I hadn’t mentioned it on here before but we started watching Northern Exposure on November 1st.
As you may recall, we’d been listening to We’re Alive every work night when she came home. We started that in July and got through the first 17 chapters and then took October off to watch Halloween stuff. Well, she came to the conclusion that she likes watching something after work more than listening to something – that veg in front of the TV thing we never do since we don’t do broadcast TV. So, I suggested we start Northern Exposure. She’d never watched it before. I absolutely love it and have fond memories of the very specific way I used to watch it.
I guess it was in ’96 or ’97 that I discovered it in reruns on A&E. I was deep in my junkie days, living with my first wife in a scummy hotel in Santa Ana, California. It came on at like 8am and she was already at work and I was still asleep. I was not a good guy back then. I had an alarm that would wake me, I would open my eyes, grab my loaded and ready pipe and toke up as the opening music played. I did that every morning for months and watched what I assume was every episode. To this day, when I hear the theme song, I think of smoking pot.
After the episode was over, I’d go back to sleep. So, I have only seen the show half asleep, stoned out of my mind.
OK, so it’s a fond memory that also brings memories of what a despicable person I was. I don’t exactly have guilt anymore but those sort of memories reinforce my resolve to never be that guy again.
Anyway, I haven’t watched the show since those days. And, obviously, it was always a solitary pleasure. My secret. So, it means something to me to now share that with Terra. And I’m finding I don’t remember most of the episodes. But I certainly remember the people, the town, the stories, the overall flavor of the show. “Anything can happen in Cicely”, I always say. I also certainly remember one episode – the one we watched tonight – the season three finale – Cicely. The origin story of the town. What a classic.
The plan was for this series to last us until spring and I think we’re pretty much on schedule as we’re watching three to four episodes a week (we usually watch two on Saturday nights – the last day of the work weekend.)
Btw, we are watching torrents I’ve downloaded of the episodes as it’s the only way to get the episodes with the original music in them. They look terrible but there have already been so many perfectly placed songs, we can’t imagine giving them up for the often awful replacement songs in the DVDs.
Anyway, I also remember the crime that is the final (sixth) season. We’ve already decided that we aren’t gonna watch that one so she gets to finish the series with nothing but fond memories.
We’ll come back to it someday.