Last night, Thomas and I watched the last episode of season 5 of Northern Exposure. I never watched the show in its original run; I was a Twin Peaks fan. So for the last 3 years, I've been taking in the show in seasons as it has been released to box set. There's one left to go.
Season 5 was a particularly strong batch of episodes, many of which moved me to tears. I sat and wept continuously for almost the entire half an hour leading up to the birth of Miranda Bliss Tamboe Vincoeur. Thomas and I often finish an episode by talking about how much we'd love to live in Cicely, Alaska, despite the cold, the bears and the dark.
Last night, Joel finished the episode by saying, "I'm one of you now. I'm Cicelian." And I thought, ultimately, that's the message and the draw of this show, that every single person, whether from New York or Grosse Point, Seattle or Topeka, looks at that place and finds a part of his or her self there. Maybe it's also that we all have some pioneer spirit left, or a desire to leave it all behind and find a simpler world, or one in which everyone fits in because there is nothing to do but pull together during the long, dark, frozen winters.
Today, in light of the Virginia Tech shootings, all of those options seem pretty appealing.
4 comments:
I never watched Northern Exposure until it was in syndication, and I adored it.
It seems sad that we need a tragedy to give us a sense of community anymore.
We got the seasons off Netflix, too -- my husband had watched it when it originally aired but I'd never seen it. I adore it, too. I was sad when each season ended, and I had to wait for Netflix to come out with the next one. I almost don't want to watch the sixth season because then it will be over, which is kind of ridiculous in a way, since it went off the air like 10 years ago.
Emily, I agree! I don't want it to be over.
We own them all and like to take them camping and watch them on the laptop.
I watched the show when it was really on, mostly because it really reminds me of my hometown in upstate New York (we didn't have any Moose walking down Main Street, but it wasn't uncommon to see a large deer or black bear). Also, everybody knows everybody and age proximity has nothing to do with friendship when there is so few friends to have. Love this show. Love Ruth Ann, especially.
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