There is so much in this episode, I don't know where to start. Of course, at the very center is the demise of Maggie's fifth boyfriend. He is killed when a piece of a satellite falls on him while he is camping. Maurice sells his little property to a couple of gay men who will be turning it into a B & B and regrets it immediately. There is an amazing funeral scene where the poor victim of the satellite has become absorbed with the device and can't be separated, so a gerry rigged coffin with antennae coming out it is brought into the church. But what is really neat is that while the town is laughing at Maggie's bad luck, Joel sees she is in pain and becomes human for a bit. My favorite episode so far.
2 Reviews
I Am Doing This For Civilisation
matthewjmiles27 March 2019
And here we go, I've finished the second season of Northern Exposure much quicker than I thought. Actually, each season's episode count makes for something of a mystery as there's only two seasons with the same number of episodes, and between Season 2 and 3 it jumps drastically from 7 to 23 episodes. Clearly something important happened in that time to give the show that level of trust, but I'm not complaining. If anything it worked in the best way: the first two seasons have lower episode counts as the writers and the cast take their time finding their strengths and tweaking the nature of the show, and then there's extremely high episode counts to reward the fans of the early show for the next four seasons.
It was at the conclusion of the last season that I really came to appreciate the poignancy and philosophy offered by some of the characters, plus each additional surreal occurrence that has particularly enticed me. The 'Aurora Borealis' episode, in no small words, amazed me, and this finale didn't - but I found altogether different strengths in it, along with the same tone consistent in each episode. I feel like it reaches a milestone, either in this episode or in the most recent couple, of finally feeling like each of the characters has settled in. We know largely what to expect from a Maurice subplot as opposed to one featuring Ed, and the balance is being found between the characters and the actors who play them to reel in wholesome moments, entertaining conversations and to enhance the small, eccentric world in which Northern Exposure takes place. We can understand and relate to all of the characters now, despite their living in a particularly unique situation outside of most of our experiences, and I personally can say that I would watch them go through anything at this point, and the weirder it is, the better. There's certainly a point fast approaching, also, where adding in a couple of new primary characters would be appropriate, and a little bird told me that may just happen.
This season was extremely enjoyable, and I especially liked learning more about the supporting characters instead of just following Fleischman about - but speaking of the doctor you can plainly see the development of his character even over this small amount of episodes - as he becomes more comfortable in Cicely, so do we with him. He's probably the biggest source of comedy for me at this point, and as the show should, he's not the obvious 'main character' anymore, the town is the main character, and I've really enjoyed finding more out about the town. Onwards, to the extremely long third season.
It was at the conclusion of the last season that I really came to appreciate the poignancy and philosophy offered by some of the characters, plus each additional surreal occurrence that has particularly enticed me. The 'Aurora Borealis' episode, in no small words, amazed me, and this finale didn't - but I found altogether different strengths in it, along with the same tone consistent in each episode. I feel like it reaches a milestone, either in this episode or in the most recent couple, of finally feeling like each of the characters has settled in. We know largely what to expect from a Maurice subplot as opposed to one featuring Ed, and the balance is being found between the characters and the actors who play them to reel in wholesome moments, entertaining conversations and to enhance the small, eccentric world in which Northern Exposure takes place. We can understand and relate to all of the characters now, despite their living in a particularly unique situation outside of most of our experiences, and I personally can say that I would watch them go through anything at this point, and the weirder it is, the better. There's certainly a point fast approaching, also, where adding in a couple of new primary characters would be appropriate, and a little bird told me that may just happen.
This season was extremely enjoyable, and I especially liked learning more about the supporting characters instead of just following Fleischman about - but speaking of the doctor you can plainly see the development of his character even over this small amount of episodes - as he becomes more comfortable in Cicely, so do we with him. He's probably the biggest source of comedy for me at this point, and as the show should, he's not the obvious 'main character' anymore, the town is the main character, and I've really enjoyed finding more out about the town. Onwards, to the extremely long third season.
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