From Underbelly to The Borderline

Not to be confused with Irish crime drama Borderline, The Borderline is a Canadian miniseries about drug smuggling between the US and its northern neighbour.

Premiering next month on ThreeNow, it’s billed as “a dark, twisted mystery centred around an international drug ring”.

Arrow’s Stephen Amell, who was more recently seen in Suits LA, plays a cop who’s compromised when he finds evidence linking a case of missing illegal substances to his childhood best friend (Hamza Haq) — with whom he shares a dark secret.

Desperate to save his friend, he also has to contend with a ruthless British crime family, led by Minnie Driver’s matriarch, hellbent on recovering the missing contraband.

Pivotal to the series is the setting, a picturesque river that’s home to 1000 islands in Ontario.

When the drama was being marketed this time last year at Mipcom, it was dubbed “Fargo set in the Thousand Islands”.

Internationally it was sold as Underbelly, but here retains its original title to avoid even more confusion with the Aussie crime drama of the same name that originally aired on Three.