Laurie's Review
Melanie's Review
Laurie's Review:Hunting Season gave me quite a bit of trouble, and I'm not sure why. The things I like about it, I really like; and those that I don't like I dislike rather intensely. In other words, I'm ambivalent. If I had to choose what bothers me most, I would say it's the imbalance and the out-of-place aspect. Maggie is out of place, yet without her there wouldn't be a Hunting Season. She's a loose end and the situation cries for a follow-up. I'm left feeling unfulfilled. I guess that's why I don't watch this ep with any regularity. She wasn't even a blip in Call of the Wild.
There are many good scenes, and most of my favorites are humorous. I guess that means I think the writers did a better job on that level. I actually like Fraser and Ray's juvenile behavior while vying for Maggie's attention. It's fair turn-about since the women of Due South usually end up looking foolish. It's funny, petty and immature when they try to go through the doorway at the same time, when Fraser repeatedly opens the car door against Ray, and when Fraser pushes Ray out of the doorway when they're discussing where Maggie will stay. There's nothing adultlike about their behavior and I enjoy watching them make jerks of themselves! Of course, the guys aren't the only ones displaying pettiness, even jealousy. Francesca and Meg also exhibit those traits when Maggie arrives on the scene.
Not only do I find Fraser and Ray's interaction entertaining, I also like Thatcher and Turnbull together. Some of the best scenes belong to them. Rather than being intimidated by Meg, Turnbull seems surprisingly comfortable. They're a hoot (word courtesy of Turnbull) when they scamper off to Fraser's office to find out what he's up to after they hear voices from the direction of his closet. Meg has two great lines in this scene: "Constable Fraser was born disturbed," and, to Turnbull, "Get out of my way!"
Oddly, Turnbull is the most perceptive one throughout much of the ep and he even anticipates what Meg intends to do regarding the phone call to Maggie's superior. He knows exactly how to play her. When Meg first appeared on dS, we were immediately presented with a barracuda image, thanks to Ovitz, but despite her Ice Queen/Dragon Lady reputation, how often do we see someone quake in her presence? The way Turnbull handles her and acts around her in Hunting Season belies that image. I've read a lot of fanfic in which Turnbull is a basket case whenever he deals with Thatcher.
One of my nitpicks comes from the scene when Ben and Maggie are discussing sleeping arrangements and she says she prefers the floor. Bob says, "Stubborn. Likes sleeping on the ground, just like her mother." I think that's a very odd thing to say around Ben since it hints at the coziness of his relationship with Maggie's mother; after all, he was spending the night there instead of at home with his son.
Duesies:Ellis: Look, you know this isn't normal. None of you are normal. You want to take my pulse again, get a warrant.
Ray: I'm normal.
Ben: In a pig's eye.
Maggie: He's lying.
Ray: No, I'm not.
Ben: Very probably.
Maggie: Most certainly. I'm 99.4% accurate.Ray: So, uh, Yukon Territories, so what do you do up there at night to keep warm?
Ben: You know, Ray, it's the Northwest Territories or the Yukon. I kind of thought you might have that straightened around in your brain by now.Bob: That's it, Son, she could be the best thing that ever happened to you. Don't let the Yank cut in.
Ben: Holy moly.
Bob: Great Scott.
Maggie: My God.Ray: Okay, well to be honest with you, um, I got some feelings for her.
Ben: Then we both have feelings.
Ray: I knew it, I knew it! A great girl comes along, one that I could really get close to and you're after her like a mad, rabid Canadian dog.Bob: Suspended! That woman has been trying since day one to get you out of your uniform.
Ben: So now you show up.
Bob: This is serious business, Son. Serious business.
Ben: Yes it is, it is indeed. What do you think I should have done? Arrested her?
Bob: Not unheard of. You are an officer of the law. At least you were.
Bob: My God. She's my kid. I didn't get to know her.
Ben: You didn't get to know me either.
Bob: Yeah, but at least I knew you existed.
Maggie: What if I need advice on some unsolvable case or elusive criminal?
Ben: Call me. And, you know, if you need some advice, uh, say, about a relationship or things of a female nature. . .
Maggie: Really?
Ben: . . .don't call me (accented by a crack of the neck).
Dief moment:Telling Ben about his out-of-place eyebrow and hair.
Grade:C+ (if the ep had been more evenly balanced and Maggie hadn't become a loose end, my grade would have been much higher).
Melanie's Review:Hunting Season and Heaven & Earth have similar affects on me, so it's interesting that we had these two episodes back-to-back. Each one strikes me as being off-balance, lurching back and forth between powerful and pedestrian.
While it's true that there's a satisfying warm fuzzy resolution at the end of "Hunting Season," the emotions that pervade the story are darker: betrayal, jealousy and disappointment.
Coldest of all was Fraser's tightly controlled outrage upon learning that his father had "cheated" on his mother; intellectually he understood that Bob had every right to move on after Caroline's death, but in his heart he felt the pain of a six-year-old who wants the love between his parents to be perfect and eternal. The idea that Bob actually "warmed himself" in a strange woman's cabin stripped Fraser's emotional distance away, and he gave us a rare glimpse of bitterness:
Fraser: Her father died one year before she was born.
Robert: I'm not good at math.
Fraser: No, apparently not.
Robert: What are you saying?
Fraser: I'm saying I think it's fairly clear Matt Stern is not her father.
Robert: Ellen always said he was.
Fraser: Oh, when? When you were warming yourself in her cabin?Ben's attitude in this scene reminds me of the anguished "You never saw her" conversation in Victoria's Secret. Fraser may have longed for his father's attention and approval, but he also bristled with resentment on behalf of his mother.
Meanwhile, Inspector Thatcher was wallowing in petty. . . pettiness. From the moment she met Maggie in Fraser's closet, she was driven by jealousy of the younger Mountie. Fraser and Ray's rivalry over Maggie has an uglier echo in Thatcher's behavior, building up to her bizzare test of Fraser's loyalty when the suspended constable reappeared at the consulate. Maggie had to slip right past Thatcher to get through the door, but the Inspector didn't lift a finger to stop her; instead, she insisted that Fraser give chase. Thatcher then followed up this shameful performance with an over-the-top symbolic castration, slicing Fraser's lanyard with a very big knife.
More precious was Maggie's love for her husband, the reformed bank robber Casey Mackenzie/Richmond, illustrated most poetically in the scene in which a sleepless Maggie gently manipulated her and Casey's wedding rings. I have to wonder how it's possible that Frannie could find Casey's rap sheet but Constable Mackenze couldn't--unless she was in heavy, heavy denial about her husband's darker side. Sadly, I think the episode missed an opportunity to explore the results of Maggie's "victory," because I really would have liked to know whether the confession coerced at gunpoint really could fill the empty place in her heart. Instead of following that thread, the story shifts sharply to the "I'm your brother" theme and never returns to Maggie's grief.
I do enjoy the private moments at the consulate: the pemmican breakfast, Fraser's bad hair day, Maggie's childhood tale, Turnbull's strangely insightful advice to Thatcher. Every scene with Bob positively sparkles.
For what it's worth, this is the only episode after Odds in which Frannie mentions her plans to become a cop. It's also one where she provides a crucial clue to the investigation, apparently deciding to investigate the murder victim on her own initiative.
One thing I've noticed is that many fanfic writers act on the assumption that Fraser and Maggie's relationship would become common knowledge. I don't agree. At the end of the episode, the only people who knew the truth were Fraser, Maggie and Ray Kowalski. Short of a blood-test, they don't have any proof of the relationship ("She can see my father's ghost" wouldn't take them very far) and to publically reveal Bob Fraser's sexual peccadillos would cast further aspersions on his already murky reputation. I think they'd keep the news private, developing a fast friendship while keeping the truth private.
Duesies:Maggie: I don't want to answer a lot of questions, I just want to go. Will you take me?
Jake: Maggie, I got a quarter ton of headcheese piled up in the hold here, I can't...[Maggie pulls back jacket revealing gun] But of course you know what they say about headcheese: it's real durable.Frannie: Thanks. Yeah, the uniforms are nice because, you know, they're black and that's always slimming and elegant. Whereas your uniforms are. . . kind of make a statement, you know?
Maggie: Yeah, they're an attention getter, all right. Whether you want them to be or not.
Frannie: Kind of like when you're having a bad hair day.
Maggie: Or trying to sneak past a cougar, standing between you and some drinking water.
Frannie: Yeah, yeah. . . yeah, I hate that.Fraser: Well, perhaps would you like to go out for, um, for breakfast?
Maggie: I usually like to have pemmican.
Fraser: Oh, I wish, I wish. And you know, you would think in a city of seven million souls one of them would have had the presence of mind to desiccate a little meat, but no.
Maggie: I'm sorry, Constable, this must be a real inconvenience for you.
Fraser: No, no, not in the least. Not an inconvenience at all. And you know, you don't have to call me Constable, Constable, just call me Benton, or Fraser, that's my name. Well, Benton is my name.
Robert: You'll never get anywhere like that, son. I know it's not easy, but try to relax and be yourself. In fact, try and relax and be someone else.Thatcher: Tea, Turnbull, tea at 4:00. Sir Ellsworth Smythe is arriving from London--England--this afternoon.
Turnbull: Wow, a knight right here in the consulate. How many for tea, sir? Will he be alone, or will he accompanied by his squire?
Thatcher: Get a grip, Turnbull. Elton John's a knight, for God's sake, it's not what it used to be.
Turnbull: Just the same, sir, I'll wax the round table.Thatcher: Constable Fraser.
Fraser: Inspector Thatcher. Sorry.
Thatcher: For?
Fraser: I'm not sure. This is Constable Mackenzie. Inspector Thatcher, Constable Turnbull.
Maggie: Pleased to meet you. Hi.
Thatcher: Are you here officially?
Turnbull: Or unofficially?
Fraser: Constable Mackenzie is here on the trail of some suspects, sir.
Thatcher: In your closet?
Fraser: At the moment, yes.
Thatcher: Why wasn't I informed?Fraser: You know, she might prefer you.
Ray: Oh yeah, she's not going to go for the good-looking freak that speaks the same language, she's going to go for the Chicago flatfoot with the experimental hair.Thatcher: What are you doing, Turnbull?
Turnbull: I assumed the phone was unclean, sir.
Thatcher: Unclean?
Turnbull: Well, dirty, yes. I noticed your hesitation. . . .
Thatcher: My hesitation was due to moral, not physical concerns, Turnbull.
Turnbull: Oh?
Thatcher: (whispering) I was considering calling the Territories and checking Constable Mackenzie's credentials.
Turnbull: On the surface, sir, it hardly seems a moral issue.
Thatcher: Yes, hardly. But the fact is. . . well, I-- I felt. . . .
Turnbull: A certain resentment towards Constable Mackenzie?
Thatcher: That's very perceptive of you, Turnbull.
Turnbull: Thank you, sir.
Thatcher: So naturally, I don't want to feel as though I'm acting on any petty. . . .
Turnbull: Emotions?
Thatcher: No, of course not! Any petty. . . pettiness. . . or something.
Turnbull: Ah, I understand, sir.
Thatcher: You do?
Turnbull: No.Welsh: We led a nutcase right to the guy she wanted to kill?
Ray: Well, no, not exactly, sir.
Fraser: We were unable to locate the man she wanted to kill, if indeed she wanted to kill him at all.
Welsh: So you're too incompetent to lead her to the guy she wanted to kill, so you lead her to some other guy, who she whacked, is that about it?Robert: You're not saying. . . .
Fraser: I am. Maggie can see you.
Robert: Well, Buck Frobisher can see me, I'm not his father.
Fraser: Are you sure?
Robert: Well, I'm pretty sure.
Second Runner-Up Nitpick of the Week:If the Torelli's most recent known address in Green Bay, why did Maggie come to Chicago? Green Bay is more than a hundred miles from Chicago--and is closer to Canada, too.
Runner-Up Nitpick of the Week:
Fraser and Maggie got stuck trying to exit Bob's office at the same time. Since when does Fraser fail to allow a lady to proceed through a door first?
Nitpick of the Week:
Fraser: Mackenzie. . . uh, the name is familiar.
Maggie: Uh, well my mother and your father were friends.This would lead us to believe that Mackenzie is Maggie's maiden name. Yet later we learn that her husband's name was Mackenzie, too (well, not really) and her father's name was Stern.
Really Unbelievably Picky Nitpick of the Week:
After Thatcher uses her big knife on Fraser's lanyard, the remaining length of cord gets longer and shorter and longer again during the remainder of the scene, depending on the camera angle.
Runner-Up Moment of the Week:The look on Fraser's face when Frannie slips Dief a snack.
Moment of the Week:
Thatcher, trying to prove something to herself by doing one-handed pushups--and collapsing with an agonized groan when the phone rings.
Snack to enjoy while watching Hunting Season:Rotisserie Rats. Tasty little buggers (fuckers?), so easy to catch you wouldn't believe it.
Grading:
I'm your brother C Avenging Casey A Petty Pettiness B Overall Grade B
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