From: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer)
Subject: Re: NX Premiere "Northwest Passages"
Reply-To: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer)
Organization: The John Fluke Mfg. Co.  /a.k.a. The Gizmonics Institute/
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 17:14:10 GMT

In <1992Sep29.140351.7153@newsance.att.com> kimi@newsance.att.com (Kimiye Tipton;ball of confusion) writes:


>Well, this was vintage Northern Exposure-- not too exciting, not too
>outrageous-- just a typical quality episode.  

More of a typical episode, I'd say -- the Maggie arc was the only plotline I
think really worked, and it didn't really start to roll until the second
half. 

>On to the details...


>Funny that Fleischman is the only one who
>stops to think that she might really be okay (except Ed, who knew
>all along).

Actually, that's one of the fine points I like best (or maybe that Ed and
Joel are two of my favorite characters in this show.)

>It looks like Maggie and Joel are back to status quo, almost.
>Interesting that they completely dropped the plot from the Juneau/
>Wedding episodes.  On the other hand, once I thought about it, that
>is what people really do.  You have some huge confrontation, get it
>all out in the open (well, most of it), and then the next time you
>see each other, you both act like it didn't happen.  Later, much
>later, you finally talk about it again.

In fact, if I had guesses about where the season will go, vis-a-vis their
relation: they tend to return to a more genial version of their standard
bickering back and forth -- a bit more friendship there.  Anthony Edwards
shows up as the Guy-In-The-Bubble, another almost-perfect candidate for
Maggie's taste in men.  She gets started toward him (with subdued angst
occuring in both her and Joel), we let it run a while -- and then, this
time, she stops herself from going that route yet again, and returns to
single-ness, but with some real interest evidenced in Fleischman.  (A
perfect season ending would have her dump Edwards for no evidenced reason,
go around as if nothing had happened, and then finally dump a full
confessional / explanation on a flummoxed Joel.  Damn, I should write this
down...) 

>I really hated Maurice's storyline, even though I understood it as
>contrast to Maggie's sincere self-examination.  The final blow was
>his reference to "Japs", a term most Asian-Americans find as offensive
>as any other racial epithet.  

Well, that's Maurice.  I did think this sub-plot week, though.

>Marilyn's driving lessons were fun, and we got to see more of
>Chris' own version of pomposity and Ruth Ann's impatience.  

This was one of those episodes with Chris at his most annoying.  I don't
mind when he talks a lot, but they really need to give him some good
dialogue to back that stream up.

>with occasional peaks into 9, like the last scene with Maggie and
>Joel in the hospital.  

An 8.8.  (I.e., I agree. :-) )

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