May the Giant be with you!!!
I really agree with thisā¦ I liked FWWM, but I think youāre right about the tone of the series being a bit better in part because of the broadcast standards. The newā¦ season, if weāre calling it thatā¦ would be better if it had that tone, despite being on Showtime.
Are you trying to ruin my childhood twice?
4 Likes
Ugh, that certainly sounds like a teenage rumor.
What should it be like? Can some aspects of modern technology. I donāt have too much to worry about with Lynch, but I really donāt want anyone Tweeting/Facebooking or anything thatās going to appear dated in ten years. Yeah, Earleās computers existed but managed to look appropriately grizzled and didnāt distract from future viewings. They were a setpiece and not a cheapass plot point.
1 Like
I video taped that show religiously on my vhs video recorder and spent half the following day after each episode talking about it at work. It went South so bad in season two that I find it hard to forgive and forget. I hope they do something amazing, I really do, butā¦
VHS seems like the perfect way to watch it, to be honestā¦ 
But I understand your misgivings, totally. Youāre right about the second season. But stillā¦ Iām hopefully for the new season, or whatever weāre calling it.
5 Likes
Just to be clear: when people here - and elsewhere - keep talking about the āsecond season,ā they are really talking about the middle and end of the second season, right? The whole āsecond seasonā generalization drives me bonkers because some of the best episodes are in the second season. It goes downhill after the killer is revealed (7 episodes into the series, and someone would even postpone that judgment until after the killer is captured, 9 episodes in), but the dividing line in terms of quality is well into the second season. In fact when presented in other countries, Twin Peaks was often divided in half, so that the first season covered the Laura Palmer mystery arc to its conclusion and the second covered everything after. The early second season has its flaws (the subplots start to feel more disconnected from the bigger story, and consequently less tense or absorbing) but it also reaches higher heights than season one could even dream of. Episodes 14 and 29 in particular - the killerās reveal and the final episode, both Lynch-directed of course - are easily the two best episodes of the series.
I realize itās easier to write or say āsecond seasonā than āthe middle and end of the second seasonā but itās also wildly misleading, especially for people who havenāt seen the show. The idea of watching Twin Peaks and stopping before Lauraās killer is revealed boggles my mind. And not just for narrative reasons - the story and texture of the show becomes deeper, darker, more tragic, and more compelling as its approaches its climactic moment. This āonly season one mattersā meme definitely does Twin Peaks a disservice.
4 Likes
Its been a long time. Iām sure you are correct!
To be fair, it does stumble really badly after the mystery is solved. But Lynch had stopped paying attention at that point (NOT because he was directing Wild at Heart as some say - that was in the first season - but most likely because he hadnāt wanted Lauraās story to end) and Frost was touch-and-go because he was prepping a feature film. When they both got involved again, it started to improve. Since they will be writing every single episode this time, and Lynch will be directing them all, we wonāt see anything like what happened halfway through season 2 (SPOILERS): Cooper in flannel, the Audrey-Cooper flirtation ended, Super Nadine, Little Nicky, and of course the infamous James-Evelyn storyline. Not to mention that days after an upstanding member of the community has been revealed as a demon-possessed incestuous serial killer, everyone is laughing it up at his wake. Huh? Very out of spirit with how the show had started. The mood was restored in the finale & the feature film but boy, was mid-season 2 a misstep.
1 Like
this. Iām guilty of this because the division was so striking, it affected my memory. I watched them all as they aired when i was in high school, but never again until recently. My roommate had never seen Twin Peaks so we watched it on Netflix (this was before it was added to streaming, we had to get the DVDs in the mail) and I kept telling him āIām not going to bother watching the whole run. You can if you want, but the second season is garbage since thereās no more Laura Palmer mystery, itās just hanging out in Twin Peaks with the characters.ā
We got to the end of season 1 and I was like WTF? I had completely compartmentalized the murder mystery arc into season 1. It wasnāt conscious, it was completely involuntary.
The thing that I couldnāt get past concerning the post-Laura nosedive was that the FBI didnāt re-assign Cooper after the Palmer file was closed. I mean, obviously, we arenāt dealing with ārealityā here, but keeping an important field agent in TP just to hang out makes no sense. They couldnāt move the show to wherever he was re-assigned, because then it wouldnāt be Twin Peaks, and they couldnāt get rid of the star (though I feel they shouldāve) so they had to keep him there for hand-wavy reasons and invent an antagonist that came to TP to hunt him down. It was super lame.
Iām excited to see more of my favorite show and Iām sure Iāll watch the pilot of the new shows at least, but like @robulus, Iām also hugely skeptical. If itās dumb, Iām out.
This reminds me of what Seinfeld said about doing clean comedy and the standards of a network sitcom; the rules help, they provide a sort of pushback that increases the tension, which he used for comedic effect and Lynch used for that surreal undertone. If Lynch can keep that going on no-rules Showtime, and then really let loose like FWWM when the situation calls for it, that would be a definite plus for me.
4 Likes
Why I am cautiously optimistic about the third season is that I anticipate a lack of interference from Showtime. Both Lynch and the television landscape have matured enough that I think they trust him to deliver something that they can use.
My guess is that with the previous seasons, the idea of giving Lynch and Frost a series together was something of an experiment. Nobody was probably expecting it to be wildly popular. But when these things happen tends to be when those holding the purse strings bring out their own lame ideas of how the artists should go about things. This probably had a lot to do with Lynch losing interest - I canāt imagine him enjoying the details while compromising the overall story. Even now with series such as āLeftoversā, many viewers seem unable to trust the idea of a mystery which is not meant to be solved in any conclusive way. Twenty-five years ago on network television, I imagine that their narrative must have been under enormous pressure.
This is more typical of what I think are the limitations of traditional television standards. Not that certain images or language should not be used. But that certain themes and structures should not be used. US television has always loved its safe and clichƩd formulas, and even now their influence can be felt in cable and international television. Not having a formula and/or recycling the same character archetypes seems to come off as something incredibly risky. I think it is a feedback loop, decades of very slow change are what cause viewers to have these expectations. The predictable nature of television seems to exist as a safety net because of a lack of trust in the creators and the viewers. Formula might present an interesting set of obstacles which creative people can overcome, but serves as a poor substitute for creativity otherwise.
The gap of decades probably makes pleasing everyone with the new series an impossible task, there are too many different expectations. But I do not doubt that it could be interesting.
soooā¦ *shifts feet
Something like a representation of the evil and injustice (black lodge) which accompanies any particular human endeavour for contact with the numinous (white lodge)?
Or am I, and perhaps the film maker, reading too much into things?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Wants_to_Fly
Lynch has been an indoctrinate since before he started making some of my favourite films, so Iām not trying to air āconcernā about the quality of the coming season butā¦ I mean, damn! Did anyone see the documentary?
excellent post
???
For me, realtime 2016 Twin Peaks is totally upstaged by the fact that Evangelion 4.0 comes out in 2015 - the year in which the original series is set. I can only assume it will be a documentary.
4 Likes
Second was deleted because it basically repeated something I had already written in another comment. Sometimes I lose track of which forums Iām in. 
1 Like
Letās hope not - then weāll never get to see Showtimeās Twin Peaks!
Btw, Iāve heard people say End of Evangelion:NGE::Fire Walk With Me:Twin Peaks. I agree, and this probably explains why both are among my all-time favorite films.
2 Likes
Yes, Bob is an egg. And he likes pie.
I want to believe
1 Like
awww yiss
2 Likes
