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Magical Realism: “Northern Exposure” 25 Years Later (2015)
- moron4hire 5mo agoWhen "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."
- nephihaha 5mo agoThere 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 5mo agoDue 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 5mo agoI 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.
- jfengel 5mo agoI 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.
- Kon5ole 5mo agoSuch 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.
- lupire 5mo agoSoap opera of people being nice
- rzzzt 5mo agoRick is struck by a satellite falling out of the sky, no action?!
- wowczarek 5mo agoThey had to make openings in the coffin because it "fused with the body". Adam and Eve, Chris' ramblings and this.
- shadowtree 5mo agoPicket 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.
- snozolli 5mo agoI 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.
- ZeroGravitas 5mo agoThe Detectorists might fill this same niche.
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- sleepybrett 5mo agocle ellum, wa
- incanus77 5mo agoRosyln.
- shawn_w 5mo agoRoslyn and Cle Elum are next to each other.
- sleepybrett 5mo agobasically 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.
- stuxnet79 5mo agoWell 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 5mo agoI 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 5mo agoNo 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. I'm wondering what alternative you would suggest?
- nntwozz 5mo agoHa! Same. Northern Exposure Expedition 1999 is my fave. Mono Culture - Free - Northern Exposure Expeditions https://youtu.be/VPaebmeL4Y4 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
- slyall 5mo agoOne of my favorite tunes ever is from Northern Exposure: Expeditions The Silence by Mike Koglin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHDdM_0sotY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHDdM_0sotY Yeah, I was/am a Depeche Mode fan
- erhuve 5mo agoMy 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.
- KyleBrandt 5mo agoOne 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.
- caycecan 5mo agoJessie 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".
- j_french 5mo agoI 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
- 4lx87 5mo agoFind 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 5mo agoThis 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/ 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 https://reddit.com/r/northernexposure/search/?q=music
- justarobert 5mo agoDamn, I've only ever seen it on Region 1 dvd and didn't even realize. I guess I have an excuse to rewatch now
- ArchieScrivener 5mo agoNorthern Exposure is the otherside Twin Peaks. Hits the same comfy note just at the opposite spectrum.
- nephihaha 5mo agoI 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 5mo agoI'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 5mo agoI 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 5mo ago
- browningstreet 5mo agoThat piano trebuchet!
- bcl 5mo agoFilmed in Roslyn, WA - https://movielandmarks.com/#lm-1003 https://movielandmarks.com/#lm-1003
- geephroh 5mo agoJust 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.
- liampulles 5mo agoThe 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 5mo agoI 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.
- nephihaha 5mo agoI 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.
- mruniverse 5mo agoI 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 5mo agoYes 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.
- dools 5mo agoThis 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!
- jurip 5mo agoThe 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 5mo agoDoes 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.
- RajT88 5mo agoI 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.
- revicon 5mo agoThis show's use of music really made it magical One of my favorite scenes: https://vimeo.com/151017533 https://vimeo.com/151017533
- perilunar 5mo agoLoved 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 5mo agolovely music, sounds like enya or clannad or such
- velcrovan 5mo agoThe song is Ebudae by Enya!
- Schlagbohrer 5mo agoDoes anyone know of a band today that is making nice soothing music like Enya? But not just ambient techno, I want mystical vocals...
- srum 5mo agoThis one always stood out to me on Marilyn's trip to Seattle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylkbjjykgG4&list=RDylkbjjykgG4&start_radio=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylkbjjykgG4&list=RDylkbjjykg...
- Schlagbohrer 5mo agoSeeing 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 5mo ago
- globular-toast 5mo agoNever heard of this. I thought it was going to be about the Sasha and Digweed album. https://www.discogs.com/release/36165-Sasha-And-John-Digweed-Northern-Exposure https://www.discogs.com/release/36165-Sasha-And-John-Digweed...
- pndy 5mo agoAs 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.
- Sharlin 5mo agoIn Finland it was Villi pohjola - "The Wild North"
- Schlagbohrer 5mo agoHmmm, did that hit a bit different in Finland? A country which is actually just as north / further north than Alaska?
- Sharlin 5mo agoIn 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.
- saghm 5mo 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 5mo agoIn Croatian it was "Život na sjeveru" or Life in the North.
- dave9000 5mo agoIn Italy it was "Un medico tra gli orsi": "A doctor among the bears".
- alexyoung 5mo agoThere'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.
- martijn_himself 5mo agoThis 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.
- NoSalt 5mo 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 5mo agoIt 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 5mo agoI 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.
- walterbell 5mo agoFull series currently on Prime/iTunes for $20, with ~80% of the original music.
- 3RTB297 5mo agoFor 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 5mo agoI 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 https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernDisclosurePodcast/featured).
- technothrasher 5mo agoHave 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.
- newer_vienna 5mo agoObligatory 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
- noefingway 5mo ago"There are four words you need to know to adequately prepare yourself for childbirth. Take notes here, ladies: I...want...my...epidural."
- erghjunk 5mo agothe episode about the ice breaking up - where everyone is acting out of character - is one of my favorite episodes of television. great show.
- NetMageSCW 5mo agoMonarch of the Glen was another fish out of water series that hits a lot of Northern Exposure notes.
- ErroneousBosh 5mo agoA 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.