Border, The - Season 1 Review

The world's longest undefended border is undefended no more. In a post 9/11 world of terrorism, drug trafficking and abducted children, Immigration and Customs Security (ICS) is the elite task force that holds the line. In the first season's thirteen episodes of The Border, follow Major Mike Kessler (James McGowan, My Brother's Keeper) and Detective Gray Jackson (Graham Abbey, Billable Hours) of ICS, plus U.S. Homeland Security agent Bianca LaGarda (Sofia Milos, CSI: Miami) as they confront the world's harshest and most shocking border-security problems.

Video

I haven't seen The Border on TV, but it looks pretty good on DVD, sporting an Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) transfer. There's some visible grain in a number of scenes throughout the season, which leads me to believe they're probably shooting on 16mm film. It's not horrible, but it is noticeable here and there. Each disc has a "play all," but lacks a chapter right after the opening of the episode. There are noticeable layer changes on every disc as well, a rarity when it comes to TV-DVD releases.

One note about the show, and not about the DVD itself, is that you shouldn't judge the show by the pilot alone. I've never suffered motion sickness, but I felt ill after watching the pilot due to the shakiness of the camera work. I'm usually fine with hand-held cameras (I watched every episode of NYPD Blue), but this was extreme, and I was worried I wouldn't make it through the disc because of it. It's toned down a lot in the following episodes, though it still retains a documentary-style.

Audio

The Border sounds good on DVD, with a stereo Dolby ProLogic II audio track. It's a basic, good track, with dialog coming from the center speaker, and some nice sound effects and ambient sounds coming from the other speakers. There aren't any subtitles or captions.

Extras - How we rate extras

Commentary Track
Peter Raymont (co-creator/producer), John Fawcett (director), Janet MacLean (writer), James McGowan ("Major Mike Kessler") provide commentary on the pilot episode. It's okay, though the participants don't have a lot of banter between them, and there are lots of sections of silence.

Excerpts from The Undefended Border a documentary series about the real ICS (23:06)
There are two edited episodes of "The Undefended Border," a series from the same people that created The Border. They're very interesting, though both of the segments ended abruptly.

Interviews (6:10)
Interviews with the cast members talking about the show. The audio for Sofia Milos, Nazneen Contractor and Jonas Chernick was messed up, causing their voices to be heard from all the speakers instead of the center channel.

Season 1 Trailer (1:32)
A trailer for the first season.

Summary

I've had my fair share of run-ins with Canada Customs during my many visits outside of the country, though nothing to the extent of the suspects in the show. Maybe a future episode can show a website editor being hassled over a couple of DVD samples he obtained in the US, with a customs officer yelling "So, you're selling these then?!" Not like that's happened to me once or twice. Nope... not me.

I thought the show was good after the earthquake-cam from the pilot episode was toned down. I found it a bit annoying that the Homeland Security officer always seemed to be "evil," as though her sole purpose there was to screw with the ICS investigation, or withhold information. I expect viewers South of the border may take issue with that as well.

I found the excerpts from The Undefended Border to be quite interesting, and I wished they had more material on the set, or at least some unedited episodes. The commentary was okay, though they needed someone to move the discussion along a bit, and get the participants talking to one another (there was very little play between them).

The Border is a cool Canadian show, and I look forward to watching the second season, whenever it's released on DVD.