Am I Missing Something?

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Marin Frist (Anne Heche) is a relationship guru on her book tour. She is shocked by fiancé's cheating. She decides to hide away in Alaska. Of course, she falls for local Jack Slattery (James Tupper).The title refers to the fact that there are many more men than women in Alaska. This is the run of the mill successful-girl-who-can't-keep-a-guy sitcom and they added a dash of Northern Exposure. Anne Heche works quite well here. She's always had good comic timing. James Tupper is supposed to be the leading man. I never found him to have much of a spark. Although I guess Anne liked him enough to stay with him in real life.

i watched this show because there was absolutely nothing else watchable. this show taught me that, once again, all some American TV producers think people need to make a show watchable is boppy music, dime-store philosophy, rampant sexual undertones, every cliché imaginable, sadly predictable 'story' lines and stereotypical characters. unfortunately, for me (and most discriminating viewers) content needs to be evident, also. i stayed with it for the first 5 episodes and hate myself for doing so. that it is a poorly disguised rip-off of northern exposure is almost forgivable, but the parallels are not.

On one Thursday evening at 10:00pm, my local west coast ABC affiliate aired the pilot episode of "Northern Exposure". The ABC Network usually airs "Men In Trees" in that time slot but the program was preempted for a live sporting event.Despite both shows are set in Alaska and filmed on location in the Pacific Northwest (Exposure in Washington state, Trees in Vancouver, BC), re-watching "Northern Exposure" (as well as few episodes of "Sex and the City") reminds me how disappointed I am with the poorly conceived hybrid "Men in Trees". Anne Heche can be a good actress with the right material. Unfortunately her role as a writer who ends up in a small town in Alaska grates on my nerves. Perhaps because I feel that Heche is miscast, I am not convinced of her "fish-out-of-water" character.I also cannot help but feel that the supporting cast fits the typical quirky stereotypes. The hot-looking local, the kindly bar owner, the bush pilot, the local police officers, the dim but well-intentioned radio DJ, etc.The only stereotype that may have been broken was teddy bear and veteran "ER" actor Abraham Benrubi as the local bartender in love with two different women. Considering that one of the executive producers is filmmaker James Mangold, (his movies "Heavy" and "Cop Land" had lead characters who were large men) then I am not surprised why Benrubi was cast in a non-typical role.Nonetheless, I can see why there are a lot of dedicated viewers who love "Men in Trees". It fits the quirky niche for television audiences. I wished the show could find its own voice instead of borrowing ideas from better shows.

The first episode was good, but (of course) reminded me of Northern Exposure. I've never been to Alaska, but I imagine its not too different from north Finland or Sweden or Switzerland, where I have lived, and therefore seriously cold. That's not very realistically shown in the program.Anne Heche fits the part very well, Sarah Strange (who I've only seen before in ReGenesis) is excellent as an actor (and very good looking), and the rest of the cast are really good. I was doubtful about how appealing the series would be, mainly because I could never get interested in 'sex & the city', the big thing Jenny Bicks wrote before (well, sometimes when Kim C was particularly outrageous), but the writing was OK. I don't think I'm likely to get all of the series DVDs like for Northern Exposure, maybe not any, but I will watch more of the series with interest.