Northern Exposure

So, what with this crazy long, cold, snowy winter we're having, it goes without saying that we spend a lot of time indoors. A lot. Cabin fever has hovered over us for the past month or so. But, one of the advanages of so much indoor time is free reign to indulge in the quiet, peaceful, more sedentary activities that get thrown by the wayside during the busy spring and summer just around the corner. Just around the corner. If I say it enough, it WILL be true. Bear with me.

Anyway, we got rid of our cable last year, because we didn't want commercials and newscasters intruding into our family time. Besides, even without that, there just wasn't anything on worth watching. Not being big reality tv or sports fans, it really wasn't much of a sacrifice at all. But, lest you get the idea that we spend our evenings engaged in deep, intellectual conversation, let me add that we're hardly purists. In fact, we probably watch the television just as much (if not more) than before, but at least we control what's coming in. Netflix is my most favorite thing in the whole wide world, and we watch oodles of movies and tv shows on DVD (or instant play if we're lucky!), probably more than we should, especially in the winter.

Our favorite thing to watch lately has been Northern Exposure. Do you remember that show? It first aired in 1990, so I was, let's see, nine years old. I vaguely remember my parents watching it, but I never paid any attention to it. Even my dear hubby, who has (ahem) a few years on me, only faintly recollects watching the show. Well, my friends, we are making up for lost time. I don't know if they make television shows like this anymore or not, but I don't know of any (not that I would). It's perfect! I love shows that center around an entire town or set of characters as opposed to one or two main characters, and that's exactly how Northern Exposure is. Interweaving through the lives of the townspeople of tiny Cicely, Alaska, you get a peek at small town eccentricities combined with the rugged Alaskan wilderness lifestyle.

There's Joel, the neurotic, fish out of water New York doctor whose disdain for the rustic, backwoods ways of the town evolves over the course of the show. Then there's Maggie: the Amelia Earhardt-esque bush pilot (few people could pull off that haircut, but Janine Turner manages to do it, and still look gorgeous). Joel and Maggie's love/hate relationship drives the first few seasons.

Holling and Shelley, the May/December It couple of Cicely and owners of The Brick, the local watering hole (where one can order both breakfast and bourbon).

Then there's Maurice, the former astronaut, town bigwig, whom you can't help but love despite his grumpy, egotistical demeanor.

Ed Chigliac is a young Native American who dreams of joining the ranks of Woody Allen and Stephen Spielberg as a filmmaker. Ed's tough to explain, but if you know the show, you love him to pieces.

Marilyn Whirlwind is Joel's assistant. Her quiet wisdom is a perfect foil to Joel's neurotic, "educated" sensibilities.

And then there's Chris. Ahh, Chris. My hubby has been very tolerant of my growing crush on Chris Stevens, Cicely's DJ, minister (ordained by an ad in the back of Rolling Stone magazine), mystic, former convict, and all around sexy man of God. Perhaps it helped that I told him he looked a little like John Corbet. And he does. :)

Oh, indeed, we've become quite fond of these folks, and sometimes find ourselves talking about them, like they're real people we know. What, you've never done that? :) We're currently in the middle of season 4, and I'm getting a bit sad at the thought that there are only two more to go, but hopefully that will be just enough to get us through the rest of the winter, and then who has time for tv anyway, right?