‘North of North’ Season 2 Review: Netflix’s Defiantly Nice Arctic Sitcom Is for the Warmhearted F**k-Ups

Indie Spirit and Gotham Award nominee Anna Lambe shines even brighter in a second season that sees her single mom double down on "leveling up" — at work, in love, and as a contributing member of her cherished Inuk community, which, like her, needs all the help it can get.

There are dozens of scenes that capture “North of North’s” digestible, defiant kindness, but my favorite arrives near the start of the second season’s second episode. Siaja (Anna Lambe) wakes up, grabs a glass of water, and promptly spits it out. The local water supply is contaminated (“They must’ve cranked those chemicals again,” her mom says), so Siaja heads to the nearest store to load up on jugs of clean water. Outside, there’s an elderly woman perched on her snowmobile, smoking a cigarette, who loudly hassles Siaja for a little charity.

“Must be nice,” the woman shouts, getting Siaja’s attention. “[You] buying filtered water. It’s too expensive [for me]. [I] gotta drink government pool water. Back in the day, we had nice ice straight from the river. Pure, nice, and healthy.”

On that last word, “healthy,” the woman takes a drag from her cigarette, and while she’s doubled over coughing, Siaja takes her forceful hint and puts one of her water jugs in the woman’s cart. “Here, you take this,” Siaja says. The woman, speaking in Inuktitut, does not say “thank you”; she asks if she can keep the jug. Then she hacks a loogie into the snow as Siaja drives off, punctuating just how little the gesture means to her.

Now, it’s clear this woman knows exactly what she’s doing. She didn’t end up outside the town’s only source for clean water by accident, and Siaja knows it. But she also knows the woman is telling the truth: She’s too old to get ice for herself, and she’s too poor to afford purified water. Siaja also knows this woman is her elder, and elders should be taken care of. So after acquiescing in the moment, Siaja expands on the idea soon after: She grabs Alistair (Jay Ryan), her big, burly dad, and they go get blocks of ice from the river to deliver around town — for free.

Of course, it doesn’t go exactly as planned (the rivers aren’t all “pure” and “healthy” anymore), but Siaja’s chance encounter with the woman serves as the impetus for the entire episode: Siaja uses it to prove to her boss that she can be more than an assistant at the community center. She bonds with her dad, who she’s still getting to know. She sets a good example for her daughter, Bun (Keira Belle Cooper), and she still finds time to flirt with her crush, Kuuk (Braeden Clarke), in between deliveries.

Siaja is doing exactly what she set out to do from the start of the season: “level up” her life.

Reading it back now, the story sounds corny. But despite all that positive energy driving so many warm-hearted gestures, “North by North” never becomes saccharine. Siaja’s triumphs don’t feel like cheap schmaltz. They hit that tricky TV sweet spot, where characters’ helpful actions and benevolent intentions feel genuine even when, on paper, they seem too nice to be tolerable.

It helps, of course, that Siaja fucks up early and often. Nothing makes a win land like taking many embarrassing losses to get there, as she did in Season 1 after summoning the courage to leave her husband, get a job, and start fresh — with an adorable daughter in tow. In Season 2, her plan to charm tourists doesn’t go over as whimsically as she imagined. Her plan to get her own place doesn’t include dropping in the rankings on an endless waiting list for affordable housing. Her plan to ditch her small-minded ex-husband (who doesn’t appear in Season 2) doesn’t include sitting for rounds of speed-dating or waiting out a relationship that may never end.

Siaja’s self-actualization isn’t as easy as ditching the zero to get with the hero, even when she’s her own hero from the jump — it takes time to learn the ins and outs of public service, to connect with people, and to make sense of your own emotions. “North of North” respects each process while savoring her struggle through them. (Lambe’s comic timing remains pitch-perfect, and her ability to navigate tonal swings is just as sharp.)

Investing in Siaja’s incremental progress does wonders to keep “North of North” from feeling like forgettable fluff — especially when the back-half of Season 2 gets heavy wrestling with familial, cultural, and communal responsibilities — but none of it work without the attention to detail surrounding Siaja, too. When the first season premiered in January 2025, “North by North” earned plenty of well-deserved praise for its authenticity. The fictional town of Ice Cove represents real communities in Nunavet, the northernmost part of Canada within the Arctic Circle, and the series employed a heavily Indigenous cast and crew to help bring it to life.

And what life there is: Season 2 is rich with cultural specifics, from a Greenlandic mask-dancing celebration to public safety concerns. (Beyond the bad water, don’t forget to place your beer orders early! A birthday without a brewski could be your last!) Every episode whisks you away to a very cold, very kind small town, which is oh-so-welcoming on chilly winter evenings when you just want to bask in the season’s cozy glow.

Respecting and highlighting Inuk customs is step one. Step two expands the idea by grounding “North by North” in perspectives beyond their beloved lead screwup. That way, her work ethic and generosity stay sweet and meaningful (when overexposure could easily turn them sour) and the show’s overall tone avoids becoming rote. Siaja’s mom, Neevee (Maika Harper), is the sardonic balance her daughter demands, and how they flesh out her backstory to explain her sharp disposition offers some of the season’s strongest scenes. Helen (Mary Lynn Rajskub), Siaja’s boss, is an oblivious white lady desperate to be cherished as a leader, and her pushy ambitions help clarify Siaja’s unselfish aid to others (while generating laughs).

And then there’s the townsfolk, who may not always be as colorful as the woman demanding free water, but who share her fair yet formidable spirit. If Siaja’s community service was met with cheers and applause, it would be unbelievable. That’s not how citizens treat their local officials. But their measured disposition isn’t just authentic, it’s essential. Similarly, if the citizens were the butt of every joke (like in “Parks and Recreation”), Siaja’s dedication could feel misplaced. If they were mean, like too many real-life city council visitors, her above-and-beyond gestures could seem foolish. Instead, Siaja’s community is just there, living their own lives, waiting for her to get her shit together and do what’s right by them.

Nice shows are harder to pull off than they seem. Too nice and it’s all gloss, no substance. Not nice enough and a comfort watch quickly turns uncomfortable. “North of North” Season 2 not only finds the sweet spot, but expands on it to push its deft star to new heights and welcome in an even broader swath of Netflix’s sizable subscriber base. This one’s for sitcom fans and comfort TV enthusiasts, but also small town stalwarts, the winter-loving cold weather freaks (it’s me), elders who expect more from the younger generations, anyone who likes spending time in fresh perspectives, and especially the goodhearted fuck-ups who won’t stop trying until they get it right.

Grade: B

“North of North” Season 2 premieres Thursday, November 5 on Netflix. All eight episodes will be released at once.