The new comedy North Of North is a collaboration between Netflix, the CBC and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), which is a group of Canadian TV stations that air programming geared towards the nation’s Indigenous population. Because of that collaboration, the show’s producers strive for authenticity, including casting Inuk actors and actually shooting in the Arctic location where the show takes place. How does this come across on screen?
Opening Shot: A woman faces the camera and says, “When people ask me where I’m from, I say, ‘Think of the furthest place north you’ve ever been.’”
The Gist: Siaja (Anna Lamb) is an Inuk woman who lives in the tiny village of Ice Cove, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. “The heart of the Arctic,” is what Siaja calls it. She’s done what an Inuk woman is supposed to do in her life, including getting married to her husband Ting (Kelly William) and having a daughter, 7-year-old Bun (Keira Belle Cooper). “He’s the town golden boy, and I’m… his wife,” she says. Siaja is at the point where she wants more out of life, “something that’s mine.”
It’s the Spring Festival in town, and Siaja, who volunteers for the festival under the leadership of Helen (Mary Lynn Rajskub), is determined to go into the community center and ask Helen to give her a job as a program coordinator, initiating a slate of year-round cultural programming along the lines of the Spring Festival. But first, she has to drop Bun off with her mother, Neevee (Maika Harper). The two of them arrive early and find Neevee scrambling around to gather the items of the man she slept with the night before. Neevee is a “legend” around town because of this, but one of the issues is that, because of it, Siaja has no idea who her father is.
Helen doesn’t think Siaja has the experience to do the job, but tells her to get a petition with 500 signatures on it by the end of the day. Siaja meets Kuuk (Braeden Clarke), whom she pegs as a “Southerner”, but they seem to hit it off. But Ting wrangles her into helping him with the annual seal hunt, which he’s determined to win. But an accident during that hunt, where she falls into the icy water and thinks she sees an Inuk goddess, and his selfish reaction to it convinces Siaja that it’s time to be on her own for the first time in her life.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? North Of North reminds us of The Lake, another small-town Canadian comedy of recent vintage.
Our Take: The charm of North Of North, created by Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, comes not just from Lambe’s portrayal of a modern Inuk woman who is sick of doing “everything right,” but the unique small-town vibe of the show itself. It’s not the vibe that’s unique, but the town; how often do we see life in a village that is that far north, where literally everyone knows each other?
Given the collaboration with the APTN, there’s a level of authenticity to the show that we rarely see; even the location is authentic, as the show is shot in the territory of Nunavut. So we not only get a cast full of Inuk and other Indigenous actors, but they all communicate the experience of being Inuk in 2025, even if that’s in a remote village. But we also get to see what it’s like to live that far north, from the scenery to the fact that the temperature is still below freezing in April but it feels balmy by comparison to winter temps there, to the idea that in spring there are very few hours of darkness per day.
Is the story of how Siaja sets off on her own unique? Not by itself; Ting is a prototypical a-hole husband who takes his wife for granted and is borderline verbally abusive. It’ll be interesting to see Siaja forging her own path in a town where everyone thinks that Ting can do no wrong. We also like the relationship between Siaja and her mother; Siaja took care of her mother for years before Neevee got sober, and there are still some residual fallout from that, like what happens after Siaja kisses and older visiting scientist named Alistair (Jay Ryan).
It’s all of the small moments of Siaja dealing with this particular tiny town as she becomes a single mom that will make this show fun to watch, and the first episode set that up well.
Sex and Skin: None. This is more or less a family-friendly show, outside a few s-bombs.
Parting Shot: Siaja finds out that Alistair and Neevee have a past, one that makes her immediately sick.
Sleeper Star: This is a good place to mention two other people who work for Helen at the community center, Millie (Zorga Qaunaq) and Colin (Bailey Poching), who are going to be Siaja’s support system. Also, we need to find out how Rajskub’s character Helen found her way to Ice Cove.
Most Pilot-y Line: There are moments where Ting is a little too over-the-top a-holish; like as Siaja is sitting down and recovering from falling in the water, he goes, “You made me look like a freaking idiot. Like I’m a shitty hunter. You get that, right? You’re an embarrassment.” Wow.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The charm of Anna Lambe and the Arctic small-town setting make North Of North a breezy, fun watch.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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