Written by Robin Green, Michael Katleman, Diane Frolov, Andrew Schneider, Jeff Vlaming, Mark B. Perry, Sy Rosen, Christian Williams, Mitchell Burgess, David Assael, Jeff Melvoin, Denise Dobbs and Geoffrey Neigher
Directed by Dean Parisot, Michael Katleman and Greg Marck,s Charles Braverman, Robert Thompson, Joan Tewkesbury, Randall Miller, Fresco M Dattias Phelp,s W Napolitano Joseph, R D’Elia Bill, Arkin Adam, Lange Jim Charleston, Prinzi Frank.
Northern Exposure was just coming off of being in its third season in which it received numerous Emmy nominations. Season Four would be the show’s biggest with twenty five episodes ordered for airing. These days most shows we get on the various streaming sites are around 8 to 10 episodes per season. Thirteen episodes feel like an indulgence. The longer seasons did not always mean more quality though. There are some really good parts of season four; however others are very wrong and old-fashioned nowadays Even so I’d watch this season again before I turn to a lot of modern television yet alone anything that feeds off cynicism. Season Four focused more on Maggie (Janine Turner) with more character development and a real arc. Though, initially there was a hook of Joel(Rob Morrow) being out of place, this season has shown that it is an ensemble show and the ‘good doctor’ simply forms one of many important characters in the story. The Northwest Passage, which happens to be the first episode of Season Four, concentrates its main plot on Maggie’s thirtieth anniversary that significantly makes her muse over her past life especially her numerous dead boyfriends.
Ed (Darren E. Burrows) convinces her to go through a Native tradition and spend the day alone. Joel discovers that Maggie is ill from a severe flu but she is already beyond reach via communication devices. When she falls into delirium where her ex-boyfriends’ talk about their regrets, Joel and Ed try to head downstream while looking for their friend. This initiates the whole exploration of Maggie’s personality throughout the season, allowing her to have another love interest totally different from Joel as well as take us back home where we meet Grosse Pointe residents, who ultimately break her heart. Turner on the other hand seems to have lost it and turned into a right-wing extremist after the NE. Nevertheless, I can say she acted dedicatedly in this scene and it was amazing.
Mike Monroe, played by Anthony Edwards and a lawyer who claims to have numerous allergies from the environment will be part of this romance. He is in Cicely, Alaska and lives in a sealed off sterilized geodesic dome only going outside with Maurice’s space suit from his days in Mercury program. Mike will often appear as an attorney so as to bring him into play several times. By season 5 it looks like Edwards was established as a regular cast member for the series. Edward’s behind the scenes actions would eventually see him join the cast of NBC’s new medical drama “ER” thus resulting to his exit from Northern Exposure.
Edwards finds a way to play Mike that grounds him in the reality of Cicely. In addition, this world is magical realist enough that someone like Mike fits right in. The character believes fully in environmental activism which governs some parts of certain episodes’ plots. Ed at one point realizes he should use filmmaking as his medium to inform people about their impact on earth through their activities.
The thing that makes this show so nice is that it took a lot of chances in discussing topics that modern television shies away from. But now we have snarky, jaded characters while Northern Exposure was only, well pure.
But that doesn’t mean they are all worthwhile. Late in the season an episode sees Maurice’s estranged Korean son visit because his father needs to give permission for him to get married as per their custom. The bride turns out to be a daughter of one of North Korea’s most brutal generals who also tortured and killed American soldiers during the Korean War. A gay couple manage a local bed and breakfast and one of them tells Maurice the fact he was once in the marines when they become friends after another guest dies under strange circumstances. And it is such an abnormal anticommunist twist for the series. I kept on waiting for them to say something about how she isn’t her father at all. I knew they wouldn’t tell us that America invaded Korea which then meant its soldiers’ lives were at risk here; instead we receive an extremely ambivalent ending with a really annoying outcome.’
With the passage of time, Holling and Shelly are not getting any cuter. Because the writers cannot pretend that this barrier does not exist in real life, many stories use it as a starting point for their jokes. By the end of this season, Shelly is pregnant and has developed an even more cringeworthy condition she sings every sentence she says. Perhaps it might not be so bad if Cynthia Geary was at least a decent singer. But she’s not. Moreover, John Cullum, a stage actor from Broadway, gets to share one scene with her through which he managed to emphasize how horrible her singing voice could be . It looks like this continues into season five and oh god let it just be one scene and done.
Some Episode Highlights from This Season are as Follows:
Midnight Sun (Episode 2) Joel is forced to deal with Alaska’s summer where there is midnight sun that makes him what the locals call “light loony.” Maurice then makes Joel coach of Cicely Quarks team for their yearly basketball match against Sleetmute. This episode lets Rob Morrow do more than his usual whining as Joel, which is all for the better.
Thanksgiving (Episode 8) – Joel experiences the native Natives’ Thanksgiving tradition of pelting them with vegetables. Most whites take it in their stride knowing the motive behind it. This makes him go apoplectic, in turn making a laughing stock out of him. At one time he even tried to argue that Ashkenazi Jews were not white people but Marilyn’s blank stare was an appropriate response.
Learning Curve (Episode 15) – This episode is prominent for having the best single scene in all of Holling’s episodes. The old head bartender goes back to school and finally earns his diploma, something that has eluded him for most of his life. Most of the episode plays out exactly as you would imagine. However, this is where it twists because Holling is asked to read aloud a personal narrative he once wrote to the entire class which happened to be a small bunch of students with varying ages at a time when there were still one-room schoolhouses so he talked about a violent event that took place in his saloon many years ago while discussing how he likes working with children at this bar; both his grammar does not make any sense whatsoever! I genuinely laughed my ass off when I saw what came next juxtaposed against these things.’
Homesick (E20) – One of the storylines in this episode is Maurice’s act of moving his childhood home from Oklahoma to Cicely. This triggers a lot of feelings he has about his little brother who died long ago. While young, Maurice got jealous of his brother’s magnetic fishing game and hid the fish under the stairs in their house. Chris helps Maurice deal with regrets about his past and various emotions that have not been dealt with yet. I thought this was a great little story.
The Big Feast (E21) – The best episode in the season! A lavish dinner party held at Maurice’s place as he spares no expense. People around town talk about past ones and how over-the-top they were. However, Joel appears to be the only person who did not receive an invitation, which irritates him even more every passing day towards D-day? Also featured in this episode are Adam and Eve, the weird couple whose lives seem like fairy tales.
In my point of view, season four equaled the third in quality. However, things will change since both showrunners are on their way out. Replacing them would be David Chase, who would go on to create and run The Sopranos. During Chase’s time in charge of Northern Exposure, there was a notable decline in quality that led to the shows cancelation after six seasons.
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