Northern Exposure Season Two

Episode 1 (9) "Goodbye to All That" 

Several fantasy sequences were used in this one to great effect. Also used clips from several tv shows, many of them in foreign languages (like a Japanese dubbed Magnum P.I.). Plus, there was a nice parallel story going on: Joel was fantasy-sequencing about Elaine after she dumped him via letter, and Shelly was struggling with becoming addicted to tv fantasies after Holling gives her a dish antenna which pulls in 200 channels from all over the world. 

Episode 2 (10) "The Big Kiss" 

Fantasy sequences have definitely become a mainstay of the series at this point...and it really, really works. Although

Episode 3 (11) "The Big Kiss"

actually didn't have one...or did it? Ed is visited by a spirit who guides him on a quest, and it's unclear as to whether this is "real" or not.

Episode 4 (12) "What I Did for Love" 

substitutes dreams for fantasy sequences...but that's really the same thing, isn't it?

After watching Season One I wasn't too sure how I felt about this series. The first four episodes didn't do much for me, but the final four starting getting me interested. After finishing Disc One of the second season, though, I was really enjoying this immensely. And maybe it's my imagination, but it seems to me that the two leads (Rob Morrow as Joel Fleischman & Janine Turner as Mary Margaret "Maggie" O'Connell) were acclimating to their roles, not over-acting nearly so often, just getting better at it. The rest of the cast is just delightful, especially Darren Burrows as Ed Chigliak and John Corbett as Christopher Danforth Stevens. I laughed out loud several times during these four episodes. Oh, the writers are also doing a good job of bringing the romance between Joel and Maggie temperature up very slowly...and believably. That frog is going to get boiled.

Episode 5 (13) "Spring Break"

Two things on this episode: (1) the visiting police officer, played by Diane Delano, looked and sounded exACTly like Katie Sackhoff. So much so that I really thought that it WAS her.

(2) At one point in the show, Dr. Joel's secretary says, "White people. They get crazy." Which goes along with the "White people can't see him" thing in "The Big Kiss." I like the way that the "native" perspective creeps into the goings-on. Oh, and one more thing: (3) the parody of the "Simply Irresistible" video was pretty fuckin' funny.

Episode 6 (14) "War and Peace" The ending of this episode was my favorite Northern Exposure moment to date, and one of my favorite television moments ever. Don't want to say too much, but will note that the fourth wall was not just broken, it was shattered, and then the shards were kicked about like a soccer ball in the final moments of a World Cup game. Definitely must see tv here.

Episode 7 (15) "Slow Dance"

Well, anything after (14) would be anticlimactic, but this one had some moments. TBH, I didn't find the whole Absurd Death and Funeral to be at all funny, but maybe I'm just persnickety about that kind of stuff. Death becomes significantly less funny when you're a 65 year old guy living with heart failure.

Onward to Season Three...as soon as the library gets it to me, which might be awhile, alas. Why oh why did they stop fining us for being late? That's just not the thing to do, man.

Speaking of, I happened to see that Walmart has The Complete Northern Exposure for sale for a mere $40. It's worth doing, and I probably would have done it, but I'm thinking that (1) I'll probably never watch this series again, so all I'd be buying was the convenience of being able to binge out, (2) I don't know anybody I could loan these things to, so they'd just sit on my shelf until I die, and (3) the library isn't prompt with loaning the seasons out--since they only have one copy of most of them--but they do hold all of the seasons. Besides, having to wait sometimes heightens the pleasure. So I'm going to wait. 

I think.

BTW, from the Something to Look Forward To Department:  Episode 74 guest stars a 23 year old Regina King. She is so superb in Southland and HBO's Watchmen. (A shame she does those asinine commercials, though. Ain't it funny how money can make you deaf as well as blind?#)

* That's Dave Stewart giving David Bowie some lyrical shit in "Diamond Avenue"--a superb song on a truly great album: Dave Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboys.