Saturday, June 09, 2012

Old times

The watchseries.eu portal provides access to practically every series ever made. Free and no hassle. So I stumbled on one of my favorite things about the 90's: Northern Exposure.





Quirky, smart, from amusing to very funny. A great cast of characters in very small town Cicely, Alaska. Sarah Palin's neck of the woods. Ex Cathedra wasn't a twinkle in the Net's eye back then either and he was way less curmudgeonly. He liked Chris more than Maurice; now I wish Chris would just shut up. It was life after the fall of Communism and before 9/11...or 2008's financial crash and electoral catastrophe. The Clinton era. (It was also the age of AIDS, so I don't mean to romanticize it.)

I never forgave Rob Morrow, annoying asshole that he was,  for leaving mid-season and signing its death warrant. A New York Jew, the perfect example of someone who thinks himself worldly and sophisticated but who cannot adapt to the actual differences around --or in his eyes, beneath-- him.


In fact, NE's combination of predictable liberal themes and pieties, and blithely unPC unfolding of human nature in its weird cast of characters --an endearing combo of smugness and self-mockery--made it a kind of updated American version of Amarcord with a touch of Lake Wobegon and Charlie Brown.

It had that confined space quality, peopled by flawed but likeable characters in conflict. A structure I like in Tales of the City, Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey.

I am much enjoying these stories again, sorta like visiting old friends. Nice.

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