+++Warning, this will contain a minor spoiler from season four, but no major season five giveaways+++
The 24-episode fifth season of Northern Exposure aired during the 1993-1994 TV season. It is a double-edged sword for me. There are some excellent episodes in it, but you can also tell that this was the point at which Rob Morrow's contract situation came to a head without either side willing to budge, and, as a result, his role was reduced even more than it was in Season 4. There are some episodes in which Joel is an ancillary character or barely appears. That is fine for an episode or two, but it happened often during this season. That said, there are some excellent episodes in the season, including the episode in which Shelly hallucinates her daughter at various stages of her life (which includes a very young Kaley Cuoco), an episode in which Maggie agrees to be homecoming queen for the local high school (which includes a young Jack Black), and an episode in which the residents of the town have dreams about one another.
The only bonus content in the DVD set is under 40 minutes of deleted scenes. There are no gag reels, commentary tracks, behind-the-scenes material, or the like. And, of course, there is the issue with the music. As with the DVD releases after season 2, Universal did not pay for the rights to some of the songs that played when the show originally aired, opting instead to replace the songs with canned instrumental music. In some cases, the replacement music did not matter (aside from being annoying). Still, in the cases in which the songs selected for the episodes are directly tied into the storyline of the episodes, it definitely takes something away. The only way to get the episodes with the original music is to pay for the imports (such as the Region 2 Blu-Ray complete series) because the show was released with the original music in Europe. This means you need a DVD or Blu-Ray player that can play Region 2 discs and will pay higher prices for the discs themselves.
Overall, the season is good, but not as good as in the first few seasons. This is largely because Rob Morrow, who was clearly the series lead, had a much-reduced role as the season went on. It did not seem like he was phoning his performances in or not doing a good job with the character because when he was on screen, his performance was as good as in the prior seasons, but the show without him was just not the same. That said, the season is still worth watching.
The 24-episode fifth season of Northern Exposure aired during the 1993-1994 TV season. It is a double-edged sword for me. There are some excellent episodes in it, but you can also tell that this was the point at which Rob Morrow's contract situation came to a head without either side willing to budge, and, as a result, his role was reduced even more than it was in Season 4. There are some episodes in which Joel is an ancillary character or barely appears. That is fine for an episode or two, but it happened often during this season. That said, there are some excellent episodes in the season, including the episode in which Shelly hallucinates her daughter at various stages of her life (which includes a very young Kaley Cuoco), an episode in which Maggie agrees to be homecoming queen for the local high school (which includes a young Jack Black), and an episode in which the residents of the town have dreams about one another.
The only bonus content in the DVD set is under 40 minutes of deleted scenes. There are no gag reels, commentary tracks, behind-the-scenes material, or the like. And, of course, there is the issue with the music. As with the DVD releases after season 2, Universal did not pay for the rights to some of the songs that played when the show originally aired, opting instead to replace the songs with canned instrumental music. In some cases, the replacement music did not matter (aside from being annoying). Still, in the cases in which the songs selected for the episodes are directly tied into the storyline of the episodes, it definitely takes something away. The only way to get the episodes with the original music is to pay for the imports (such as the Region 2 Blu-Ray complete series) because the show was released with the original music in Europe. This means you need a DVD or Blu-Ray player that can play Region 2 discs and will pay higher prices for the discs themselves.
Overall, the season is good, but not as good as in the first few seasons. This is largely because Rob Morrow, who was clearly the series lead, had a much-reduced role as the season went on. It did not seem like he was phoning his performances in or not doing a good job with the character because when he was on screen, his performance was as good as in the prior seasons, but the show without him was just not the same. That said, the season is still worth watching.
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