Twin Peaks: Classic or Dud?

one of the most unique shows i've ever watched, next to buffy (and i would've said lost if that wasn't the worlds greatest cop-out, the ending and the revelations of...........nothing). admittedly it gets a little tedious during the 2nd season, and i have come to hate the ending despite initially liking it.

mark frost's books suck, sadly

"...folded in half, he began to read it."

now that its fall, rewatching peaks again

First day of unemployment, think rewatching this is mandatory.

For Britishers with SKY the Horror Channel is showing both seasons from 9pm every Monday starting tonight

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/8812/fwwmmontage.jpg

http://dugpa.com/2010/11/09/exclusive-photos-from-the-psych-twin-peaks-tribute-episode-dual-spires-airing-december-1st-on-usa-network/

^^ OK, seeing Bobby Briggs all Ted Danson-ed out w/ a full head of gray hair just made me feel really old.

Now Audrey Horne on the other hand..

she looks like she's had one cosmetic procedure too many tbh

Just watched Season 2 up to episode 14 in the Gold Box set. It seems like even in the early part of the season, they were struggling to give James and Donna something to do. The whole Harold Smith thing was just peculiar, but not in a good way, and then it just abruptly fizzled out. Catherine disguising herself as an unconvincing Japanese businessman was something of a WTF moment, especially as I guessed it had to be her pretty much straight away, and then spent the next couple of episodes wondering why anyone would be taken in by such an obviously phony performance.

Maddie's death is really shocking, isn't it? Especially as up to then, the series had largely skirted around the more violent stuff(pulling back from showing Leo hitting Shelley, for instance). I do wonder how that got past the network censors.

One thing I'm really glad about is that they didn't overuse Bob, as I think his power comes from the fact that his appearances are relatively few(he only crops up twice in Season 1, and very fleetingly), but it's like his shadow lingers over the whole series. Twin Peaks and FWWM were Frank Silva's only screen acting work I believe? It's remarkable how an actor could come out of nowhere and have that extraordinary presence.

I agree with whoever said the pacing of events is a little strange. I was totally confused about when Andy and Lucy were supposed to've broken up, when there was seemingly no intervening time for them to've spent apart - suddenly out of nowhere she's dating someone else, when the duration of the series was less than two weeks at that point!

Just mentally preparing myself for the mid-season slump now. I guess it couldn't be as bad as Heroes got though, could it?

It's weird because, compared to season 1, the mid part of season 2 is complete shit, just ridiculous soap opera plots that you don't care about fading in and out of focus. But you really can't help but watch them, and they have some great moments in them, and the way the entire series is tied together with the standout episodes (including the last - and best) it's all pretty invaluable.

I really hope you haven't seen the last episode, it will knock your socks off!

Harold hanging himself isn't reaaallly what I'd qualify as 'fizzling out.'
More annoying: the mysterious kid who lives NEXT DOOR to Harold.

also good to remember that season one was a lot shorter than season too, right? don't have the numbers in front of me, but iirc it's not an insignificant difference.

season too??? go to bed ian.

Yeah season one is like half dozen shows, season two is like over 2 dozen.

Season two more like 3 dozen iirc. Season 2 pretty lame in parts imo,with some amazing eps. Season one all killer no filler.

Did anyone watch the Psych episode that was a Twin Peaks tribute? Pretty fun, and I dont really watch Psych hardly at all. Julee Cruise reworked their theme song, reunited Audrey, Laura Palmer, Bobby.. the whole episode was kind of a vague reworked version of the pilot (with lols etc). Worth checking out!

did you watch the documentary that comes w/ the movie dvd

― cool app (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Saturday, December 27, 2008 9:26 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

Yessss! Amazing stuff. Every time they show another actor you can't help but imagine they are the character. They all seem like suitably/entertainingly weird people!

i missed this, will have to find it online. log lady looks exactly the same! how????

if you don't like the stupid soap opera parts in s2 you don't like twin peaks imo

yeah, i agree— those parts are kind of what makes the series so...strange, to me. i think the only thing i hated altogether was the James/mysterious woman plotline. (i mean, it was nice seeing him all half-naked, but_.....)

other than that, tho, i love the second season as much as the first.

i've seen this whole series like 5 times, too. i'm a huge stan for the second season.

Twin Peaks and FWWM were Frank Silva's only screen acting work I believe? It's remarkable how an actor could come out of nowhere and have that extraordinary presence.

You know he's not actually an actor, right?

http://rootstrata.com/rootblog/?p=4367

Wasn't he a soundguy or something and Lynch saw him on set and was like "hey he looks cool let's work him in"?

Yeah, and he died of AIDS a couple of years after Twin Peaks, IIRC.

yeah, he was a stagehand or something - IIRC he was accidentally caught in frame in a mirror for a second, and Lynch didn't notice until viewing rushes, then said "hey, looks spooky, let's go with that"

IMDb says:

A native of central California, Frank Silva majored in theater at San Francisco State University where he received a master's degree in light design. He worked with director David Lynch on several of his movies (Dune, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart) as a prop master and set decorator. While Silva was working on fixing up the set for the character Laura Palmer's bedroom in the pilot episode for Twin Peaks, Lynch decided that Silva should be Bob after accidentally filming him in a reflection in a mirror which this long-haired, prematurely gray man gave Lynch himself a jolt because of his sudden frightening appearance.

That foot-of-the-bed shot is some horrifying, iconic work there. No way anything in Season 2 gets anywhere near that level of subconscious-jolting strangeness. ** SPOILER ALERT ** (Until Evil Laura begins running around screaming bloody murder, that is...)

I dont care for Wyndam Earl or whatever, either. Tbh Mr Horne's turn to Civil War-embracing insanity is my favorite bit about the S2 lull, barring the Lynch guest spots of course. I love how he just has to yell everything for some reason. So absurd. James/Mystery Woman = dud, tho.

Windom Earle is some fucked up bullshit, dude can't even spell his own name

The stupid soap parts in the first series are better imo.

bit that freaks me out most us the trees round the entrance/portal to the black lodge (although this is probably due to local yore about wooded area and local serial killer).

Anyway FWWM is the best. "I thought you knew", gods.

Aye earle is wasted and boring,explaining himself to Leo whole time is so lame.

Fwwm is so dark. Totally destroys me.

It's also v beautiful, tho.

Yeah I love it. Still,damn.

Yeah, seconded. That angel scene messed me up a lot when I first saw it.

Still seems odd to me that ppl were turned off by that movie when it came out, saying it was too dark or something. I mean, this is a TV show about a man who rapes and murders his own daughter! Thats some dark stuff there!

Went on a twin peaks binge couple of years ago when I was unemployed,staying with my parents. The two series and the film in less than a weekend,was totally ready for Bob to jump out that Sunday night,I.e. real boogie man terror in a 24 year old.

Tv show has comedy and soap elements along with darkness. Also incest sort of subsumed by evil force in show,not so in film

The scene where Ronette has the nightmare about Bob is so unbelievably amazing. The way the sound distorts when he roars but you also get that muffled staticy cackling is just so scary, like his decibel level is correlated to fear.

I love how he just has to yell everything for some reason.

It was specifically explained that he has bad hearing.

season 2 gets a lot of shit (kinda deservedly, though i've warmed to a lot of it on rewatches), but the handful of Lynch directed episodes are fucking GREAT. i think my favorite Twin Peaks stuff is in the second season.

this fucking scene...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWODXMtNmKc

lol, not in english.

if you don't like the stupid soap opera parts in s2 you don't like twin peaks imo

― I see what this is (Local Garda), Saturday, December 11, 2010 10:02 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

exactly. by then I was so immersed in the world of Twin Peaks I would've been happy to watch anything that was going on in that town no matter how stupid. it's kinda like saying "E2E4 is a masterpiece -- except for the guitar solo on side 2"

You know he's not actually an actor, right?

Huh, I thought he was an actor, but he'd just never worked on screen before.

Lynch seems to confirm that theory anyway: http://www.glastonberrygrove.net/reference/howbob/howbobb.html

Fwwm is so dark. Totally destroys me.

I saw it on the day it was released, at an afternoon matinee. After enduring all that darkness, I exited the theater to an uncharacteristically sunny Seattle day, and had to head for the nearest tavern just to get out of the light and ruminate on it all.

Finally finished the show. Man it really goes to shit toward the end, and the difference between Lynch/non-Lynch episodes is so stark. The finale (Lynch) is still pretty damn good.

Basically agree with what was said above about the Earle stuff -- lame, sophomoric hollywood serial killer bullshit with a smattering of torture porn. The buildup to the Miss Twin Peaks contest is so forced! There must be like 10 different scenes in 5 different episodes involving weak justifications for why a certain character enters the contest. The writing reminded me of improv sketches where the actors have to figure out how to work their way to an audience-suggested outcome, only not improv, so not excusable.

The black lodge stuff in the last episode is some of the scariest, most mind-warping television I've ever seen. But even with that episode I didn't really like the conclusion -- I didn't mind the loose ends, but I didn't buy the outcome with Dale Cooper.