Toronto on TV: The Border
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Following the efforts of an Immigration and Customs Security squad, last night's episode of The Border had major scenes in Pearson Airport, along with numerous background shots of the CN Tower and other recognizable locales like Union Station and Dundas Square. Unlike productions that try to mask Toronto, The Border wanted to be sure you knew exactly where all of this action and questioning-of-ethics was taking place. Perhaps most entertaining were the gratuitous shots of Tim Hortons coffee cups. Now that's a realistic glimpse into the daily life of a Canadian squad of anything.
If you missed the first episode, "Pockets of Vulnerability" is available for viewing in its entirety on the CBC's official website for The Border. Future episodes will air Mondays at 9pm.
Image © Marilyn Campbell 2007
Comments
Re The Border.
Who is the a**hole @ CBC who thinks jerky camera work is pretty cool? It wasn’t cool on NYPD Blue and because it isn’t cool, today, I haven’t seen the
3rd of the the Bourne trilogy. Jerky camera work may be a lot cheaper than decent choreography but that cheapness will prevent me from watching The Border. Shame on you! Quit trying to be American.
Edited for language — Marilyn
Hi Dave,
It’s funny – I missed The Border this Monday so I watched it online, not long after reading your comment. The camera work didn’t bother me before – I never even noticed it. But now that you’ve pointed it out… it is a bit much sometimes, isn’t it? I mean, I don’t mind handheld in general, but on a couple of shots it seemed like they weren’t quite sure what they wanted to shoot.
Still, I think The Border is well done on the whole. How did you feel about the story for the most recent episode? The writer for episode three was Denis McGrath, a sometimes-lives-in-Toronto screenwriter and blogger. He mentioned in a post that the show being handheld prevented them using CGI, which hadn’t occurred to him when he first wrote in the plane.
If you’re interested, McGrath’s post about that is here:
http://heywriterboy.blogspot.com/2008/01/reprint-its-all-my-fault.html
And of course there are a lot of other posts about The Border, other shows and the industry as a whole on the rest of his blog, Dead Things on Sticks.