While the first two seasons of Northern Exposure had only 8 and 7 episodes respectively, season three treats us to a whopping 23 episodes of Emmy-winning fun! In Northern Exposure – the Complete Third Season, we see a continuation of the events that affect small-town life in Cicely, Alaska. Whether planning weddings, being kidnapped, battling pheromones, facing off with ghosts, or just plain going a-hunting, anything makes for a great plot and character development in this fantastically quirky series. < ...p>

Season three further develops the storylines of all major characters. We learn more about these interesting characters’ pasts, their family, their hopes and desires. Joel finally begins to accept that he cannot be a big city doctor in Cicely, and therefore starts to behave more like the other residents, but with mixed results. As an example, he joins the boys on a grouse hunt, but ends up operating to save the life of the bird he shoots. His relationship with Maggie continues to grow, but both approach each other with guarded emotions. We learn more about Ed’s love of movie-making, Maurice’s love of profit at any cost, and Chris’s love of women. Season three also features several episodes with eccentric and reclusive woods-couple Adam and Eve. These characters are fantastic to watch, and the actors’ performances are top-notch – Valerie Mahaffey won an Emmy for her portrayal of the hypochondriac Eve.

Season Three Episode List

• The Bumpy Road to Love Joel is kidnapped to care for Adam’s wife, Eve, who turns out to be a hypochondriac
• Only You Joel attempts to find a scientific explanation to why women are driven to ecstasy by Chris’s scent
• Oy, Wilderness Maggie and Joel spend some quality time together after an emergency landing in a secluded area
• Animals ‘R’ Us Maggie believes her ex has been reincarnated as dog, and Ed works on a movie about Cicely
• Jules et Joel After a head trauma, Joel gets visited by his twin Jules
• The Body in Question Chris discovers a frozen body which is believed to be that of a Napoleonic era Frenchman
• Roots Joel gets a visit from his former fiancée, while Chris gets a visit from his half-brother
• A-Hunting We Will Go Joel decides to scientifically discredit the benefits of hunting, by going hunting himself
• Get Real A busload of carnival entertainers become stranded in Cicely, to the delight of the locals
• Seoul Mates Joel experiences a gentile Christmas in Cicely, while Maurice is reunited with his family in this heartwarming holiday episode
• Dateline: Cicely Joel becomes increasingly convinced of talking trees, and Chris becomes business partners with his friend Holling
• Our Tribe Joel joins a native tribe by being adopted by a village elder, but the cost of membership is higher than he expected
• Things Become Extinct Ed works on a documentary of a local artist, and Joel searches for other Jews in Alaska
• Burning Down the House Joel becomes infatuated with the idea that his chimney sweep is a pro golfer, and Chris builds a medieval cow-flinger
• Democracy in America All of Cicely gets election fever when there is tight competition in the mayoral race
• Three Amigos Holling and Maurice travel far into the wilderness to bury an old friend, and meet his widow
• Lost and Found Maurice loses respect for his former commander who is looking for a handout; Joel fights a two-front battle – Eve on one side, and a ghost on the other
• My Mother, My Sister The entire town falls in love with an abandoned baby, but none more than the unlikely Adam himself
• Wake Up Call Joel further embraces tribal culture by learning from a medicine man
• The Final Frontier Maurice sees profit in the sudden increase in Japanese tourism to the area
• It Happened in Juneau Joel looks forward to sophistication in Juneau, but finds he has become accustomed to certain comforts of Cicely
• Our Wedding Shelly plans a wedding for Adam and Eve; Adam and Joel have a lengthy discussion on the topic of women
• Cicely An old man tells Joel the story of the two fantastic women, Roslyn and Cicely, who founded the town of Cicely and set it upon it’s special course

Audio

The Dolby Digital 2.0 track is improved over previous seasons. The sound is clear and crisp, although we still get the rare muddled dialog. There is no noticeable hissing. The music – and there is plenty of it – sounds very good, with the bass sounds being well represented. As with most TV releases, this series lacks any surround effects; too bad, since the many outdoor locations would have been hugely enhanced with sounds of distant hawks and waterfalls. /p>

Video

The as-seen-on-TV 4:3 aspect video is decent. The print is generally pretty good. Most scenes have either mild or no grain, although a few short scenes are significantly fuzzy - the title sequence looks particularly damaged. Occasional specks are seen throughout all episodes, but they are not distracting. The colors are usually vibrant – especially the mountains and skies. Flesh tones look good, except in a few indoor scenes, where the characters appeared a little gray. Blacks are good and deep. Contrast is a bit dull, but seems to fit well with the feel of the show.

Special Features

Pretty much the same treatment as the previous seasons. Each episode has a few minutes of deleted scenes and bloopers, which are interesting but get a little old. The deleted scenes would have been better used in a Director’s Cut version of the episodes, rather than sticking them in the bonus section. Each episode has a text synopsis, and each disc has a complete episode list for the entire season. It would have been nice to combine these two features – have a complete list of episode synopses on every disc. This would make episode browsing a little easier. One thing we don’t get this time around is the puffy-vest packaging. Oh well, I prefer getting three times the number of episodes!

The menus are plain old text over background. Boring.

Final Thoughts

If you enjoyed the first two seasons on DVD, this one is better. There are many more episodes, the episodes are better, there is more music and fun, and the audio and video are improved. Although the DVD treatment is still very basic, this is such a great show on it’s own that the extras don’t really matter. Sticking to the basic recipe which made the first two seasons of Northern Exposure so memorable pays off in Season Three. This set will not disappoint.

Special Features List

• Deleted scenes and bloopers
• Text synopsis of each episode