Customer Reviews

Northern Exposure - The Complete Second Season

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(35)

 

 

There's never enough information on these TV season DVD's. Here's what you can look forward to with Northern Exposure Season 2:


* Episode 1: Goodbye to All That

Joel receives a "Dear John" letter from Elaine, who has decided to marry an older judge, and a concerned Ed enlists Maggie to help him deal with it. Holling regrets buying a satellite dish for Shelly, who soon develops into an international television junkie.


* Episode 2: The Big Kiss

Ed's wish to know who his parents were summons up a 256-year-old Indian spirit named "One-Who-Waits" who offers to help him find out. Chris finds his voice has been stolen by a beautiful woman passing through town, and comes to believe in a folk cure he hears: that he must sleep with the most beautiful woman in town, Maggie.


* Episode 3: All Is Vanity

Holling decides to be circumcised to please Shelly, Chris and Maurice organize the town to keep watch over an anonymous man who died in Dr. Fleischman's office, and Maggie persuades Joel to pose as her boyfriend to please her father.


* Episode 4: What I Did For Love

Joel's plans for a vacation to New York are side-tracked by Maggie's dreams about his death in an airplane crash and his suspicions about the enthusiastic doctor sent to temporarily replace him. Maurice's annual visit from an astronaut groupie is interrupted by his sleeping problems.


* Episode 5: Spring Break

Things get out of hand as the town waits for the annual ice breakup and the annual "running of the bulls" down the streets of Cicely. Joel and Maggie find themselves irresistibly drawn together, Maurice is attracted to a dominating state trooper sent to uncover the villain behind the annual rash of petty thefts, and Holling challenges all the customers to a fight.


* Episode 6: War and Peace

A Soviet celebrity returns to Cicely for some relaxation, some borscht and a deadly serious chess match with rival Maurice. Holling suffers a bout of torturous dreams and Chris helps Ed win the heart of a farm girl with his erotic imagery of a motorcycle.


* Episode 7: Slow Dance

The infamous O'Connell curse claims another victim when a falling satellite hits Rick. Maurice has mixed feelings about selling some property for an outrageously high price to a couple he disapproves of, and Shelly becomes confused when Holling is really enjoying his reunion with an old lady friend from his distant past.

I am not buying this. I can't believe that some of the music in the Second Season DVD has been replaced with elevator muzak. What a disaster!!! I want to cry. I don't care about licensing and copyrights and resons why. This is America, and I am a consumer.
I would pay 250 for the DVD, if it only had all the music, so don't tell me you edited out the music to make it cheaper. Northern Exposure was special because of the music that weaved through the show. It was based around a radio station for God sakes. And if Willie Nelson is not playing when Holling and Maurice are hauling the casket through the woods then forget it.

I can't believe that Universal thinks they can get away with this. We Northern Exposure fans know the songs. By Universal calling it Northern Exposure, we expect a product, the one we have seen and know as Northern Exposure. It can't be changed, modified or reduced. That would be like replacing Marilyn Whirlwind with a 6 foot animated fish by Pixar. This product is a lie, and they should all be recalled.

I thank Amazon for providing this, so that consumers will not be angry when they open their new DVD to find such a dissapointment.

This really makes me angry and sad because i waited so long....

Now, I don't really care about packaging or inserts, or even cost, when it comes to this show. I just want the show. I didn't mind paying the $40-60 asking price for Season One, since I was aware that much of that money was going toward securing the wonderful music that helped make this show the gem that it was.

Therefore, I also didn't mind paying it again for Season Two. This 7-episode season contains some of the best television I've ever seen. You can clearly see, in the last three or four episodes, that this show was really beginning to hit its stride. "Spring Break" and "War and Peace" were harbingers of the wonderful things to come in ensuing seasons - both episodes contained great situations, dramatic and comedic, as well as music that, in my opinion, made up the best TV soundtrack ever done.

Again, we were told that we were paying the relatively high cost in order to help ensure that the great soundtracks for each episode were kept intact for the DVDs. Made sense to me, and I was happy to pay a little extra.

So imagine my horror when I turned on "Spring Break" and was greeted with elevator music instead of the original songs, those songs that helped tie the show together, those songs that I remember so well as being such an important part of the series. And it got worse before it got better. It seemed as if each episode was missing integral music, music that was seemingly replaced by the soundtrack from the Sears Tower elevator. I was in shock.

Now I'm not going to pretend to know about copyrighting and licensing. Maybe they weren't able to get this music. Maybe various artists wouldn't allow their music to be included on the DVDs. Who knows. But I do know one thing ... we were asked to, and did, pay more for these DVDs to help secure the original music. In return, we were sent home with DVDs that didn't contain the original music.

Something is wrong here.

Now I loved having Season One on DVD. The picture is clear and the sound is great. Just like it is on Season Two (except for the problem noted above, of course). Now I assume the asking price for Season Three, if it ever sees the light of day, will be over $150. And I'll tell you one thing ... I, for one, would rather watch my grainy, commercial-ridden VHS tapes than shell out that kind of money for DVDs that fail to do what they promise, that fail to provide us with that which we have the right to expect to be provided with at that price - episodes of our favorite television show, uncut and enedited.

I'm glad I haven't thrown away my VCR. Or recorded over my Season Two videotape. Because the DVD is headed to the half-priced bookstore. If they offer me $7 for it, I'll think that someone is getting ripped off. And it won't be me.

I'm a huge fan of Norther Exposure.

I think it's one of the BEST TV series EVER produced... which is why it's very hard for me to say that NO ONE should waste there hard-earned moolah on this DVD set!

This morning I started to check the Northern Exposure Syndicated episodes I taped off the TV, against the new second season DVD box set... Very disappointing. So much so that I got 10 minutes and three songs into the first episode and had to stop.

As an example: The first song - during the teaser on my Syndicated version - is a beautiful trumpet-arranged version of Stardust over a monologue by Chris (Harry James maybe?). It's the first thing you hear and it sets a very important mood for the episode... and it's no longer there for anyone to appreciate. The song on the DVD Box Set is something completely forgettable.

More so than anything else I can think of, the music on Northern Exposure is integral to the series. When it's used well - which is almost always - it is a profound voice in the series, and almost always a "character" of it's own. Most of the time the music tells a significant part of the story besides setting a mood for the scene. There are a lot of levels to Northern Exposure. Things like Shelly's earrings and their metaphoric relationship to the storyline contribute to the feel of each episode. Worse, without the original music, we aren't seeing the shows we remember.

My own experience with licensors is that they're a very short-sighted, ignorant and greedy bunch of bad businessmen. They don't seem to take into account how many more copies of, say, Etta James' version of "At Last," they'd sell every time the show is rerun or watched on home video.

The odd thing is that the price of the first and second season are almost the same. BUT the first season has the original music*... so it seems to me that we are already paying for their licensing fees.

It'd be nice if we could let the Producers of the DVD sets know that we'd pay more for the real music. I definitely would. I already have.

The show has hole big enough to float a Love Boat through it without the original/correct music.

My advise to fans, is to tape the episodes off the TV since they have the original music. I'd rather have an edited, grainy version than an episode with forgettable/unoriginal music.

My advise to the Producers is to have a disclaimer on the package saying that these episodes are NOT COMPLETE!!! Shame on you. And in the future please let us buyers know if the music is complete or not... as I won't waste my money on incomplete episodes.

peace,
albabe

(*As far as I can tell, the first season DVD set has the original music - but I only have the syndicated-shorter episodes to compare them to, as opposed to the first run-complete ones.)

update 12-31-04 Happy New Year!!!

It's obvious that Universal has got it's few hacks to make positive note here in the Amazon Reviews of their soulless Northern Exposure DVD set for season #2. Anyone who is a NX fan that doesn't think the music is as important as the actors, et al, is either somewhat vacant or a fibber... or maybe just not a music fan.

I've been watching these episodes over and over again since shortly after their inception on Network TV. These wonderful - read: full of wonder - episodes helped me through the death of my Brother and Mother. The metaphors are that strong. And I know the music by heart... maybe that's why Season 2 is such a disappointment.

Universal has the gall to charge as much for the second season - with one-less episode and very little original music - as for the first season, which is complete and, as far as I can tell, pretty much the same as broadcast.

(...)

If you read the other reviews for the first two seasons of the Northern Exposure DVD releases you will notice a lot of folks complaining about the price for a two disc set. Another thing you'll notice is the explanation that the price has to be set so high to cover the user rights for all of the wonderful music that is used throughout the show. I have absolutely no problem paying extra to retain the original music from the series... IF THEY ACTUALLY USED THE ORIGINAL MUSIC FOR THESE DVD RELEASES! One of the things that makes this TV show so unique is its poignant use of music. I was thoroughly disappointed when I began to notice how much of the music from the series did not make it onto the Second Season DVD's. In the episode titled 'Spring Break', the familiar country music twang heard at The Brick is replaced with elevator jazz and will stick out like a sore thumb to fans of the show. At Rick's funeral in the 'Slow Dance' episode, Chris plays Peggy Lee's 'Is That All There Is?' and comments about it being Rick's favorite song. Unfortunately, Peggy Lee is replaced with generic shopping mall jazz and later in the same episode as Maggie mourns the loss of another boyfriend, Beethoven's beautiful Sonata 8 adagio is absent in place of some quasi-classical piano plunking. I'm not an intellectual property attorney, so I won't pretend to know how publishing rights and copyrights work. But the only thing I can assume is that the rights for the use of the music used in Northern Exposure can be obtained easily for broadcast and rebroadcast (reruns) but not for sale, as is the case in these DVD's. Some of the original music is included, but a lot of it is missing.

I assume that only fans of the show will be buying these DVD's, wanting to upgrade from the episodes collected on old VHS tapes recorded from A&E or the Hallmark Channel. For many years those old VHS tapes remained the only fix for the Northern Exposure junkie and favorite episodes were viewed over and over to the point of memorization, dialogue and music alike. The average person won't notice the different music used in these DVD's and enjoy them thoroughly, but the average Northern Exposure fan looking for the original version of this classic TV series will be thoroughly disappointed.

I was one of the few that rabidly defended the exorbitant price of the Season One set on the grounds that Universal did a good job of keeping the original music intact. Not this time. Season Two is not worth the money. I apologize for getting anyone's hopes up that the Northern Exposure DVD series would be something to treasure. It's not, and Universal should be doing all it can to make amends. Personally, I won't be fooled again.

OK, the parka was sort of cute for the 1st-season release, but now it seems like a smokescreen hiding the deficiencies that have already been well documented by many reviewers of the Season 1 DVD set (double-sided discs, no DVD insert showing episode order and filming/air dates, defects in the discs themselves, etc.)
Another parka for Season 2? This cannot help but make us wonder if we're in for the same treatment again with the second season. But wait there's more... wait, let's rephrase that -- there's LESS! Season 2 has only 7 episodes -- and that's for the sticker-shocking price list price of $59.98!!! Yeah, yeah, we all know by now that it's because of the music! And we SHOULD expect, nay, DEMAND that the music is left intact, but shouldn't we also demand that for this kind of money we also get single-sided (defect-free) discs and indexed menus (both on the DVDs themselves, and in printed form? Real fans and people who recognize a quality product can spot the difference -- for instance, "The Dick Van Dyke Show" DVD sets are a 5-star release).

Beware! Based on the price of the 2nd-season 7-episode set, the cost for Season 3 will be $197.07, Season 4 -- $214.21, Season 5 -- $205.64, and Season 6 -- $197.07! Purchasing Season 2 will only convince Universal that we're ready, willing, desperate enough to cough up the really big bucks later when the longer seasons are released...

This DVD set is a sad insult to what was, in my opinion, the best show to air on television. The 1 star rating is for this DVD set and Universal's attitude towards its customers. The content of the show would have carried the set to 5 stars if they had done even a minimally acceptable job of packaging NX on DVD. But what they have done is utterly unacceptable.

SEASON ONE: Obscenely over-priced but we paid it because we love the show and realize that licenses for great music are expensive. At that price though, double-sided DVDs are a stretch.

SEASON TWO: They gutted the music content and left the price as it was, effectively taking us for idiots and disrespecting both this incredible show (which they do not deserve to market) and insulting the buyers (whose business they also do not deserve) and once again tossed flimsy double-sided DVDs at us. They must be laughing at us as they plan the next rip-off.

SEASON THREE: Press release 3/08/2005: "The complete third season will be spread across three-discs, with all 23 episodes boasting digitally remastered picture in Full Frame with optional English, French and Spanish subtitles. Bonus features include deleted scenes and outtakes, and it looks as though a change of packaging is due, with the description reading as 'Slim Snap Cases with Outer Box'. Releases 14th June 2005 priced at $59.98 SRP."

3 DVDs to carry 23 episodes, so we're getting more double-sided coasters. And I don't want to think of what inane trash they are going to put in place of the real music.

I am more than just a fan of this show. I want the *complete* and unspoiled version on DVD. I am willing to pay whatever it costs to keep the music intact, however, I am NOT willing to pay $60 or any other price for a shell of the real thing. I bought the first 2 seasons but I will not buy the 3rd season unless they shape up and offer us fair value and an apology.

I too am completely disappointed in this new Northern Exposure set from Universal. The price only makes sense if the studio needs to pay licensing fees which they clearly have not done here. Write to them and demand a change: Craig Kornblau/President, Universal Studios Home Video/Universal Studios/100 Universal City Plaza/Universal City, CA 91608. We all deserve better than this. The studio is making serious money off an inferior product.

[...]

Some folks in here complain about the set and then give it 5 stars. I think the rating should be for the DVD box set, not the actual show. And then there are a few people reviewing in here who rated it, but haven't purchased it, or even seen the set... or are stooges for Universal.

Anyone who is a NX fan that doesn't think the music is as important as the actors and writing etc., is either somewhat vacant... or I guess they aren't moved by the good music that relates to the characters and the great storylines of NX.

I've been watching these episodes over and over again since shortly after their inception on Network TV. These wonderful episodes helped me through some very hard times. The metaphors are that strong. And I know the music by heart... maybe that's why Season 2 is such a disappointment.

If Universal is so greedy that they charge the same as they did for their first season set ($ 59.98 for 8 episodes with some neato extras and a useless stupid parka), which had one more episode and all of the original music - then it seems there's no way we'll get the original music on any of the following seasons... and that would be a sin. I would gladly pay the extra for the ACTUAL broadcast episodes.

Somewhat in Universal's defense - my suspicion is that the Robert Palmer and the Lindsey Buckingham songs from one of the best episodes, busted their music leasing budget. That's still no excuse for the fact that Universal didn't advertise this as NOT being the original broadcast versions of the episodes.

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