While still yet to achieve the brilliance of later episodes, 'Dreams, Schemes and Putting Greens' nonetheless is still vintage Northern Exposure. With a plot that, for the most part, relies on a fair amount of humor, particularly regarding Joel and Maurice schmoozing some Japanese businessmen, we're treated to what really made the early seasons of the show work: a deft, light-comedy that underpinned and permeated the more serious aspects of the show, namely, Shelly and Holling's wedding.
Northern Exposure (TV Series)
Dreams, Schemes and Putting Greens (1990)
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Colorful but Uneven Slice of Life in Cicely
darryl-tahirali27 November 2023
When Maurice squires two Japanese investors, Chiba (Lenny Imamura) and Masuto (Michael Paul Chan), around Cicely, hoping to entice them into building a resort, Joel senses an opportunity to benefit in "Dreams, Schemes and Putting Greens" but gets more than he bargained for in this colorful but uneven slice of Cicelian life. Sean Clark's workmanlike script also has Maurice revert to broad bigotry while introducing overly pronounced high school-styled antagonism between Joel and Maggie, but it also gives fuller detail to the relationship between Holling and Shelly Tambo while illuminating the torch Maurice still carries for Shelly.
Shelly's visit to Joel confirms that she's pregnant with Holling's child, and her breaking the news to him causes Holling, after the initial shock, to propose marriage. As maid of honor, Maggie informs Joel that he is to be Holling's best man. Meanwhile, Ed oversees construction of an Astroturf golf course Joel and Maurice use to curry favor with the somewhat shady Japanese. However, on the wedding day, Holling disappears, humiliating Shelly and fueling Maurice's hopes that she will return to him. But when Shelly does arrive at Maurice's doorstep, the favor she asks of him is not what he expected.
With a breezy mix of humor and exposition, including a visit by Shelly's father Gorman (Anthony Curry) for the wedding, "Dreams, Schemes and Putting Greens," paced smoothly by director Dan Lerner, paints more of the background of Cicely and its colorful residents, particularly the backstories of Shelly and Holling and how they relate to Maurice. Also gaining traction is David Schwartz's distinctive incidental music and equally singular songs on the soundtrack ranging from Ryu Sakamoto's 1961 pop hit "Sukiyaki" to Kitty Wells's groundbreaking 1952 country lament "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels," whose ubiquity suggests already that it's a favorite on the jukebox at Holling's bar The Brick. (And although it isn't featured on the soundtrack, the episode's title is adapted from a lyric in the Joni Mitchell song "Both Sides, Now": "Dreams and schemes and circus crowds.")
Despite their too-adolescent feuding, Rob Morrow and Janine Turner are forging a convincing rhythm, with Turner gaining confidence opposite an increasingly assured Morrow. Veteran Barry Corbin bears up under some onerous dialogue that exaggerates Maurice's redneck origins and some deliberately labored singing ("Hello Young Lovers") best understood as a sly joke while John Cullum and Cynthia Geary begin to develop their characters' offbeat March-November chemistry: Shelly is barely legal while Holling will soon be Medicare-eligible. Meanwhile, Chan, whose Masuto gives the impression that he doesn't speak English, gets the lion's share of the reaction shots before delivering his hilarious parting zinger.
REVIEWER'S NOTE: What makes a review "helpful"? Every reader of course decides that for themselves. For me, a review is helpful if it explains why the reviewer liked or disliked the work or why they thought it was good or not good. Whether I agree with the reviewer's conclusion is irrelevant. "Helpful" reviews tell me how and why the reviewer came to their conclusion, not what that conclusion may be. Differences of opinion are inevitable. I don't need "confirmation bias" for my own conclusions. Do you?
Shelly's visit to Joel confirms that she's pregnant with Holling's child, and her breaking the news to him causes Holling, after the initial shock, to propose marriage. As maid of honor, Maggie informs Joel that he is to be Holling's best man. Meanwhile, Ed oversees construction of an Astroturf golf course Joel and Maurice use to curry favor with the somewhat shady Japanese. However, on the wedding day, Holling disappears, humiliating Shelly and fueling Maurice's hopes that she will return to him. But when Shelly does arrive at Maurice's doorstep, the favor she asks of him is not what he expected.
With a breezy mix of humor and exposition, including a visit by Shelly's father Gorman (Anthony Curry) for the wedding, "Dreams, Schemes and Putting Greens," paced smoothly by director Dan Lerner, paints more of the background of Cicely and its colorful residents, particularly the backstories of Shelly and Holling and how they relate to Maurice. Also gaining traction is David Schwartz's distinctive incidental music and equally singular songs on the soundtrack ranging from Ryu Sakamoto's 1961 pop hit "Sukiyaki" to Kitty Wells's groundbreaking 1952 country lament "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels," whose ubiquity suggests already that it's a favorite on the jukebox at Holling's bar The Brick. (And although it isn't featured on the soundtrack, the episode's title is adapted from a lyric in the Joni Mitchell song "Both Sides, Now": "Dreams and schemes and circus crowds.")
Despite their too-adolescent feuding, Rob Morrow and Janine Turner are forging a convincing rhythm, with Turner gaining confidence opposite an increasingly assured Morrow. Veteran Barry Corbin bears up under some onerous dialogue that exaggerates Maurice's redneck origins and some deliberately labored singing ("Hello Young Lovers") best understood as a sly joke while John Cullum and Cynthia Geary begin to develop their characters' offbeat March-November chemistry: Shelly is barely legal while Holling will soon be Medicare-eligible. Meanwhile, Chan, whose Masuto gives the impression that he doesn't speak English, gets the lion's share of the reaction shots before delivering his hilarious parting zinger.
REVIEWER'S NOTE: What makes a review "helpful"? Every reader of course decides that for themselves. For me, a review is helpful if it explains why the reviewer liked or disliked the work or why they thought it was good or not good. Whether I agree with the reviewer's conclusion is irrelevant. "Helpful" reviews tell me how and why the reviewer came to their conclusion, not what that conclusion may be. Differences of opinion are inevitable. I don't need "confirmation bias" for my own conclusions. Do you?
Two People in Different Worlds--Yet the Same
Hitchcoc28 January 2024
Shelly goes to see Dr. Fleischman because of a possible illness. She already knows she is pregnant but wants to know what to do. Holling is the father. When he finds out, he proposes to her (he's 63 and she is 18. This turns into a mess, of course, as wedding plans come and go. Meanwhile, Maurice is courting a couple of Japanese investors who are talking a major resort hotel with all the trimmings. But Maurice is a bigot and a xenophobe and puts the worst foot out there. Joel gets caught up in the fact that these guys would build a golf course and he could be attending physician. I wish I could say I was enamored with this one, but there was something sort of off about it.
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