The second season to the Emmy-winning series us just as delightful as the first season. On this seven episode set, we get an ongoing look at the everyday lives of the quirky residents of Cicely, Alaska. From the absurd to the mundane, any event is fodder for storytelling in Northern Exposure.

Season two builds upon the first season’s strong character development. New York doctor Joel Fleischman, the show’s main character, continues to struggle with life in this small logging town. Although he is by n…w acclimated, he still is unable to share the locals’ unique perspective on life and death, love and loss. Although Fleischman still perceives this life as absurd (and thankfully temporary), he no longer resents it. Neither can he embrace it.

In the second season, we are treated to further character development in several other interesting Alaskans, particularly DJ Chris, Ed the resident Indian, and Maurice Minnifield, an imported millionaire astronaut. Seeing how each of these characters deals with small-town matters in their own unique way gives viewers a funny, intelligent and thought-provoking experience. Another favorite character is Maggie O’Connell, a bush pilot and hottie who’s love-hate relationship with Fleishman drives much of the series’ plot.

Although storylines are usually very simple, they are absolutely appropriate to the feel and pace of the show. It doesn’t matter whether the plot revolves around Holling getting satellite TV, or Maggie’s’ beau being killed by a fallen satellite, the story is simple a device to get characters to dialog. Most of the humor is the result not of events, but rather the town’s predictably passive and philosophical reaction to these events. To properly contrast those reactions are Fleishman’s stubborn unwillingness to simply accept the local attitude. He must dissect and analyze every aspect of life, but will not accept that things are not always as he believes they should be. For example, he is the only one to get worked up over the fact that the town’s undertaker is a taxidermist.

This is one of the smartest and most thoughtful series from the 90’s. It is critically acclaimed, and with good reason. It is intelligent, clever and funny. The cast is very strong, as is the writing crew. Even the cinematography exceeds expectations for a TV show. Definitely a good way to spend time in front of the TV.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 2.0 track is clean, but ultimately disappointing. The opening theme comes in nice and strong through the fronts, but that’s about it for audio fun. Dialog is sometimes muddled and uneven, particularly in outdoor scenes. The musical score is too subdued, which is unfortunate given the show’s penchant for long scored montages in the last 60 seconds. Ambient sound is almost non-existent.

Video

The 4:3 aspect presentation gets the same lackluster treatment as the audio. Images are somewhat grainy, with noticeable print damage. The colors are dull overall, which is disappointing give the beautiful Alaskan backdrops. Blacks are dark-brown. None of the defects are really distracting, but there are really no enhancements here.

Special Features

Not much here either. Each episode has about 10 minutes of deleted scenes and outtakes, which are accessed through the Bonus sections of the discs. The deleted scenes are actually quite good – unlike movies, TV scenes are cut usually due to length, not because of content. A better setup would be to integrate the deleted scenes in the episodes in a director’s cut presentation. The outtakes are funny, but not hilarious. It was fun to see the usually eloquent Chris flub his lines and uncharacteristically mispronounce words. A nice feature is a text synopsis for each of the two episodes on the disc. The packaging is fun – the DVD case is enclosed in an actual puffy-vest with a moose zipper.

The menus are your garden-variety text over static background. Nothing exciting.

Final Thoughts

Like the first season release, Northern Exposure: Season Two is a great series given a boring DVD treatment. No commentary, no enhanced video or audio, not much in the extras. This is cut-and-paste to DVD. The only real distinctive feature is the packaging, which was also done for the first season. Still, this is definitely TV worth watching, so pick it up.

Special Features List

• Deleted scenes and outtakes