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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.”)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
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
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.
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.
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."
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Soap opera of people being nice
Rick is struck by a satellite falling out of the sky, no action?!
They had to make openings in the coffin because it "fused with the body". Adam and Eve, Chris' ramblings and this.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.”)
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.
I'm wondering what alternative you would suggest?
Ha! Same.
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
One of my favorite tunes ever is from Northern Exposure: Expeditions
The Silence by Mike Koglin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHDdM_0sotY
Yeah, I was/am a Depeche Mode fan
Northern Exposure is the otherside Twin Peaks. Hits the same comfy note just at the opposite spectrum.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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".
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.
Filmed in Roslyn, WA - https://movielandmarks.com/#lm-1003
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
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.
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.
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".
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."
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.
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.
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).
That piano trebuchet!
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.
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.
cle ellum, wa
Rosyln.
Roslyn and Cle Elum are next to each other.
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.