With the possible exception of "The X-files" I love "Northern Exposure" more passionately than any other show ever televised. Northern Exposure takes us back to the show's halcyon days when we got our first taste of Joel and Maggie's quasi-romantic sparring, of Holling and Shelly's May-September love, of Chris's half-brilliant, half-scatterbrained philosophizing, of Maurice's slow burns and Marilyn's unflappable calm. Northern Exposure takes us to its own cozy, quirky little world and envelops us in it...in a a perfect sixty-minute vacation of escapism and humanity. The premise of the show is simple: It's a fish out of water situation for the new family doctor (a recently graduated family physician who also happens to be Jewish and who's idea of roughing it is a stroll through Central Park) who moves to Alaska because the state picked up the tab for his education on the condition that he becomes the family doctor for 5 years up there. He goes through the usual efforts to pry himself loose from the situation but eventually finds himself blending in and accommodating his new lifestyle with the new friends he meets.

I was 20 when I watched it for the first time. It struck me with it's depth, sense of humor, mysticism. After 20 years I got DVD edition, and could not stop watching. After 110 episodes I put the first DVD to the player again. After the second turn I did it again. And again. It is unbelievable how Cicely became my hometown, how it's inhabitants became my friends. Never before and never later have I felt such a bond with fictional characters.Of course, I can see very poorly built Maggie/Joel interactions, I can see occasional pretension, some clichés (or rather some things which NOW seem to be cliché, but were original back in 1990), I can see sometimes desperate attempts to tie some loose ends of the screenplay.But all that doesn't matter because of overwhelming climate of peace, friendship, love, pensiveness, with ingenious, extremely surprising ideas from the edge of poetry, humanity, philosophy and simple life. It is the ONLY show ever that really makes you THINK and feel. The only which gives you as deep experiences. The only which makes me laugh and cry (almost).The bad thing is, however, that present viewers can not appreciate it. Why? No firearms. No lasers. No rapes. No murderers. No fights. No blood on the walls. No naked chicks. No intestinal gases. No swearing. No sport cars. Ergo, it is boring.By the way (spoilers): The series were aired 1990-95. In 1994 the "Friends" show launched. If you know both of them well enough you will see that "Friends" are almost "Northern Exposure" remake, but as just simple comedy (with intestinal gases included), of much lower intellectual level. There are hundreds of similarities, not obvious but visible (e.g. one of the friends is ordained and performs marriages (Chris/Joey), Rick/Phoebe's mom after death comes back as a dog/cat, Ruth-Anne cannot learn Italian - Joey cannot learn French, Rick/Ross die by a blimp/satellite, and so on - almost every little detail in Friends is copied from the Northern Exposure if you pay attention).Anyway, if you are able to think and to feel, if you want to experience something really peaceful and deep - it is a "must see".

For a 90's TV show you can't get more humor, drama, romance and mystery than in Northern Exposure. Pittoresque characters like Holling intertwine with street philosophers (Chris) and arrogant entrepreneurs as Maurice. The "cat and mice like" romance is taken care by Joel and Maggie and local culture is also represented by Marylin. But my favorite character is by far Adam, the most sarcastic and ironic nutcase in TV history. I could call this show 40% fantasy. It has the scenery and script of a fairy tail sometimes with all the day- dreaming and cinematographic metaphors embedded in it. You get from the beginning that the writers don't want a stereotypic and cliché ending but "oh my god" we are in for a surprise. And not a fun one. Joel not ending up with Maggie is the biggest disappointment. The second one is the fantasy ending of Joel's character. A too big of a metaphor for this kind of show. One thing I liked: the postcard received by Maggie with the message: "New York is a state of mind". That reveal all the answers to our questions: "Did Joel really returned to NY or his is still in deep wild landscape of Alaska?". That postcard was the "great finale", the song of the swan for this show, the epic ending of a fantastic character that finally discovered that leaving NY for Alaska was a spiritual journey that will mature and educate his soul. After that episode "The Quest", you can say goodbye to NE. If before we still hoped a future for Joel and Maggie, now everything is shattered into pieces and all the life of the show is diminished, the humor drops, the characters seam out of balance, the drama ceases to exist and joining Maggie with Chris is absolutely pathetic: the two don't click, Chris's energy and charm are killed; Maggie is to peaceful and it does not suit her. From my point of view the ending was sad. On the other hand, the song in the end was terrific - Iris Dement, Our town.

I have just watched an episode on DVD for the first time since the series left the network. It reminded me why I liked the series so much - they had some serious topics presented in such a way to be funny - yet informative.And talk about characters! One poster couldn't stand Rob Morrow - I don't understand that - each character was a bit eccentric yet contributes so much to the series - I would say that like the strength of Seinfeld combining all these characters brought a synergy and power to the series.The episode I just watched - Rob Morrow's character is lamenting the fact that there are so few Jews where he lives - feeling like he was alone. In the same episode Ed Chugliak is filming another character "last of his breed" - an Indian knowing how to make flutes passed down from generation to generation - now the last. And finally Holling Vincouer is contemplating death with a mid life crisis - It was brilliant writing dealing with serious subjects in a humorous and lighthearted way. Too bad there aren't more shows of this caliber.