I had to watch the tape several times for some of the lines that I missed because I was laughing too loud to hear them.
A fine comedic turn by regulars Gross and David Marciano (the real Ray Vecchio).
An Invitation to Romance is my favourite dueSouth episode of all time.
Yes, even after 'The Deal', 'Victoria's Secret', 'Letting Go', 'All the Queen's Horses', 'The Ladies Man', 'Good for the Soul', and even 'Hunting Season', *this* is the episode which I consider to be my 'favourite'.
It has all of the best of dueSouth condensed into one hour of hysterical laughter. It's all there in 'An Invitation to Romance': the angst, the drama, the humour, and, of course, the romance.
The angst: 'I thought I was in love once...'
The drama: The shootouts, the tension, Inspector Moffat giving Ray the wrong impression of just who is in trouble... (okay, maybe that was funny... *g*)
The humour: 'You're marrying a deaf mute Mountie and you didn't *recognize him?!' (Check out the end of 'Flashback', you see Paul Gross cracking up during this scene); Ray in the Mountie uniform, the waterbed scene...
The romance: Fraser was all set to kiss Katherine and would have if Nigel hadn't decided to dump the trash; and Katherine is the only woman Fraser has ever asked to dance. In fact, she's the first woman we see him get 'frisky' with.
Two interesting things to note: a) Katherine's last name. The first woman we see Fraser romantically attracted to is named 'Ms. *Burns*'; b) Fraser says: 'Due south'.
I think I know why this is my favourite episode. While the other 67 hours of dueSouth has great moments interspersed throughout, this is the only ep which, in my opinion, contains 60 minutes (minus the commercials) of great moments. While I watch other eps with the remote control handy to zip ahead to the 'good' bits, I don't bother with this one since I don't want to miss a line!
This is an episode neither too 'heavy' nor too silly. It has the perfect mixture of humour and drama which I love in dueSouth. I don't know many people who would consider this one to be their 'favourite', but for me there is no contest. For 'best' episode, I vote 'Ladies Man'. But for most watchable, most entertaining, most hilarious, and best representative of the idea of dueSouth, I vote 'An Invitation to Romance'.