The amusing thing about Northern Exposure was that it upended that expectation.
Joel (city guy) shows up thinking he's moving to the sticks (and he is) and expects all the people in town to be yokels. He rails against being forced to live in the boonies because of the contract in his medical school loans.
What he discovers, however, almost always goes contrary to his expectations. The locals are a group of highly intelligent, eclectic people of all sorts of personalities and backgrounds. A female bush pilot (Maggie). A philosophical local DJ who waxes poetic about Nietzsche and finds meaning and symbolism in darn near everything. A young Native American (Ed) who is obsessed with film making and movies(especially old black and white moview), a bombastic retired astronaught. The gruff mountain man... who is a 5-star gourmet chef and his hypochondriac wife. And the town keeps adding to its diverse array of characters (A Native American millionaire, a gay couple who runs the local inn, an obsessive concert violinist, etc). The locals took great pride in smart, sophisticated people who also love where they live. The locals are anything but stereotypes. They're quirky, intelligent, and if anything it makes fun of the guy from the city who is constantly caught up short by what's going on around him. It's a quirky, funny series that goes off on wild flights of fantasy (it mines a lot of Native American culture and mythology). It ultimately became a bit too quirky (especially after Joel left town and was replaced by a New York yuppie couple who were never as endearing) but it never lost its affection for its characters. It was definitely a quality program and the DVDs are worthwhile.
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Joel (city guy) shows up thinking he's moving to the sticks (and he is) and expects all the people in town to be yokels. He rails against being forced to live in the boonies because of the contract in his medical school loans.
What he discovers, however, almost always goes contrary to his expectations. The locals are a group of highly intelligent, eclectic people of all sorts of personalities and backgrounds. A female bush pilot (Maggie). A philosophical local DJ who waxes poetic about Nietzsche and finds meaning and symbolism in darn near everything. A young Native American (Ed) who is obsessed with film making and movies(especially old black and white moview), a bombastic retired astronaught. The gruff mountain man... who is a 5-star gourmet chef and his hypochondriac wife. And the town keeps adding to its diverse array of characters (A Native American millionaire, a gay couple who runs the local inn, an obsessive concert violinist, etc). The locals took great pride in smart, sophisticated people who also love where they live. The locals are anything but stereotypes. They're quirky, intelligent, and if anything it makes fun of the guy from the city who is constantly caught up short by what's going on around him. It's a quirky, funny series that goes off on wild flights of fantasy (it mines a lot of Native American culture and mythology). It ultimately became a bit too quirky (especially after Joel left town and was replaced by a New York yuppie couple who were never as endearing) but it never lost its affection for its characters. It was definitely a quality program and the DVDs are worthwhile.