Magical Realism: “Northern Exposure” 25 Years Later (2015)
rogerebert.com
rogerebert.com
Very few shows like that, but Ted Lasso actually reminded me a lot of NEX in how it made me feel.
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.
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
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!
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).
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
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
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.
But somehow, I really just wanted Tudyk to start killing everyone.
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.
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.
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.
One of my favorite scenes: https://vimeo.com/151017533
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...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylkbjjykgG4&list=RDylkbjjykg...
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.
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.
- I looked it up season 3 episode 18 "The Final Frontier".
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
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.
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.
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... :)