Created by Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, North of North is a sitcom set in the predominantly indigenous town of Ice Cove. Spotlighting the Inuk, the small-town sitcom hits nearly every universal note: finding yourself, navigating complicated families, and being the black sheep who just can’t get things right, even when they try. In North of North Season 2, we focus more on family, what happens when we get answers we’re not entirely ready for, and how we show up for the people in our community.
With winter coming to Ice Cove, young Inuk mother Siaja (Anna Lambe) remains determined to make life better. She wants to put Ice Cove on the map for tourism, which will, in turn, help local businesses, including her mother’s. She wants to build a future for her daughter, Bun (Keira Belle Cooper), and even if she has to sacrifice a lot in the process, Saija will try.
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After the events of the first season, where Saija blew up her life with an impulsive decision, our protagonist learns that it takes a little more planning and a lot more hustle to build a new life from her mistakes. Saija’s story in North of North Season 2 is guided by Pilimmaksarniq, the Inuktitut concept of mastering skills through observation, practice, and effort. And that’s exactly what Saija is doing, changing her life by being consistent not only in what she does, but in adapting to the circumstances around her, even if that means letting some things go.
North of North Season 2 is grounded in the Inuk concept, Pilimmaksarniq.
Saija is still guided by her ancestors through a few visions that give visuals to her internal struggles. She is ready to put in the work to build her life anew and make Ice Cove a town others can fall in love with too.
She’s putting in work at the community center as she pushes her boss, Helen (Mary Lynn Rajskub), to trust her with more responsibility. She wants to do more to make Ice Cove an important Canadian tourism destination, but that involves a lot of heavy lifting, and even more favors when things start to go awry.
In her personal life, Saija is trying to learn everything she can about the half-sister she never knew existed until the end of last season. Now that she knows who her father, Alistair (Jay Ryan), is and that she has a half-sister, something feels empty in Saija’s life.
It’s not that she doesn’t love her mother, Neevee (Maika Harper), and the small family that means the world to her. It’s that something is missing: a sister she could share her life with, if only she could make up for her mother’s mistakes.
Additionally, Saija is also finally open to finding love again now that her divorce is finalized. Whether it’s blind dates or speed dating, Saija isn’t hiding away from finding a boyfriend, or at least having a one-night stand. Through it all, she’s raising her daughter with her mother and newfound father. Siaja has always believed the best is yet to come, but as she keeps hitting speed bumps, she’s starting to realize that no matter how happy she feels, she’ll still have to be resilient.
If I had to describe North of North using another series, the best comparison in terms of community and character development would be Parks & Recreation. Much of this comes from how much Siaja loves her community and how much she works to make it thrive, even if she lives by Murphy’s Law.
Saija’s love for her people makes her deeply endearing, and her mistakes make her fully realized and human. Saija loves deeply, can’t abide injustice, and, during North of North Season 2, learns that she can’t control everything, too. As a mother and a daughter, Saija’s journey in the second season of North of North shows the audience what happens when you try to do everything right; life can get in the way.
North of North Season 2 is charming and relatable.
This shows up in everything from working to bring an artist to Ice Cove to boost tourism to meeting her biological sister. In the former, Saija is dead set on righting her own mistakes and showing the town how much it deserves to be loved, even if mishaps and a blackout stand in the way. In the latter, however, Saija’s confrontation with her biological sister shows that sometimes, things can’t be fixed.
North of North Season 2 shows Saija as a woman still coming to terms with the familial revelations we learned last season. When she gets the chance to meet her sister, an artist in the city, things don’t go exactly as planned. Instead of it being a thoughtful family reunion, Saija is confronted with an image of her mom that leaves no grace for her hardships, but instead vilifies her alcoholism as a way to make Saija’s sister’s inward pain and abandonment tactile.
Where Saija sees her mother as a woman trying to make do in life’s worst circumstances, her half-sister only sees a woman not fit to be a mom, a villain to be overcome, not a mother to love. The audience knows this moment is wrong, and Saija won’t let it stand; the hurt and sadness are everywhere. Whether it’s the abandoned child reckoning with an idea of her mother that has been told to her since she was making memories, or it’s Saija’s love for her mother, having seen her struggle to get sober, they both come from the same place in the heart.
A Native sitcom, North of North Season 2 continues the series’ storytelling, and it’s beautiful.
Despite its sitcom flair, North of North Season 2 is a deeply emotional story about home and the people who make it so. Community means everything, and family, even when it’s not the stereotypical television one and is rough around the edges, does too.
This is what makes exploring Neevee’s life in North of North Season 2 a compelling part of the season, not just a storybeat to fill time. As Neevee begins to yearn for romance, we see a new side of her. One that still puts her family first, but also leaves room for her to reclaim her life as a new woman. And you can also see Saija’s story reflected in her mother’s, two characters running parallel to each other. And more importantly, they’re doing their best.
North of North Season 2 is just as universal as the first season, and it does so by telling a specifically Inuk story. It doesn’t pander or preach; it just pulls the camera into a moment of life in rural Canada and asks its audience to see its people for who they are. Ice Cove could be Anywhere, USA. But it’s the Inuk people that make this series into something special.
Universality through specificity is beautiful, and North of North Season 2 continues to bring charm, community, and the importance of growing up, even when you already own. We are not stagnant beings moving through life on this big rock in space with no ability to change. Instead, we’re continuously changed by our experiences, our people, and the things we can’t control. And North of North Season 2 gets that better than most sitcoms.
North of North Season 2 is streaming now, exclusively on Netflix.
Rating
North of North Season 2 is just as universal as the first season, and it does so by telling a specifically Inuk story. It doesn't pander or preach; it just pulls the camera into a moment of life in rural Canada and asks its audience to see its people for who they are.
