I had the privilege to watch this show last year for the first time and I was completely blown away by it. I still think about it from time to time and it is easily my favourite show ever. Every actor is great and every single character in it is likeable (despite their flaws) and the show is proof that not everything has to be edgy, dark, gritty and have a murder in it to be good.
The writing is phenomenal. Sure, some things wouldn't get past studio execs these days but it holds up very well and there is a spirituality and positivity about it that sticks with you long after you finish watching the 110 episodes.
3RTB297 14 hours ago [-]
For a while CBS refused to put Northern Exposure on streaming platforms due to the rights needed for all the songs that appeared both in the soundtrack and just in the background on KBHR.
I ordered the DVD box set during COVID, later sent it to my parents, who also enjoyed the re-watch. Great show that mostly still held up over the years.
martijn_himself 14 hours ago [-]
I read about this. I watched it on Amazon UK where it was included with a Prime subscription until recently. I never found out it if it had the original score for all episodes, if it didn't I thought it wasn't too obvious.
Coincidentally after I watched the show I found that the original leading actors (Rob Marrow and Janine Turner) had started a podcast called 'Northern Disclosure' right at that moment (https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernDisclosurePodcast/featured).
technothrasher 14 hours ago [-]
Have you watched the movie, "Local Hero" that the show was inspired by? And Doc Martin is another more recent show in the same genre, and also fantastic.
martijn_himself 13 hours ago [-]
Thanks for the recommendation, I'll definitely add "Local Hero" to my list. I like Doc Martin.
If I had to think of anything recent that would perhaps have a similar feel it would be "The Detectorists" and (very recent) "Small Prophets" (by the same writer).
NetMageSCW 13 hours ago [-]
Best Medicine is a transplant of Doc Martin into the US (and Clunes played his father in an episode). It was a bit slow to get going but it starts to click a few episodes in.
walterbell 15 hours ago [-]
Full series currently on Prime/iTunes for $20, with ~80% of the original music.
Kon5ole 1 days ago [-]
Such a great show, but difficult to classify. No drama, action or nailbites, no big belly laughs, more like smiles and chuckles. I was just a little happier after having watched most episodes.
Very few shows like that, but Ted Lasso actually reminded me a lot of NEX in how it made me feel.
amon_spek 19 hours ago [-]
I classify it as the peak 'existential comedy' around which all others navigate. I think there isn't a single episode that doesn't have meaning of life/death as at least a minor theme.
Another one with a similar feel is Bridget Christie's The Change, which she has cited Northern Exposure and Detectorists as inspirations.
CGMthrowaway 6 hours ago [-]
Agree. It's so wholesome, uncontroversially values driven but doesn't feel shoved down your throat like a recent episode of Law & Order might.
If you like Northern Exposure I recommend the other shows that were basically reboots of it: Hart of Dixie (which I prefer to the next) and Virgin River
ZeroGravitas 22 hours ago [-]
The Detectorists might fill this same niche.
rzzzt 1 days ago [-]
Rick is struck by a satellite falling out of the sky, no action?!
wowczarek 1 days ago [-]
They had to make openings in the coffin because it "fused with the body". Adam and Eve, Chris' ramblings and this.
lupire 1 days ago [-]
Soap opera of people being nice
snozolli 22 hours ago [-]
I don't know if it quite meets the criteria, but I really enjoyed Lodge 49, particularly after watching awful people doing awful things in Succession. I've also enjoyed everything that Steve Conrad has made, for similar feel-good reasons.
shadowtree 1 days ago [-]
Picket Fences was similar to that, an early David E Kelley show (after LA Law).
Some of that weirdness was then further carried over by Kelley to Ally McBeal and Boston Legal.
Utter products of their time periods 90s and early aughts.
prohobo 20 hours ago [-]
Just started watching Widow's Bay, which to me has a similar vibe, but a much better hook: folk horror as the plot driver.
I can't watch Northern Exposure anymore. It's too alienated from the modern world, it feels like an artifact from a different civilization rather than anything I can relate to now, which is sad.
leereeves 15 hours ago [-]
[dead]
dools 1 days ago [-]
This was one of my mother’s favourite shows and we all watched it together as a family when I was a kid. I really enjoyed it too.
About 10 years ago I bought the DVDs for my mother for her birthday and we watched some together, it really stood the test of time if you ask me.
She died last year, I’m glad we got the chance to share this and a few other nostalgic things over the past few years, we lived quite a long way away.
Call your mother!
4lx87 1 days ago [-]
Find the German or UK international DVD release for original music. Region 1 DVDs have replacement music for licensing reasons, and it changes the show for the worse.
One of my favorite shows.
keane 1 days ago [-]
This is a whole thing tracked by r/northernexposure — apparently the version that was until recently included with Prime had maybe ~80% of the original music. And https://moosechick.com/ claims that the UK Blu-rays have all the original songs. More discussion at https://reddit.com/r/northernexposure/search/?q=music
stuxnet79 1 days ago [-]
Well I was excited to talk about how Sasha and Digweed produced one of the greatest prog house mixes of all time, but ... I suppose I now have another show to add to my to-watch list.
TFNA 1 days ago [-]
I thought the same before I did the math: 2015 − 25 means too early for that 1996 release. But describing Sasha & John Digweed’s Northern Exposure as “progressive house” feels anachronistic, and Sasha at least is known to dislike that label (IIRC, he said something along the lines of “The term was made up by a wanker who didn’t even like the music.”)
stuxnet79 1 days ago [-]
No artist likes to have a marketing label attached to their work, even though it helps with branding. So I'm not surprised that Sasha wasn't a fan of the term.
But both him and Digweed did pioneer a unique sound in the 90s. The "Sasha and Digweed sound" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. Out of the multitude of admittedly not so great labels you could attach to the mixes they put out at the height of their careers, "progressive house/trance" seems to me to be the least offensive.
There's a conversation Chris has in an episode called Heal Thyself, I think, where Maggie buys a washer dryer and won't need to go to the laundromat anymore.
Chris reflects that in the future we won't need a lot of things that are part of society, due to technology like fibre optics. We'll watch cinema at home, and he wonders what will happen to these accidental social moments we have in places like cinemas and laundromats.
It was prescient, but the other part of Northern Exposure that sticks with me is the viewer is expected to sit through Chris's other conversations on the radio about Whitman, Jung, mythology, the nature of death, and other philosophical and artistic references.
I enjoy rewatching Northern Exposure, but it's sometimes disturbing how alien it feels today.
NoSalt 13 hours ago [-]
> "the viewer is expected to sit through Chris's other conversations on the radio about Whitman, Jung, mythology, the nature of death, and other philosophical and artistic references"
These scenes were some of my favorite; which makes Chris [probably] my favorite character of the series. Probably, more than likely, it is due Chris's ability to describe "life, the universe, and everything" more eloquently than I ever could.
martijn_himself 13 hours ago [-]
It just feels like there are so many (life) lessons to be learned from the characters and especially from Chris. From his readings and interpretations, but also from his interactions with other characters.
I remember his patience with Maurice and others was exemplary, almost to a fault. Maybe he was more forgiving of others because he was incarcerated earlier in life, I don't know. In one episode he finally loses his cool with a builder who has completely bodged the decking and plumbing outside his caravan in a hilarious way, but even then he manages to stay calm and polite when firing him.
martijn_himself 16 hours ago [-]
This episode is just one of the gems and if I remember correctly Maggie eventually returns the washer because she misses the social interaction.
I'd have to respectfully disagree and feel the show holds up surprisingly well when you stick with it and forgive it the sort of things you would find in shows of that time. It's like a refuge from the dark and gritty stuff that you can't escape on streaming platforms these days.
Seeing Seattle from the 90s reminds me of how much the city I knew growing up had already disappeared by the time I left as an adult
canucker2016 6 hours ago [-]
[dead]
jawilson2 11 hours ago [-]
Blocked in the US by NBC Universal.
perilunar 21 hours ago [-]
Loved that scene!
Makes me want to find all the old LEDs from broken kids toys and Christmas lights and wire them all up to a power supply...
kurosawa 17 hours ago [-]
lovely music, sounds like enya or clannad or such
velcrovan 15 hours ago [-]
The song is Ebudae by Enya!
Schlagbohrer 14 hours ago [-]
Does anyone know of a band today that is making nice soothing music like Enya? But not just ambient techno, I want mystical vocals...
ArchieScrivener 1 days ago [-]
Northern Exposure is the otherside Twin Peaks. Hits the same comfy note just at the opposite spectrum.
simplicio 1 days ago [-]
Both shows were filmed around the same time and place in WA state and, as you note, had a kinda similar surrealist vibe. Which made watching them togeather kind of strange. Like Joel and his friends adorable hijinks were happening just down the street from a brutal murder investigation.
alexyoung 18 hours ago [-]
Funnily enough there's a Northern Exposure episode with a brief Twin Peaks parody. I think it was Russian Flu in season one. Joel and Elaine are on a trip, and they're shown around an area with a waterfall and viewing platform, like The Great Northern Hotel/White Tail Falls.
The scene is a pretty funny Twin Peaks parody, with music and visuals inspired by Twin Peaks, and includes a joke about seeing a woman holding a log... :)
troyvit 14 hours ago [-]
I vaguely remember reading that they were in fear if being cancelled at that time, in part because of the popularity of Twin Peaks, so they decided to lampoon it a little bit. I can't find a reference to that but it'd be funny if true.
nephihaha 1 days ago [-]
I had the same thought. Like its friendlier younger sister. I think Twin Peaks fans realised early on the main point of the show wasn't so much who killed Laura Palmer, but the weird and wonderful characters in the place. Northern Exposure doesn't really have a One-eyed Jacks or a Bob... But it does have a Bigfoot character that could be right out of it.
magarnicle 1 days ago [-]
I'm not so sure about that assessment of Twin Peaks. Look at the back half of season 2, where the "weird and wonderful characters" become the focus of the show. It's barely watchable.
When Lynch came back for the final episode of that season he refocused it on Laura Palmer and brought back characters that hadn't been seen for many episodes, like Laura's mum or Audrey's brother. They weren't much fun, one being wracked by grief and the other mentally disabled. But that's what Twin Peaks is really about and what gave it staying power.
Everyone (including Diane Keaton when she directed an episode) seemed to think it was this kooky place and the weirdness was the point. There's plenty of fun there, but Lynch really understood it: hence Season 3 which gives you all of half an episode of Fun Dale Cooper before pulling the rug out from under you and reminding you that a girl was murdered and we shouldn't move on from that.
jfengel 1 days ago [-]
I got the impression at the time that Lynch was figuring it out as he went along. Some days that worked; some days it really didn't but mostly carried through on the strength of its performances.
I admit I haven't seen it since the original airing. I would likely evaluate it differently now.
regularfry 15 hours ago [-]
He absolutely was, quite famously. He'd be writing the episodes in the diner week-to-week.
For me it's the pattern for a lot of shows that went off the rails: starts with a strong premise and setting, but gets an indefinite run so the writer(s) can't actually terminate any story arcs and end up floundering badly. It got dramatically better again when he had to wrap it up.
Some shows start off in that state (like Lost - I was familiar enough with the pattern then to avoid getting sucked into that one); some drift into it (Twin Peaks and BSG at least). It usually takes getting cancelled to pull them out of it, which is really sad.
Schlagbohrer 14 hours ago [-]
It is a condemnation of americas modern media culture that Netflix kept turning down David Lynch's ideas in the years before he died. Who knows what weird interesting art we could have had if they (or anyone else) had simply given Lynch (and countless young new artists too) a bag of money and a deadline.
JamesSwift 14 hours ago [-]
Uhh The Walking Dead anyone?
magarnicle 3 hours ago [-]
He was, but his instincts didn't lead him astray. He still understood the heart of the show.
nephihaha 21 hours ago [-]
Series 2 did overfocus on the characters, but the eccentric characters were there at the beginning. Log Lady was the most outlandish but Pete Martell and Audrey Horne get introduced early on and are quirky. Dale Cooper himself is pretty strange.
I always thought the most boring major character in Twin Peaks was James Hurley, the would be biker.
I never watched the third series. I think I got part way through the first episode and never bothered with the rest.
magarnicle 3 hours ago [-]
Log Lady is weird but not quirky. The back half of season two had Nadine mentally regressing to a high-schooler but with superhuman strength (played for laughs); Dick Tremayne, a pompous menswear salesman wooing Lucy (played for laughs); and Benjamin Horne reenacting the Civil War (played for laughs). It's all very cartoonish.
If you watch season three, Log Lady gets quite an emotional farewell as the actress was dying of cancer. It's Lynch's insistence on treating even the quirky characters as real human beings that makes all the difference.
anthk 17 hours ago [-]
There were actually filming the same waterfalls from the opposite sides. And OFC the NE director was pretty much aware up to the point of making these references.
TP is about showing the actual dark side of the seemingly cozy rural towns and the American Dream. The Lodge are the dark secrets kept from the locals in order to function as a society and to keep that Romantic -in the German sense- imagery forever. But we all know that's doomed to fail somehow.
NE it's the opposite, it tries to bring some joy from the other stereotyped rural 'bumfuck helltown' to show up actually deep and educated people to the half-spolied urbanite guy. You can even see how die-hard conservatives learn from their opposites and how the urbanite pick ups some useful -real life- skills too.
With TP you are seeing the hidden 'dangers' of depicting a town as a postcard/desktop wallpaper. With NE you are watching what happens when the Romantic image shatters away... from day one, and for a much greater and cozier environment.
When I was a kid/teen and went into a village in Summer, the best moments where not just roaming around a place being 'frozen' in time, but with a pocket radio tuner and science magazines/books bought a few KMs away having the best of both sides (past and future). Oh, and the locals had really great books and music (a heavy metal/ rock compilation) too, in late 90's/early 00's.
RajT88 24 hours ago [-]
I used to date a girl from Anchorage. She said that this show was for, "interesting and thoughtful people".
It didn't work out between us, but decades later, I keep trying this show to see if it's for me. I feel like one day it might be, if I'm in just the right place.
Just drove past The Brick yesterday. Roslyn's just a bit less rustic these days, e.g., a 2-bedroom 2000sqft house is going to set you back at about $600K.
erhuve 1 days ago [-]
My 9th grade history teacher showed us S3E6 "The Body in Question" and it really stuck with me all the way through being an important part of my college thesis basically. I never actually watched any other episodes but I still think about Pierre and the distinction between truth and fact a lot.
caycecan 1 days ago [-]
Jessie the Bear episode, it ends with Enya's "Carribran Blue", is "The Constant" of the 90s.
- I looked it up season 3 episode 18 "The Final Frontier".
mruniverse 1 days ago [-]
I read it was partly inspired by "Local Hero" (Bill Forsyth movie). The visiting Russian singer felt like a direct lift of the visiting Russian fisherman in "Local Hero".
n1b0m 1 days ago [-]
Yes it was :) I watched Local Hero after watching Northern Exposure and couldn’t shake the feeling that the visiting Russian felt eerily familiar. A little research revealed that Local Hero was a favourite of Northern Exposure writer Joshua Brand.
j_french 1 days ago [-]
I had forgotten Northern Exposure existed for 30 years until remembering it recently, and discovering that i had very fond memories of watching it on Irish tv as a teenager. There was something different about it, definitely going to watch it again
browningstreet 1 days ago [-]
That piano trebuchet!
jurip 1 days ago [-]
The two leads, Rob Morrow and Janine Turner, are doing a rewatch podcast called Northern Disclosure. They seem to be in season 3 right now. No endorsement, haven't tried it myself.
justinator 24 hours ago [-]
Does Janine Turner reflect upon her time playing a strong independent woman who owned her own business in a male dominated field while being friends with an indigenous population? Because Janine Turner is... different.
moron4hire 1 days ago [-]
When "Resident Alien" came out, we started watching it and I quipped to my wife, "oh, so this is 'Northern Exposure', but the out of touch, out of towner doctor pressed into small town service, constantly scheming to get out, is more likeable."
jfengel 1 days ago [-]
I really wanted to like Resident Alien, but it just didn't do it for me. I like the comparison to Northern Exposure; it's very astute.
But somehow, I really just wanted Tudyk to start killing everyone.
nephihaha 1 days ago [-]
There is a touch of Mork and Mindy to Resident Alien too. But yes, I do see a bit of Northern Exposure in Resident Alien, and in Due South which popped along a few years later...
And a touch of Twin Peaks in Northern Exposure itself.
mrexroad 1 days ago [-]
Due South… now there’s a name I have not heard in many years.
Youth in the 90’s had all sorts of quirky content available and we had enough free time to consume it all while doing a lot of nothing along the way (in a good way).
nephihaha 21 hours ago [-]
I was reminded of Due South a few years ago, because I was visiting someone who was watching it. Nowhere near as bizarre as TP or Northern Exposure, but it was there. Twin Peaks definitely opened the way for less formulaic material.
Even Malcolm in the Middle had some quirky Alaskan side plot with one of the brothers going over there and marrying a native woman.
erghjunk 14 hours ago [-]
the episode about the ice breaking up - where everyone is acting out of character - is one of my favorite episodes of television. great show.
pndy 21 hours ago [-]
As many shows or films from that period the title was "customized" in Poland and "Northern Exposure" was known as "Przystanek Alaska" - "Station Alaska". My dad enjoy it especially credits with moose.
saghm 17 hours ago [-]
> My dad enjoy it especially credits with moose
Apparently the moose in the credits was a bit of serendipity; it just randomly showed up on the day they were shooting, and they decided it would be perfect for the credits
dsego 17 hours ago [-]
In Croatian it was "Život na sjeveru" or Life in the North.
Sharlin 21 hours ago [-]
In Finland it was Villi pohjola - "The Wild North"
Schlagbohrer 14 hours ago [-]
Hmmm, did that hit a bit different in Finland? A country which is actually just as north / further north than Alaska?
Sharlin 13 hours ago [-]
In some ways I would think so, even though culturally we’re rather different. Finland has its own sparsely populated "northern wilderness" – the Lapland region with its indigenous Sami peoples – that’s also somewhat mysticised and romanticized by the majority of the population living in the larger southern cities.
liampulles 1 days ago [-]
The show has its moments - mature, intelligent, human moments found little elsewhere - but its an intelligence that struggles to escape very typical network sitcom trappings. One wishes it had gone a little more in the direction of M.A.S.H. and ditched the pretense of having to make jokes every minute.
martijn_himself 16 hours ago [-]
I have never seen M.A.S.H. but I agree the human moments were unique to this show. I didn't mind the jokes- I thought they kept it light, almost a reminder of how it didn't take itself too seriously.
KyleBrandt 1 days ago [-]
One of my favorite shows, was happy to see it finally come to streaming a few years ago, came later than a lot of other older shows from the same time period.
nephihaha 1 days ago [-]
I always felt this show was Twin Peaks' less menacing younger sister. It was mainly character driven, and those characters were very memorable (and mostly, but not always, lovable.)
There were some problems with it. The representation of the countryside as a magical other by city folk. The strange lack of families in Cicely (there are children but hardly any). I found the on-off relationship between the two leads to be more frustrating than exciting.
noefingway 14 hours ago [-]
"There are four words you need to know to adequately prepare yourself for childbirth. Take notes here, ladies: I...want...my...epidural."
newer_vienna 15 hours ago [-]
Obligatory Borges mention for magical realism.
Read his Garden of Forking Paths and Lottery in Babylon. Short stories which leave you with much to think about
Monarch of the Glen was another fish out of water series that hits a lot of Northern Exposure notes.
sleepybrett 1 days ago [-]
cle ellum, wa
incanus77 1 days ago [-]
Rosyln.
shawn_w 1 days ago [-]
Roslyn and Cle Elum are next to each other.
sleepybrett 1 days ago [-]
basically the same town. I think i'm in some episodes in the background of the bar. My friend used to go to a nearby university (CWU in Ellensburg) and went to visit him and we were grabbing pizza down the street from the bar they shot in (the brick saloon) and we got asked to be extras.
ErroneousBosh 9 hours ago [-]
A film made in Scotland, using mostly Scottish actors, with barely a trace of tartan shortbread tin.
We need more like this please, and less of the Outlander shite.
Rendered at 04:28:06 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
The writing is phenomenal. Sure, some things wouldn't get past studio execs these days but it holds up very well and there is a spirituality and positivity about it that sticks with you long after you finish watching the 110 episodes.
I ordered the DVD box set during COVID, later sent it to my parents, who also enjoyed the re-watch. Great show that mostly still held up over the years.
Coincidentally after I watched the show I found that the original leading actors (Rob Marrow and Janine Turner) had started a podcast called 'Northern Disclosure' right at that moment (https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernDisclosurePodcast/featured).
If I had to think of anything recent that would perhaps have a similar feel it would be "The Detectorists" and (very recent) "Small Prophets" (by the same writer).
Very few shows like that, but Ted Lasso actually reminded me a lot of NEX in how it made me feel.
Another one with a similar feel is Bridget Christie's The Change, which she has cited Northern Exposure and Detectorists as inspirations.
If you like Northern Exposure I recommend the other shows that were basically reboots of it: Hart of Dixie (which I prefer to the next) and Virgin River
Some of that weirdness was then further carried over by Kelley to Ally McBeal and Boston Legal.
Utter products of their time periods 90s and early aughts.
I can't watch Northern Exposure anymore. It's too alienated from the modern world, it feels like an artifact from a different civilization rather than anything I can relate to now, which is sad.
About 10 years ago I bought the DVDs for my mother for her birthday and we watched some together, it really stood the test of time if you ask me.
She died last year, I’m glad we got the chance to share this and a few other nostalgic things over the past few years, we lived quite a long way away.
Call your mother!
One of my favorite shows.
But both him and Digweed did pioneer a unique sound in the 90s. The "Sasha and Digweed sound" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. Out of the multitude of admittedly not so great labels you could attach to the mixes they put out at the height of their careers, "progressive house/trance" seems to me to be the least offensive.
I'm wondering what alternative you would suggest?
Northern Exposure Expedition 1999 is my fave.
Mono Culture - Free - Northern Exposure Expeditions
https://youtu.be/VPaebmeL4Y4
To do what I want to do
To say what I want to say
To be what I want to be... free
The Silence by Mike Koglin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHDdM_0sotY
Yeah, I was/am a Depeche Mode fan
Chris reflects that in the future we won't need a lot of things that are part of society, due to technology like fibre optics. We'll watch cinema at home, and he wonders what will happen to these accidental social moments we have in places like cinemas and laundromats.
It was prescient, but the other part of Northern Exposure that sticks with me is the viewer is expected to sit through Chris's other conversations on the radio about Whitman, Jung, mythology, the nature of death, and other philosophical and artistic references.
I enjoy rewatching Northern Exposure, but it's sometimes disturbing how alien it feels today.
These scenes were some of my favorite; which makes Chris [probably] my favorite character of the series. Probably, more than likely, it is due Chris's ability to describe "life, the universe, and everything" more eloquently than I ever could.
I remember his patience with Maurice and others was exemplary, almost to a fault. Maybe he was more forgiving of others because he was incarcerated earlier in life, I don't know. In one episode he finally loses his cool with a builder who has completely bodged the decking and plumbing outside his caravan in a hilarious way, but even then he manages to stay calm and polite when firing him.
I'd have to respectfully disagree and feel the show holds up surprisingly well when you stick with it and forgive it the sort of things you would find in shows of that time. It's like a refuge from the dark and gritty stuff that you can't escape on streaming platforms these days.
One of my favorite scenes: https://vimeo.com/151017533
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylkbjjykgG4&list=RDylkbjjykg...
Makes me want to find all the old LEDs from broken kids toys and Christmas lights and wire them all up to a power supply...
The scene is a pretty funny Twin Peaks parody, with music and visuals inspired by Twin Peaks, and includes a joke about seeing a woman holding a log... :)
When Lynch came back for the final episode of that season he refocused it on Laura Palmer and brought back characters that hadn't been seen for many episodes, like Laura's mum or Audrey's brother. They weren't much fun, one being wracked by grief and the other mentally disabled. But that's what Twin Peaks is really about and what gave it staying power.
Everyone (including Diane Keaton when she directed an episode) seemed to think it was this kooky place and the weirdness was the point. There's plenty of fun there, but Lynch really understood it: hence Season 3 which gives you all of half an episode of Fun Dale Cooper before pulling the rug out from under you and reminding you that a girl was murdered and we shouldn't move on from that.
I admit I haven't seen it since the original airing. I would likely evaluate it differently now.
For me it's the pattern for a lot of shows that went off the rails: starts with a strong premise and setting, but gets an indefinite run so the writer(s) can't actually terminate any story arcs and end up floundering badly. It got dramatically better again when he had to wrap it up.
Some shows start off in that state (like Lost - I was familiar enough with the pattern then to avoid getting sucked into that one); some drift into it (Twin Peaks and BSG at least). It usually takes getting cancelled to pull them out of it, which is really sad.
I always thought the most boring major character in Twin Peaks was James Hurley, the would be biker.
I never watched the third series. I think I got part way through the first episode and never bothered with the rest.
If you watch season three, Log Lady gets quite an emotional farewell as the actress was dying of cancer. It's Lynch's insistence on treating even the quirky characters as real human beings that makes all the difference.
TP is about showing the actual dark side of the seemingly cozy rural towns and the American Dream. The Lodge are the dark secrets kept from the locals in order to function as a society and to keep that Romantic -in the German sense- imagery forever. But we all know that's doomed to fail somehow.
NE it's the opposite, it tries to bring some joy from the other stereotyped rural 'bumfuck helltown' to show up actually deep and educated people to the half-spolied urbanite guy. You can even see how die-hard conservatives learn from their opposites and how the urbanite pick ups some useful -real life- skills too.
With TP you are seeing the hidden 'dangers' of depicting a town as a postcard/desktop wallpaper. With NE you are watching what happens when the Romantic image shatters away... from day one, and for a much greater and cozier environment.
When I was a kid/teen and went into a village in Summer, the best moments where not just roaming around a place being 'frozen' in time, but with a pocket radio tuner and science magazines/books bought a few KMs away having the best of both sides (past and future). Oh, and the locals had really great books and music (a heavy metal/ rock compilation) too, in late 90's/early 00's.
It didn't work out between us, but decades later, I keep trying this show to see if it's for me. I feel like one day it might be, if I'm in just the right place.
- I looked it up season 3 episode 18 "The Final Frontier".
But somehow, I really just wanted Tudyk to start killing everyone.
And a touch of Twin Peaks in Northern Exposure itself.
Youth in the 90’s had all sorts of quirky content available and we had enough free time to consume it all while doing a lot of nothing along the way (in a good way).
Even Malcolm in the Middle had some quirky Alaskan side plot with one of the brothers going over there and marrying a native woman.
Apparently the moose in the credits was a bit of serendipity; it just randomly showed up on the day they were shooting, and they decided it would be perfect for the credits
There were some problems with it. The representation of the countryside as a magical other by city folk. The strange lack of families in Cicely (there are children but hardly any). I found the on-off relationship between the two leads to be more frustrating than exciting.
Read his Garden of Forking Paths and Lottery in Babylon. Short stories which leave you with much to think about
We need more like this please, and less of the Outlander shite.