NORTHERN EXPOSURE. (1990-1995) COMEDY DRAMA SERIES CREATED BY JOSHUA BRAND AND JOHN FALSEY.
STARRING ROB MORROW, JANINE TURNER, BARRY CORBIN, JOHN CULLUM, CYNTHIA GEARY, JOHN CORBETT, DARREN E. BURROWS, PEG PHILLIPS AND ELAINE MILES. MORT THE MOOSE AS HIMSELF.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
'Is this it? Is this the town?'
'This is it. This is Cicely.'
'You signed a contract, Joel, but more than that, you gave your word.'
'Gimme a bagel and cream cheese.'
'What's a bagel...?'
'I can't sleep without the bus fumes, the din of traffic and crazy people out on the street.'
'Alaska is not a place to run away from the world. Alaska IS the world.'
'There's nothing like an interesting sex-life to get people reading again.'
'This (Cicely) is the worst place on Earth.'
Ever seen a moose walking down the street? No? We'll, you've obviously never been to the little town of Cicely in Alaska, where that kind of thing happens routinely. Cicely is the little arse-end-of-nowhere town to which recently qualified New York City doctor Joel Fleischman has been sent to work as a general practitioner.
For four years, according to the terms of his student loan which was underwritten by the state of Alaska. It's a legally binding contract, so he can't get out of it, much as he'd like to. He'd kill to get out of it, lol, as he hates Alaska and misses New York, where he's got a fiancée called Elaine and he can buy a bagel with cream cheese pretty much anytime he fancies, even in the middle of the night if he feels like it.
Cicely is a one-horse, or should I say one-moose, town with only about eight hundred and fifty inhabitants, many of whom range from the quirkily eccentric to the outright bonkers. Joel, a neurotic young Jewish chappie with a distinct tendency to over-react to things, freaks out when he sees that his doctors' office, situated in the old abandoned North Western Mining Company building, is not ready for him yet.
Wait till he sees that his second patient is a beaver, an actual massive beaver who needs dental treatment, and his sixth one is a man whose wife keeps trying to kill him for some reason. Can Joel save Walter and Edna's marriage with his city-slicker advice?
Joel's lucky to have Marilyn, a friendly Native American Indian lady, as his receptionist and Girl Friday. She doesn't say much but her wise, calm and sensible demeanour is the perfect foil for Joel's New Yoik-type panicky hysterics.
Maggie pilots a plane, an air-taxi that ferries people around the place because everywhere in Alaska is so far away from everywhere else. Joel's mistaking her for a prostitute at their first meeting sets the tone for their love-hate relationship straightaway. 'I'm not a hooker, you jerk. I'm your landlord!'
It's obvious that the pair of them are attracted to each other. When the baby-faced Joel gets tipsy one night he utters the following immortal words: 'You have the reddest lips I've ever seen. I don't think I've ever seen lips that red, except on a birthday balloon.'
Well, any girl that doesn't fall for that chat-up line must have a heart of stone, lol. 'What is it about you, Fleischman, that so irritates me?' Maggie ponders. 'You are clearly attracted to me and it makes you uncomfortable,' replies Joel, who obviously has a lot to learn about women.
He's got Elaine, his betrothed in New York, and Maggie, whose boyfriends apparently have a habit of upping and dying on her, has a live-in lover called Rick. Between you and me, I don't think she loves this Rick fella, so watch this space.
Joel would be mad not to snap her up if he can at all. She's intelligent, independent and feisty and she looks like Natalie Imbruglia. Or picture Angelina Jolie with a short sleek cap of dark hair and there she is, that's Maggie O'Connell.
Their will they-won't they relationship reminds me of Cybill Shepherd's and Bruce Willis's in MOONLIGHTING or Anthony Head's and Sharon Maughan's in that brilliant old coffee advert for GOLD BLEND or whatever it was. Sexual chemistry, sexual tension, meaningful looks and knock-down-drag-out fights there'll be plenty of. It'll be an interesting journey, anyway...
The rest of Cicely's inhabitants are just as colourful. Maurice (prounounced Moe-reese) Minnifield is the town's richest inhabitant and probably its most dominant personality. A 'good ole boy' who is both a former fighter pilot and celebrated astronaut, he owns the town's newspaper and radio station, at which he loves to play his favourite showtunes.
Maurice is mouthy, opinionated and even hilariously bigoted but with a heart of gold underneath the bluster. He gets some of the show's funniest lines. Here's his take on Walt Whitman: 'Walt Whitman was a pervert, but he was the best damn poet that America ever produced, and if he were standing here today and someone called him a fruit, that someone would have to answer to me.'
And on the Japanese: 'You never turn your back on 'em, and you never, EVER mention Pearl Harbour. If you cross these guys, you sleep with the sushi.' On Joel's unfinished office premises: 'A few curtains, a couple-a heads (moose heads!) on the wall, and you're in business.'
On heroes: 'We need our heroes. We need men we can look up to, men who walk tall. We can't chop them off at the knees just to prove they're like the rest of us.' To Joel himself, Maurice says: 'I've enjoyed our dialogues over the past couple-a weeks and I've come to think of us as kindred spirits. I hope you feel the same.'
To which Joel expostulates: 'Maurice, you tried to blow my head off with a shotgun!' Quick as a flash, Maurice replies: 'Aw, hell, son, that warn't nuthin' personal! Besides, you had it coming.' Seems like Joel's gotta lot to learn about the people of Cicely.
Maurice has a softer side too. He's heartbroken when his beautiful younger girlfriend Shelley, whom he brought to Cicely in the first place, leaves him for Holling Vincoeur, the town's Mayor and the landlord of its one watering-hole, THE BRICK.
The eighteen-year-old Shelley has some serious Daddy-Issues. Both these men are in their sixties and her own father seems to be something of a deadbeat, so go figure. When she announces that she's pregnant by the commitment-phobic Holling, poor Maurice doesn't know how he's going to cope with her loss. Maybe singing will help...
Young Ed Chigliak is a half-Native American Indian who adores movies and who's a dead ringer for a young Keanu Reeves here. His Uncle Anku owns a sauna, about which he- the Uncle- remarks to Joel in a typically deadpan fashion: 'It came with a warranty. But I'd have to ship it to Finland to get it serviced, so I did it myself.'
Ed's Uncle Anku is a loveable old rogue. There's a real CROCODILE DUNDEE moment when Dr. Fleischman asks him how he knows he has prostate cancer. 'I saw it in a dream,' the crafty old Indian says in response. 'I read a few tea-leaves.' Then he adds: 'I saw a cancer specialist in Anchorage. Haha, I gotcha there, Doc.' Cute...!
Widowed Ruth-Anne Miller runs the general store-cum-library and Chris-In-The-Morning is the rather hot ex-con disc jockey who works at Maurice's radio station- you guessed it- in the morning. The town of Cicely has everything in it that it needs for now but, be warned, they might be getting a video store at some point in the future too. Might. We have it on good authority from Ed. You heard it here first...
NORTHERN EXPOSURE, which has garnered more awards than I could possibly list here, is the nicest, warmest, funniest drama series I've watched in ages, and it has a great theme tune, sparkling writing and stunning scenery as well. Also, I really want to see how life pans out for the characters. I've never been so emotionally invested so early on in a television series, which is strange but nice.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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