For years I’ve wanted to re-watch Northern Exposure and finally it’s on Amazon Prime Video. I loved that show and would reference it occasionally in conversation, as recent as six months ago. Happy dance it’s back!!
I finished the re-watch a couple of weeks ago. Through it I was thinking about my experience watching it in the 90s and watching it now. When the show started in the 90s, I was 22 years old, younger than Maggie and Joel. It was a different world then. No cell phones, social media, a generation of GenX watching boomers trying to figure out adulthood through a show that challenged philosophically and metaphysically. Remember Thirtysomething? Television was ubiquitous for those of us in the Reality Bites generation (GenX). We were cynical from the bullying boomers who called us slackers among other things. We also were trying to figure ourselves out during that time and were using that medium to help by viewing what the boomers were doing and how they were messing up and ways we could be better. We went to work/school and talked about the show the next day and it helped us get through. We quickly figured out that they didn’t have a clue how to navigate life (our parents were some old boomers, some WWII/Korea/Viet Nam vets) and that we were on our own. In their view our life was cake. But still there was a solace in asking the big questions and doing it our own way on our own. For the most part GenX was not lazy slackers as we were labeled, we just had a highly tuned bullshit detector and worked hard doing our thing under the radar. On our underbellies beneath the cynical exterior, we care more than we let on. So, this show was loved by GenX thinkers like me.
Now I’m rewatching in my 50s and find my perspective has definitely changed. For one thing, I’m older and hopefully wiser, not struggling with the same relationship issues from my 20s. I find some things bug me more – like the age difference between Holling and Shelly, and the insensitivity of Marilyn (she could have just given Joel a call from Seattle, so he didn’t worry!! Shades of my own children’s lack of concern for my worry!). But I also find the relationship between Ruth Anne and Ed (hints of Harold and Maude**), and Holling and Maurice to be sweeter and more inspiring. And Joel’s whining is more grating, Maggie’s independence not so much independent (she always had to have a man), and Chris less self-actualized in his meanderings although still thought provoking. I guess what I’m saying is that perspectives change but the brilliance of the show is that it survives the test of time. It’s still fresh because there are new things to see and think about in a different way. I would say all of the characters are unlikable in some way, but the amazing thing is how there is still a spirit of community, no matter the differences.
I don’t think this show would/could be made or accepted today. All the characters would be home glued to their cell phones instead of out interacting. Instead of accepting each other’s differences they would all be offended by each other and fighting in the streets. Watching NE makes me long for a time and place that never was, but that I still thought might be possible. I doubt that kind of community and cooperation is possible today. So, I’ll watch the show again, even through my older, more jaded eyes, and just enjoy the fantasy with its quirky appeal as the cynical idealist that I am.
Note: the soundtrack for every episode was phenomenal and stands the test of time. It was groundbreaking to have that in a television series in the 90s and set the stage for future higher quality work beyond laugh tracks and canned music.
**Harold and Maude’s characters are ironic like Ed and Ruth Ann. Harold, although unwillingly, represents the conformity of older generations to their country while Maude represents a rise against the machine, so to speak.
Our Humble Road 