Due South Musings
So, I've been re-watching due South, and I have come to a conclusion: I DESPISE that red uniform! Not because of what it represents or anything, but because of what it does to Fraser and how it effects the way others see him. During the first few seasons, we see him in his field uniform (the brown/gray one) quite often, and he appears human, flawed, passionate, and approachable. The field uniform helps to bridge the gap between Fraser and the American cops - it makes him look like just another cop. When he's wearing the field uniform and he makes suggestions or deductions, people (especially cops) listen to him and take him seriously - they respect the experience and work that the uniform implies, and expect him to have the faults of any other human being. But stick him in that red monstrosity, and suddenly everything changes. No longer do people respect him as a person or think of him as another hard-working cop. Instead, he becomes a cross between an Icon, a Mascot, and a Superhero. They expect him to be perfect, to do no wrong, to be saintly. At the same time, he is to feel no pain, to have no emotions. People stare at him, they mock him behind his back and to his face. He's not human to them anymore. And as the seasons go on, Fraser spends more and more time in that @#&^ red uniform and less and less time being human. His interactions with the other characters become more and more stilted, he smiles and relaxes less and less, and he loses that cutting tongue (pilot episode, he really lets Vecchio have it, anyone else notice?). The passion that he shows in the first season disappears. In a way, it's as if that Red Uniform is slowly strangling the life out him. By the end of the fourth season, we almost never see him in the field uniform and he's lost nearly everything that makes him Benton Fraser to me. Mind you, I'm a big fan of Fraser/RayK (OTP), but the Fraser of seasons 1 & 2 is much truer to the essential Benton Fraser, as far as I'm concerned. Yes indeed, I despise that red thing! Kill, Kill, Kill!
And that's another thing: many authors' insistence on writing Fraser as an extremely civilized, rule-bound man, who has never had a dark thought in his life, and who wouldn't hurt a fly to save his own life. In my opinion, that is not Benton Fraser. Yes, he's very courteous, thoughtful, and forgiving of the people around him, but when you live in small community in the middle of nowhere in an implacable land filled with daily danger, that's nothing more than enlightened self-interest: you never know when your very life may depend upon the goodwill of your neighbors. And yes, he often seems overly concerned with the letter of the law, but consider this: he's in a strange land, among a strange people with strange customs, and he has little knowledge of how they apply their laws in real life. Of course he is concerned with the letter of the law, it's the only concrete guidance that he has. As for civilized - I think of Fraser as a man who would like to believe in the inherent goodness of man and in the justice of the system, but deep down he's a pragmatic man who will do what is necessary to survive. How can he not be, given where he grew up? No, Fraser is not a hidden rapist or serial killer, but he is just as capable of making hard choices and having dark thoughts as anyone else. He's just better at hiding it. In my opinion, Fraser is a dangerous but disciplined man, not a goody-goody two-shoes.
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bookworm_2005) wrote,
