BlackberryJam

I was feeling it with the pause in the Dove Hardknock Life commercial, as a girl who refused to swim because of how my body looked in a swim suit. Chris Walken was ..okay. But this game is kinda snoozy, or rather, just like any typical NFL game when I can’t watch red zone.

Romo talking about how Brock Purdy will have massive nerves starting is cracking me up. Like Romo has any fucking clue. I’d give like…10 bucks to a Swiftie who could sneak into the booth and shove a sock in his face. Fumbles hurt.

Seriously, this thing hasn’t kicked off yet? I expected to be at least 2 minutes in by now. Damn NFL pushing back the start time. Let’s get on with it. *grabs laundry basket of socks to match*

In my re-rewatch, I’ve hit Season 5. So many laundry baskets. SO MANY. Chris, Marilyn, Ruth-Ann and Maggie at the Laundromat. Even Maurice at the laundromat. Everyone walking around Cicely is carrying a half full laundry basket, no towel covering the top. Even Eve walks around with a laundry basket. It bugs. You can definitely see the change from Brand/Falsey to Chase as showrunner. There are a lot of filler stories without any overarching theme. Like Chris having test anxiety, Maggie being Homecoming Queen, Holling going cheap on Ron and Erick’s wedding catering. The show is at it’s best when the multiple stories have a theme, which Chris draws together with his quotes and readings. Some episodes are good, but fewer than in the previous three.

Janine was dealing with gallbladder issues, which can be incredibly painful. I wonder about the cost of filming in Seattle? With Morrow leaving, it might have become more trouble than it was worth.

I hit the Little Italy episode and found myself super annoyed. I think I mentioned that Paul Provenza is terrible at acting like a doctor. I felt like he was miscast. They could have done a similar role with maybe...I'm trying to think of Italian-America actors who were knocking around at the time, Stanley Tucci? Matt LeBlanc? OH Giancarlo Esposito! Imagining anyone of those in the role automatically makes Phil Capra better. Teri Polo is good. I've liked her in several things. The show had been moved around on the schedule, at least once, maybe twice, and it ended up opposite some very strong other shows, so I think the cast new things were coming to an end. On top of that David Chase had become showrunner and he didn't like the show as it existed. He went on to make The Sopranos. Janine Turner was also sick at the end of S6. I do think the show was going to have an expiration date. Once Joel's contract was up, he was either going to have to transform and choose to stay or leave. We were always seeing the town through Joel's eyes.

I only have the answer to one of these questions. Bibi Besch played Maggie’s mom in two episodes. Unfortunately, she passed away from breast cancer in 1996. I’m assuming she was not healthy enough or was unwilling to come back for The Mommy’s Curse. As to the final episode, …I haven’t watched it…yet. I’ve only watched 3 episodes after Joel left. Instead, I started S1 again. I did watch the closing sequence. ETA: I wanted to mention about Up River. When Hayden shoots through Maggie’s window, Joel pulls her down onto the floor and shouts that it’s a drive by shooting. Such a NY reaction.

Not clever, but I started one, and added my giant Up River post to it.

Bringing this over from the general discussion thread. S6E8 or is it E7?. Up River - This a big one. This post is LONG. Just a note before I start, what’s listed on IMDb as S6E6 Zarya, an episode about Anastasia of Russia, actually aired for me in S5. So Up River is IMDb S8E8 but in Prime streaming, it’s S6E7. Catching up to where we are: In episode 5 Joel was doing a medical study with placebos. Ed knocks the pill jars over and confuses the placebos with the medication, screwing up the study. Joel is understandably pissed as he now looks like an idiot to Johns Hopkins, which was funding the study. So more of Joel’s career circling the drain. However, he forgives Ed fairly quickly. Burrows’ acting is fantastic. He makes Ed’s guilt palpable. B-stories. Chris gets rid of his stupid puppet. Shelley says what she wants most in the world is to make gambling legal in Alaska. Seriously, wtf? Episode 6/7. Maurice has his young cousin/heir come visit, also named Maurice. The kid gets all stressed by the pressure, blah blah. Such a weak B-story, but Barry Corbin does what he can with the material. Chris also has a B-story about electricity and art. Whatever. Don’t care. Joel and Maggie, an established couple(?) are heading to Russia for Joel to give a talk. They are flying on a Russian airline. Something goes wrong with the plane and they are stuck on the runway for …a day? It’s difficult to tell. Maggie and Joel bicker. Turner seems to be a little lost in what she’s supposed to be doing. At the end of the episode, Joel and Maggie get engaged. Continuity issue: It’s been mentioned many times that no one locks their door, but when Joel and Maggie arrive back at her place, she spends a lot of time searching for her keys while they stand on the front porch. They banter during this and decide to move in together. Which brings us to S6E7/8, Up River. The episode starts with Maurice pissed as Joel has been AWOL for two weeks. He went to go deliver a baby and never returned. Maurice sends Ed out to find Joel. B-story is Chris remodeling his camper and the contractor does crap work and doesn’t show..blah blah blah. Walt is away and Ruth-Anne is missing him and acknowledging she’s in love with him. (Although they’ve been banging for a while, but sure.) Ed heads up river and finds Joel in a …I’m not calling it a village. Six, maybe eight shacks/huts. Joel is softening hides. From this point forward, the Burrows/Morrow scenes are just fantastic. Morrow is as natural softening hides, canning fruit and stringing up fish as he was throwing around medical jargon. He’s still Joel, but a changed Joel. Joel invites Ed to stay to discuss how he (Joel) got to this place, so there are a lot of flashbacks. Joel has moved in with Maggie. They are making out and laughing. They end up in bed and her shotgun goes off, destroying the bedside lamp and leaving multiple holes in the wall. Joel is upset, but Maggie is all “whoopsie, an accident with my gun, giggle giggle.” Okay, this is the same Maggie whose boyfriends die in freakish accidents, and she’s fine with stray bullets. Next night, they are making out on the couch and Hayden accidentally shoots his gun through Maggie’s window, barely missing Joel and Maggie. Again, Joel is understandably upset and Maggie thinks it’s no big deal and kind of funny. These scenes are interspersed with Chris and his contractor and then Joel and Ed in the village with Joel telling the story. Joel’s hair is enormous. Joel speaks the language of the villagers and even goes spear fishing with them. You can see on Ed’s face that Joel’s proficiency makes Ed feel inadequate. Joel continues the story. A third night of Maggie and Joel. She’s in bed in a slinky nightie. He comes to bed, a problem with the dental floss, he’s tired, etc, but she is clearly in the mood. Joel is …haha…gunshy. Cut to the next morning, Joel arrives at work and Eugene is in his office, repairing a window. Eugene’s relative’s antique gun accidentally and shot out the window at the exact moment Joel and Maggie were getting it on. Joel is upset and feels that something is going on. Joel meets Maggie in the street and tells her about the musket blowing out the window. She is AGAIN nonchalant about it. Joel says he’s a rational person, but clearly something is going on, even if there is no logic. Now Maggie’s response to this has been weird and uncharacteristic all along, and Turner is struggling with the material. Maggie responds that Joel is just embarrassed about his sexual performance the night before. This is bad, bad writing. Move to that evening. Joel finds that Maggie has brought her gun back into the house and hidden it from him under the couch. She says it’s fine because they will be in the bedroom. Joel is pissed. As the conversation continues, she reveals that the gunshot near misses have TURNED HER ON. Again, Maggie has had multiple boyfriends die in weird circumstances and yes, we are to believe that curse is broken after Mike and her bangathon with Joel, but the fact she is aroused by being accidentally shot at while making out with Joel? Idiotic doesn’t even begin to describe it. Joel is appalled at her reaction. She tells him, “No sex tonight,” as if Joel is begging for it but Morrow is playing it like, “the very presence of a gun in the house has killed any libido I may have had tonight, or possibly ever.” Next day, Joel goes to see Chris, as Joel is doing pharmacy delivery. Chris has made peace with his contractor. Chris and Joel talk. Chris is all about, “losing your mind to find it.” Whatever. They put handprints in the concrete together. Joel goes back to Maggie to tell her he’s ready to open himself up to all the possibilities of their relationship. She’s been crying. She gives him a cashmere sweater vest. He talks to her about how fighting can be healthy and have their relationship develop and grow. He knows he has to be more open. She tells him to move out. He tells her he has to be less controlling and more accepting. She tells him he exhausts her. Maggie wants someone who can let go a little. (All I can think is, Yeah because Mike really let go, didn’t he?) Turner’s tears seem real here, even if what is coming out of her mouth is nonsense. Back to Joel and Ed. Joel then talks about being at the village, finding out they have no running water or electricity and no phones. He realizes he can let go of everything there and asks them if he can stay. Joel says he’s found he needs time with nothing, just time to be with himself. Ed wonders if he should stay, and Joel asks him if this “nothing” is what Ed needs. Joel walks Ed to his boat. He asks Ed to tell Maggie that he thinks of her every day. Ed asks Joel if he’ll ever come back. Joel responds something like, “whatever happens happens.” Joel tells Ed he’ll be in touch and they hug. I don’t know if this was Burrows and Morrow’s last scene together, but the camaraderie feels so real. I actually teared up. Even after all the annoying Maggie nonsense and the continuity backslide with Walt and Ruth-Anne, not to mention a really weak primal scream from Chris, I still got choked up by Morrow and Burrows. I also don’t know if those two remained friends, but they sold that scene as two close friends saying goodbye, possibly forever. This episode is definitely worth a separate rewatch for the Ed and Joel scenes.

It was in S2, The Big Kiss, that we got the first appearance of One Who Waits and Ed searching for his parents. I was so angry when he went to the bingo hall to speak to his great aunts and ask them about his parents and they just gave him shitty vague answers.

I see no reason to be fair to Aaron Rodgers.

Such a shame.

I’m a firm believer is watching zero football coverage between the end of the conference championships and six minutes before SB kickoff. In the past decade, I don’t think there has been one story, one interview, one anything that would have been worth breaking my embargo.

Oh that fumble was brutal. It gave me such a shiver of delight. Fuck the Ravens. ETA: Couple nasty hits on Mahomes, the penalty and then the one where his body bent like a banana. Chief’s O-line could do with a little rest.

Not only that, I don’t even know of a female sport “space” that doesn’t include men, even if they are just coaches and announcers. Ugh. That stupid SNL cold open of men having nothing to discuss when football ends really bugged. Chief’s D is just a half second too slow to catch Jackson this drive. Either that or the dude is part eel.

On the one hand, I would have loved Semanski to be perfectly comfortable with Maurice doing her ironing, and even finding that attractive. On the other, I enjoyed Maurice getting smacked down by his own toxic beliefs about masculinity. Another sour note for me in this season was Lightfeather Duncan. Just a reminder on who she is: Ed sees her in the store, she’s the daughter of the local preacher. Ed gets Chris to write a letter to her expressing his love. It’s something …terrible like, “Can I compare you to a Harley hog.” The letter itself is cheesy, but Lightfeather’s obsession with the words is weird. Lightfeather’s family of multiple sisters who look just like her, all being raised by the pastor. Ugh. The whole Duncan family felt like a cult. Ed is so sweet about her, but he’s all confused about love because he thinks it’s like the movies. Lightfeather feels nothing for Ed and is just into the letter. Ed has sex for the first time and she’s not even into him. Ed deserves better. I could have one without that whole storyline. A small hilarious bit in S2 happens when Joel is going to go on vacation, but Maggie dreams his plane crashes and dies. At Chris’ Founder’s Day speech, he mentions how much he’s enjoyed getting to know Joel and will miss him. Joel is sitting right there. Ruth-Ann stands up and talks positively about him as well. Ed says something about how nice it is Joel can attend his own funeral. But the really funny part is Marilyn. Her memory/something nice about Joel is, “He taught me to use the hold button.” Her delivery cracked me up.

Go Chiefs because fuck the Ravens, now and forever. On top of that, I might have had an interaction with some dudebros bemoaning Taylor Swift’s invasion of their sacred male football space. I can get wicked mean when I’ve got some tequila in me.

Another short season, but this one is fantastic. The writers and actors really hit their stride. Spring Break, which is the ice thaw episode, is just great. Ed taking on the role of detective and finding out that Chris is the Spring Thief, Ruth-Ann* giving Joel porn mags, Joel and Maggie finally kiss! I really appreciated Maurice in the episode, ironing clothes, making tea, all to impress Officer Semanski, who is completely unimpressed. Diane Delano was great. Scene note, Ed comes to The Brick and he’s talking to Shelley and Marilyn about the stolen radios. Shelley is reading The Rainbow, a book that had been banned and burned in England. I thought that was such a good choice. But the really funny part of the scene is Marilyn putting five or so teaspoons of sugar in her coffee. I’m not sure how many cuts or times they filmed it, but she just keeps adding sugar. That cracked me up. Then her line hearing about the stolen radio, “White people. They get crazy.” So much Marilyn love for me in that scene. And the episode ends with Joel stripping off his clothes and joining in the annual “Running of the Bulls”. He embraced the madness. So much fun. *I was in college when this aired and reading a lot of Dylan Thomas/doing that college intellectual thing, acting like my generation invented talking about masturbation. When Ruth-Ann used the word “onanistic” I remember practically doing a spit-take. That wasn’t a word I expected to ever hear on TV! Especially not out of a woman Peg Phillips’ age.

I feel like I only enjoy the majors after Djerkovic loses.

So I've finished S1 for a second time. It's lovely, really lovely. There is such a gentleness. I might go back through each episode, but Joel really is a very caring doctor. I struggle with Maggie's defensiveness. She jumps to the worst assumptions with every Joel interaction, even when he's trying to be kind. I appreciated the introduction of Adam so much more, and Joel's utter delight at finding the garlic press once he takes Ed and Maggie back to Adam's ...hut? The Bernard/Chris connection was interesting but not utterly compelling. However, I loved the Aurora Borealis sculpture. Watching Chris and Bernard work on it made me want to be creative again. Maurice wanting a son/heir is sweet, even if watching him try to parent Chris is weird. Sour note for me was Shelley and her husband Wayne. They just grate.

I love the fling itself, but yes, the lead up was enraging. I was really bothered by Joel outing and then trying to “fix” the chimney sweep. He deserved better. Joel is frequently kind, in his own way, to people, but yeah, that fell flat. A smashed cow would be cruel. Maggie lacks empathy often.

My fear is that the breaks would be at the wrong time. Could you imagine an ill-timed commercial in the middle of The Fling?

Ugh. I have been looking around for a Hulu deal and there is just nothing I can find. I don't really want to start out paying full price. Also, I'm going to pay the extra for ad-free Prime. Northern Exposure just wouldn't be the same cut up with ads.

So, I started my second rewatch. The first 20 or so minutes of the Pilot is SUPER ANNOYING JOEL. However, the second episode, Joel treats Mr. Anku. At Ed's urging, he goes to dinner at the Anku's. He sits in the sauna with Mr. Anku and Ed. He later makes a house call and Mr. Anku teaches him to dance. His treatment is so very respectful, and he goes out of his way to encourage Mr. Anku to get treatment. He's reasonable and kind. It's this interaction that leads to him being adopted by the tribe later on. It's just...lovely. That second episode. However, it makes the constant character reset annoying.

Northern Exposure premiered July 20, 1990 with the final episode of that season airing August 30, 1990.