Twin Peaks
TheWorldIsEnough
Posts: 296MI6 Agent
Did anybody watch Twin Peaks: The Return?
I would like to hear your thoughts on the original series and/or the new episodes.
I would like to hear your thoughts on the original series and/or the new episodes.
Comments
I think not quite what some people had in mind, especially Cooper returning etc. but seriously did they think Lynch would make it easy!?
TPR had very little in common with TP, but it was a marvellous trip through mystery: just pure Lynch.
Brilliant music at the Double R!
Is Big Ed Hurley the only actor to have been in both a Bond film and a Lynch film? he's the one who sells out Leiter in License to Kill. He was also lead caveman in Quest for Fire, that's a pretty cool resume right there.
At one point the obnoxious forensics scientist Albert Rosensomething identifies a gun used in a murder as a Walther PPK, then pauses and adds, inappropriately as always, "that's James Bonds gun", so theres that too, for us Bond people in the audience.
My favourite character has always been Audrey. I think I'm statistically normal in that preference, at least amongst the redblooded males in the audience. But her character was written to be Coopers love interest, until his reallife girlfriend, playing a more boring character in the story, put a stop to that.
Who are other folks' favourite characters?
This watch-through I remembered to pay close attention to Leland Palmer. Sometimes I forget, but the actor Ray Wise puts in one hell of a performance.
In fact one impressive thing about this show is the ensemble acting, especially in crowd scenes. Like following music, you can watch the crowd scenes and pick out one character without speaking lines, and they're always doing something zany, consistent with their character, even though some of them have acting styles on altogether different dimensions than the rest of the characters. Lucy the receptionist is good for this, or Bobby Briggs, or Dr Jacobi. Just watch what those characters are doing in the periphery of the big crowd scenes.
The second half gets a lot of complaints, about the new characters and storylines. I know Lynch never intended to solve the mystery at all, so I wonder how it would have actually been different if he had won that battle with the network? they'd still have to add new characters and storylines to keep it going. The uncomfortably close-to-the-truth nightmare tone does disappear.
Amongst the new characters are early appearances of David Duchovny and Heather Graham. Special Agent Fox Mulder plays a crossdressing FBI agent, but we always knew Mulder was a bit kinky. More surprisingly, Special Agent Felicity Shagwell plays a nun!!!
various literary or film references I've spotted:
-Another of the 2nd season characters is named Dick Tremayne. That's a name out of Leslie Charteris's early Saint novels.
-James Hurley's storyline in the later episodes is basically a James Cain pastiche.
-The casting of Sheryl Lee as her lookalike cousin may be an homage to Vertigo.
-And early on, Audrey shows up naked in Cooper's bed and he politely talks her out of it. Similar to Bibi in FYEO, right? but I always argue that scene in FYEO is itself borrowed from Chandler's The Big Sleep. In the exact same episode Cooper and Truman find Jacques Renault's house, with a camera pointed at the spot where Laura Palmer was presumably drugged raped and tortured. That's almost identical to another scene from The Big Sleep.
-And I've watched The Hustler since last time I worked my way through Twin Peaks. Piper Laurie, who has a major recurring role in Twin Peaks, was in The Hustler. I think that character in some ways was similar to Laura Palmer
but it does not include the darn fine Sesame Street parody!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vftf8TTve4s
written by David's daughter Jennifer Lynch, then 22 years old, this came out between the short first and longer second season, and is referenced repeatedly in the 2nd season episodes although the actual text contradicts some plot points, even those already established in the first season.
The diary begins when Laura is 12 years old and quickly becomes sordid and degrading ... somehow she maintains the double life as the universally beloved straight-A student despite all we learn about her.
There are multiple pages missing, blank in the book, which we learn in the show have been torn out (and are discovered elsewhere by Deputy Hawk).
So this is more or less canonical, and provides background to the story, and insight to the character of Laura, who otherwise people always talk about but we never really see.
When this came out it was a disappointment, as we all wanted to know what happened next to Agent Cooper. Instead we see the last days in the life of Laura Palmer, which Cooper has already pieced together post-mortem from the clues.
The film begins with Laura discovering pages have been torn from her diary, then giving the diary to the shut-in character Harold for safekeeping. So chronologically it actually begins immediately after the above described Diary book ends. Then the film itself ends with the discovery of her body, which is the precise start of the pilot episode. Just in case you want to experience the story according to its internal chronology.
Again, it contradicts some plot points from both the show and the Diary. Like, did Bobby murder one man, two men, or was it all just in Laura's drug-damaged imagination?
The actress playing bestfriend Donna Hayward has been replaced, not sure if this was due to the original actress quitting, or Lynch firing her (she seems to have caused some backstage drama that affected the shows intended plotlines). This adds to the confusion, as the new actress not only looks different but acts different from the actress in the show (and we don't see the Hayward parents). Donna has some experiences in the film she should have remembered in the show but did not. And, the new actress looks very similar to another character in the film Ronette Pulaski, who was in a coma throughout the show and never had any speaking lines. If you're not paying attention, or have not seen the show, you might confuse the two characters and misunderstand the ending.
It is good to actually see Laura Palmer, after 30 episodes of other people talking about her and reading her Diary. Good for actress Sheryl Lee too. Lynch hired her to play a corpse without realising she was a proper actress, then wrote her in as a new character, Cousin Maddie. Maddie never got much to do though. Finally playing Laura Palmer, Sheryl Lee really gets to bust loose with a wild ride of over-emoting and bizarre personality shifts. Good performance, and lots more more from Ray Wise's Leland Palmer too, now that we know what he's all about.
In the early scenes we meet a whole new set of eccentric FBI agents, played by Chris Isaak, Kiefer Sutherland, and David Bowie. Good laughs watching future tuffguy Jack Bauer playing a nerdy newbie FBI agent. It struck me Deputy Director Gordon Cole sure has a flaky staff of agents under his supervision, maybe because he can't hear what people are saying he doesn't notice how weird they all are? But he does employ a mime to convey mission instructions to his staff, which makes sense, considering.
My library happened to have it on display with some other documentaries by the checkout desk, perfectly timed as I allow my fragile psyche a week's breather before attempting to watch the new series.
Do not discount synchronicity when dabbling in the world of David Lynch.
This doc came out in 2016, while the world was awaiting the new series.
It's a monolog by Lynch all by himself, sitting at home in his painting studio, edited together from a couple years of interviews (we never hear the interviewers voice). He reminisces about his childhood in Washington, Idaho and Montana, then moving to the suburbs of Washington DC. His early efforts at art school in Boston, early attempts at animation and experimental filmmaking, his first grant, his scholarship to a prestigious film school in L.A., and the making of Eraserhead.
We see dozens, if not hundreds of his weird paintings. You could pause the film, take a screenshot, and print them out. It never tells us if any specifically were from the times he is talking about, or now, although we watch him at work on new paintings.
Also we see some of the early film experiments. Particularly noteworthy was a splitscreen kaleidoscopic film of his girlfriend in sinister makeup, with "blood" dripping from her mouth, dancing around the vertical split in the screen where the image mirrors, looking like some Shapeshifting Satanic Siamese Twin.
Although he mentions both The Alphabet and The Grandmother, we don't see excerpts of those. Everything was new to me.
The Alphabet: youtube link
He made this mostly animated short while in Art School, and as a result won a filmmaking grant.
The Grandmother: youtube link
This is what he did with his grant, and as a result won a scholarship to Center for Advanced Film Studies in Beverly Hills, where he made Eraserhead, and the rest is Hollywood History!
During his reminiscences, we learn the infamous scene in Blue Velvet, of Isabella Rossellini naked and bleeding in a respectable front lawn (I don't think anybody manages to repress that image) was based on a real incident he witnessed as a toddler!.
Also, his father was a forestry research scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who would walk miles to work each morning dressed in full uniform. Sounds like Twin Peaks' Major Briggs! and all that mysticism around the forest in Twin Peaks sounds like a small child's distorted understanding of what his father could possibly have been investigating!
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EDIT: the youtube links to the Alphabet and the Grandmother were broken, but i was able to find new links so they should now work.
As these were both school projects, I would assume no-one owns the rights except Lynch, so he may have been the one who had the old links taken down. So I cant promise these new links will last forever either.
It will be very difficult to talk about without spoiling all the surprises. Every second is a big wuffathuk surprise, and just when it seems to have resolved into coherent narrative, another rabbit-hole comes along. I shall just try to give teasers instead of spoilers.
There is one other actor besides Everett McGill who has now been in both a Lynch film and a Bond film. And as in the Bond film appearance, this actor gives a very important clue as to where the story will go next.
Very little of the story happens in the town of Twin Peaks. Much of it happens in Las Vegas (and if you look close during one of the travelling shots you can see a neon sign labelled "Casino Royale". Not our universe's "Casino Royale" of course, but an easter egg for us Bond fans), also in South Dakota and even in Manhattan. Lots of lonely highways late at night, and sinister hillbilly hovels. Oh, and there is a scene in New Mexico. We are reintroduced to approximately one classic Twin Peaks character per episode, and the actual Twin Peaks content grows episode by episode although this depends on which storyline is being concentrated on.
The scenes shot in and around Twin Peaks do provide some mighty spectacular images of Washington State mountains and forests. Damn I miss the West Coast.
FBI Deputy Director Gordon Cole himself is a major character throughout, as is Albert Rosenfeld (apologies in advance for Albert). Cole looks like a fun boss to work for, although there is a strong chance of disappearing into thin air if you're in his department.
Many people have said this looks more like Inland Empire than classic Twin Peaks. Thats not quite right. At its weirdest, it looks like a modernised version of Eraserhead (I've been waiting for him to do another film that looks like Eraserhead even longer than I've been waiting for the resolution of that Twin Peaks cliffhanger). There's a lot of animation, and digital manipulation of the image. Episodes 3, 8, and parts of 17 and 18 especially. That's a couple solid hours of pure abstract weirdness right there, and even when the story does resolve into linear plot and dialog it's not that normal either.
We finally learn who Diane is. Remember how Cooper was always tape-recording his observations and addressing them to someone called Diane? who do you think Diane is? Who do you think should play Diane?
Despite all the surrealism, this is a story about some FBI agents. So it does count as a "Fictional Spy's (Not Bond) portrayed in Film or TV" type show.
Haven't seen TheWorldIsEnough, welshboy78, or ggl007 round since the thread was started. Did you guys all disappear into the Red Room? if so, can you at least send your evil doppelgangers along to continue the Twin Peaks discussion please?
It was a completely new, different, unexpected and brave continuation. Everybody would have had set the sequel in Twin Peaks with all the previous cast passing by. Everybody, except David Lynch.
Amazing Kyle. Beautiful Naomi Watts. The Giant. The Red Room. Laura...
From first to last episode you can't take away your eyes. Special mention to ep. 8: the Birth of the Evil. "Got a light?" Sublime:
Not really a spoiler, we're in the middle of the season!
And where is Badalamenti? Don't worry, Lynch discover new sounds as mesmerizing as the old ones... that you will hear anyway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGUboLZx3Tk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=79&v=ijcTx6vBoJw
And, yes, two of the greatest moments in the history of television:
The last chapter would take me pages and pages and my English is not as good as I wish to speak properly about this new Lynch Masterpiece.
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I like your juxtaposition of the Who Shot Agent Cooper image from the original series with the beginning of the Gotta Light episode of the new series. Had not thought of it, but they are both episode 8 and I do see the parallel. Can't be a coincidence. I wonder of there's other synchronicities like that to be found between the two series? All those conspicuous numbers, theres gotta be.
And that line "I am the FBI" had me whooping and cheering at my teevee just like I was a little kid! though I think I was still more thrilled to learn who Diane was.
You know Deputy Director Gordon Cole's employees investigate even weirder cases than Deputy Director Walter Skinner's employees do?
Did you see Berenice Marlohe?
damn! I didn't recognise her! that's Sévérine from Skyfall! (as in "a waste of good Scotch")
so that's three Bond-alumni, and two of them are BondGirls (the bad girls from the two most recent films), now keeping company with Gordon Cole! (I don't think Cole ever meets Big Ed Hurley)
that Gordon Cole sure is one swingin' FBI Deputy Director!
I'm guessing all her scenes were filmed in one take. We only ever saw her on the other end of the phone talking to Deputy Hawk, and the pauses were so long they could have filmed Hawk's scenes separately and edited them together afterwards.
But interesting seeing how he motivated those actors. I already knew they were only given the parts of the script for specific scenes they were actually in, but none of the actors knew the rest of the story. We see Lynch taking actors one by one to the edge of the set, and literally whispering in their ear what their character is feeling at this moment, and how they relate to the other characters in the scene, and in some cases preparing them for weird things the other character will do, in other cases letting them be surprised as the cameras role. Like two actors in the same scene don't even know what exactly the other is going to do, only their own lines! This is a lot like how Larry David does Curb Your Enthusiasm. Now I want to see a Twin Peaks meets Curb Your Enthusiasm mash-up.
We watch Lynch coach Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern prior to their big "ritual" scene together. He deliberately reminds them of how they all last worked together on Blue Velvet 30 years ago (thus giving supporting data to a theory of mine). He has a pet name for each. He calls Dern "Tidbit", which is funny since she is a big tall woman, as tall as Lynch. MacLachlan he calls "Kale". The first time I thought he was malaplopping, but he uses this name consistently. In another dvd's bonus features he once gave us a recipe for quinoa, so I think chainsmoking coffeeguzzling David Lynch is actually a bit of a health food enthusiast.
Season 1 is a great precursor to True Detective S1 -- a mostly grounded series, some local eccentricites, loose supernatural elements, the difference being a wide array of characters and dipping into soap opera elements (both satire and sincere attempts at it).
Season 2... almost feels like 2-3 different seasons. A lot happens. Everything leading up to the reveal is a great escalation of the supernatural, and following there is indeed a little lull in those next 8 episodes or so. However that last stretch from Slaves and Masters to the absolutely great finale is a blast and so re-watchable.
Fire Walk With Me. Sometimes my favorite horror movie. It's insane how Lynch and Engels pack a 2 hour film with a prequel, some sequel, a large about of mythos being added, and a character study.
For the longest time this was everything I wanted in Twin Peaks...
That was until the Return gave me it all, amped up to 11.
It's hard to put into words how satisfying The Return really is. For a world I never want to leave, this season/film is so rewarding that I would be satisfied if this is the end.
The amount of themes Lynch and Frost were able to pack into those 16 hours is unbelievable, especially when it comes across so coherently. The patience the show has in letting everything breathe is truly commendable.
I've yet to read the Secret Diary, own it though, so I might have to finally dig into that.
I have not read the two Mark Frost books, though they are both in print and supposedly both really flesh out the back story and fill in the details of the Twin Peaks universe (multiverse?)
somewhere round here I once wrote a Bond25/Twin Peaks the Return mashup that would make the fosterbrother plottwist just go away!
do you like other Lynch films, Phillip Jeffries?
I got hip from repeatedly watching Eraserhead back in my teenage years, it showed frequently at the repertory houses in my city. Somehow missed the fact Elephant Man and Dune were Lynch, at the time, but knew enough to see Blue Velvet as soon as it came out.
The original Twin Peaks was a weekly viewing ritual when I had roommates back on the West Coast.
I saw all the main cinematic releases since then on the big screen as they came out, have most of them on dvd. But I know there's a lot of obscure side projects I never saw, and a few music albums(!) I never heard. One of the FBI agents in The Return was actually the lead vocalist from one of his music projects.
I prefer when Lynch is being mostly funny. A lot of his films are dominated by the disturbing, and some times he can freak me out more than any conventional horror movie. It's that "watching somebody else's nightmare" factor that I think makes those moments hit me deeper than a more conventional film, Lynch really does dig into uncomfortable corners of the subconscious.