LOVE this shot: Chris and Maurice face off in an homage to Indiana Jones, but the background shows clearly we’re still in Cicely.
Episode 6, “Sex, Lies and Ed's Tapes,” builds on the visual artistry of Episode 5’s dream sequences. But it is also a very boring episode.
An unnecessary caveat: I am a huge fan of Northern Exposure. I wouldn’t be rewatching it, otherwise. But more than just rewatching to enjoy, I’m interested in figuring out what made the show so great. These episode reviews are my honest reactions, and they are not always positive.
There is nothing wrong but very little right in this episode.
A main feature is Ed visualing scenes from Cicely as popular movies: Chris and Maurice fight, a la Indiana Jones. Joel and Chris walking in New York City, an ode to Midnight Cowboy.
“I’m walking here!”
The upshot is that Ed is working on a film script but has writer’s block—he is stuck thinking about Hollywood blockbusters rather than able to write in his own style. Maurice gets in the best line of the episode:
“Writer's block my diddley. Give a stud a gun and a car, throw in a good-looking woman, then you've got yourself a movie. Grope and kill, grope and kill. Pretty soon they'll be naming overstuffed sandwiches for you down in the Lower-48.”
So what actually happens in episode 1.6?
We find out Shelly is not pregnant, but IS still married to her former boyfriend Wayne, pushing Holling to break up with her until they are divorced. Marilyn enters a dance contest. Rick discovers a possible tumor, leading him to fear Maggie’s history of dying boyfriends has come to haunt him as well.
The two don’t actually get divorced until Season 3, though of course Holling and Shelly reconcile. Nice shot.
The problem with this episode is that all of these things happen in isolation.
The best television writing ties together its major and minor storylines, but these all appear to happen in separate universes. Rick’s tumor is benign, but it has no impact on anything else and he simply vanishes from the episode. Marilyn dances, but the scene just floats there. Holling reconciles with Shelly in a wonderful dialogue exchange that further highlights the brilliance of actor John Cullum—yet still, nothing happens. Shelly wont actually divorce Wayne for anoher two seasons.
Perhaps the strangest thing about Episode 6 is that Joel is presented as … likeable. Clearly, something is amiss.
In the end, Ed sits down and begins to write his movie (titled, “My Movie.”) Joel, with an assist from Woody Allen, helps him understand he can only write his own story, not anyone else’s. Which seems like a good lesson for everyone—Northern Exposure writers included.
This is one of those episodes where nothing is really wrong, but it could just as easily have been any other television show with any other characters.
All problems are solved with breakfast.
