Is anyone else distributed by the fact Shelly is only 18? I feel like she should have been at least 25. 25 is an adult. 18 is just a kid, legal or not! I like Holling and Shelly, but it always pulls me out of the moment when they mention her age.
I have no hate for May/December relationships in general.
"I saw it move too!"-Mo Rutherford
I think the purpose was to make an example of age being just a state of mind, yet they dumbed Shelly down a little too much. I think her attitude makes her seem younger at times, so it would have been more appropriate to still have her act that way... but to be at least in her mid 20's. Oh well, what's done is done.
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i don't see shelly as dumb. she's more like very well acclimated to their "matter of fact" attitude. she can take a gross or sensational story and say "huh". it might seem dumb, but i think it's just a very level-headed way of dealing. consider that they live in a harsh, primal place and can handle adversity. when holling tells her he may go to prison for tax evasion, she barely reacts but you kind of have to see it my way to appreciate it or else she might seem dumb.
shareNo, I can't see it your way, I see it the way it's portrayed. Shelly is usually a step behind everyone. I believe it's to convey her age and lack of experience in the real world. It shows.
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sometimes, i suppose but that's more of an innocence but it also shows a willingness to learn. i feel like you're worried that she was some bad portrayal in poor taste. i can't see it THAT way. i just got through the one where she gets fooled by a con artist lady because she's so sweet and lets her do the "give me change, no, i changed my mind give my back my money, thanks" trick but "step behind" is a little harsh. she's 19 when it starts and 25 when it ends even though she looks and acts older. she's always wide-eyed but that just looks like she's open to accepting something new. think of ed; he's a lot "dumber" but similarly "matter of fact".
shareShe wants to know, but doesn't necessarily want to learn. It's in one ear and out the other. Her reaction? OH! That's as far as it goes.
I'm not worried, it's just an observation. Why are you worried about what I think if you didn't see some truth in my response?
Your example when she was onto the scammer; that only shows what she was brought up around. She's savvy to it, but it doesn't mean she's all-worldly or intellectual to everything else. Ed is also slow, but he catches on much quicker than Shelly.
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you're cool but i was trying not to get silly and talk about drugs. LSD use led me to see that there is a certain "matter of fact" sort of... solidifying a... thing. it could appear to be "simple" but could actually be... "pure". it's hard to describe.
it's one of the reasons i love the show.
What are you talking about? Drug abuse is a reason to love this show? LOL!
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She is definitely low-IQ. But cute.
shareYeah, I agree with you. I just started re-watching the show and, while most of their relationship seems genuine in early seasons, it still creeps me out in the episodes when Maurice and Holling are fighting over her like she's a piece of property. Ugh. Talk about major ick factor. At least Shelly was smart enough in that one episode to call them out on their behaviour by likening it to her feeling like a "bone" that two dogs are fighting over.
But even worse is that episode where Shelly tries to find more things for her and Holling to talk about and he comes back with something about how he only likes her for her body. It's like, okay, at least he's being up front about their relationship, but what is she then getting out of it, exactly? Because she instantly reverts back to talking like a simpleton.
Apathy on the rise; no one cares.
Rapid change in cultural perception ...
I was never comfortable with the Holling/Shelley relationship. The creators are fully responsible for the miss. I wonder why they believed this was workable.
Re-viewing S2. She appears close to 20 years of age and he close to 70. Far too much generational disparity.
It's supposed to be cute and quirky. Set in a sort of fairytale never-never land of jolly happy folk living in harmony, all with their little 'things' going on, all of it good!
Maybe it was like that somewhere, sometime. I think today Alaska is full of drunken, ugly meth-heads and trailer trash, like the Palins. There may be pockets of good people, though. Alaska is where, when all the crazies roll across the country to California, there's nowhere to go but UP. Dreamers and crazies, hippies, visionaries, monsters and saints, I wonder if there IS anywhere like Cicely? I doubt it.
Shelley and Holling are some old farts' ultimate dream. They're stuck with enlarged prostates, an old wife (if not divorced), and dream of doing their own thing in the wilderness, and a BAR! A BAR!.....with a cute young adoring piece and no one to laugh at them.
It bothers me a little but what I found more disturbing about the entire situation was the fact that she was originally with Maurice. For some reason the fact that she was with both of these men and they're both in their 60's just made the whole thing weird. And the way Holling said that Maurice "brought her out here to marry her" was freaking bizarre.
I generally don't have an issue with a big age difference--I've been in a relationship with someone 15 years older than me (although that's not exactly the same as 40+ years) but for some reason the way this show did it was kind of creepy.
"Your petty vengeance fetish will have to do withOUT Mr. Groin!"
It's called dramatic tension. One doesn't watch drama for what is "normal" and "comfortable". You want to to be on edge and wondering why the characters are acting crazy and doing things that none of us in the audience would ever consider doing.
Even "reality" television shows are scripted and edited to create a presentation that in no way reflects reality.
This is why we have dramas about rape, murder, genocide, warfare, incest, dominance and submission. The energy of watching what is far, far outside one's everyday life is the only reason to spend one's precious lifetime sitting still and passively observing.
At its core Northern exposure was a drama with comedic dialog and funny visual elements, but still a drama. As are all comedies at their center by the way.
So to answer your question, of course you were uncomfortable with the relationship between an older adolescent and two senior citizens - You were supposed to feel that edge of inappropriateness within the incredible swirling morass of bizarre behavior that was Northern Exposure.
Is she old enough to join the army and die for her country? Yes? Then, she's an adult.
shareYep, she's an adult who has chosen to be in the relationship. It may be unusual, but there's nothing immoral or illegal about it. As long as it's what she wants, it's none of any body else's business.
shareI am more disturbed by the fact that Holling would want to be with someone young enough to be his granddaughter.
shareShelly's been distributing her teen body between two old peckerwoods because that's how it works in the South.
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