North of 60 (1992)

Genre

soap opera

Country

Canada

Length

6 seasons, 95 episodes

Rated

18+

Rating

6.0 of 10 from 49 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A drama set in a fictional Canadian Indigenous community north of the 60th parallel. It follows the lives of Dene and non-native residents as they face issues like poverty, land rights, and resource exploitation.

slow-burnsincereseriouscommunity-focusedbittersweetearthysobering

What happens

North of 60 is a 1990s Canadian television drama depicting life in the sub-Arctic northern boreal forest (north of 60° north latitude, hence the title). It first aired on CBC Television in 1992 and was syndicated around the world. It is set in the fictional community of Lynx River, a Canadian Indigenous community depicted as being in the Dehcho Region, Northwest Territories. Most of the characters were Dene. Some non-native characters had important roles: the restaurant/motel owner (a Ukrainian immigrant), the band manager, the nurse (a white Canadian woman) and (during the show's first season) the town's RCMP Detachment Commander. The show explored themes of Native poverty, alcoholism, cultural preservation, conflict over land settlements, and natural resource exploitation. Originally somewhat light-hearted (a CBC response to the very successful Northern Exposure on CBS), it quickly became a more sombre dramatic series which explored subplots including murder, band corruption, economic depression, mental health and the death of a child (owing to actress Selina Hanuse, who played Hannah Kenidi, leaving the show to pursue her education in Season 3). There were also romantic and sexual subplots between unlikely characters, giving the show a distinctive soap opera-like atmosphere not hugely common in Canadian government-sponsored media at the time. This included scenes depicting brief sex, nudity and profanity, as well as discussion in one episode about HIV/AIDS and the social stigma faced by a young boy who was a male prostitute with the disease. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Sous un ciel variable (1993)
• L'heure Bleue (2017)
• Flowers on the Snow (1991)
• Dear Flora (2022)
• Miséricorde (1994)
• Bouscotte (1997)
• Alias Grace (2017)
• Conspiracy of Silence (1991)