The fifty-sixth TV show: #438 Northern Exposure
We've only jumped around this in the first three seasons, as we're planning on watching this for a while longer. The show takes a while to get running, and that put me off for a bit - the first season isn't that strong, until it starts taking off in some later episodes. It mostly shows its potential in the dream sequences that start earlier - they subvert what's otherwise a pretty standard fish out of water story that I feel got dull rather quickly. I know the beats - the doctor who, in this case, is assigned to a small Alaskan town, doesn't want to be there, but has to stay. The people around him try to include him while life keeps going on around them, and they break down their shell. It takes a while to get past that, and early on it made me unsympathetic towards the show - I get the beats, but they don't impress me.
The show gets a lot better when it lets itself go weird. There are several reasons - the characters become more outlandish, where it's more fun (something Rob Morrow starts doing early enough, but the show and writing need to adjust to), the plots go stranger (especially when Adam, the mysterious man in the wood starts showing up) but even more when we see them in different situations. Most interesting are episodes like the last of season 3, where the cast of the show shows up as different characters during the founding of Cicely, where the show takes place.
So yeah, the first season clearly doesn't show what makes the show great, possibly with the exception of the finale and a few segments here and there, but when it's less fish out of water and more weird town and happening, it's where the show really shines.