This story was originally published on The Spinoff.
Border Patrol is like a contraband box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get. It might be a festering horse head, a Latvian national declaring that he is here to start a new country, or a middle-aged woman with a suitcase lining laced with $800,000 worth of cocaine. There could be a man with suspiciously wet cargo pants, later revealed to be smuggling dozens of tropical fish under his clothes, or a Canadian woman who brought a live cat in her carry-on. Whatever episode you watch, one thing is for sure: someone is going to get busted.
It’s been 22 years and 150 episodes since the observational documentary series debuted on our screens, capturing all manner of characters and contraband arriving on our shores. With Aotearoa boasting some of the strictest biosecurity measures in the world, our version of Border Patrol is currently airing in over 40 different countries, including Poland, Brazil, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Spain, the UK, the US, and pretty much the entire continent of Africa. Just like Popstars before it, Border Patrol was a quiet world-first that helped launched a whole genre of spinoff shows.
