The show is about an overall eccentric small town called Cecily, Alaska. It wasn't actually filmed in Alaska, which I guess might be an inconvenient shoot. Instead they filmed in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, which is a picturesque area in its own right. You do see totem poles here and there that look to be made by the Tlingit, a tribe with a great artistic tradition.
I have to say that watching it the second time around I have a greater liking for Joel Fleischman, the indentured town doctor played by Rob Morrow. He's certainly tetchy, but he has more nuances than I appreciated the first time. It probably helps that, like me, he has this weird style where he never looks entirely casual or completely formal. And his scenes with Native receptionist Marilyn are quite funny.
2 comments:
We'd gone off watching most tv shows by the mid 90s so I can't offer any opinion about Northern Exposure. Once we couldn't handle watching commercials it was baseball that kept us watching for a while longer as did The Simpsons and MST3K. Computers were getting to be far more interesting, particularly the games.
Having watched a couple of clips at this point I can understand it was a pretty entertaining and amusing show. Joel Fleischman's presentation seems a perfect match for his background and his unexpected living situation. I liked the line in the IMDB desciption that said he'd neglected to read the fine print on his scholarship conditions. The premise alone is unique.
What I realize is just how much has changed since then. Making a distinction between TV and computers, or between scripted programming and sports. It's almost futile to differentiate now. Everything is just media now, and media is everywhere.
"Didn't read the fine print" is a fair description. There's an interesting dichotomy between his resentment of his situation and his growing to like the people around him despite himself. As is true in a lot of cases the earlier seasons are better.
Post a Comment