Border Security: Canada's Front Line (2012– ) User Reviews

Hey reviewers -- it is a reality show, what did you expect?

[A_Different_Drummer · 7/10 · 31 December 2014]

Could not help but notice that the prior reviewers are complaining about how dull this is....? Am I missing something? This is a reality show, which operates by completely different rules from dramatic TV. Repetition is to be be expected. Life itself is repetitive.

One of my favorite reality shows, My Cat From Hell, invariably works around the same themes year after year -- cats who pee, cats who bite, cats who try to eat the baby. But it is still a good reality show and so is this one.

What kills me are how polite the officers are. So Canadian. And it is not an act, Canadians are like that. Every few shows, in a friendly direct and oh so Canadian way, they will get a suspect to "admit" something on re-questioning that was not initially put forward.

Just friendly questioning. No threats. No water boarding. No trips to Cuba. Just chitchat.

Then they will politely ask the suspect to lean against the wall and put his or her hands behind the back.

Then, still apologizing, they slap on the cuffs. And make the arrest.

My all-time favorite episode was a guy who, just by accident, he claimed, forgot the password for his computer. Despite polite and reasonable arguments that he MUST know it, because he uses it all the time, he just keeps getting it wrong and he keeps apologizing to the Canadian officer for the memory problem. And the computer kept limiting the number of new chances to get access.

You have to imagine this. Like a scene from Deliverance called "Duelling Apologies." Finally, against every instinct that said there was something hinkey about the guy, the officer had no choice but to let him go because (at present anyway) there is no Canadian law prohibiting entry of someone with a bad memory.

And you call this boring?

Dull and repetitive

[got519 · 6/10 · 4 September 2013]

"Border Security: Canada's Front Line" is a reality-based series that features Canada Border Services officers going about their day-to-day duties. They question passengers about the contents of their luggage, their reasons for coming to Canada, and how long they're staying for. Oh yeah, they also open boxes at airport cargo terminals in an attempt to find suspicious contraband. If this sounds interesting to you - read on.

The premise of the show isn't completely dull - there is some potential there, but the series shoots itself in the foot by churning out episodes that are exactly the same. Like every other reality show out there, it sticks to a rigid formula which makes the individual episodes indistinguishable from one another. The same basic cases appear over-and-over again:

1. Somebody attempts to enter Canada to secure employment - only they have no work permit. The red flag? They have a one-way ticket and a ton of luggage filled with work related material.

2. An American citizen with a criminal record tries to cross the border not realizing that his prior record makes him inadmissible to Canada.

3. A foreign citizen attempts to clear customs while carrying food items brought from their native country.

4. A passenger has just deplaned and they're carrying a large wad of cash which they may or may not have declared. CBSA now have to determine if the cash is from proceeds of crime.

5. A suspicious package in the cargo hold - get the detector dogs!

Each episode features five or six cases similar to what I described above. The cases are not shown one-by-one complete, they are annoyingly broken up into two or three minute segments as the episode jumps back-and-forth between each part and when it comes back to a previous segment, they have to recap everything that's happened so far. Like most shows on the air these days, it is edited and narrated for the benefit of the channel flipper whose attention span cannot last for an entire half-hour. It caters to the people that are not watching it as opposed to the people that are.

"Border Security" is great primer for anyone that plans on travelling to Canada (or any other country) so they know what to expect at the border or the airports. It's also a cautionary tool to prepare anyone who plans on coming to Canada to work. It's more of a "how-to" or "what-not-to-do" than it is great entertainment.

It's funny that this series depicts Canada as being so reluctant to accept foreign workers that could take employment away from Canadian citizens but they use, "Would I Lie to You?" by The Eurythmics (a British group) as their theme song.

I love it, dont like editing

[nmaxrobinson · 8/10 · 2 September 2021]

Love this and US, UK, New Zealand and Australia. Love to see thick people give it a go and lie about stuff. Surprised by extent "professional crime " goes to.

Hate the editing. OK it goes from here to there and back but i dont need a reminder of what i saw 2 or 3 minutes ago. I guess say in 30mins 10% is repeated footage, 10% is ads.

Guess thats an easy way to fill time, but annoys me!

Boring and Maybe Expoitative

[gwsk5597 · 3/10 · 13 August 2014]

As the other reviewer has mentioned, this show is dull and repetitive. They show the same things over and over again (dumb Americans, Asians smuggling ethnic food, etc.). They are low-hanging fruit for customs, not professional criminals at all.

This is also very much an infomercial for the current Canadian government, so much so that it might as well be sponsored by the governing party. The CBSA officers are shown to be dutiful and diligent in carrying out their duties. They never make mistakes on camera.

At least the Australian version of this show shows incidents that are a little more interesting--there's one episode that shows people coming in from Vietnam claiming to be high-level business executives for a shoe company and it turns out they're actually assembly-line workers and illegal immigrants.

The show seems to substitute the more interesting cases with more interesting people. It seems like everyone pulled aside for questioning is eccentric in one way or another--the weakest members of the herd, the ones who don't quite fit in. In a season two episode, they show a guy trying to get into Canada with furry porn on his laptop and the CBSA officers trying to figure out whether or not it's bestiality. At times the show is almost exploitative in this regard.

Horrible

[moranj-85620 · 1/10 · 8 February 2021]

The way the Police custom talk to people make believe everyone is a crook

Not all that exciting

[cotennfl-1 · 4/10 · 3 July 2022]

Not all that exciting and it's disappointing to see the confrontational, condescending and patronizing way the Border Patrol people harass travelers who don't speak English as a first langauge. Basically if you plan to go to Canada, don't wait until the last minute to purchase your ticket. You will be pulled aside immediately because apparently nobody in their right mind plans a trip to Canada without preparing months in advance. Don't make arrangements to fly in a day eariler or a day later than your spouse because this is apparently a big red flag. It's amazing the stupid stuff they will stop you for. If you like this kind of thing, you will like this show.