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[HashtagLapsed]

The guy introducing "The" NIN looked a lot like Jimmy Scott (of Sycamore Trees in the Black Lodge fame) but apparently wasn't him because he died? A real-life DoppelJimmy?

He did look a lot like Jimmy Scott. It came to mind immediately for me.

 

[oneida]

I kinda get it, and kinda don't.

Disappointed fans act like Twin Peaks was all coffee and cherry pie comfort show, when really it was all about how the wholesome middle americana veneer can hide true darkness. A theme Lynch loves to explore. The show comes back, 25 years later, after a dark as hell cliffhanger and people don't expect WTF craziness? From the guy who got increasingly insular over the years with his last major work being Inland Empire of all things back in 2006? Y'all set yourselves up for disappointment if so. Your first hint should have been Fire Walk With Me. I won't throw shade on more casual Twin Peaks fans, though. Those guys had no idea what was coming.

Two complaints I do get is wishing the show was more centered around Twin Peaks and hoping Coop snaps out of it already. The show itself is basically what I always wanted and what I didn't know I wanted, with those two things drawing some ire from me. This isn't a bad thing, considering what we've seen so far has been fantastic IMO. And hey, we got like 10 more hours left. Maybe part 9 is where we get our boy back.

you "kinda don't get" why fans of Lynch & Twin Peaks would be let down that the new season of the show bears hardly even a passing resemblance to the tone of the first two seasons?

man, don't delude yourself.

this can't be reduced to what Lynch was doing over a decade ago with IE. with Frost's credit, as well as the returning cast and the way showtime marketed the new season, anyone would be wholly justified in expecting the soap opera satire, the jovial tone, the mystery.
_none_ of it is here.

i genuinely enjoyed this episode and look forward to tearing through theories and can't wait for the next ep. but don't kid yourself.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

Something I think a lot of people aren't getting when they try to rationalize the disappointment of old fans if that Twin Peaks used to be a character-driven show. One of the things that made Twin Peaks so successful and influential was it's extremely strong characterization.

You were following the characters in Twin Peaks. The lore and the mystery were the backdrop that occasionally reached from the background and gave you a good shake. But first and foremost, Twin Peaks was about the dramatic lives and intersections of a whole town's worth of characters.

Even the season two finale, which people say is the show's weirdest, was character driven. Hawk warned Cooper he has to face his shadow self with perfect courage. Cooper goes in alone to save Annie and a vigilant Harry waits outside for hours. Andy, knowing what is going on over his head, tends to Harry by offering him breakfast rather than ask what's going on. In the meantime, Benjamin Horne is confessing to Donna that he's his biological father. Doc Hayward, in a break from character, reacts violently and throws him into the fireplace while Donna sobs and screams about her paternity. The onus is on Donna's mother for the first time, an inconspicuous character, who suddenly is shaded with a history of betrayal. Audrey Horne chains herself to a bank vault to protest her father's development, Pete and Thomas detonate a bomb, and Leo is trapped beneath a spider cage in Windom Earle's hideout.

The hugest and most palpable difference is that old Twin Peaks focused on people and characters and relationships. It was about what made them hurt and what made them scared and what made them cry. We saw deep into their hearts and souls and cared for them. And when crazy inter-dimensional travel happened, it was still about them. It was still about them and what they wanted and how it was going to affect everyone around them.

New Twin Peaks is not like that at all. We don't get to know any characters. Characters rarely make appearances in consecutive episodes. They don't have deep conversations. Dougie is literally a non-character. That's how polar opposite the show is. The show's protagonist is a vegetable who cannot think, barely feels, and cannot actualize any individual motivation.

The old show had so many funny and charming character moments. It was so quotable. Season 3 has no fish in the percolators.

The reason the new show is leaving me cold and disappointed constantly is because there is no heart to it anymore. It is completely devoid of emotion. There are rare scenes with Albert and Gordon, or Gordon and Denise, but everything else is pure surface-level fuckery based on the lore and no characters.

When every single character you meet is presented as an enigmatic question mark, you can't feel compassion and interest in them. They become set pieces and props for a cosmic mystery. We are regularly meeting people we've never met before and then saying goodbye. Because they don't matter. Only the faceless space demon matters.

I was on board for all manner of twisted ambiguity. I was not on board for an eighteen hour movie with no protagonist.

People laughed, but for me, the best scene of the show is when Bobby sees Laura's picture and cries. Because I know Bobby. I know what he's been through and how Laura affected him. I know why it hurts him and how it takes him back to a person he isn't anymore. We meet Bobby grown up, but that scene makes him a teenager again and it's really sad. Laura Palmer casts a long shadow.

Bizarre trips through the atom bomb, scenes totally detached from character and location, do not make me happy the show came back.

I am trying not to jump the gun. There's still a lot of show left. We'll see how it comes together. But right now, I am perpetually disappointed. No more buddy drama. No more silly side antics. No more love stories. No more character study. Just... something else.

 

[Solo]

Woke up this morning and still all I can think about is the magnificent hour of television I witnessed last night. Lynch outdid himself.

 

[EatChildren]

 

[PR_rambo]

Hey I like Twin Peaks. Wtf did any of that have to do with that old show from the 90s?

I'm not even mad, I just don't understand.

In a weird way, I liked it. David Lynch just directed an excellent 50s horror film at the end.

 

[giancarlo123x]

Hey I like Twin Peaks. Wtf did any of that have to do with that old show from the 90s?

I'm not even mad, I just don't understand.

In a weird way, I liked it. David Lynch just directed an excellent 50s horror film at the end.

I like to think everything will make sense by the end but Im just lying to myself.

 

[VistraNorrez]

I do not care one bit if other fans enjoyed the episode (or this series) at all. Well, except that are enough that enjoyed it to want to discuss it. I find the concern criticism funny.

A few random thoughts. I think Mark Frost probably deserves more credit here. Sure he isn't the visual guy, but you know he's a fucking weirdo. I'm sure him and Lynch discussed this Part a lot.

Considering how often Lynch pulls the rug from under our feet, I wonder if the birthing scenes in this episode will be recontextualized. The apparent idea is Laura is a savior of some sort, but maybe it's even more complicated than that.That picture of Laura appearing over the fog of the forest now has new meaning in the opening credit sequence.

I'm still really curious when that scene of Cooper and ??????? takes place from Part 1. Will
Cooper be able to visit that place at will. His fading/disappearance from there is still confounding. Also I think ??????? isn't the same giant from before. He may be a doppelganger. I wonder if it's the White Lodge or not.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

That was the single most strange, experimental, hypnotic episode of television I've ever seen.

God bless everyone at Showtime who gave Frost and Lynch money for this thing.

 

[Don Draper's Hat]

Wow. Just wow.

When Nine Inch Nails came on the screen I was thinking "This shit just can't keep going on. Give it up with the fucking music videos in every episode!"

Then the rest of the episode happened and I was willing for more music performances.

What a heap of fucking shit that episode was. Just utter tedious crap.

God damn it.

 

[VistraNorrez]

Something I think a lot of people aren't getting when they try to rationalize the disappointment of old fans if that Twin Peaks used to be a character-driven show. One of the things that made Twin Peaks so successful and influential was it's extremely strong characterization.

You were following the characters in Twin Peaks. The lore and the mystery were the backdrop that occasionally reached from the background and gave you a good shake. But first and foremost, Twin Peaks was about the dramatic lives and intersections of a whole town's worth of characters.

Even the season two finale, which people say is the show's weirdest, was character driven. Hawk warned Cooper he has to face his shadow self with perfect courage. Cooper goes in alone to save Annie and a vigilant Harry waits outside for hours. Andy, knowing what is going on over his head, tends to Harry by offering him breakfast rather than ask what's going on. In the meantime, Benjamin Horne is confessing to Donna that he's his biological father. Doc Hayward, in a break from character, reacts violently and throws him into the fireplace while Donna sobs and screams about her paternity. The onus is on Donna's mother for the first time, an inconspicuous character, who suddenly is shaded with a history of betrayal. Audrey Horne chains herself to a bank vault to protest her father's development, Pete and Thomas detonate a bomb, and Leo is trapped beneath a spider cage in Windom Earle's hideout.

The hugest and most palpable difference is that old Twin Peaks focused on people and characters and relationships. It was about what made them hurt and what made them scared and what made them cry. We saw deep into their hearts and souls and cared for them. And when crazy inter-dimensional travel happened, it was still about them. It was still about them and what they wanted and how it was going to affect everyone around them.

New Twin Peaks is not like that at all. We don't get to know any characters. Characters rarely make appearances in consecutive episodes. They don't have deep conversations. Dougie is literally a non-character. That's how polar opposite the show is. The show's protagonist is a vegetable who cannot think, barely feels, and cannot actualize any individual motivation.

The old show had so many funny and charming character moments. It was so quotable. Season 3 has no fish in the percolators.

The reason the new show is leaving me cold and disappointed constantly is because there is no heart to it anymore. It is completely devoid of emotion. There are rare scenes with Albert and Gordon, or Gordon and Denise, but everything else is pure surface-level fuckery based on the lore and no characters.

When every single character you meet is presented as an enigmatic question mark, you can't feel compassion and interest in them. They become set pieces and props for a cosmic mystery. We are regularly meeting people we've never met before and then saying goodbye. Because they don't matter. Only the faceless space demon matters.

I was on board for all manner of twisted ambiguity. I was not on board for an eighteen hour movie with no protagonist.

People laughed, but for me, the best scene of the show is when Bobby sees Laura's picture and cries. Because I know Bobby. I know what he's been through and how Laura affected him. I know why it hurts him and how it takes him back to a person he isn't anymore. We meet Bobby grown up, but that scene makes him a teenager again and it's really sad. Laura Palmer casts a long shadow.

Bizarre trips through the atom bomb, scenes totally detached from character and location, do not make me happy the show came back.

I am trying not to jump the gun. There's still a lot of show left. We'll see how it comes together. But right now, I am perpetually disappointed. No more buddy drama. No more silly side antics. No more love stories. No more character study. Just... something else.

Cooper as Dougie might be the biggest character study of the series yet. It's breaking Cooper down to his core and slowly rebuilding him. The most intimate moments have come from him.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

Cooper as Dougie might be the biggest character study of the series yet. It's breaking Cooper down to his core and slowly rebuilding him. The most intimate moments have come from him.

Even as a fan of slow burn character studies like Drive Once Upon a Time in the West, and Uncle John, I have a hard time appreciating Dougie as anything meaningful. I don't presently agree with your assertion.

 

[Jb]

That was such a wonderful mindfuck. Completely mesmerizing and unique.

Weirdest thing for me is how good most of the effects looked, considering we got numerous floating jpegs in previous episodes.

 

[giancarlo123x]

I love Kyle's acting when he is in Mr c mode, dude is chilling as shit and felt terrible vibes when they were driving down the dirt road.

 

[Solo]

Few morning thoughts.....

- I know the whole thing was shot as an 18 hour movie and then essentially cut into 18 pieces, which seems clear given some of the abrupt/unceremonious endings we've gotten so far to episodes. However, this episode felt different. It actually felt like just that, an episode. I get the sense they spent a loooot of time in the editing room on this one making it feel like a complete and self contained episode. Whether that was due to the impending 1 week break, or due to the sheer weirdness of he episode, I cannot say.

- If that was indeed the White Lodge, which it seems to be given the presence of the giant and the seemingly benevolent woman, then the only location we've never seen yet is the Black Lodge, right? Since the Red Room is the waiting room/purgatory?

- Seeing the speculation of whether the young man in the 50's is Leland or not. Doesn't matter much to me either way, but I do hope we get more Ray Wise. He only has had 10 seconds of screentime so far.

- The White Lodge/"birth" of Laura scene is the most hauntingly beautiful sequence I've seen on television in a long time. And that Badalamenti score.......gorgeous.

 

[Zach]

That was the most batshit, avant-garde thing I've ever seen on TV, and I fucking loved it. I'm unsure about retconning Laura Palmer as some kind of Chosen One, but I'll wait to see how that plays over the rest of the season.

Mmhmm, mmhmm.

 

[EatChildren]

- The White Lodge/"birth" of Laura scene is the most hauntingly beautiful sequence I've seen on television in a long time. And that Badalamenti score.......gorgeous.

As with everything Lynch works on, the audio production is utterly phenomenal in bringing sequences together with such loaded resonance. So captivating.

 

[plagiarize]

I don't think those of us who like it, should act like we are better than those who don't. I feel sorry for them personally because they waited so long like the rest of us.

 

[Addi]

"Jeffries" told Booper on the phone that he would be reunited with Bob. Was this his his plan? To get him shot to "extract" Bob. Is the guy Booper talked to the Lincoln Soot Hobo?

 

[XANDER CAGE]

Something I think a lot of people aren't getting when they try to rationalize the disappointment of old fans if that Twin Peaks used to be a character-driven show. One of the things that made Twin Peaks so successful and influential was it's extremely strong characterization.

You were following the characters in Twin Peaks. The lore and the mystery were the backdrop that occasionally reached from the background and gave you a good shake. But first and foremost, Twin Peaks was about the dramatic lives and intersections of a whole town's worth of characters.

Even the season two finale, which people say is the show's weirdest, was character driven. Hawk warned Cooper he has to face his shadow self with perfect courage. Cooper goes in alone to save Annie and a vigilant Harry waits outside for hours. Andy, knowing what is going on over his head, tends to Harry by offering him breakfast rather than ask what's going on. In the meantime, Benjamin Horne is confessing to Donna that he's his biological father. Doc Hayward, in a break from character, reacts violently and throws him into the fireplace while Donna sobs and screams about her paternity. The onus is on Donna's mother for the first time, an inconspicuous character, who suddenly is shaded with a history of betrayal. Audrey Horne chains herself to a bank vault to protest her father's development, Pete and Thomas detonate a bomb, and Leo is trapped beneath a spider cage in Windom Earle's hideout.

The hugest and most palpable difference is that old Twin Peaks focused on people and characters and relationships. It was about what made them hurt and what made them scared and what made them cry. We saw deep into their hearts and souls and cared for them. And when crazy inter-dimensional travel happened, it was still about them. It was still about them and what they wanted and how it was going to affect everyone around them.

New Twin Peaks is not like that at all. We don't get to know any characters. Characters rarely make appearances in consecutive episodes. They don't have deep conversations. Dougie is literally a non-character. That's how polar opposite the show is. The show's protagonist is a vegetable who cannot think, barely feels, and cannot actualize any individual motivation.

The old show had so many funny and charming character moments. It was so quotable. Season 3 has no fish in the percolators.

The reason the new show is leaving me cold and disappointed constantly is because there is no heart to it anymore. It is completely devoid of emotion. There are rare scenes with Albert and Gordon, or Gordon and Denise, but everything else is pure surface-level fuckery based on the lore and no characters.

When every single character you meet is presented as an enigmatic question mark, you can't feel compassion and interest in them. They become set pieces and props for a cosmic mystery. We are regularly meeting people we've never met before and then saying goodbye. Because they don't matter. Only the faceless space demon matters.

I was on board for all manner of twisted ambiguity. I was not on board for an eighteen hour movie with no protagonist.

People laughed, but for me, the best scene of the show is when Bobby sees Laura's picture and cries. Because I know Bobby. I know what he's been through and how Laura affected him. I know why it hurts him and how it takes him back to a person he isn't anymore. We meet Bobby grown up, but that scene makes him a teenager again and it's really sad. Laura Palmer casts a long shadow.

Bizarre trips through the atom bomb, scenes totally detached from character and location, do not make me happy the show came back.

I am trying not to jump the gun. There's still a lot of show left. We'll see how it comes together. But right now, I am perpetually disappointed. No more buddy drama. No more silly side antics. No more love stories. No more character study. Just... something else.

I think this is overselling how "normal" Twin Peaks was as a show when it originally aired. The character driven moments of season 1 aren't just meant to be a quirky, cozy American comedy/drama - there's a real cynicism at its core. Twin Peaks was a send-up of popular TV and the American idealism of the 1980s. Cooper represents this almost explicitly: a seemingly unflappable, cheerful do-gooder ends the original run of the series falling prey to his dark side. Relative to what was on TV at the time, the Twin Peaks of then was not that much less weirder, relatively, than Twin Peaks: The Return is to us now.

Think about how much darker television has gotten since 1991; think about how much darker our collective perception of the world has gotten. I hate to trot out such an obvious critical cliche, but consider that this is Twin Peaks post 9/11, and all the sea changes that have occurred in American media since then. Original Twin Peaks was weird shit dressed up as the popular TV of that era. New Twin Peaks is weird shit dressed up as what TV looks like in 2017, which means people being awful to one another, graphic violence, uncompromising bleakness, etc. The Dougie sequences almost feel like a joke aimed directly at people who mostly remember and desire Twin Peaks for its domestic humor and setting. Bringing this series back with the same tone as the original would have probably felt about as authentic as Dougie's world does compared to the darkness of the rest of this season so far.

Even so, as character driven as OG Twin Peaks was, I think decades of cultural memes have kind of buried just how surreal and dark it was at the time too. For every chipper scene with Cooper eating pie, there are dozens of graphic (for 1991) depictions of domestic violence, sexual abuse, drug use, murder, and abject horror. I'm not disagreeing with you specifically so much here, but I do think that a lot of fan expectations were misplaced to begin with. Everything easily lovable about Twin Peaks has always been a relatively thin veneer over the top of ugly realities. Many of the characters were vehicles for jokes and criticisms of the cultural landscape of TV at the time.

 

[EatChildren]

Twin peaks was monstrously dark for its era, and that dichotomy against the borderline satirical sugar coated soap opera imbued it with a distinct identity. That and the escalating surrealism. The stuff with Bob and demonic murder-rape implications is the stuff of nightmares: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5aqLzl_VrA

 

[Reckoner]

Something I think a lot of people aren't getting when they try to rationalize the disappointment of old fans if that Twin Peaks used to be a character-driven show. One of the things that made Twin Peaks so successful and influential was it's extremely strong characterization.

You were following the characters in Twin Peaks. The lore and the mystery were the backdrop that occasionally reached from the background and gave you a good shake. But first and foremost, Twin Peaks was about the dramatic lives and intersections of a whole town's worth of characters.

Even the season two finale, which people say is the show's weirdest, was character driven. Hawk warned Cooper he has to face his shadow self with perfect courage. Cooper goes in alone to save Annie and a vigilant Harry waits outside for hours. Andy, knowing what is going on over his head, tends to Harry by offering him breakfast rather than ask what's going on. In the meantime, Benjamin Horne is confessing to Donna that he's his biological father. Doc Hayward, in a break from character, reacts violently and throws him into the fireplace while Donna sobs and screams about her paternity. The onus is on Donna's mother for the first time, an inconspicuous character, who suddenly is shaded with a history of betrayal. Audrey Horne chains herself to a bank vault to protest her father's development, Pete and Thomas detonate a bomb, and Leo is trapped beneath a spider cage in Windom Earle's hideout.

The hugest and most palpable difference is that old Twin Peaks focused on people and characters and relationships. It was about what made them hurt and what made them scared and what made them cry. We saw deep into their hearts and souls and cared for them. And when crazy inter-dimensional travel happened, it was still about them. It was still about them and what they wanted and how it was going to affect everyone around them.

New Twin Peaks is not like that at all. We don't get to know any characters. Characters rarely make appearances in consecutive episodes. They don't have deep conversations. Dougie is literally a non-character. That's how polar opposite the show is. The show's protagonist is a vegetable who cannot think, barely feels, and cannot actualize any individual motivation.

The old show had so many funny and charming character moments. It was so quotable. Season 3 has no fish in the percolators.

The reason the new show is leaving me cold and disappointed constantly is because there is no heart to it anymore. It is completely devoid of emotion. There are rare scenes with Albert and Gordon, or Gordon and Denise, but everything else is pure surface-level fuckery based on the lore and no characters.

When every single character you meet is presented as an enigmatic question mark, you can't feel compassion and interest in them. They become set pieces and props for a cosmic mystery. We are regularly meeting people we've never met before and then saying goodbye. Because they don't matter. Only the faceless space demon matters.

I was on board for all manner of twisted ambiguity. I was not on board for an eighteen hour movie with no protagonist.

People laughed, but for me, the best scene of the show is when Bobby sees Laura's picture and cries. Because I know Bobby. I know what he's been through and how Laura affected him. I know why it hurts him and how it takes him back to a person he isn't anymore. We meet Bobby grown up, but that scene makes him a teenager again and it's really sad. Laura Palmer casts a long shadow.

Bizarre trips through the atom bomb, scenes totally detached from character and location, do not make me happy the show came back.

I am trying not to jump the gun. There's still a lot of show left. We'll see how it comes together. But right now, I am perpetually disappointed. No more buddy drama. No more silly side antics. No more love stories. No more character study. Just... something else.

Someone should place a pin on this post

 

[Solo]

WOW, BOB. WOW.

 

[PizzaFace]

Someone should place a pin on this post

No, they shouldn't

 

[Maligna]

Something I think a lot of people aren't getting when they try to rationalize the disappointment of old fans if that Twin Peaks used to be a character-driven show. One of the things that made Twin Peaks so successful and influential was it's extremely strong characterization.

You were following the characters in Twin Peaks. The lore and the mystery were the backdrop that occasionally reached from the background and gave you a good shake. But first and foremost, Twin Peaks was about the dramatic lives and intersections of a whole town's worth of characters.

Even the season two finale, which people say is the show's weirdest, was character driven. Hawk warned Cooper he has to face his shadow self with perfect courage. Cooper goes in alone to save Annie and a vigilant Harry waits outside for hours. Andy, knowing what is going on over his head, tends to Harry by offering him breakfast rather than ask what's going on. In the meantime, Benjamin Horne is confessing to Donna that he's his biological father. Doc Hayward, in a break from character, reacts violently and throws him into the fireplace while Donna sobs and screams about her paternity. The onus is on Donna's mother for the first time, an inconspicuous character, who suddenly is shaded with a history of betrayal. Audrey Horne chains herself to a bank vault to protest her father's development, Pete and Thomas detonate a bomb, and Leo is trapped beneath a spider cage in Windom Earle's hideout.

The hugest and most palpable difference is that old Twin Peaks focused on people and characters and relationships. It was about what made them hurt and what made them scared and what made them cry. We saw deep into their hearts and souls and cared for them. And when crazy inter-dimensional travel happened, it was still about them. It was still about them and what they wanted and how it was going to affect everyone around them.

New Twin Peaks is not like that at all. We don't get to know any characters. Characters rarely make appearances in consecutive episodes. They don't have deep conversations. Dougie is literally a non-character. That's how polar opposite the show is. The show's protagonist is a vegetable who cannot think, barely feels, and cannot actualize any individual motivation.

The old show had so many funny and charming character moments. It was so quotable. Season 3 has no fish in the percolators.

The reason the new show is leaving me cold and disappointed constantly is because there is no heart to it anymore. It is completely devoid of emotion. There are rare scenes with Albert and Gordon, or Gordon and Denise, but everything else is pure surface-level fuckery based on the lore and no characters.

When every single character you meet is presented as an enigmatic question mark, you can't feel compassion and interest in them. They become set pieces and props for a cosmic mystery. We are regularly meeting people we've never met before and then saying goodbye. Because they don't matter. Only the faceless space demon matters.

I was on board for all manner of twisted ambiguity. I was not on board for an eighteen hour movie with no protagonist.

People laughed, but for me, the best scene of the show is when Bobby sees Laura's picture and cries. Because I know Bobby. I know what he's been through and how Laura affected him. I know why it hurts him and how it takes him back to a person he isn't anymore. We meet Bobby grown up, but that scene makes him a teenager again and it's really sad. Laura Palmer casts a long shadow.

Bizarre trips through the atom bomb, scenes totally detached from character and location, do not make me happy the show came back.

I am trying not to jump the gun. There's still a lot of show left. We'll see how it comes together. But right now, I am perpetually disappointed. No more buddy drama. No more silly side antics. No more love stories. No more character study. Just... something else.

You're my hero because of this post.

Can I read this on my Twin Peaks Podcast? I could never put it into words as succinctly as you have here. I'll give you credit of course.

No, they shouldn't

What exactly is wrong about it?

 

[PizzaFace]

Y
What exactly is wrong about it?

Absolutely nothing, but it's one opinion amongst hundreds.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Its funny how much was truly revealed in this episode while using cinematic techniques that absolutely tested your patience. A push and pull but mostly push.

 

[EatChildren]

Bobby's impulsive crying over Laura Palmer's picture with the blatantly recycled, emotionally nostalgic, familiar compositions and emphasis on over full framed face dramatic emotional outbursts was hilarious. It was like an overt conscious expression of the kitschy satire of the original series and its utter absurdity in modern framework and Season 3's storytelling.

I loved it but it just seemed like such a deliberate, cheeky prod in the guts to "old fans", borderlining on comfortable mockery.

 

[Poimandres]

That was unbelievable. Terrifying, uncomfortable, haunting. Blew my mind!

 

[oneida]

Absolutely nothing, but it's one opinion amongst hundreds.

much of that post is objectively true.

 

[Mi goreng]

Felt 16 again watching Rezneck scream into a mic.

Man this was some truly out there stuff. So much love

 

[Addi]

Checked the scene from episode 2 with Mr C talking to "Jeffries", I think it's the same voice as the woodsman!

 

[Exodust]

you "kinda don't get" why fans of Lynch & Twin Peaks would be let down that the new season of the show bears hardly even a passing resemblance to the tone of the first two seasons?

man, don't delude yourself.

this can't be reduced to what Lynch was doing over a decade ago with IE. with Frost's credit, as well as the returning cast and the way showtime marketed the new season, anyone would be wholly justified in expecting the soap opera satire, the jovial tone, the mystery.
_none_ of it is here.

i genuinely enjoyed this episode and look forward to tearing through theories and can't wait for the next ep. but don't kid yourself.

Delude myself? Dude, it wasn't all quirky(which is still present in this season, just missing the music) and it's in line with the darker aspects of the earlier seasons. The third season was always going to be much, much darker.

No mystery? Come on, you got TV detectives racking their brains trying to make sense of every frame.

I can understand disappointment, what I don't get is acting like this season isn't Twin Peaks at all. It's a lot more focused on one aspect over the other, that's fine. Makes sense considering where the 25 year old cliffhanger left us.

XANDER CAGE's post from earlier explains my position much better than I did. Yeah, it sucks that it isn't exactly what some hoped for. But let's not act like it's out of left field.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Bobby's impulsive crying over Laura Palmer's picture with the blatantly recycled, emotionally nostalgic, familiar compositions and emphasis on over full framed face dramatic emotional outbursts was hilarious. It was like an overt conscious expression of the kitschy satire of the original series and its utter absurdity in modern framework and Season 3's storytelling.

I loved it but it just seemed like such a deliberate, cheeky prod in the guts to "old fans", borderlining on comfortable mockery.

Yeah the first time I watched Bobby grimace and break into tears like that I laughed, hard, and caught myself wondering if that was the intended reaction. Eight hours in, it obviously was.

 

[a very cute dog]

I cannot believe that aired on television. I personally loved it.

 

[BigAT]

Is there a TLDR on what happened last night? I haven't been following the series, but I'm curious what managed to seemingly break everyone.

 

[EatChildren]

Is there a TLDR on what happened last night? I haven't been following the series, but I'm curious what managed to seemingly break everyone.

David Lynch conned Showtime into funding Eraserhead 2.

 

[Solo]

Is there a TLDR on what happened last night? I haven't been following the series, but I'm curious what managed to seemingly break everyone.

We've seen in previous episodes that denizens of the lodges enter and exit the world through various changes in energy. In 1945, as the first atom bomb ever was successfully detonated, Babylon, the Mother of All Abominations used the opportunity to birth Bob and a host of evils into our world. The White Lodge received an alert and the Giant, caretaker of the Lodge, also uses the breach into our world to send the soul of Laura Palmer into the world to stand against Bob and the evils born into the world. 10 years later, Bob hatches in the desert and possesses his first victim.

Sums it up pretty good.

 

[Wollan]

WOW, BOB. WOW.

Beautiful stuff.

 

[VistraNorrez]

Art is allowed it be whatever it wants. This idea that it has to stagnate to please fans is disgusting.

 

[Addi]

Is there a TLDR on what happened last night? I haven't been following the series, but I'm curious what managed to seemingly break everyone.

Think the ending of 2001: A space Odyssey, only weirder

Art is allowed it be whatever it wants. This idea that it has to stagnate to please fans is disgusting.

Exactly, this challenges what a tv series can be. When people talk about how tv shows have surpassed cinema, one of the issues for me is that the format doesn't allow for the same level of abstraction and lyricism as film does.
Tv series are most often really grounded it is own reality, causality, plot and characters. Lynch is challenging that and it also might be one of the reasons he calls it an 18 hours movie.

 

[PizzaFace]

much of that post is objectively true.

Perhaps, but the entire post is wrapped in the opinion that Twin Peaks after 25 years should have remained the same (or very similar) to Twin Peaks 25 years ago, which many would disagree with.

How Lynch and Frost define Twin Peaks is up to them. They invented something fresh and innovative in the first season, Lynch re-defined it in FWWM, and now they're changing it into something else again. It's a shame a lot of people waited 25 years and it isn't what they wanted, but I wanted something closer in tone to FWWM and that's what we have so far, and I'm thrilled.

For me, while a season close in tone to seasons 1&2 would have been fun, Lynch is giving me something I've never seen before on TV wrapped in a world that I love. For that poster, Twin Peaks was all about the characters, for me it was just as much about the world, and my god is that world being expanded and delved into.

And I fucking love it.

 

[a very cute dog]

Is there a TLDR on what happened last night? I haven't been following the series, but I'm curious what managed to seemingly break everyone.

David Lynch channeled Malick's Tree of Life and Stan Brakhage to give a ton of abstract backstory to the Black Lodge, its residents, BOB, and Laura Palmer. Also "The" Nine Inch Nails plays the Roadhouse.

 

[InaudibleWhispa]

Is there a TLDR on what happened last night? I haven't been following the series, but I'm curious what managed to seemingly break everyone.

Agent Cooper's doppelganger demands information from Ray and attempts to shoot him, but Ray has unloaded his gun, then shoots him with his own. Ray then sees dark men gather around Cooper's body, tearing at it, revealing to Ray a sac with the face of BOB. He runs away and tells Phillip Jeffries that he believes he is dead.

Nine Inch Nails performs "She's Gone Away" at the Roadhouse.

July 16, 1945, White Sands, New Mexico, 5:29 AM, the world's first atomic bomb is detonated. Images of darkness and various distorted images are seen, followed by nebula and a convenience store, where dark men move about outside. A figure in a void appears to regurgitate a substance, where inside, the face of BOB can be seen. Golden and red imagery follows, then a purple ocean under the Black Lodge, where atop a rock spire is a building. Inside is a woman who listens to a phonograph. The Giant enters as a mechanism in the room makes a noise. He goes upstairs, where he views the preceding events, ascending as a golden cloud forms above his head. The woman enters as a golden orb floats down to her from the cloud. It reaches her hands and the face of Laura Palmer appears. She kisses it and sends it to Earth.

August 5, 1956, New Mexico desert. A creature hatches from an egg and crawls through the desert. A Woodsman descends onto the ground with another dark man. The Woodsman approaches a radio station and goes inside, killing the receptionist. He then goes to the disc jockey, grabs him tightly by the head and repeatedly broadcasts the words, "This is the water and this is the well. Drink full and descend. The horse is the white of the eyes and dark within," which causes listeners to fall unconscious. Meanwhile, the creature reaches a girl's room and climbs into her mouth. The Woodsman ends his broadcast, crushes the disc jockey's skull, and leaves.

 

[Dusk Golem]

You know with the atomic bomb stuff I'm starting to think there could be a whole new spin on the famous, "Fire walk with me," line that's so integral to the series.

 

[Zach]

Just terrific.

Only funny part was the credits where NIN were credited as "The" Nine Inch Nails

When they were introduced as "The Nine Inch Nails," I was like "The?!" because I'm a weirdo. I was amazed when it was addressed in the credits, heh.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Thinking about it more, how could Lynch approach the birth of Bob, and how the lodges touched our reality without being extremely literal in writing. As in a conversation where its explained A to B to C. Those realities defy logic. With that said, I could only imagine how the season finishes up.

 

[hugocésar]

Completely adored it. (Strucurely, I liked where the NIN concert fit in, but I almost pressed fast forward on my remote as I don't care for the band.)

 

[Don Draper's Hat]

Agent Cooper's doppelganger demands information from Ray and attempts to shoot him, but Ray has unloaded his gun, then shoots him with his own. Ray then sees dark men gather around Cooper's body, tearing at it, revealing to Ray a sac with the face of BOB. He runs away and tells Phillip Jeffries that he believes he is dead.

Nine Inch Nails performs "She's Gone Away" at the Roadhouse.

July 16, 1945, White Sands, New Mexico, 5:29 AM, the world's first atomic bomb is detonated. Images of darkness and various distorted images are seen, followed by nebula and a convenience store, where dark men move about outside. A figure in a void appears to regurgitate a substance, where inside, the face of BOB can be seen. Golden and red imagery follows, then a purple ocean under the Black Lodge, where atop a rock spire is a building. Inside is a woman who listens to a phonograph. The Giant enters as a mechanism in the room makes a noise. He goes upstairs, where he views the preceding events, ascending as a golden cloud forms above his head. The woman enters as a golden orb floats down to her from the cloud. It reaches her hands and the face of Laura Palmer appears. She kisses it and sends it to Earth.

August 5, 1956, New Mexico desert. A creature hatches from an egg and crawls through the desert. A Woodsman descends onto the ground with another dark man. The Woodsman approaches a radio station and goes inside, killing the receptionist. He then goes to the disc jockey, grabs him tightly by the head and repeatedly broadcasts the words, "This is the water and this is the well. Drink full and descend. The horse is the white of the eyes and dark within," which causes listeners to fall unconscious. Meanwhile, the creature reaches a girl's room and climbs into her mouth. The Woodsman ends his broadcast, crushes the disc jockey's skull, and leaves.

And that took one whole episode. One whole hour.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

I think this is overselling how "normal" Twin Peaks was as a show when it originally aired. The character driven moments of season 1 aren't just meant to be a quirky, cozy American comedy/drama - there's a real cynicism at its core. Twin Peaks was a send-up of popular TV and the American idealism of the 1980s. Cooper represents this almost explicitly: a seemingly unflappable, cheerful do-gooder ends the original run of the series falling prey to his dark side. Relative to what was on TV at the time, the Twin Peaks of then was not that much less weirder, relatively, than Twin Peaks: The Return is to us now.

Think about how much darker television has gotten since 1991; think about how much darker our collective perception of the world has gotten. I hate to trot out such an obvious critical cliche, but consider that this is Twin Peaks post 9/11, and all the sea changes that have occurred in American media since then. Original Twin Peaks was weird shit dressed up as the popular TV of that era. New Twin Peaks is weird shit dressed up as what TV looks like in 2017, which means people being awful to one another, graphic violence, uncompromising bleakness, etc. The Dougie sequences almost feel like a joke aimed directly at people who mostly remember and desire Twin Peaks for its domestic humor and setting. Bringing this series back with the same tone as the original would have probably felt about as authentic as Dougie's world does compared to the darkness of the rest of this season so far.

Even so, as character driven as OG Twin Peaks was, I think decades of cultural memes have kind of buried just how surreal and dark it was at the time too. For every chipper scene with Cooper eating pie, there are dozens of graphic (for 1991) depictions of domestic violence, sexual abuse, drug use, murder, and abject horror. I'm not disagreeing with you specifically so much here, but I do think that a lot of fan expectations were misplaced to begin with. Everything easily lovable about Twin Peaks has always been a relatively thin veneer over the top of ugly realities. Many of the characters were vehicles for jokes and criticisms of the cultural landscape of TV at the time.

I understand this and I can see where you're coming from. Season 3 is very much about what TV is like today versus what TV was like in 1990. It is unusual to think of a show like Twin Peaks being transplanted into a modern media market - even though that's exactly what's happening - and I think that's definitely why expectations for the show were/are all over the place. Before it aired, I rewatched Mulholland Drive and with my girlfriend. She had never seen it, but we both loved Twin Peaks, and I thought it would be valuable for her to see because there was a real possibility the show would feel more like Mulholland Drive and less like the original Twin Peaks. So even I was expecting the fact that David Lynch was not going to make the same thing in 2017 as he did in 1990.

But Twin Peaks, undoubtedly, resonates with audiences differently depending on when they watched it. I first watched Twin Peaks in 2011. I marathoned it on Netflix and could never look away. This dramatically influenced my perception of the show because, unlike its original audience, I had no idea what else was on TV at the time. As I read about Twin Peaks and crept around old Usenet archives and talked to older fans of the show online, I was able to piece together what I thought was a pretty clear portrait of what the show was, the phenomenon it sparked, and how unceremoniously it ended. Watching Twin Peaks in 2011 was like opening a time capsule of ambitious television. But it meant something different to me having grown up with shows like The X-Files as part of popular culture.

In a modern context, certain things read differently. One of the things an original fan told me once was that all the soapy and campy stuff that is part of Twin Peaks enduring charm wasn't always supposed to come with a nudge and a wink. They said "that's just what TV was like in the 90s." This is something I think most people have seen for themselves: the 90s was brimming with camp. As parody-laden as Twin Peaks was, it was also a 90s show. Not everything was a send up. Some things were just a trait of the media landscape at the time. So context is important.

So I think you're right that Season 3 is not a return of "Twin Peaks" as we knew it, but rather a "Twin Peaks" for the modern TV climate. I tried to check my expectations at the door and keep an open mind, but I don't think I was prepared for how different the show would be and how little it would resemble the show I loved.

There is a poster by Scott C we have framed in our living room called Concentrating on the Js. The scene it is based on is what I always say is the most exemplary scene of the original show. If I had to demonstrate what the show was to a new person, I always show them that scene and usually sell them on the whole thing. It's a vertical slice of the show that offers a look at its characters, its strangeness, its humor, and its intricate plot. It's Twin Peaks at its most "Twin Peaks."

But as I watched the episode last night and flew through a Nine Inch Nails performance and a trip through an atom bomb, I kept looking up at my poster and thinking how badly I wanted more moments like that. That will always be my Twin Peaks, regardless of how much I end up liking this season.

For all its parody and send-ups and violence, the original Twin Peaks just felt so sincere. It was a show that was easy to love. And through so many rewatches, its characters start to feel like old friends. I miss them a lot. And when they've come back in this new show, it feels like they don't need to be there. Right now, the show is not about them. It doesn't matter if Lucy and Andy are there. It didn't even feel good to see them again. I didn't want the show to only cater to nostalgia or be propped up by fan service, but this is so far opposite that I sort of wish it was its own show with no continuity. Seeing Nadine watching Dr. Jacoby's livestream, ultimately, just felt like a cameo. They are people I used to care about making guest appearances in a show that isn't about them.

It's sad, because I would have an easier time letting go it they weren't there at all.

You're my hero because of this post.

Can I read this on my Twin Peaks Podcast? I could never put it into words as succinctly as you have here. I'll give you credit of course.

Please feel free.