Diagonaldi
Very well executed
MusicChat
It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.
CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Senteur
As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
Christian Pompei the 3rd
For a 90's TV show you can't get more humor, drama, romance and mystery than in Northern Exposure. Pittoresque characters like Holling intertwine with street philosophers (Chris) and arrogant entrepreneurs as Maurice. The "cat and mice like" romance is taken care by Joel and Maggie and local culture is also represented by Marylin. But my favorite character is by far Adam, the most sarcastic and ironic nutcase in TV history. I could call this show 40% fantasy. It has the scenery and script of a fairy tail sometimes with all the day- dreaming and cinematographic metaphors embedded in it. You get from the beginning that the writers don't want a stereotypic and cliché ending but "oh my god" we are in for a surprise. And not a fun one. Joel not ending up with Maggie is the biggest disappointment. The second one is the fantasy ending of Joel's character. A too big of a metaphor for this kind of show. One thing I liked: the postcard received by Maggie with the message: "New York is a state of mind". That reveal all the answers to our questions: "Did Joel really returned to NY or his is still in deep wild landscape of Alaska?". That postcard was the "great finale", the song of the swan for this show, the epic ending of a fantastic character that finally discovered that leaving NY for Alaska was a spiritual journey that will mature and educate his soul. After that episode "The Quest", you can say goodbye to NE. If before we still hoped a future for Joel and Maggie, now everything is shattered into pieces and all the life of the show is diminished, the humor drops, the characters seam out of balance, the drama ceases to exist and joining Maggie with Chris is absolutely pathetic: the two don't click, Chris's energy and charm are killed; Maggie is to peaceful and it does not suit her. From my point of view the ending was sad. On the other hand, the song in the end was terrific - Iris Dement, Our town.
gazzo-2
Literate, quirky, endearing, filled to the brim w/ 'magical realism'. An artifact from the early '90's. All of those things are true.I got the 3rd season DVD, and a few things I noticed after watching this series for the first time in a decade or so: *The DVD doesn't have the top 40 hits that were on the series at the time. Royalties snafu. You get a cheaper DVD this way I suppose. But you do lose something.*It's right before we became swamped w/ cell phones and the Internet. The lack of both are very obvious. I think it's a welcome quality, too.*The characters are great-Ed, Maggie, the Doc, the DJ, Maurice, Ruth-Anne, Marion, even Adam. You don't run into such a unique variety of people on series TV much, and as well-written, too.*Joel gets on your nerves easily, sometimes it's like he's perennially new, always the Noo Yoiker outta his element. It did get contrived after awhile.*I never honestly bought Cynthia Geary falling for Holling, just because. The age-gap etc was too much. But that's okay both are decent performers and it works. Kind of.*The show could have ran longer.*It's rewarding and not afraid of wearing its heart on its sleeve. It holds up and I recommend watching it to anyone who is interested.**** outta ****
dwissba
I wish Rob Morrow would have stayed on this show as Dr. Joel Fleischman cause it could have gone another 3 maybe 4 seasons. Maybe he got a little greedy and wanted more money. In any case this was the best TV show in years with some of the most memorable characters and moments. The writing was top notch and smart. Alaska was the best location they could have used for a man so used to the big city of New York and stocking it with quirky personalities like an astronaut, an old store clerk, a want-a-be film maker, an old bar owner and his young wife, a married gay couple and lets not forget Chris the DJ. They all just meshed together so well with Joel being the outsider in a sense trying to adjust to a small Alaska town where nothing happens.I can't understand why we don't see more of these types of shows on TV anymore. It seems like every Fall TV season the new programs are either about cops or lawyers. There is no original programs anymore and I am getting sick of cop shows. Northern Exposure was a true original and classic and we need more like it...
jodicrbirkholm
RW, My advice to you is to just keep watching! Your take on the initial few episodes is actually dead-on! I agree with you wholeheartedly, but give it a chance! It's undeniably the best fictitious TV show ever created, IMHO! Joel's character IS awfully annoying, as is most of the cast for the first handful of episodes. Give the cast a bit of a chance to warm up and develop. They seem flat and pointlessly quirky at first, but then the writing just blossoms, grows, and expands into something never matched, before or since, in broadcasting history.Man, I'd kill to be 25 and watching this show for the first time. Savor it, my friend. Watch more and you'll see what I mean. I guarantee it!
