Film Twin Peaks

I was just turned onto this show when a friend gave me a copy of season one on DVD for my birthday. I've been a David Lynch fan for a while, but managed to avoid watching this show for some reason. No searches came up, so I thought this show deserved its own thread. I honestly can't believe it was on TV, and ABC of all channels...Now that ABC is owned by Disney, I doubt this show would have ever seen the light of day.

The show is great...there's the odd, soap-opera sense of humor with these totally creepy undertones. I watched the entire first season, which seemed somewhat normal, so last night we rented a bunch more episodes due to the crack-like effect of the show (and season 2 and 3 not available on DVD--WTF is that about? )--I think I've seen through episode 9. Season two (Episode 8 ) starts off absolutely insane, especially the last scene with "Bob."

I just purchased the Pilot DVD off of Amazon, so I'm excited to watch that...and then I have quite a few more episodes before I'll make it to the end of the show. After that I think I'll give Fire Walk With Me a shot, as it's a prequel to everything. My friend that got me into the show said that you find out who the killer is in a couple more episodes...although I'm pretty sure I have it figured out.

Anyone have any thoughts on the show? If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it, especially if you enjoyed any of Lynch's other films (I particularly like Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet). Please try to keep spoilers well marked as I haven't finished watching all the episodes.

i watched twin peaks back in 1991 (or thereabouts) when it was on UK TV on tuesday nights. i didn't miss a single episode.

i have the VHS box set and i've watched the entire thing again 3 times.

it is, in my opinion, one of the most wonderful works ever made. the writing, the acting, the direction - everything combines in such a way that the whole is so much greater than the sum of the parts.

it's a long, weird, wonderful masterpiece.

alasdair

I also avoided watching it, but i think in might take a look now.

I used to watch it religiously. Well they ran the first season once, and hardly anyone watched it, so for some reason they decided to start it over again, and this time TONS of people (including myself) watched it.

I own the DVD. I want a copy of the Pilot, and everday I pray that the next season will come out on dvd.

Damn fine coffee... er, series!

I was a Peaksfreak & never missed an episode. The trouble with the show began when Lynch caved to pressure from ABC to resolve the Laura Palmer murder in a concrete way. His original concept was that Bob would be a force that hung over Twin Peaks & the second & all subsequent seasons would be the battle between the White Lodge (the Bookhouse Boys) versus Bob. Instead we get the Laura Palmer murder resolved & instead of Bob we ended up getting the silly Windham Earle battling the populace of Twin Peaks.

The other thing that Lynch caved on was the structure. He originally conceived TWIN PEAKS to be 10 one hour episodes each season. ABC at first agreed then balked & demanded the standard (at that time) 20 episodes. There was just no way to consisantly keep up the quality at that rate & I think the later episodes were pretty thin by the show's standards. Remember the whole deal with the weasle that escaped during the fashion show at the hotel? Or the dopey relationship between Cooper & Annie? Sure these episodes are still WAY better than most network TV but by the standards of season one of TWIN PEAKS they fall way short.

The place that TWIN PEAKS really belonged on was HBo or Showtime. Can you imagine just how truly spectacular the series could've been on one of those venues?

There still is some hope for Lynch on premium cable. MULHOLLAND DRIVE was conceived as a series (again for ABC). The events in the feature film were the pilot (which Lynch fleshed out for theatrical release). The Diane Selwyn/Betty & Camilla Rhodes/Rita storyline was to be tied up during the pilot & first episode & subsequent episodes were to center on the periphery characters (the pimp, the detectives, Coco). I have head rumors that Showtime is trying to woo Lynch to produce a MULHOLLAND DRIVE series. Keep your finfers crossed.

cydonorb said:

I have head rumors that Showtime is trying to woo Lynch to produce a MULHOLLAND DRIVE series. Keep your finfers crossed.

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That would be awesome! I was wondering about that, as Mulholland seems to be a bit Twin Peaks-esque in a murder mystery, TV show kinda way. I think Mulholland Drive is his best work to date. And I agree that Twin Peaks would have prospered more in an HBO setting without restrictions on certain things, still, Lynch seems like he pushed the envelope using a lot of taboo stuff on TV--I still have a hard time believing the show was on network television. Hehe...roping people in during the first season and the getting all weird on them.

I think the thing that impresses me the most about the show, is how Lynch focuses your attention very specifically...I have a hard time looking at a scene as a whole because he's forcing you to look at a particular thing--very cool.

As a side note, watching Twin Peaks makes me crave coffee, pie, and cigarettes. 8(

pics

i went to seattle a while ago and made my friend take me to the sites used to film the exterior shots of the great northern and the actual double r diner used in the pilot episode. i had, of course, coffee and cherry pie.



alasdair

How was the coffee and cherry pie?

you know...

alasdair

I guess I would have to assume it was damn good.

damn fine. black as midnight on a moonless night...

alasdair

I just saw the episode where you find out who killed Laura.



I was close...and I had suspected the actual one for some time, but got thrown off. Lynch is a tricky guy. I honestly can't believe that was on network TV!

Finder said:

Lynch is a tricky guy.

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no shit!

the great thing about twin peaks is that even thought this central mystery is solved, there is so much great material to come and wonderful ideas to be explored in the series...

alasdair

I hope so...there are 13 or 14 more episodes left and I can't help but feel Lynch shot his load with this last episode.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

he kinda did. Don't get me wrong, the remaining episodes are still a lot of fun but they are nowhere near the brilliance of the pilot & first 10 episodes

^ i'm inclined to disagree. they're not better or worse, they're just very different.

alasdair

It seems as though the X-Files got a lot of inspiration from Twin Peaks. I'd bet Chris Carter is a fan...

What do you guys think?

^ you are in for a treat. there is an X-Files/Twin Peaks crossover coming up for you soon if you keep watching.

i won't spoil it - i've been annoyingly coy enough already...

alasdair

Finder said:

It seems as though the X-Files got a lot of inspiration from Twin Peaks. I'd bet Chris Carter is a fan...

What do you guys think?

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I think that at its best, THE X FILES was a second rate & dumbed down TWIN PEAKS rip off.