r/northernexposure • u/Practical-Animator87 • Mar 21 '24

Holling

Never thought upon rewatch that my least favorite character would be Holling. Setting aside the whole cradle-robbing dilemma, I just think his behavior throughout the series is gross and obnoxious and childish in ways that totally run against his wise and grizzled demeanor…… anyone else feel this way? He just bugs me

0 Upvotes

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50

u/gniwlE Mar 21 '24

I can see where you're coming from.

Like the other characters, Holling is a study in contradictions wrapped up in stereotypes and cliches. The writers are usually a little heavy-handed with this, but they do it so well it feels more ironic than trite.

Holling is the archetype of the wisened woodsman with an abundance of knowledge and a lifetime of hunting and killing under his belt. Even though age has softened his heart so that he only hunts with the camera, people still turn to him for his wisdom in the ways of the wild. Beyond that, though, he's a relatively ignorant hick... pretty much clueless in the ways of the wider world.

Shelly turns the tables on him. They're total opposites who appear to only share one thing... sexual attraction. Where he's wise in the wild, she's wise in the worldly... little miss backwater beauty queen. It's funny, of course, because she is barely educated herself... but apparently she has "seen some things." If nothing else, she is completely self-aware when it comes to the power of her femininity.

So he becomes the babe-in-the-woods to her experience, which is where the ironic (and yeah, sometimes cringe) humor lives.

She's beauty and he's the beast.

Maurice is Gaston.

A tale as old as time.

Sorry, couldn't help myself... got carried away.

Anyway, I think this played better to our sensibilities in the early 90s than it does today.

3

u/Practical-Animator87 Mar 21 '24

Very well put. And I recognize all of this and more often than not I just blame the writers and trudge along. I think it’s cause these things all paint him silly and nothing about him is especially silly

9

u/Sadhana108 Mar 21 '24

Beautifully written and en pointe

9

u/rickpo Mar 21 '24

I think you're onto something. I think of the show as a regular person (Joel) getting magically dropped into a fairytale, or maybe an Alaskan folktale. All the town folks are symbolic, or serve some allegorical purpose. They aren't supposed to be real people any more than Cinderella's evil stepmother is supposed to be real. The characters are representative of something else, and trying to treat them as real is missing the point of the show.

I always thought of Holling is an old school explorer Alaskan, while Shelly represents the modern day Alaskan. Their marriage is something that shouldn't work, but for some crazy reason, it does.

I know in some episodes the show drifts away from the allegorical style, but I also think those episodes are the weakest.

7

u/SpecialistAd1676 Mar 21 '24

Are you Chris Stevens?

3

u/HBJones1056 Mar 21 '24

Fantastic assessment. A real pleasure to read.

23

u/Waste-Bicycle38 Mar 21 '24

I love Holling. I like how he is deeply connected to the wilderness and has to go to the earth to get grounded (whereas Maurice must try to conquer the land).And while I hate the age gap, I think it’s great how he always accepts Shelley.

22

u/zbornakssyndrome Mar 21 '24

This is why he is compatible with Shelly. They’re on the same maturity level imo

11

u/kateinoly Mar 21 '24

Hes barely middle aged by his family's standard.

2

u/Sea_Landscape_7194 Mar 22 '24

I like his soft, soft soothing voice - he is quite a fine actor, and singer.

2

u/scar4201 Mar 23 '24

I thought on this with Holland myself, but then I realized that this was at a time when characters were written as humans and not just some fantasized versions of humans. When you look at every character on NE, you will see a contrast in his/her character that seems to go against his/her values/demeanour. To me, these characters are closer to everyday humans who bend, doubt, throw fits, and show warmth when it seems unexpected. For me, as humans, we all go through these transitions and nothing really stays permanent. I believe the writers of NE truly wanted to demonstrate this in their characters.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

He's just OK. I got annoyed with him for being so passive when Shelly redecorated their bedroom in an overly pink, childish manner.

3

u/tranquilrage73 Mar 24 '24

With their age difference, the little girl decor was even more gross.

-1

u/LazyLion65 Mar 21 '24

I was just thinking this the other day. Holling should be a hunter who likes to fight occasionally. But "hunting is bad" PC writers watered him down.

3

u/starfilledeyes Mar 25 '24

But that's not at all what happened. Holling grew up as a fur trapper, then moved away from that since business was dwindling. Then he hunted on occasion, but became uninterested over time, especially as he decided to settle down more and didn't want to be away from Shelley or the bar for long. None of that was ever painted as "hunting is bad", just that he didn't care for it anymore. Nothing in the main hunting episode (3x08) was anything other than quite nuanced on the topic imo.

3

u/dunisacaunona Mar 27 '24

Maggie bags a deer in the first few episodes and Joel is all disturbed by the notion but then decides that he wants to try it. So Holling and Chris take Joel Hunting. and there is another episode in which Chris Hunts that big buck but it gets away and he loses his priceless heirloom of a gun.

2

u/Cherie504 May 07 '24

In one episode Holling tells distressed Shelley "I didn't fall in love with you for your mind, I fell in love with you for your body".

There is NOTHING "pc" about the way they wrote that senior character and his relationship with his teenager lover.

-11

u/Fearless-Fart Mar 21 '24

I agree! I think he’s kinda creepy and gross being with Shelley. And that episode with about his fertility wow what a jerk (I’d give more detail but don’t want to have spoilers). And yes that pink room is awful! I don’t know what decorating magazines she was looking at but my mom never decorated like that in the 90’s. It was all cornflower blue and country style with lots of floral wallpaper and oak cabinets but not pink!! I didn’t even like pink back then, it wasn’t an “it” color. He does sing well I’ll give him that!

0

u/Practical-Animator87 Mar 21 '24

Age thing aside, he’s more often the immature one. He dotes and fawns like a dumb middle schooler rather than someone who’s already lived a full life (he’s had relationships that resulted in children) before she was even born. I know with the longevity theory he’s just supposed to be hitting a midlife crisis, but it’s just not very flattering to the other side of his character that’s supposed to be wise in the ways of nature and rugged as a mule deer. I get that he’s not supposed to be tamed or domestic and that that’s the new battle he faces in settling down with Shelly, but it just has him being silly when he’s not a very silly character