Northern Exposure is about a New York doctor paying off medical school loans by signing a contract to work in a rugged Alaskan village.
To place an outsider into a world which is foreign to him and force him to integrate into a culture so unlike his own, via the very nature of his job-being a doctor, can be categorized as a standard fish out of water story like so many have been told before. The difference is, how do they tell that story? Character development, mood is how Northern Exposure does it.
As the shows progress you see there are times that the good doctor feels like he's part of a community. He holds onto his identity as tightly as he can yet he's sometimes eager to let go of the New Yorker inside him and embrace some of his more primal urges. He develops friendships that are genuine and of course finds a love interest who is the polar opposite of who he is.
It can and has been labeled a Dramedy and for good reason. A constant theme in Northern Exposure is loss. How a community comes together to mourn those who have passed but also to come together to face its inevitability. It's a thread that ties numerous episodes together.
It's a love story. The doctor and his love interest (a local bush pilot from a wealthy midwestern family) have a definite love/hate relationship. A competitive one. It may not be a relationship as much as it is a friendship. The tone of it keeps you guessing as to what or when something is going to happen. There's constant tension and some competition for both at times throughout the series.
It's a collection of characters. As with all communities it has its core locals and those who play a more part-time role. Those who come and go from the community but still belong. The doctor from the big city is constantly thrown cultural curveballs from these characters that contradict what he perceives to be normal. As his character develops we see his own perceptions change as he proves again and again he may seem stubborn, but is willing to understand, to learn.
It's a comedy. Sometimes you're laughing at something genuinely funny. Sometimes your laughing at something not so funny, like one of the doctor's temper tantrums or a satellite falling from the sky and taking out one of the locals.
More than anything it's about community. Something we all wish we had and so very few actually do. For every particle of us that wants to go build that cabin in the woods and shut the world out, there's a particle that identifies that as being anti social and we are social beings. In a world where we don't know our neighbors last name and we live in ever expanding sprawl, void of any kind of identity and feeling of place, Northern Exposure illuminated the importance of "place".
To place an outsider into a world which is foreign to him and force him to integrate into a culture so unlike his own, via the very nature of his job-being a doctor, can be categorized as a standard fish out of water story like so many have been told before. The difference is, how do they tell that story? Character development, mood is how Northern Exposure does it.
As the shows progress you see there are times that the good doctor feels like he's part of a community. He holds onto his identity as tightly as he can yet he's sometimes eager to let go of the New Yorker inside him and embrace some of his more primal urges. He develops friendships that are genuine and of course finds a love interest who is the polar opposite of who he is.
It can and has been labeled a Dramedy and for good reason. A constant theme in Northern Exposure is loss. How a community comes together to mourn those who have passed but also to come together to face its inevitability. It's a thread that ties numerous episodes together.
It's a love story. The doctor and his love interest (a local bush pilot from a wealthy midwestern family) have a definite love/hate relationship. A competitive one. It may not be a relationship as much as it is a friendship. The tone of it keeps you guessing as to what or when something is going to happen. There's constant tension and some competition for both at times throughout the series.
It's a collection of characters. As with all communities it has its core locals and those who play a more part-time role. Those who come and go from the community but still belong. The doctor from the big city is constantly thrown cultural curveballs from these characters that contradict what he perceives to be normal. As his character develops we see his own perceptions change as he proves again and again he may seem stubborn, but is willing to understand, to learn.
It's a comedy. Sometimes you're laughing at something genuinely funny. Sometimes your laughing at something not so funny, like one of the doctor's temper tantrums or a satellite falling from the sky and taking out one of the locals.
More than anything it's about community. Something we all wish we had and so very few actually do. For every particle of us that wants to go build that cabin in the woods and shut the world out, there's a particle that identifies that as being anti social and we are social beings. In a world where we don't know our neighbors last name and we live in ever expanding sprawl, void of any kind of identity and feeling of place, Northern Exposure illuminated the importance of "place".