Customer Reviews

Northern Exposure - The Complete Fifth Season

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

NORTHERN EXPOSURE SEASON 5 EPISODES

1.) Three Doctors (episode 77704)
Joel contracts Alaskan flu; Ed wakes up in strange places; Shelly loses her singing voice.
First aired Monday, Sep 20 1993

2.) The Mystery of the Old Curio Shop (episode 77705)
Maggie probes odd behavior by an antique store's owners; signs of aging disturb Maurice; Joel investigates Jewish influence on American Indian language.
First aired Monday, Sep 27 1993

3.) Jaws of Life (episode 77707)
The mobile dentist's annual visit creates anxiety; a wax sculpture of Maurice is too authentic.
First aired Monday, Oct 4 1993

4.)Altered Egos (episode 77702)
Bernard's new love cohabited with Chris; Marilyn screens dates by their medical history; Joel fears the loss of his New York edge.
First aired Monday, Oct 11 1993

5.)A River Doesn't Run Through It (episode 77708)
Maurice tries to outsmart a wealthy American Indian in a land deal; Maggie is asked to be homecoming queen.
First aired Monday, Oct 25 1993

6.)Birds of a Feather (episode 77701)
Joel's visiting parents adapt easily to Cicely; Holling's disdain for sports causes Shelly concern over their baby's athletic future.
First aired Monday, Nov 1 1993

7.)Rosebud (episode 77703)
Ed faces a career impasse while organizing the Cicely Film Festival; Joel makes excuses for not joining the volunteer fire department; guest Peter Bogdanovich.
First aired Monday, Nov 8 1993

8.)Heal Thyself (episode 77711)
A demon makes Ed doubt his future as a shaman; Holling's jokes during Lamaze class infuriate Shelly; Maggie misses the laundromat.
First aired Monday, Nov 15 1993

9.)A Cup of Joe (episode 77712)
A terrible secret threatens Holling and Ruth-Anne's friendship; aspiring pilot Chris is anxious over the written exam.
First aired Monday, Nov 22 1993

10.) First Snow (episode 77709)
The town prepares for winter; a healthy 80-year-old patient tells Joel she is dying.
First aired Monday, Dec 13 1993

11.) Baby Blues (episode 77710)
Depressed Shelly flees her baby shower; a Hollywood agent wants Ed to change his script; Chris seeks his feminine side.
First aired Monday, Jan 3 1994

12.)Mr. Sandman (episode 77706)
The aurora borealis causes residents to swap dreams, exposing secrets.
First aired Monday, Jan 10 1994

13.) Mite Makes Right (episode 77715)
A musician stalks Maurice, who mulls buying a violin as an investment; Maggie is obsessed with dust mites.
First aired Monday, Jan 17 1994

14.)A Bolt From the Blue (episode 77713)
Joel tries to talk down a terminated ranger from his fire tower; Adam ruins Maurice's President's Day fireworks display.
First aired Monday, Jan 24 1994

15.)Hello, I Love You (episode 77714)
On the day she is to give birth, Shelly sees her child in the future; their relationship frustrates Joel and Maggie.
First aired Monday, Jan 31 1994

16.)Northern Hospitality (episode 77716)
Friends think Joel is a freeloader, so he throws a dinner party; Chris revises his play list after a song he played drove a listener crazy.
First aired Monday, Feb 28 1994

17.) Una Volta in L'Inverno (episode 77718)
Joel and Maggie wait out a storm in a secluded cabin, then Ed shows up; Shelly helps Ruth-Anne study Italian.
First aired Monday, Mar 7 1994

18.) Fish Story (episode 77722)
While fishing, Joel hooks a fabled sea monster; customer demands drive Ruth-Anne to steal Chris' motorcycle; Maurice ridicules Holling's painting.
First aired Monday, Mar 14 1994

19.)The Gift of the Maggie (episode 77717)
Joel feels professionally isolated, so Maggie flies in another doctor; Maurice stays with Holling and clan after his furnace explodes.
First aired Monday, Mar 28 1994

20.) A Wing and a Prayer (episode 77720)
Maggie hires Maurice to help her build an ultra light, then fires him when he gets bossy; Ed betrays Ruth-Anne's confidence.
First aired Monday, Apr 11 1994

21.) I Feel the Earth Move (episode 77721)
Maggie thinks Joel's kindness is making her ill; Maurice tries to duck Ron and Erick's wedding; Holling is the caterer; guest Joyce Van Patten.
First aired Monday, May 2 1994

22.) Grand Prix (episode 77723)
Maurice organizes a wheelchair race; Ed helps a contestant; Ted tries to impress Marilyn with a rich client.
First aired Monday, May 9 1994

23.)Blood Ties (episode 77725)
Maurice turns a local blood drive into a competition; a surviving boyfriend visits Maggie.
First aired Monday, May 16 1994

24.)Lovers and Madmen (episode 77724)
Maurice sneaks a violinist out of a sanitarium to help him woo Semanski; Joel is surprised he is the only one awestruck by his discovery of a frozen mammoth.
First aired Monday, May 23 1994

I know that many will disagree with me, but there are several episodes in this 5th season that I rank among my favorites. I am not one of those NE snobs that thinks everything went downhill after Season 2. I think the writing got stronger and funnier and the characters were given background and depth.

While "The Big Feast" from Season 4 is my all-time favorite episode, "Una Volta in L'Inverno" (Walt's light visor addiction), "Three Doctors" (Joel gets glacier dropsy), "A River Doesn't Run Through It" (Maurice snookered in a land deal), Adam shooting a crossbow at Italina black-ops fireworks operators, the introduction of Cal the Violinist, and Holling trying to low-bid Eric and Ron's wedding make this season truly special. I know that at this point of its story arc some will say that Northern Exposure had jumped the shark and was a cariacature of its former glory...duly noted. But I really enjoyed the portrayals of my familiar characters in situations that clearly the writers had to stretch a little to dream up. These later episodes lacked the emotional and intellectual depth of the earlier stuff, but I found seasons 4,5, and yes, even 6, the most entertaining of the series.

I think season five of NX is not only the best season yet, but it is better than the previous four combined. In this season, the show has matured and we get to see the characters develop as each one faces difficult challenges. I also noticed that they are finding new ways of showcasing specific talents. We have already heard the pipes of Holling and Shelly, but we had no idea that Marilyn could be such a stirring story teller, or that Walt could be so funny. That's always what the show has been about, but this season seems better thought out. There is a clear trajectory in the story.

As always, the writing is just brilliant, delivering some of the best dialogue ever written for television. I just finished the final episode last night and now I want to watch the whole thing from season one over again. I forgot just how much I missed it.

I must be honest, though. I have a personal bias. The second episode of Disc 5 is about a wheelchair race. There are people using wheelchairs everywhere. Being a wheelchair user who is so sick of able bodied actors playing the disabled, I truly appreciated this.

If you were ever a fan of the show, I highly reccomend this. If not, well, it could be a bit of an acquired taste. I think it was the most brilliant program ever aired.

If you like to watch something that will actually positively influence your life, you normally would prefer to watch a feature film that plays off for two hours. You walk out and feel a sense of, for lack of a better word "enlightment". With NX it was like that every week. The advantage of owning it on DVD is you can watch an episode that relates to your situation that day. There are not any show nor was there during the past 11 years (last season 1995) that has this quality. I'm not kidding if I say, we've been watching season after season again and again.

This season was amazing, already watched it 2ice since its been released. Its sad that it will end one day and then I wouldn't know how to watch normal TV again.

I do know however its not everyone's cup of tea. If you like Texas ranger then dont bother trying. If you're a more conservative viewer, some of the views on the series might offend you. But anyone with an open mind will regard Northern Exposure as a piece of holy grail.

Some people take longer too get hooked, but once you're in NX will change your life.

The beauty of NX is that it is timeless.

The question is why arent there more intelectually stimulating programs on TV, the only one that I would say is in the league intellectually is probably "Lost" but its a different genre.

We return once again to Cicely, Alaska with a visit to the oddball characters of a small middle-of-nowhere town that usually makes a tv show a hit. As far as the product itself, it's the standard fair of a boxed set, great crisp clean photos from the series on the packaging and easy to follow menus on the discs. With this season, we get five discs, one sided this time out which I feel helps the viewing out because no you don't have to be constantly flipping the discs over to view the next part of the series (did that make sense?). Also included at the on disc one and disc five are the deleted scenes from different episodes. Gone however are the bloopers which are missed because they are usually so fun to watch.

As for the show itself, this was the season that was going to determine the future of the series. For me, the early part of the season lacked that certain something in the stories that were such a hit in the previous seasons. There is a change in the writing and lack of good stories in the early season. I still enjoy them but that extra 'perkiness' is absent. Mid season sees three religion influence episodes come in and the latter part of the season returns to the fully entertaining aspects that was the cast and setting. We are introduced to recurring characters like Cal the violinist and locales like Walt Kupfer, Hayden Keys, Adam, and Office Semansky begin taking larger recurring roles (especially Walt, he figures prominantly into season 5). Changes are made to the regulars, including Ed from film afficianado into shaman, the arrival of Holling and Shelly's baby, and the officially dating of Joel and Maggie. A bit of a minor annoyance is the episodes are aired out of sequence of when they were filmed. You can judge the order on your own by taking note of Chris 'in the Morning' Stephens' hair length and beard growth.

Overall, it's a delight to continue into the past and relive the entire Northern Exposure setting and enjoy the kooky characters/stories. Packaging is standard, this one in brilliant purple with individual photo enhanced disc boxes. Not the perfect season but among the best tv has to offer.

i am a HUGE NX fan...
where's all the good music that originally aired in the show ?????
the music helped 'make' this series... (i think season 1 & 2 have most of all the original tunes)...
so why didn't they use the original music on these dvds ?
did they not get the permission to use all those great songs on these new discs ???
doesn't make sense to me at all...
VERY disappointing, indeed.

When we get to missing Alaska, where we've been several times, we spend an evening in Cicely with these old friends on Northern Exposure!!! We STILL cry (yeah, both of us)and laugh and wish like crazy that they would bring it all back to television. IT's SO MUCH better than most of what's on at present!!! We have all five seasons of this program, and anxiously await the sixth and final one!!!

Keith and Jill Rhodes

The fifth series is wonderfully imaginative and risk-taking; the writers and producers have fully come into their own and are very brave with their material.
This is a wide-ranging, fantastical, slightly surreal series:
Ed battles personal demons, which take the form of a smartly dressed man (External Validation) and a nasty little green creature (Insecurity/Self-Doubt), both of whom live in a trailer park; Shelly discusses maternity with Medea and Mother Earth; Joel unearths the intact remains of a wooly mammoth. One is not sure where fiction begins and reality ends, which is what makes the series so intelligent.
Of particular delight is seeing Joel and Maggie finally get together and start dating--the series definitely builds up to this, and the two characters' interaction is pure magic.
This is television writing at its finest, with heaps of creativity, imagination and bravery to boot.
Each episode raises interesting, thought-provoking questions and ends perfectly: you really do experience a complete aesthetic whole with each episode.
Also, Amazon offers the best price for Northern Exposure DVDs--don't buy Northern Exposure from a Music/DVD store--it will cost you at least 10-15 dollars more.

It's how many years later? and I still seek to find any DVD's available for this program. Somehow I relate to each character and the lifestyle they lived. For my birthday, my husband drove me to Roslyn, Washington where the show was filmed to see what it looked like. The whole town looked exactly like it did in the show. Even the people there were warm and friendly, just living life. In this season, my favorite episode of all time "Hello, I love you" aired. I was pregnant with my child and if given a chance to experience what Shelly did, I would have given my right arm. Again, I can connect with what's going on. Today, I find solace in watching those episodes and find comfort in old friends. Last on the list to come out is Season 6. I'll be signed up the minute it becomes available. So go watch and reminisce.

I love Season Five of Northern Exposure, it might even be my favorite, and would say that this set is definitely worth the price (especially if, like me, you feel the need to re-view the series in its totality every so often)--after all, it's the second to last season in the series, so you can still pretend that it'll go on forever while you watch:) Also, we have a lot of great episodes here. Some of my favorites are "A River Doesn't Run Through It, which includes a guest appearance by an adorable young Jack Black, "Fish Story," where we see Holling's artistic side come through in paint-by-number form, and "The Gift of the Maggie," where Maggie shows her affection for Joel in a very sweet, though slightly misunderstood (by Joel) way. This is a wonderful set, full of all the quirks and sweetness that any Northern Exposure fan loves and expects.