Northern Exposure (TV Series) Russian Flu (1990) User Reviews

Sit-com tropes ahoy! (But not in a bad way)

[soundphury · 9/10 · 3 September 2019]

By the time "Russian Flu" rolls around, were deep into the excellent first season of Northern Exposure, the few 'opening night jitters' that plagued the show for the first half of the season are gone, and the cast and crew are turning out some really fantastic television on a regular basis.

Additionally, we're treated to the introduction of that tried and true sit-com convention - the visiting relative (or, in this case, fiancee) trope. A trope the writers would come to rely on frequently, not just for the rest of season one, but for the duration of the show.

And, while this convention is so often annoyingly associated with the latter seasons of well-worn sit-coms, vainly attempting to inject some measure of life into a show that overstayed its welcome years prior, in the case of the first season of NE, the result is often spectacular.

Rather than focusing on the main cast of actors early on in the show's run, we get to meet their fiancees (Russion Flu), brothers (Aurora Borealis, a Fairy Tale for Big People) and ex-husbands, among others. This has the effect of taking the spotlight off of the main characters, thus increasing their 'shelf-life' in the eyes of the viewer; if it takes us longer to get to know these characters, then, theoretically, it may also take us longer to get tired of them. Similarly, by focusing on relations, rather than main characters, the show's writers don't have to worry about running out of ideas for their main cast as quickly either. As interestingly quirky as the denizens of Cicely are, that quirkiness is a finite resource, best not to blow your wad right out of the gate.

As always, the formula that makes this episode enjoyable for me is no different than the formula I've referred to else-where in these NE reviews: eccentric characters, involved in eccentric situations, all underpinned by a generous helping of adroitly applied light-comedy, good television ensues.

Joel Gets a Jolt

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 4 February 2024]

When the entire town begins to fall ill with the flu, Joel is overwhelmed and has no solutions. He knows that these things must run their courses, but that doesn't help. Marilyn eventually supplies some answers (or does she, really?). The townspeople turn on Joel. When he is asked about where flu comes from, one variety is the Russian flu. He, new to the area, is immediately blamed for bringing the flu to Cisely. That he was raised in Moscow and sent to Alaska across the Bering Strait to infect them. While this is going on, Joel's fiancee comes to visit. She hits it off with Maggie with drives Joel nuts because he is so self-centered. He is obsessed with fear that Maggie will set out to destroy their relationship. There are some great scenes where Ed shows up in Joel's bedroom at the most inopportune times. Ed has taken over the radio station while Chris has the flu. The final scene where Joel's intended finally levels with him about what Maggie has said is a real scorcher and about time.

Just What the Doctor Ordered

[darryl-tahirali · 10/10 · 2 December 2023]

Not counting John Corbett's many voiceovers done in character as KBHR's deejay Chris Stevens, Rob Morrow delivers the only expository voiceover during the entire run of "Northern Exposure" near the start of "Russian Flu," and if that suggests that the series is still searching for style and format, this landmark episode yields enduring elements: dream sequences, gentle surreality, and the ingrained, pervasive tension at the heart of Joel and Maggie's complex relationship.

"Russian Flu" also polished the droll humor that laces David Assael's crackling script, giving the series its seriocomic template, while the use of music, both on the soundtrack and with David Schwartz's incidental music, provides both the background commentary and discreet narrative propulsion that became a series trademark.

Joel is elated that his fiancée Elaine (Jessica Lundy) is visiting Cicely, but diagnosing the flu gripping bush pilot Red Murphy (John Aylward in a different role than he had in the "Pilot" episode), whom he hired to fetch her from Anchorage, forces him to solicit Maggie instead. Given their antagonistic relationship, Joel is apprehensive about Maggie's projecting that hostility onto Elaine, but is equally perplexed at---and suspicious of---Maggie's embrace of her.

In the meantime, that flu quickly engulfs the entire town, whose residents, wracked with fever, pounce on Joel's suggestion that its origin might be Russia---and then they begin to blame Joel, whose medical duties keep him from Elaine, for their misery. However, when Joel finally gets Elaine alone, she has already contracted the bug herself while their conversations that inevitably focus on Maggie further drive a wedge between the couple.

Eventually succumbing to the flu himself, Joel dreams of being back in New York, only he's married to Maggie in a gloriously wry sequence that winks at Woody Allen (check Benny Goodman's Swing Era number "Let's Dance" on the soundtrack) while Elaine turns out to be his sister. In fact, even in Joel's waking life others mistake Elaine for his sister, and the series maintains the premise that Joel is an only child---although in what appears to be a prominent continuity error in Season Five's "Birds of a Feather," Joel and his visiting father Herb (David Margulies) discuss Joel's sister in a matter-of-fact manner (it's not a dream or fantasy sequence, in other words) that implies that she did exist.

That dream sequence, the series' first, joins Holling's excursion to show Joel and Elaine some picturesque sights that takes a surreal nod toward "Twin Peaks," in production at the same time as "Northern Exposure" and filmed in the same area of Washington state, that also marks the series' penchant for surreality and magical realism. Finally, Joel's enigmatic assistant Marilyn, whose tribal remedy "hiyo-hiyo ipsanio" seems to offer a miracle cure for the flu, inciting Joel's medical ambition to patent a lucrative wonder drug, makes her first inroad into becoming one of Joel's subtle teachers during his sojourn in the "Brigadoon"-like Cicely as Elaine Miles and Morrow begin to develop an equally subtle interplay.

Similarly, Lundy sparkles in what is ultimately a decorative role, but when she and Morrow are together alone, she supplies dimension that suggests the complexity and contradictions of a long-term relationship that may or may not turn out to be a happy or successful one. Furthermore, Darren Burrows's Ed continues to prove himself to be the connective tissue between Joel and the rest of Cicely.

With its hilarious, intriguing storyline, sharp performances, and eclectic music accenting both (the songs range from Goodman to Barry Mann's "Who Put the Bomp?" to Grandmaster Flash's "New York, New York"), "Russian Flu" is just what the doctor ordered.

REVIEWER'S NOTE: What makes a review "helpful"? Every reader of course decides that for themselves. For me, a review is helpful if it explains why the reviewer liked or disliked the work or why they thought it was good or not good. Whether I agree with the reviewer's conclusion is irrelevant. "Helpful" reviews tell me how and why the reviewer came to their conclusion, not what that conclusion may be. Differences of opinion are inevitable. I don't need "confirmation bias" for my own conclusions. Do you?