The second season of the endearing comedy-drama "Northern Exposure" starts with a bombshell as "Goodbye to All That" immediately crystallizes the rich, resonant rapport that gestated during the previous season among the inhabitants of the remote Alaskan town of Cicely, where New York doctor Joel Fleischman must serve as physician to pay off his medical education funded by the state of Alaska. Just before he is slated to take a two-week vacation back to the Big Apple, he receives a Dear John letter from his fiancée Elaine. Shelly also receives a surprise in the form of a satellite dish courtesy of her squeeze Holling, which will have as momentous an emotional impact on Shelly as Elaine's letter will have on Joel as she is quickly engulfed by the array of programming from across the globe now accessible to her around the clock.
Robin Green's sparkling script blends keen psychological insight, deft interpersonal byplay, and clever expository devices to illustrate Joel's state of mind, particularly his thoughts literally projected onto a darkened cinema screen---first comes admonishment from one of Joel's adolescent girlfriends, now-grown-up Tori Gould (Beverly Leetch), then, in a brilliant moment of character exploration, comes Joel's younger self (a fairly impressive Grant Gelt) chastising his lack of emotional resilience. Meanwhile, Shelly too is staring at a screen---the television screen, incessantly, and she is also spending their almost-honeymoon money on a plethora of products hawked by home shopping channels.
Lending additional perception to Green's story lines are director Stuart Margolin's assured choices for framing a shot, which create a sense of intimacy, particularly when Ed devises a scenario to give Joel closure for his long-distance rejection by Elaine. Rob Morrow glides effortlessly from manic denial to maudlin pleading to morose grief, but Cynthia Geary is only occasionally effective, although John Corbett reinforces her scene with him as Chris hears Shelly's (or not-Shelly's) confession. Clearing Joel's obstacle to romance with Maggie, "Goodbye to All That" also delivers a wry commentary on television's insidious power even as "Northern Exposure" itself was fast becoming addictive.
This debut to Season Two also underscores a substantial flaw with DVDs of the series (affecting Region 1 releases in North America). Music was integral to "Northern Exposure," with eclectic selections that not only accented the narratives but became tantamount to another character. The eight first-season episodes contain most, if not all, of the soundtrack music heard in broadcast versions, but "Goodbye to All That" provides the first salient instance of the generic, anonymous music that replaces original selections whose licensing fees proved to be prohibitive. ("WKRP in Cincinnati" is another music-heavy series that also faced this issue.)
Viewers not familiar with the original broadcast episodes (or syndicated reruns at least to the turn of the century) nevertheless might still notice the drop in the quality and distinction of the music playing as Joel is reading Elaine's letter, tries to schmooze an Ivy League co-ed (Therese Xavier Tinling) at the Brick, and has a dream sequence, modeled on the church scene in "The Graduate," about Elaine's wedding to the man she left him for.
In that last scene, for instance, the missing track is Benny Goodman's "Let's Dance," which had been included in Joel's dream sequence in Season One's "Russian Flu," and since that dream also involved Elaine, gone is any suggestion of thematic continuity. Similarly, Shelly's final scene with Holling originally had Billie Holiday's rendition of "Blue Moon," which had previously been featured in Season One's "Aurora Borealis."
Ultimately, the accompanying music is secondary to the narrative and the interpersonal interplay, but its substitution with inferior music is the aural equivalent of watching "Goodbye to All That" and subsequent episodes in black and white: You can still follow the stories, but they've been drained of all vibrancy and color.
REVIEWER'S NOTE: What makes a review "helpful"? Every reader of course decides that for themselves. For me, a review is helpful if it explains why the reviewer liked or disliked the work or why they thought it was good or not good. Whether I agree with the reviewer's conclusion is irrelevant. "Helpful" reviews tell me how and why the reviewer came to their conclusion, not what that conclusion may be. Differences of opinion are inevitable. I don't need "confirmation bias" for my own conclusions. Do you?
Robin Green's sparkling script blends keen psychological insight, deft interpersonal byplay, and clever expository devices to illustrate Joel's state of mind, particularly his thoughts literally projected onto a darkened cinema screen---first comes admonishment from one of Joel's adolescent girlfriends, now-grown-up Tori Gould (Beverly Leetch), then, in a brilliant moment of character exploration, comes Joel's younger self (a fairly impressive Grant Gelt) chastising his lack of emotional resilience. Meanwhile, Shelly too is staring at a screen---the television screen, incessantly, and she is also spending their almost-honeymoon money on a plethora of products hawked by home shopping channels.
Lending additional perception to Green's story lines are director Stuart Margolin's assured choices for framing a shot, which create a sense of intimacy, particularly when Ed devises a scenario to give Joel closure for his long-distance rejection by Elaine. Rob Morrow glides effortlessly from manic denial to maudlin pleading to morose grief, but Cynthia Geary is only occasionally effective, although John Corbett reinforces her scene with him as Chris hears Shelly's (or not-Shelly's) confession. Clearing Joel's obstacle to romance with Maggie, "Goodbye to All That" also delivers a wry commentary on television's insidious power even as "Northern Exposure" itself was fast becoming addictive.
This debut to Season Two also underscores a substantial flaw with DVDs of the series (affecting Region 1 releases in North America). Music was integral to "Northern Exposure," with eclectic selections that not only accented the narratives but became tantamount to another character. The eight first-season episodes contain most, if not all, of the soundtrack music heard in broadcast versions, but "Goodbye to All That" provides the first salient instance of the generic, anonymous music that replaces original selections whose licensing fees proved to be prohibitive. ("WKRP in Cincinnati" is another music-heavy series that also faced this issue.)
Viewers not familiar with the original broadcast episodes (or syndicated reruns at least to the turn of the century) nevertheless might still notice the drop in the quality and distinction of the music playing as Joel is reading Elaine's letter, tries to schmooze an Ivy League co-ed (Therese Xavier Tinling) at the Brick, and has a dream sequence, modeled on the church scene in "The Graduate," about Elaine's wedding to the man she left him for.
In that last scene, for instance, the missing track is Benny Goodman's "Let's Dance," which had been included in Joel's dream sequence in Season One's "Russian Flu," and since that dream also involved Elaine, gone is any suggestion of thematic continuity. Similarly, Shelly's final scene with Holling originally had Billie Holiday's rendition of "Blue Moon," which had previously been featured in Season One's "Aurora Borealis."
Ultimately, the accompanying music is secondary to the narrative and the interpersonal interplay, but its substitution with inferior music is the aural equivalent of watching "Goodbye to All That" and subsequent episodes in black and white: You can still follow the stories, but they've been drained of all vibrancy and color.
REVIEWER'S NOTE: What makes a review "helpful"? Every reader of course decides that for themselves. For me, a review is helpful if it explains why the reviewer liked or disliked the work or why they thought it was good or not good. Whether I agree with the reviewer's conclusion is irrelevant. "Helpful" reviews tell me how and why the reviewer came to their conclusion, not what that conclusion may be. Differences of opinion are inevitable. I don't need "confirmation bias" for my own conclusions. Do you?
