNotDumb: Fraser, of course.
* GoodOldWays
* HeroBall: It's the Mountie national sport.
* HesBack: "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E09TheEdge The Edge]]"
* HollywoodVoodoo: in "Mojo Rising," although they seem to have done their homework fairly well.
* HonorBeforeReason : Fraser. YouShouldKnowThisAlready.
** "That's the last time ''he'll'' fish over the limit..."
* ISeeThemToo: Whenever anyone other than Fraser sees his father.
* IfMyCalculationsAreCorrect: 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."
* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: Subverted--Fraser had no legal authority in the US and went out of his way to point this out and abide by it.
* ImpossiblyCoolClothes: 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.
** Generally averted in earlier episodes, where he would wear a less showy brown uniform whenever he wasn't specifically dolled up for [[BritishRoyalGuards guard duty]] or some formal occassion. It has been joked that his capabilities directly correlate with how he dresses. Civilian clothes, he's a good samaratan who helps others. Brown uniform, he's a badass cop. Red Serge? He is a full on ''superhero''.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: 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 [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands prove himself an expert marksman.]]
* ImprobableParkingSkills: 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 WhatTheHellHero, which he casually shrugs off.
* InsigniaRipOffRitual: Thatcher cuts Fraser's lanyard when she's handing down punishment for Fraser disobeying orders and helping his sister Maggie when she breaks into the consulate.
* InevitableWaterfall: "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E01North North]]" and "[[Recap/DueSouthS3E01BurningDowntheHouse Burning Down the House]]"
* InformedSelfDiagnosis: "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E01North North]]"
* IntangibleMan: Fraser Sr., though this was to some degree under his control.
* InterserviceRivalry: The 27th Precinct quickly came to appreciate the frequent presence of Canada's Deputy Liasion Officer but they never worked well with the FBI, and there were problems among the Secret Service, Chicago police and Mexican officials in ''The Edge''.
* IntimateHealing: 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 SmugSnake [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking who cheats at basketball]] who has the gall to act like a KnightTemplar. And the two FBI agents.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Ray Vecchio.
* JurisdictionFriction: Though maybe because the two Feds sent were incompetent [[JerkAss jerkasses]]
* KarmaHoudini: 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).]]
* KnightInSourArmor: Ray
* KnightTemplar: Frank Zucco pretends to be one, claiming that everything he does is in service to his neighborhood, as opposed to his extortion business
* KnightTemplarBigBrother: One episode revolves around Fraser and RayK solving a murder that may very well have been committed by RayV. The reason they think RayV might have done it? The dead guy is implied to have tried to rape Frannie.
* LandMineGoesClick: in the episode "The Edge".
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: In the episode "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E18Flashback Flashback]]", Fraser loses his memory. He can't remember who he is, his personal history, or his manners. When Ray tells Fraser about himself, Fraser thinks he sounds like a moron.
** CrowningMomentOfFunny: 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?"
* StupidGood: 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 RuleOfFunny, as it serves to annoy the unholy hell out of [=RayV=] for the sheer unlikeliness of it.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In the episode "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E12AHawkAndAHandsaw 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 "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E02Vault Vault]]," Ray remarks, "In the last two years you’ve risked our lives 24 times," (i.e., the number of episodes to that point in the series).
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The title of the Christmas episode "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E10TheGiftOfTheWheelman The Gift of the Wheelman]]" is a reference to OHenry's ''Literature/TheGiftOfTheMagi''. 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 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._Henry William Sydney Porter]].
* LockedInAFreezer: "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E04TheyEatHorsesDontThey They Eat Horses, Don't They?]]"
** In a variation, [[Recap/DueSouthS2E10WeAreTheEggmen We are the Eggmen]], Fraser and Inspector Thatcher get locked in an incubator
* LongLostSibling: [[spoiler:Fraser]] meets his half-sister in "[[Recap/DueSouthS4E21HuntingSeason Hunting Season]]", the penultimate episode of the last season.
* LotteryTicket: in "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E10WeAreTheEggmen We Are The Eggmen]]".
* LoveMartyr: [[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.]]
* MachiavelliWasWrong: ''The Deal'', After Don Zuko gives his HannibalLecture 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.]] [[spoiler: By the end of the episode, after [[GoodIsNotNice Ray]] [[PoliceBrutality Vecchio]] [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beats Zuko senseless]] in his own gym, Zuko suddenly finds that he is no longer respected ''or'' feared. This has consequences in the next season of the show.]]
* MacGuffin: In "Chicago Holiday", with copious {{lampshading}}. Another, less heavily lampshaded reference is provided in "An Invitation To Romance.
* MagicRealism: Throughout (see SpiritAdvisor), but also in such episodes as "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E19HeavenAndEarth Heaven and Earth]]", where a homeless man's clairvoyant powers appear to be genuine.
* {{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
* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: 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').
* MistakenForMurderer: Fraser, in "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E20and21VictoriasSecret Victoria's Secret]]".
* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize: Actually discussed by Vecchio in "They Eat Horses Don't They" when talking about one of the suspects. Fraser is annoyed when this works.[[invoked]]
* NewOldFlame: Ray V has Irene Zuko ("[[Recap/DueSouthS2E07JulietIsBleeding Juliet is Bleeding]]"); Fraser has Victoria Metcalf ("[[Recap/DueSouthS1E20and21VictoriasSecret Victoria's Secret]]").
* NiceHat: Fraser's stetson, nicknamed the Stetson Of Invulnerability by the fandom. As Kowalski said, the hat is sacred.
-->Fraser: ''She shot me in the hat, Ray.''
-->Ray: ''She shot you in the'' hat?
-->Fraser: ''I can feel air coming in through the hole.''
-->Ray: ''She shot you in the hat, all right.''
-->Fraser: ''We'll have to go home and get my other one.''
-->Ray: ''We can do that, Fraser.''
-->Fraser: ''Thanks, Ray.''
-->''DueSouth'', "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E01FreeWillie Free Willie]]"
** 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.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: 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.]] [[hottip:*: One of Zuko's lieutenants witnesses the beatdown, evidently loses all respect for him, and in the second season episode ''Juliet Is Bleeding'', this causes a chain of events that result in the murder of Detective Gardino, the accidental killing of Irene Zuko, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the destruction of Ray's]] [[RunningGag first or second]] [[CoolCar prized 1972 Buick Riviera]]]]
* NobleSavage: 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.
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: All of the Haitians in "Mojo Rising" speak with essentially American accents.
* NotTheFallThatKillsYou: 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."]]
* Main/NotWithTheSafetyOnYouWont: in "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E01FreeWillie Free Willie]]"
* NowOrNeverKiss: in "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E14AllTheQueensHorses All the Queen's Horses]]"
* ObfuscatingStupidity: 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.
* OncePerEpisode: Defenestration (someone/something going through a window), particularly in the first two seasons, and also Fraser's {{CatchPhrase}}s, especially the longer one in latter seasons (see above).
* OneofOurOwn: In ''Eclipse'', ''Dead Guy Running'', ''Victoria's Secret'' and ''Heaven and Earth''.
* OnlyBarelyRenewed: after season one.
* TheOtherDarrin: Diefenbaker was played by three different animals, the first in the pilot really was half-wolf (and noticeably so) but was thought to look too fierce so was replaced by a pure-bred Siberian Husky, who was also replaced with a lookalike after the show's hiatus.
* PilotMovie
* TheRashomon: "Seeing is Believing," where Ray K, Thatcher, and Walsh all witness an argument between two men and a woman which ends with one of the men stabbed to death. Ray K thinks the young guy did it, Thatcher thinks the young woman did it, and Walsh thinks the two conspired to kill the other man as part of a mob war. [[spoiler: it was actually a fourth man who created a distraction and then threw the knife at the victim]]
* RearWindowWitness: Fraser witnesses a crime through his hospital window in one episode.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: how Fraser ended up in Chicago after pissing off his entire chain of command. Chicago seems to be a dumping ground: Constable Turnbull seems to be too stupid to serve anywhere else, and even Inspector Thatcher isn't too keen on being there, and wants to transfer back to Toronto as soon as she can.
* ReverseArmFold: Fraser, constantly
* RunningGag
* SarcasticConfession: In "Hawk and a Handsaw", Fraser manages to get himself committed in a psych ward (intentionally--he's going undercover) simply by showing up in full dress uniform and telling the precise truth about his past.
* ScarilyCompetentTracker: Fraser, even in the middle of a city.
* SherlockScan: It's like a mountie-superpower.
* ShoutOut: The oft-repeated line, [[{{Airplane}} "that's not important right now."]]
* SisterBecky: The journalist Mackenzie King was played by two actresses; Ray's boss Lt. Welsh was re-cast after the PilotMovie.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Waaaaaay over on the idealistic side. So much so that the times when it does even a slightly dark or ambiguous episode it can come across as a BizarroEpisode.
* SnarkyNonHumanSideKick: 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.
* SmugSnake: 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 SmugSnake
* SpiritAdvisor: Fraser Sr.
* StealthHiBye: Fraser, in "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E09ACopAMountieAndABaby A Cop, a Mountie, and a Baby]]".
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute (Ray is replaced for the final two seasons, for valid in-show reasons. Fraser spends most of the first episode trying to [[OnlySaneMan prove that the person who is manifestly not Ray is indeed not Ray]] while [[TheOtherDarrin all the other characters pretend not to notice]].)
* TakeFive: 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 [[PoliceBrutality beat Zucco senseless.]]
* TakeMyHand: Fraser Sr. to the man who had him killed, in "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E04BirdInTheHand A Bird In The Hand]]". [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]: [[spoiler: Fraser Sr. is a ''ghost''. His hands are intangible, just like the rest of him. [[RealityEnsues You don't have to be a Mountie to deduce what happens next.]]]]
** However, despite being a ghost, Fraser Sr. is able to punch out the guy who murdered his wife.
* TechnicalPacifist: Fraser rarely used a gun, but this was because he didn't have a license for one in the US. After they crossed the border into Canada, he turned out to be a very good shot.
** This, incidentally, being a serious CrowningMomentOfAwesome.
--->'''Fraser:''' But right now, my friend, you're in the Dominion of Canada.
* ThatDidntHappen: The "contact" in "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E14AllTheQueensHorses All the Queen's Horses]]"
* ThatWasTheLastEntry: 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."
* ThemeNaming: The writers were quite fond of this. Names often had some sort of reference or pun, but were generally not {{MeaningfulName}}s; once you "got" the joke, there was usually no further significance to the name.
** Many of the Canadian characters are named after Canadian politicians or explorers: Fraser, Frobisher, Mackenzie King, Diefenbaker, etc.
*** Not just Canadian, either - Margaret Thatcher?
** 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.
* ThemeTune
* ThereWasADoor: Fraser, all the time.
-->'''Ray V:''' Do they not have doors in Canada?!
* ThoseTwoGuys: Detectives Huey and [[InsistentTerminology Louis]]. Later, Huey and Dewey.
* TimmyInAWell: Diefenbaker can read lips in English and Inuktitut.
* TraumaInducedAmnsia: Fraser,after a hit on the head,spends a whole ep recovering his memory.
* TrouserSpace: Mild example played for [[RuleOfFunny laughs]]. Fraser sneaks a case file past some obstructive FBI Agents by shoving it down his pants.
* {{Tsundere}}: Inspector Maggie Thatcher. More coldly contemptuous than easily angered, but aside from that it's a fairly apt description of her
* TurnInYourBadge: Happens to [=RayV=] in ''Victoria's Secret'' and Fraser in ''Hunting Season''.
* TwoScenesOneDialogue: In ''Red, White or Blue'', Fraser and Ray each spill out their frustrations aloud in their separate homes, and their words form one dialogue. In ''Seeing is Believing'' Fraser's interviews of Inspector Thatcher, [=RayK=] and Welch blend smoothly from one to the next in midstream.
* UnCancelled: ''Twice'', believe it or not. Creator/{{CBS}} canceled it after its first season, un-canceled it when CBS's next season lineup bombed, and then canceled it ''again'' after its second season. In both cases, the show's producers (Canadian company Alliance) saved it thanks to international funding, because of its success in Canada and elsewhere (hence financing from TheBBC and Germany's ProSieben).
* UnPaused: In the notorious train episode. An entire train car full of Mounties is gassed and pass out while singing early in the episode. Right before the climax, every single one of them wakes up simultaneously, at which point they resume singing the chorus.
* {{UST}}: Fraser and his boss, Inspector Margaret "Meg" Thatcher.
* VerbalTic: Frannie's messing up of police jargon, Ray K's trouble with remember words, Fraser's 'thank you, kindly', etc.
* WelcomeToTheBigCity: Fraser in the pilot movie, except that -- as befits the general theme of the show -- some of it ends up coming out right in the end (e.g., the panhandler he "loans" $100 to returns it at the end of the episode).
** 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 shot--and his boots disappear. Fraser is certain that some Good Samaritan picked the boots up off the street in order to find him [[spoiler: and at the end of the episode is proven entirely right]]
* WesternTerrorists: 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
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: 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.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: "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."
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue
* WholeEpisodeFlashback: In an episode appropriately called "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E18Flashback Flashback]]".
* WholePlotReference: "Chicago Holiday" was an affectionate remake of the AudreyHepburn classic ''RomanHoliday''.
* WorstAid: 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?
* WrittenByCastMember: "All The Queen's Horses," "Red, White Or Blue," "Burning Down The House" and the two-parters "Mountie On The Bounty" and "Call Of The Wild" were written or co-written by Paul Gross.
* {{Yandere}}: Victoria
* YouCanSeeMe: In "Hunting Season", Constable Maggie [=MacKenzie=] can see the ghost of Fraser's father. "All The Queen's Horses" had a variation of sorts, with Fraser and Buck both surprised the other could see Bob.
** Mama Lala appears aware of Bob's existence as well in "Mojo Rising"
* YouFailLinguisticsForever: in "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E12AHawkAndAHandsaw 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.
** FridgeBrilliance or WildMassGuessing: Maybe the Inuit guys decided to pass the time making up words for snow to mess with the gullible white guy?
* YouHaveFailedMe: In the episode ''Gift of the Wheelman'', the leader of the bag guys pulls this one out of the villain's playbook.
* YouKilledMyFather: 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/DueSouthS2E04BirdInTheHand A Bird In The Hand]]". There's even a wonderful subversion in that, after Fraser takes off the guy's cuffs for HonorBeforeReason reasons, Ray V promptly re-cuffs him, to Fraser's dismay.
** A variation gets brought up as a [[BookEnds book end]]. In the series finale, Fraser and the gang (including [[BashBrothers both Rays working together at one point]] go up against the gun runner who killed his mother.
* YouLookFamiliar: Maury Chaykin plays secret agent Pike in "Spy Vs. Spy" and shipping depot [[spoiler: and sweat shop]] owner Gutman in "Mojo Rising"
** Also, Martha Burns as a Russian spy/terrorist and then as Fraser's mother
* YouWouldDoTheSameForMe
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