I wasn't able to attend the soiree since I'm still on vacation in Florida, but send out a bunch of good wishes to my friends & former colleagues.
A couple weeks back I ran into series lead James McGowan (Major Mike Kessler) at a local restaurant and we shared a drink and a wistful toast to the show.
Good people & and good work.
This morning, series Executive Producer Peter Raymont sent out the following email:
It was heartwarming to share a drink and a hug with so many cast and crew members at last evening's Border get-together at C'est What. What a wonderful family.
When listing the 25 countries around the world that are now broadcasting The Border in 11 languages, I neglected to mention the many nominations and awards our series has received:
19 Gemini nominations and 2 awards for Seasons One and Two, and likely many more to come for Season Three;
4 DGC nominations and 1 award;
An award at The Banff TV Festival;
8 nominations at the prestigious Monte Carlo Television Awards.
Stephanie Gorin also calculated that she has cast 217 visible minority actors in The Border, some of whom were getting their first opportunity to perform on television. This is wonderful. The Border reflects Canada's great cultural and ethnic diversity more effectively than any other TV show.
Millions of Border fans around the world will be enjoying our series for many years to come.
Lindalee always envisioned a family of like-minded artists who'd bring all their diverse skills and passions together to create The Border. I am delighted that we fulfilled her dream.
The 38 episodes of The Border stand as an extraordinary achievement in creativity and excellence. I hope you feel great pride in what we accomplished.
We look forward to working with you all again soon on a new drama series.
I left The Border at the end of Season 2 on my own terms, having learned much & had a whole lot of laughs. I was more than pleased to see the show continue in Season 3 with many top flight episodes.
On the surface, The Border's passing really does seem to fit into a larger narrative... born in an immediate post-9/11 world, the show occupied a similar if not the same place as 24 in terms of what it was and what it represented.
Except that at its best, the show was also more than that. Not a day goes by when I walk down the street in the city I call home where I'm not reminded that the borderless, globalized world is alive and well in Toronto. Interracial couples kiss & hold hands and no one blinks, beautiful children with mixed features beam out from every school photo; a pass through the downtown Dundas Square will net you snatches of conversations in dozens of languages.
That brings challenges to a society, to be sure... and unlike 24, where minorities often filled only the role of faceless threat, The Border brought you into family units under pressure, trying to find their way in a new world.
Hating on Toronto is a national pastime in Canada. But I have to say that one of the things that makes me proudest, and that makes me uncomfortable when I go to some other places in Canada -- is the loss of the teeming rainbow of faces I take for granted. I'm a city person; a New Yorker by birth, a Torontonian by habit. Homogeneity scares me a little bit. It's ironic that a show about Borders came closest to showing the world I live in, where the real barriers may still be invisible, but the borders are wide open.
7 comments:
I think you nailed it on the head for me when it comes to big cities, and Toronto in particular. I've been in Vancouver for the last 3 years and am moving back to the big smoke in a month. I didn't realize how much Toronto's diversity, energy and multi cultural lifestyle informed who I was and how I view the world. I enjoyed the Border, have a lot of friends who worked on it; I never once questioned different faces or languages or customs that were explored by the story lines because it felt authentic to Toronto. Looking forward to re immersion.
As someone in the opposite situation to red jane, I have to say, totally agreed with both of you.
Only city that comes close in my experience has to be London, but in a way, the multiculturalism in Toronto feels a bit more organic.
Great post, thanks again.
Trying to think clearly about this. Second thing that comes to mind now is this:
Damn straight. I grew up in places that were mostly monotone at best. For some reason, I knew I didn't belong there. (And a lot of people around me at the time fervently agreed for reasons that disagreed with mine. Enough of that!)
Ottawa for the last couple of decades...like Toronto for you. The place fits. Part of what makes The Border work every time I look at the episodes on DVD again.
It was good to see this show.
And as a fan? I'm still not done with it.
I find it so depressing that The Border is cancelled on the basis of ratings v. a couple of blockbuster shows from the US. Living in Texas. I've had to find "alternative" means of watching The Border, which is half the fun of watching shows from around the world. I'll really miss this show, especially Major Kessler.
I still want that "wrap up the loose ends" movie. Failing that, is anyone interested in a "Season Four" comic book project?
(Why not? *looks at the Buffy comic from Dark Horse...*)
I wrote a blog about the fact that I think Canada got this one dead wrong, ending the show without tying up a very significant loose end. You don't ever treat your audience like these people did, and not provide closure. Even if there was no money to fund anohter season, surely there was money for Part 2, an episode 13, to finish what they started when they trapped Kessler and those innocents and apparently killed Gray in the basement of that out-of-the-way haven for refugees?
I am too angry for words! That such a great series shoud come to such a ctrashingly bad halt leaves a nasty taste in my mouth, and a concern that the very thing that Canadians try so hard to ensure -- that they are not unfavorably compared with Americans, -- is precisely what they have caused to happen by this abrupt ending.
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