The Voice of the Last Frontier

Season 6 Episode 4! THE LETTER! This one got us in our feels! It's a real 'Kids these days' episode! Maggie's younger self tries to hame her! The new barber in town puts Joel and punk ass Chris in their places! A Doogie Howser doctor makes Joel thins he has a brain tumor! Shelly gets nhillistic! Ed and Marylin are The. Best. as per usual! We cried! (Well. Tim did) We loved it!

Season 6! Episode 3! SHOFAR, SO GOOD! Joel reflects on his life during Yom Kippur. Maurice is a D Bag and tried to hunt a fox while ignoring the fox(y) lady right in front of him. Ed helps dear Holling with some guilt. Ruthanne saves the day! Look, this is one of the best episodes of Northern Exposure, and in fact any TV show ever. Go watch it. 

Season 6! Episode 2! EYE OF THE BEHOLDER! Ed and Walt are the moral compasses for the entire town! Maurice is a bad friend and a wine snob! Maggie needs to read Marie Kondo! Shelly is already worried about Randi dying! Jen has a rant about Chris! Again! This is a sweet, lovely episode!

Season 6! Episode 1! DINNER AT SEVEN-THIRTY! Joel gets dosed by Ed's orange juice and enters a New York BizzaroWorld of Cicilian residents in which everyone reverts back to their true nature! Starring Mr. Brown, highest-paid ferret actor of the 1990s who, just like Rob Morrow, is an excellent on-camera eater! Points off for no Marilyn or Dave, but otherwise what an amazing final season opener!

Season 5! Episode 24! LOVERS AND MADMEN! It's the Season 5 finale, Y'all! Maurice has a moral awakening! Chris continues to stay unwashed and unaware of his own misogyny! Joel finds a frozen wooly mammoth and realizes he is. . .Cicilan! Onward to Season Six! 

Season 5! Episode 23! BLOOD TIES! It's the annual blood drive in Cicely, Alaska, which sets off Ed maybe finding his birth mother but finding a sweet father figure instead, Maurice getting all toxic-ly masculine about blood collection, Chris getting all toxic-ly masculine about surrendering his blood, Jed The Creep getting all toxic-ly masculine about hunting Maggie, and Joel getting all toxic-ly masculine about HIS woman and HIS town and HIS ability to draw blood! It's a really good one, guys! 

Season 5! Episode 22! GRAND PRIX! Welp . . .buckle up for another problematic one! There's a substitute doctor in town and he is DR. SAPERSTIEN FROM ROSEMARY'S BABY not really but guys pick another name! Maurice holds a wheelchair marathon because he once had to use crutches for a day so now he cares about accessibility. The white writers demonize Lester as a Selfish Rich Man ™ while Ed wrestles (literally) with another person's internal demon, and Ted and Marylin rediscover their love of a peaceful life free from the sadness of greed. Chris dresses like a cosplay serial killer and Marylin is GORGEOUS backlit by the sun beside the river!

Season 5! Episode 22! I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE!  Eric and Ron are getting married! Holling tries to cater the wedding with canned apricots and honey baked ham so he can buy a sump pump! Maurice is still a Bigot with a Heart of Gold ™ ! Joel is shocked and indignant that Marilyn doesn't write about him in her journal! Maggie thinks Joel being nice to her is making her sick! Fruit Basket Cake is delicious! 

Season 5! Episode 20! A WING AND A PRAYER! Maggie is making an IKEA airplane and Maurice and Joel mansplain to her about how to do it! Ed spreads hot goss about Ruthanne and Walt going to Boneville and then has a moral unraveling over it! A Catholic priest comes to town to baptize Miranda and Shelly is heartbroken when he reveals himself to be a mediocre white dirt bag of a jerk who gaslights her and tells her “Don't worry about it, dear.” Come for the recaps, stay for Jen's rage! Another beautiful, cry-worthy ending, though!

Season 5! Episode 19! THE GIFT OF THE MAGGIE! Maurice, Chris, and Joel perform in a three-ring circus of Bruised Man Ego Syndrome! Orchids! Mystical death-defying bucks! Joel needs doctor friends! Jung is NOT great! Robin Green gives us another gorgeous script with scenes that made cry! It's another banger, everyone!

Season 5! Episode 18! FISH STORY! Joel isn't sure he wants to share his faith with Maggie even though he's done it about a million times already but okay and then he hooks Jonah the Whale and meets Rabi Schulman in Loon Lake to learn some Life Lesson (TM) Ruthanne gets sick of people tossing her salami and joins a biker gang for a night of fro yo consumption! Holling paints amazing paint-by-numbers but lets Maurice convince him he's not a 'real' artist so Chris steps in and saves the day! Then, another gorgeous ending! We cried. AGAIN!

Season 5! Episode 17! UNA VOLTA L'INVERNO! It's the long dark night of Winter! Walt gets addicted to his UV light visor and has to have an intervention! Ruthanne is jealous of Shelly's ability to effortlessly speak perfect Italian! Caribu take over the town! Maggie and Joel get cock-block-clam-jammed! Chris is amazing! Marilyn is glorious! This episode is wonderful! 

 Season 5! Episode 16! NORTHERN HOSPITALITY! Joel needs to figure out how to be a good host! Adam Arkin is amazing! Weird B roll of Canadian stuff including a moose being airlifted without his consent! Chris gets blamed for ending a taxidermist's life! Hard to know what to say about this one, and yet we talked about it for ninety minutes so you tell us!

Season 5! Episode 15! HELLO, I LOVE YOU! Y'all, this one is amazing. Shelly meets her daughter in the laundromat then gives birth to her in the Love Grotto. A+. No notes. We sobbed. 

Season 5! Episode 14! A BOLT FROM THE BLUE! Top Three Of All Time! Maybe. Guys, this is another Stefon Episode: It has it all! Rob Morrow being a genius, Ed being awesome, Chris and Maurice being horseshoe ridiculous as always, Adam being amazing, Marylin being even more amazing - and us crying! Again! Maybe! 

Season 5! Episode 13! MITE MAKES RIGHT! Dust Mites, Fridging beautiful women, and attempted murder over a Guarneri del Gesu are all part of the Circle Of Life!

Season Five! Episode Twelve! MISTER SANDMAN! Joel and Maggie and Holling and the writers all deserve Emmy awards for this episode! The Aurora Borealis causes the citizens of Cicely to swap dreams! Doggies! Walt! Snow! This one made us cry - again!

Season 5! Episode 11! BABY BLUES! Toxic Masculinity takes the wheel! Shelly is scared of giving birth because who the hell wouldn't be! Chris is literally The! Worst! Ed accidentally sends a creepy agent to his death! This one is weird!

Season 5! Episode 10! FIRST SNOW! Bon Ivar, Bitches! Shelly gaslights Maurice! Maggie is on an episode of HGTV! Joel has a new (old) green truck and wants to save his patient! Chris and Maurice have the most disturbing conversation in the history of the show but otherwise it is beautiful and wonderful! We cried!

Season 5! Episode 9! A CUP OF JOE! Why is this the title? You tell us! Chris wants to be an airplane pilot but he has math test anxiety! Marilyn has detective skills! Holling's grandpa ate Ruth Anne's grandpa! Freaking YIKES! Ed orders malted milk in a cherry shake! It's a weird one!

Season 5! Episode 8! HEAL THY SELF! Ed has self-doubt in the form of an excellent actor who is cast in a cringe-y roll! Leonard is back! Maggie gets a washing machine but misses the hot goss at the laundromat and Chris delivers a monologue that is a future meme-worthy Insta Story! Joel and Holling indulge in some toxic masculinity! Jen and Tim debate the origins of evil men! Sorry about this one! 

Season 5! Episode 7! ROSEBUD! Well, we cried at this one. Top 5 episode for Jenny! Ed feels lost and can't figure out his true calling! Leonard is puzzled by White people's lack of humanity because who the F isn't? Ruthanne is the fire chief and Joel doesn't trust his neighbors to save him in a burning building!

Season 5! Episode 6! BIRDS OF A FEATHER! Joel's parents come to town! His mom is great, his dad not so much! Marilyn is amazing as usual and teaches Joel's mom about Eagle, whose spirit seems to inhabit this Jewish woman from the Bronx! Joel defends Western Medicine! Holling hates sports so Jenny and he are announcing their engagement! PEACH PITS!

Season 5! Episode 5! A RIVER DOESN'T RUN THROUGH IT! Maggie is the Homecoming Queen! Jack Black is the Fly Fishing Homecoming King who feels sorry for pretty ladies who don't have boyfriends! Ruthanne get audited by a dumb lady with a small brain and weak arms who is too emotional to have an IRS job! Maurice is an adorable racist! Lester is awesome!

Season Five! Episode 4! ALTER EGO! Bernard is in town with a girlfriend Chris once lived with for 6 months but he doesn't even remember her what the hell?! Marylin violates HIPPA to find a date! Joel fears he's losing his New Yorker-Ness! It's another pretty good one!

Season 5! Episode 3! Jaws Of Life! Maurice has a wax figure made of himself and it is creepy AF and he freaks out! Chris finds out he won't die at age 40 and he freaks out! The dentist comes to town and pretty much every Cicilian freaks out! This is a really good episode!

Season 5! Episode 2! THE CASE OF THE OLD CURIO SHOP! Maurice is super pissed he's getting old and stars in an Irish Spring commercial! Maggie misses her dad and thinks she is Nancy Drew! Joel learns that a Jewish guy lived with indigenous people in Alaska the 18th century and dropped some dank Yiddish Vocab into the Tlingit!

Season 5! Episode 1! THREE DOCTORS! Joel learns what it's like to be a woman trying to get a doctor to listen to you! Ed and Leonard explore Ed's future! Shelly stops singing THANK THE UNIVERSE! It's a great episode!

Season 4! Episode 25! OLD TREE! You guys. I don't know. Season Finale! Shelly sings all her dialogue! Maggie and Joel re-hash old arguments! An old tree is a metaphor for the show!

Season 4! Episode 24! SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY! Many times while watching this one we wished it was that horrible Julia Roberts movie instead but no! Ed makes a film dubbed into Tlingit! EVERYTHING ELSE WAS GROSS! Moving on! 

Season 4! Episode 23! MUD AND BLOOD! Spring is here! Mosquitos are all up in Joel's grill! Marylin is a goddess as per usual! Maggie confuses her giant ego with being a Faith Healer! Maurice threatens to put an apple in a pig's mouth if she can't find truffles! Shelly is *SPOILER ALERT FOR A THIRTY YEAR OLD SHOW* knocked up! It's a good one - weird, but good!

Season 4! Episode 22! KADDISH, FOR UNCLE MANNY! Joel's uncle Manny dies & Maurice tries to gather a minyan of Jews to say Kaddish! Marilyn chooses Holling to be her dance partner! Chris & Bernard start a Fight Club! Rob Morrow & Elaine Miles are AMAZING!

Season 4! Episode 21! The Big Feast! Adam! Eve! Baby Aldrich! Maurice is throwing a huge feast to celebrate KBHR and himself! Joel thinks he's not invited and his imagination and low self-esteem run amok! Shelly spills some super expensive wine and she and Eve get all up in the Chemistry Lab to prove once again that mediocre men's egos are . . .mediocre! Chris is hot AF! We loved this one so much!

Season 4! Episode 20! HOMESICK! Maurice brings his childhood home, literally, to Cicely! Shelly turns her and Holling's apartment into the set of a horrifying super 8 movie! And farewell, Mike! Byeee!

Season 4! Episode 19! FAMILY FEUD! The Whirlwind Family Totem causes a feud! Shelly is seeing dancers and needs to get married! Joel wants Maggie to stop pretending they never went to Pound Town! Adam Arkin directed this one and it's pretty great!

Season 4! Episode 18! NORTHERN LIGHTS! First of all: Correction! Joel is NORMA RAE-ing it, not comedic actor Martha Rae-ing it! WTF! Jen is the worst! It's the Winter Solstice! Maurice had an X Files experience and makes awesome brunch! The costumers definitely have it in for Janine Turner! And OMG you guys. GREATEST. ENDING. EVER. I know we've said that before, but. . . .ENYA! #Crying

Season 4! Episode 17! LOVE'S LABOUR MISLAID! Well, apparently sex with Joel gives Maggie Amnesia! AGAIN! Mike makes a runny tapenade! Ed is getting married! But then instead he gets a friend! (Get a job, Craig!) Holling and Ruthanne go bivouacking! Amazing acting all around!

Season 4! Episode 16! ILL WIND! Everyone's gone Coho Wind-Loopy! Maggie punches Joel in the face! TWICE! Chris saves Maurice's Life! Maurice is all Libertarian-pissed off about it! Ed ponders Death! Juaquin Martinez plays a shepherd and he was an amazing actor! JOEL AND MAGGIE (Don't actually) JUMP THE SHARK IN A BARN!

Season 4! Episode 15! LEARNING CURVE! Best. Joel. And. Marilyn. Episode. EVER! Holling gets his G.E.D.! Shelly is a wonderful partner! Maggie battles a creepy AF Incel but the writers make her the villain?! Marilyn goes on an adventure! Joel is protective & overboard but mostly sweet! We cried as usual! 

Season 4! Episode 14! GROSSE POINTE, 48230! Maggie puts Joel in a Jewish GET OUT situation! Joel is the most romantic guy ever and puts up with some major racist bullshit! Spike of T.V. version of BUFFY fame is a reverend...priest...father? Who knows? Not us! Deviled eggs! Mayonnaise! It's a bottle episode in the creepy rich white part of the Motor City!

Season 4! Episode 13! DUETS! One Who Waits is back and he found Ed's Dad! For reals this time! Darren Burrows is a great actor! A blind piano tuner comes to The Brick! Maggie and Mike kiss! Marilyn plays the piano! Tim and Jen cry on air AGAIN!

Season 4! Episode 12! REVELATIONS! This one is a doozy, Guys! Ed parent traps Maurice and Ruth Anne! Chris sums up his existence as #NoHomo! Joel really, really loves being a doctor!

Season 4! Episode 11! SURVIVAL OF THE SPECIES! Maggie finds Indigenous Women's Things in her front yard and calls Finders Keepers! Maurice buys them and calls Finders Keepers! Ed is worried about Environmental Destruction but Ruth Anne's got a store to run! Shelly and the men of the town help create a young Incel! Sorry this one is so long! That's what she said! Special guest appearance by June!  

Season 4! Episode 10! CRIME AND PUNISHMENT! Chris broke parole leaving West Virginia years ago and the chickens have come home to roost in the form of one Barbara Semanski! This episode is chock full of courtroom drama, weird racist stuff, and Jungian arguments that kind of only work if you're a white dude in America! Good luck to us all! Marylin's hair is gorgeous!

Season 4! Episode 8! DO THE RIGHT THING! First of all, do the right thing and don't steal titles from Black filmmakers mkay! A KGB spy is in town and wants to sell Maurice his Cold War Dossier! Holling pimps Shelly out on a movie date with a teenaged health inspector! Maggie is naturally filled with rage! And ulcers! Joel has a beautiful connection with his Jewish heritage and Jen and Tim cry...Again! Marilyn is hilarious & gorgeous as usual!

Season 4! Episode 8! THANKSGIVING! Oh boy, Guys. It's Autumn! Thanksgiving aka Day Of Mourning! Marilyn and Dave are AMAZING! Chris misses his prison fam! Joel has to stay an extra year in Alaska and is so put out that he 'Yadda yaddas' the white genocide of Indigenous people! Mike eats a turkey leg! Props to the Props and set designers!

Season 4! Episode 7! THE BAD SEED! Oh boy you guys, how many euphemisms for male reproductive material can we find? Lots! Ewww! Holling has a surprise crappy grifting daughter and he lied to Shelly - AGAIN! Ed and Chris help a crane get a date! Marilyn wants her dream home! Brian Eno is great!

Season 4! Episode 6! ON YOUR OWN! Guys, Mr. Noodle is back and he is still in love with Marilyn! But the 80's mime prop group Mummenschanz is also here, so good luck to us all! Maggie only dates inaccessible guys! Ed finds The One Ring To Rule Them All! Words are heavy! If birds could speak they could not fly! #marilynwhirlwind!

Season 4! Episode 5! BLOWING BUBBLES! You guys, here it is: 'Pre-ER Anthony Edwards Geodome'! Pre-Apology for Jen going off the rails about the 7 Trillion Dollar-per-year scam "Wellness Industry"! Tim does his best to rein her in! Joel stands up for Science! Ruthanne sucks as a mom but in the end she gets her shit together! HIPPA didn't happen until 1996! Maggie uses a sick dude to get Joel's goat! Marilyn gets like 30 seconds of screen time and rocks it! EPIC ENDING SHOT!

Season 4! Episode 4! HEROES! Chris's friend Tooley is dead & he has mailed his body to Chris! Chris has to figure out what to do with him! Yikes! Adam Ant is a guest star! Marilyn is amazing as per usual! It's another beautiful ending!

Season 4! Episode 3! NOTHING'S PERFECT! Maurice buys a clock! Chris kills some animals! (Trigger Warning!) Maurice is racist about EVERYONE! Shelly might be addicted to Robitussin? Guys, it's a bit of a Bingo Card/Filler Situation this week, but still - and episode of Northern Exposure is better than most other stuff from the 90s so we still loved it!