(Season 1, Episodes 3-4)
My adventures into the world of Cicely, Alaska continue, and it seems like things are beginning to settle in a bit. More of the quirky characters of Northern Exposure are being introduced and fleshed out. In all honesty, I’m finding the supporting characters a whole lot more compelling than Joel, but I think that is the point. It seems like he is being put forward as the straight man, or the every man, against the backdrop of quirk.
“Soapy Sanderson”
Most of the action in this episode focused on Maggie and Joel. Joel really revealed himself to be a selfish creep in this outing. Sure, in the first couple episodes he was a whiny baby, trying to find a way to get out of Alaska, but he didn’t seem like that bad of a guy. In this episode, though, that sort of changed. When he and Maggie inherited a huge tract of land, he went behind her back and sold it to a local group of Indians. He planned to pocket all the money for himself (and hire a good lawyer to get him out of his contract), while going behind Maggie’s back. That’s pretty low.
The other notable part of this episode was the guest starring turn put in by an incredibly young Christa Miller. Man, she was barely recognizable, but she has a very distinct voice. She has changed quite a bit in twenty years.
“Dreams, Schemes and Putting Greens”
I’m not sure if it was just my mood or if things are starting to settle in on the show, but I really enjoyed this episode. The dialogue seemed a lot snappier than usual, particularly between Joel and Maggie. I’m enjoying the bickering between the two of them much better than the awkward flirting. I think the antagonistic relationship really works for both of them.
The main focus of this episode was the pregnancy of Shelly, and the marriage between she and Holling. I liked that the show turned an old cliche on its head. Instead of Shelly being concerned about the age difference between her and Holling, it was Holling who had misgivings. Even though Shelly was more than 40 years his junior, he was still afraid that he was going to outlive her and be miserable without her, as all the men in his family had lived over 100 years. I thought it was a clever way to breathe new life into a cliched situation.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Jun 15, 2010 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
