From: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: NEXP: Sun-blind episode (10/5)
Keywords: NEXP
Date: 6 Oct 92 06:29:24 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: The John Fluke Mfg. Co.  /a.k.a. The Gizmonics Institute/

Ah... back to the Cicely look-and-feel I know so well.  A solid, enjoyable
hour, exhibiting most of the strengths (and weaknesses) of NORTHERN
EXPOSURE.  Not dazzling in its quality, but par for NEXP's course when
they've had eight hours sleep and been eating their fibre.  This week's show
even ends in a dance in The Brick -- what could be more natural?

Spoilers rising from the briney deep...

On a plot-by-plot basis:

*   Joel and the sun-blind experience: great fun, handled very well.  The
    inevitable conclusion was as obvious as your average GILLIGAN'S ISLAND,
    but the details -- the basketball game, Joel's change in demeanor (and
    some things, like his obsessiveness, which are channeled into new
    fields), his dementia, and yes, his interaction with O'Connell (the
    midnight scene at her place scored several guffaws from me) all worked
    very well.  I only thought he went a bit over with the poem; but I am
    still young enough to remember a few sleep-deprived stretches from Reed
    (due to circumstances, demands, opportunities, and occasionally
    substances), and this shook a few memories.  In a way, stretches like
    that can be fun (particularly in college), and I felt the writers did a
    good job with that.  Nice conclusion, too.  ("Next season, we beat them.")

*   I would like to see more of Gillis.  I was sort of hoping he wouldn't take
    a romantic swing at Ruth Anne (with NEXP, they often do head for the TV
    obvious, and then surprise you by passing it right by); but when it hit,
    they did such a nice job of running through it, without a lot of the
    usual sitcom problem-resolving smarminess, and with a couple wonderful
    observations on romantics (bless us every one), that it bothered me not
    at all.  At any rate, I thought another episode, maybe narrated by
    Gillis when he next rolls into town, would be a nice approach; the man
    has the storyteller in him.  Anyone seen the actor who plays Gillis in
    anything?  He seems vaguely familiar, and being an occasional Seattle
    theatergoer, I was wondering if it wasn't a false alarm from the mental
    filing cabinets.  (Oh, *Roger*....)

*   As usual, the Shelly/Holling sub-plot hit the ground like a pancake and
    left me cold.  The last good plot involving those two that I can
    remember was the Jessie the bear story (the first one, before the Big J.
    bit it), and they had Ed to help them out there.
    
*   I swear, they should find an excuse to keep Bernard up there and just
    let him share the booth with Chris full-time.  Well, maybe not; but the
    two of them are so much fun to watch when they're in tandem, and of
    late, this usually occurs at K-BEAR, behind the mike.  I wish this area
    really DID have a radio team even one-eigth that good.  (Robin & Maynard:
    Dead or Alive?  Answer: rotting.  (Crow and West are dead.))

*   The Shelly-Maggie discussion are getting a bit tiring, also.  The box is
    empty; the beast is dead.


PS  Could someone who has the exact quote between Maurice and Joel about
depressed New Yorkers and Howard Stern please post it to the net?  (I know
it'll get in the NEXP quote list eventually, but it was a corker.)

That's it; that's all.  I gotta go.

                           "Sure, you're right, it's easy to find flaws.
                            `Sure,' America says to the critic, `it's easy to
                            tear down, but you can't build up, can you?  The
                            suffering and labor of the artist mean nothing to
                            you, do they Mr. Ian Shoales?  You don't believe
                            in anything,' America screams, `except the sound
                            of your own voice!'  Well, calm down, America.
                            Lighten up.  Unclench those hardworking fists."
                                           -- Ian Shoales

                                        Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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