Twin Peaks

[number8]

Full cast list. Whoa. This list is insane.

[number8]

Trent Reznor and Eddie Vedder. WTF is this.

[Irish]

This smells like a Thin Red Line-style clusterfuck of celebrity.

[Spinal]

Michael Cera? Come on now.

And did they shoot scenes with Catherine Coulson before she died?

[Henry Gale]

I don't even know where to start with half of those names.

I mean, we go from Monica Bellucci and Jim Belushi back to back, to David Duchovny, Sky Ferreira, Robert Forster, Ernie Hudson, with L.A. comedy-affiliated people like Stephanie Allynne, Josh Fadem and Brett Gelman thrown in there for good measure.

And that's just page one.

Michael Cera? Come on now.

They recently passed a showbiz law (motioned by Netflix and Imgur trolls) that he has to be involved in all revivals of beloved properties with cult followings. He's gonna make a great Gilmore Guy.

[Russ]

No Michael J. Anderson?

[Winston*]

Michael Cera? Come on now.

And did they shoot scenes with Catherine Coulson before she died?

I could see Michael Cera doing well in a Lynch thing. Have you seen Magic Magic?

[Spinal]

I could see Michael Cera doing well in a Lynch thing. Have you seen Magic Magic?

No, but since it has Juno Temple, I probably should.

[Winston*]

No, but since it has Juno Temple, I probably should.

She is incredible in it.

[Morris Schæffer]

Watched the very first episode. Instant grabber!

The town reminds me of Alan Wake or even more of "Hope" the place where Stallone and Dennehy have that "quarrel". It's immensely atmospheric, slightly askew, the characters and actors are colorful, slightly daft.

I understand season 2 does a 360 and isn't quite as good so I hope that is not true.

Also, this thread is nearly 10 years old.

EDIT: Indeed, that cast list!!!

Shit, this is going to be TV event, 27 years later, many of the same characters!

[Russ]

Showtime President and CEO David Nevins announced the official release date for the network’s much-anticipated series: May 21. He went on to say, “The version of ‘Twin Peaks’ you’re going to see is the pure heroin version of David Lynch.”

And I thought I was the King of Hyperbole!

I'd be hard-pressed to think of any other corporate President/CEO's that would use the words "pure heroin" as an adjective in describing the rollout of their new product.

[Morris Schæffer]

It's funny how you never see an actor for ages and then WHAM! he's sort of everywhere.

I'm currently watching Penny Dreadful and David Warner has a brief stint as Professor Van Helsing.

I'm also watching Season 2 of Twin Peaks and lo and behold "also starring David Warner as Thomas Eckhardt".

The middle episodes of S2 are indeed a chore, but it's picking up now with the Windom Earle business. That said, I will be glad when I've staggered through this second season.

[Morris Schæffer]

I was going through that cast list again, and it seems Robert Forster may play the Harry Truman role since Michael Ontkean won't be back.

[Morris Schæffer]

Extreme weirdness in the last episode of Twin Peaks, 22.

Is that really how it ended for audiences back in 1992? Or should I watch the movie Fire Walk with Me to see the continuation of the story?

[Idioteque Stalker]

Fire Walks W Me is a prequel. Worth a watch considering you're fresh off the series.

[Milky Joe]

Yes that is really how it ended, with a hour long cavalcade of some of the most Lynchian oddness ever put on the small-screen.

FWWM is one of Lynch's best works. Definitely watch it. It's a prequel like Idioteque said, but it definitely expands the universe and gives clarifying backstory/context for what happens in the series. Also it has David Bowie and Kiefer Sutherland.

[Morris Schæffer]

Yes that is really how it ended, with a hour long cavalcade of some of the most Lynchian oddness ever put on the small-screen.

With, now that I think about it, poor Leo Johnson still awaiting death by Tarantula. I do not see his name in the cast list so we may never know Leo's fate.

Cool trivia which I just dug up, Eric Da Re is the son of Hollywood actor Aldo Ray.

[Morris Schæffer]

Seeing all these aged and withered faces is going to be weird, emotional and fascinating.

[Peng]

Just finished the series!

The pilot is great; same beguiling atmosphere as Blue Velvet, but with the added benefit of not needing to wrap up itself within one feature length, so the seeping in of dark surrealism and unease can feel more invitingly slow-burn, natural and intoxicating. One lovely thing that is pure Lynch is having one lingering, unexpected grace note among the montage of darkness and terror at the end: Donna's warm and tender interaction with her dad about soothingly mundane stuff (returning a bicycle I think).

As much as I loved Lynch direction in this series (the third episode of the first season is so great) though, there is already a hint on the much talked-about slump in the second season premier, where Lynch's direction elevates some blander material A LOT, including Donna's inexplicable personality change. I'll give it that last scene though, so memorably creepy/terrifying. Then it just remains OK, slightly lesser than the first season, until Lynch kicked it into high gear with 2.7 and the storyline resolving so well two episodes after. (By the way, just in the first episode he appears, Lynch's Gordon Cole is just the most delightful darnedest character ever)

And then it's seven straight episodes of pure suckage. It's really amazing how immediately and totally the show nosedives after Laura Palmer storyline, and has yet to recover even once, until there's a a slight merciful shift after James' and Josie's stories end. I do admire how Diane Keaton directs the heoric hell out of the worst material during that stretch though, even if it doesn't make a difference. And then it gets... more tolerable, until two episodes before the finale where it's actually good again. During that stretch, there are only two things that I unwaveringly like the whole way through: Andy/Lucy and Gordon Cole. Everyone else has gone character shifts or reversals, with Audrey Horne being almost unforgivably blanded down.

That finale though... I just finished it and I think my heart stopped about 3 or 4 times, with those noises and screams, and those contorted faces pushed up against the screen! Some of the most unsettling, quietly and deeply disturbing images/sounds ever (this aired on network TV???). Might be my favorite of the series, but it helps though that I already know for a long time about how "it doesn't solve anything".

[Grouchy]

I only watched Twin Peaks once all the way through. We started it originally with three friends, and then a few friends of friends got caught up and we all got together and marathoned it, enduring most of the second season thanks to massive consumption of pot and chatter.

On the day we got to the final episode we were five people, I think, and it was the house of a guy I barely knew. It was an old house and it was the first time we watched it there. We were appropriately disturbed by it and we were discussing the madness of the entire series when the conversation turned to the host talking about his brother who was in prison at the time. Only one of us knew the story since he was close with the guy so he explained it for the rest of us - apparently his older brother had accidentally killed their father in a violent fist fight years ago.

I still vividly remember that as one of the freakiest nights of my life.

[Morris Schæffer]

I found the last episode faintly disturbing, but agonizingly close to silliness too.

[Russ]

[Sycophant]

Rewatching this in anticipation of next week. Definitely planning to skip episodes 10-20 (or so) of the second season. Just watched through S2E4 tonight... and man, I forgot how bad it gets immediately after Lynch's direction of the first two episodes of season 2. It drops HARD. I forgot how many of the bad season two plotlines started so early.

Watching this show, it's just tragic how much potential was squandered on a hot lot of nothing. The people who took the show over (writers and directors) after Lynch stepped away just didn't seem to understand the show at all.

[Peng]

Finally caught up on the Twin Peaks-verse before the new season! I guess this is not exactly TV but since I already posted my thoughts during the show here...

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

Can't imagine this working without the show, per some recommendations floating around. The first half hour in particular I am ambiguous about, but would likely feel exasperated in a hurry if I don't have the context of the show to counter that (stuff like Lynch's Gordon Cole shouting, the using of supernatural/superstition as clues, etc.). Not to mention many things in the Twin Peaks section that would feel like too many random character throw-ins and baffling elements (plus spoiling of the show, although that's another matter) that would seem less "Lynchian" and just plain confusion.

As one who has completed the two seasons though, I am glad to be immersed in this town yet again (after the too-long prologue), albeit in a darker, bleaker, and more viscerally upsetting mode than the show. There's nothing quite like Kyle MacLachlan followed by the Twin Peaks music kicking in to ease you back, before ramping it up with the heartbreak that is Laura Palmer's life.

There are some unwelcome weirdness/humor that is reminiscent of late season 2, like goofy Bobby backing away from Laura at school. But for once, Lynch channels his brand of surrealism and dreamy/nightmare-ish logic into a very focused depiction of downward spiral of abuse, both allegorical and literal, propelled by dark forces both outsides and within Laura Palmer. The show already provides an ending to this film, so what make the film not mere puzzle-like predictability, but more of a tragic inevitability, are Lynch's direction and Sheryl Lee's intensely vulnerable performance. Her Maddie during the show really doesn't prepare me for the utter psychological force she's able to wring out of Laura Palmer here. Her depiction of Laura's increasing alienation while her face always a mask of confusion and fear, excepting a few stunning grace notes of the happiness that were, is going to haunt me for quite some time.

Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces

Enjoyable enough for a collection of deleted scenes assembled chronologically. Some unnecessary in the first place (Agent Desmond), some cute (Diane) or nice world-building (Twin Peaks people going about), some adding to FWWM's heartbreak; it's clear that many Laura-related scenes are cut to make her downward spiral and alienation more total, but I think the scenes of Laura's few unguarded moments of happiness (the three Palmers' only pure joyful scene together, the Hayward family's kindness towards her) make our foreknowledge sting all the more. And then some are just tantalizing mythology, like the Black Lodge and (!!!) the final deleted scene that really adds to Season 2 more than FWWM ([

Show Spoiler

continuing just a tiny bit past the last scene in the Season 2 finale, and tying the finale and FWWM together

]).

[Watashi]

I'm powering through this show for preparation for the new season. Is it okay if I stop watching after they resolve the Laura Palmer storyline, wikipedia the rest of the episodes and then watch the finale? I've already been spoiled on the finale's disturbing climax thanks to people using images as avatars on this site and over on RT.