As much as I love dark stories about morally compromised protagonists doing terrible things, there’s a certain appeal to shows about nice people behaving pleasantly and supporting each other. In some ways, it’s tougher to make a show like that work, to find different kinds of conflict without resorting to obvious nefarious villains or giving in to the characters’ worst tendencies.
- Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
- Verdict: “North of North” season 2 is another sweet and funny look at life in the remote Canadian Arctic village of Ice Cove. Star Anna Lambe brings her winning charisma to Inuk single mother Siaja, who maintains her appealing optimism amid personal and professional challenges.
- Premiere date/time: All eight episodes premiere Nov. 5
- Where to watch: Stream on Netflix
That’s why I enjoy the Canadian sitcom “North of North” so much, and creators Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril maintain that level of quality in the show’s second season, premiering this week on Netflix after airing on CBC in Canada in September.
Set in the fictional remote town of Ice Cove in the Canadian Arctic, “North of North” stars Anna Lambe as Siaja Kudlak, who began the first season by leaving her husband and starting a new life as a single mother, while also working to improve her town as an assistant at the local community center.
The show offers a vibrant showcase for Inuk culture while also telling grounded, funny stories about flawed people trying to figure out their lives. Siaja makes plenty of mistakes, but she’s smart and well-meaning, and Ice Cove is a better place because of how much she cares about it.
Warning: Minor spoilers ahead!
‘North of North’ remains sweet and funny in its second season
After struggling throughout the first season to distance herself from her ex-husband Ting (Kelly William) in a tiny town where it’s impossible to avoid anyone, Siaja gets a measure of freedom when Ting is suddenly transferred to another region for his job. The show gets that development out of the way as part of an expository monologue at the beginning of the first episode, helpfully catching viewers up on anything else they might not remember from the first season. It’s a bit abrupt, but having Ting out of the picture opens up new avenues for Siaja’s character development.
She’s still stuck in the past in some ways, in part because the limited resources of Ice Cove make it tough for anyone who lives there to make big changes. She’s still living at home with her mother Neevee (Maika Harper), while hoping to find a new place for herself and her young daughter Bun (Keira Belle Cooper). And she’s still trying to impress her often clueless boss Helen (Mary Lynn Rajskub), who’s reluctant to share the credit for any town accomplishments.
“North of North” owes a lot to “Parks and Recreation,” and the dynamic between Siaja and Helen echoes the working relationship between Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson, although the characters are entirely distinctive. Like Leslie, Siaja is earnest and a bit of a try-hard, and she sometimes leaps before she looks, resulting in big ideas that fall short.
That’s what happens in the first episode as residents attempt to impress a cruise company so that they’ll continue making Ice Cove one of their stops, but the season’s overarching storyline has Siaja planning a winter ball that will show her ability to truly step up.
Personal relationships deepen in the second season
That takes care of Siaja’s professional goals, but on a personal level, she faces other challenges. After reconnecting with her long-lost father, Alistair (Jay Ryan), in the first season, she’s now eager to make another connection to the daughter that Neevee gave up before Siaja was born. That storyline barely gets going before the eight-episode season ends, and the main romantic connections — between exes Alistair and Neevee and between Siaja and attached researcher Kuuk (Braeden Clarke) — don’t quite have enough time to play out either.
It’s refreshing to see Kuuk’s influencer girlfriend Alexis (Taylor Hickson) become more of a well-rounded character after being introduced as a vapid intruder in the first season, but the will-they-won’t-they tension between Siaja and Kuuk is a little underwhelming, like something the creators decided they had to carry over from traditional sitcoms. Siaja’s romantic life is less chaotic this season, but also a little less exciting to watch.
Her non-romantic connections to the people of Ice Cove are just as important and just as rewarding, though, and Zorga Qaunaq and Bailey Poching both get their moments to shine as Siaja’s co-workers and best friends. Even the self-centered Helen shows how much she cares about Siaja, and Rajskub balances the character’s absurdity with the warmth and generosity that define the entire ensemble.
Verdict: ‘North of North’ remains one of TV’s most enjoyable sitcoms
This is the kind of show that makes viewers smile and chuckle more than laugh out loud, but “The Kids in the Hall” veteran Bruce McCulloch brings plenty of laughs in the season’s goofiest episode as a bloviating survival instructor. Another Canadian national treasure, Jason Priestley, directs that episode, and fellow Canadian star Rachelle Lefevre has an arc as a renowned romance novelist who stays in Ice Cove to get inspiration for her new novel.
The presence of those well-known talents shows “North of North” representing the best of Canadian storytelling, in a way that is quirky but relatable. This isn’t a cultural lecture, as Helen always worries Siaja’s ideas will turn out to be, but an honest and funny show about life in a place that most people would never have heard of.
It’s never cloying or saccharine, even in its biggest moments of triumph, and Lambe makes Siaja endearing and charming in her eagerness. That’s something even the most cynical viewers can easily appreciate.
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