[Kon5ole]

Such a great show, but difficult to classify. No drama, action or nailbites, no big belly laughs, more like smiles and chuckles. I was just a little happier after having watched most episodes.

Very few shows like that, but Ted Lasso actually reminded me a lot of NEX in how it made me feel.

[amon_spek]

I classify it as the peak 'existential comedy' around which all others navigate. I think there isn't a single episode that doesn't have meaning of life/death as at least a minor theme.

Another one with a similar feel is Bridget Christie's The Change, which she has cited Northern Exposure and Detectorists as inspirations.

[ZeroGravitas]

The Detectorists might fill this same niche.

[nephihaha]

Detectorists was good but was clearly going off the boil at the end like the special. Jumping the shark with celebrity cameos etc.

[snozolli]

I don't know if it quite meets the criteria, but I really enjoyed Lodge 49, particularly after watching awful people doing awful things in Succession. I've also enjoyed everything that Steve Conrad has made, for similar feel-good reasons.

[lupire]

Soap opera of people being nice

[CGMthrowaway]

Agree. It's so wholesome, uncontroversially values driven but doesn't feel shoved down your throat like a recent episode of Law & Order might.

If you like Northern Exposure I recommend the other shows that were basically reboots of it: Hart of Dixie (which I prefer to the next) and Virgin River

[shadowtree]

Picket Fences was similar to that, an early David E Kelley show (after LA Law).

Some of that weirdness was then further carried over by Kelley to Ally McBeal and Boston Legal.

Utter products of their time periods 90s and early aughts.

[rzzzt]

Rick is struck by a satellite falling out of the sky, no action?!

[wowczarek]

They had to make openings in the coffin because it "fused with the body". Adam and Eve, Chris' ramblings and this.

[prohobo]

Just started watching Widow's Bay, which to me has a similar vibe, but a much better hook: folk horror as the plot driver.

I can't watch Northern Exposure anymore. It's too alienated from the modern world, it feels like an artifact from a different civilization rather than anything I can relate to now, which is sad.