Twin Peaks Return: The Profoundly Disappointed Support Group

[kleio]

Season Three has been nothing more than a collage of ideas, a video art style and art project. It does have a coherent story, but that aspect of Season three could be contained within three episodes, the rest of it is an incoherent mess.

The darkness in season three is naked outward and vulgars, to see it in such a way diminishes its potency in the watchers mind. There is very little in the way of goodness... its totally corrupted...

We don't stay long enough with any single character to form any level of attachment to them, the original cast have been pushed the outside fringes of the series as cameos and best loved characters (Good Coop / Sheriff Truman) totally missing from the series. Characters such as Audrey are absolutely not where they should be so everything and everyone is out of place in this series.

Sadly, it’s also a rather cliched and paint-by-number kind of darkness. DoppelCoop has been a real disappointment as a villain.

The performances that Lynch has insisted on also don’t do most of the characters any justice. I feel like I’m watching paper dolls being moved around a stage. I politely observe the actions, but they have no real effect on me. This detachment wouldn’t be a problem if, as you suggest, this were an art installation. Unfortunately, it’s a TV show, which requires a significant time commitment.

[yaxomoxay]

I consider myself to be both mature mentally and emotionally

That's what crazy people say! That's why we all say it

Good post, very personal and well written. However, I strongly disagree that S3 is vulgar.



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[KnewItsPa]

I haven't even watched the last episode. Read the thread, not sure I'm going to bother with it.

[RedRum]

Welcome Tim and thanks! You pretty much summed up my feelings. Didn't know about Hank putting coke in the pies though, lol. Not sure that would do much. Cocaine isn't particularly orally active and wouldn't cause those physical withdrawals. I read it somewhere, I swear.

Thank you

The Drugs in the pies was first suggested way back in the early 90's as way of explaining the hand shaking and this guys reaction to the pie...

Sadly, it’s also a rather cliched and paint-by-number kind of darkness. DoppelCoop has been a real disappointment as a villain.

The performances that Lynch has insisted on also don’t do most of the characters any justice. I feel like I’m watching paper dolls being moved around a stage. I politely observe the actions, but they have no real effect on me. This detachment wouldn’t be a problem if, as you suggest, this were an art installation. Unfortunately, it’s a TV show, which requires a significant time commitment.

Yep, the actors and charicters offer nothing for us to connect to...

And I have to say as sad as it makes me, I agree with this Video....

I consider myself to be both mature mentally and emotionally

That's what crazy people say! That's why we all say it

Good post, very personal and well written. However, I strongly disagree that S3 is vulgar.

Indeed and I think Season three will forever split the comunity which until now I think has been pretty together. I hope it is not so because Peakies all seem to aspire to the same kind of class...

Oh and because I love her... here is a pic

[mtwentz]

I enjoyed the first three parts, also part 8, and one can argue that part 8 could have been another introductory piece, sort of like part 0.

Although I've enjoyed the entire show, I actually agree with you that Parts 1-3 and Part 8 are the strongest hours so far. Those are the ones I've rewatched God only knows how many times.

I do suspect that the creators wanted to go out with a bang and that at least the last two parts will compete with 1-3, 8 for the best/most experimental, most creative etc. I think we're going to the convenience store and we'll see the Jumping Man, and back to the purple room, ocean.

I can't wait!

[BOB1]

Oh my, how I like a good off-topic photo in a thread
Beautiful. BEAUTIFUL.

And another great post from a newcomer. Not that I am happy that more and more people come out as disappointed but at least it's good to know that they can write good posts

Here, what redrum wrote, that was a genuine statement of love for Twin Peaks. And a couple of pages back SnowqualmieJim wrote a great but sad post, which he/she concluded with:

the show has some strong scenes and some fine performances, but they rarely add up to a satisfying episode.

which is true and which is bad because usually the other way round works much better (also in music, for instance, if you take songs and albums): when the elements that create the overall effect sum up to something more and better than the arythmetic sum would suggest.

And another person to have posted only twice on the board so far but wrote a great post in this thread as well, AhmedKhalifa, who so well summed up Lynch's changing art:

- Undeniably, Lynch has immensely changed as an artist, becoming less and less interested in linear storytelling and narrative. Gone is the perfectionist filmmaker who made the tightly plotted BLUE VELVET, the terrific pilot of TWIN PEAKS and a handful of episodes in the first two seasons, FWWM, among other projects. He is now much more interested in video art, impenetrable abstractions, making music, serpentine storytelling (like INLAND EMPIRE) with no clear resolutions, and being an ambassador for transcendental meditation. And this is the David Lynch who made S3, a different man and artist, and a much more self-indulgent one than the artist who made the original series.

After all, most of us, who have some kind of issues with The Return, are probably much more fond of Blue Velvet than Inland Empire... aren't we?... you?

OK, The Newcomers Appreciation Post is over

[AhmedKhalifa]

Really enjoying this group. After reading a lot of discussions about how Lynch really didn't deliver, in terms of capturing the mood, warmth, and tension of the original series, I've come to realize that the Lynch I knew and loved is gone. Remember when Lynch was fascinated by, and wrote with tremendous depth about, small towns and three-dimensional characters, in masterpieces like BLUE VELVET, the TP pilot, and even THE STRAIGHT STORY? I think when Lynch became a critical darling, a favorite at Cannes, moved to L.A , and started hobnobbing with celebrities, he changed, his focused shifted. Now he makes pretentious commercials for Gucci and Dior, and writes and makes movies almost exclusively about L.A, dark glamour, and aloof, inaccessible characters trapped inside their own impenetrable torment. The warmth is mostly gone. The attention to cinematic technique is secondary. The interest in plot and story is transient. Fame and being repeatedly told you're a genius by art critics, fashionable publications, and hipsters, take a toll, apparently. And this is the main reason TP:TR is so damn cold and inaccessible. BTW, I used to be a die-hard fan of Lynch, for almost a decade, buying several books about him, watching/owning copies of all his movies, including DUNE! And, for me, the original two seasons of TP, warts and all, are still unequaled in many respects. But no more. I still like Lynch, love some of his work. But the thrill is mostly gone, I'm afraid, and TP:TR has done nothing to bring back the magic for me.

[AhmedKhalifa]

I consider myself to be both mature mentally and emotionally

That's what crazy people say! That's why we all say it

Good post, very personal and well written. However, I strongly disagree that S3 is vulgar.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I don't think S3 is vulgar, either, but it is occasionally shockingly unpolished in terms of visuals, performances, and editing.

[mlsstwrt]

Really enjoying this group. After reading a lot of discussions about how Lynch really didn't deliver, in terms of capturing the mood, warmth, and tension of the original series, I've come to realize that the Lynch I knew and loved is gone. Remember when Lynch was fascinated by, and wrote with tremendous depth about, small towns and three-dimensional characters, in masterpieces like BLUE VELVET, the TP pilot, and even THE STRAIGHT STORY? I think when Lynch became a critical darling, a favorite at Cannes, moved to L.A , and started hobnobbing with celebrities, he changed, his focused shifted. Now he makes pretentious commercials for Gucci and Dior, and writes and makes movies almost exclusively about L.A, dark glamour, and aloof, inaccessible characters trapped inside their own impenetrable torment. The warmth is mostly gone. The attention to cinematic technique is secondary. The interest in plot and story is transient. Fame and being repeatedly told you're a genius by art critics, fashionable publications, and hipsters, take a toll, apparently. And this is the main reason TP:TR is so damn cold and inaccessible. BTW, I used to be a die-hard fan of Lynch, for almost a decade, buying several books about him, watching/owning copies of all his movies, including DUNE! And, for me, the original two seasons of TP, warts and all, are still unequaled in many respects. But no more. I still like Lynch, love some of his work. But the thrill is mostly gone, I'm afraid, and TP:TR has done nothing to bring back the magic for me.

I couldn't agree more with this. I guess I'm kind of disappointed in Lynch for doing what I'd probably want to do when an old man if I could which is hang out with young, beautiful, glamorous people. Especially women. I absolutely HATE that he is using TP to basically showcase bands that he obviously likes/admires. It's so jarring. And I've been listening to Chromatics and NIN for years. But keep them the f**k out of TP. I'm just seeing DKL more and more as a kind of dirty old man and it's disappointing to me because of the esteem I hold him in. But I suppose there's no reason why geniuses should be held up to higher 'moral' standards than anybody else. Focus on the art not the artist right? The problem is that this 'proclivity' of Lynch is spilling over into his work and it's not pretty.

[missoulamt]

Focus on the art not the artist right?

The closing musical segments have never struck me as being promotional showcases for the bands, rather a way of creating a mood -> art. Just goes to show we all view things differently. They were more effective in the first few episodes though when they felt "fresh", similar to the Dougie storyline. Dougie probably peaked with the tie around his head, coffee dripping from his mouth at the breakfast table. And that was a pretty long time ago now...

[boske]

Unpolished is what I find it too, that was the exact term I have been looking for, thank you.

Now, both Lynch and Frost are baby boomers, and S3 is about their feeling that the Americana of their youth is no more; that drugs and violence and everywhere, spreading and progressing in an accelerated manner, hitting at the very youngest, earlier than ever before. And if you look at the characters, it is Carl Rood, the eldest of them, that is the only one emphatetic to the plight of others. Bushnell, the man of integrity, who somehow understands Dougie's scribbling, and so on.

On the other side you have Richard Horne ("The sheriff here is 90 years old", "hey grandma, you're a c***"), Steven ("I need more money Becky"), Sam ("You're a bad girl Tracey!"), culminating with the very youngest as victims of traffic accidents and an excessive gun culture.

So maybe the season is bleak and unpolished as they themselves see the world through such eyes. Now at least they were fair (or were they really?), to pin the blame on their parents figuratively, it was them who opened up the door to all that evil back then in the desert.

Bah, the U.S. viewers would know, it feels like the script was co-written by Tom Brokaw (and I am not an American myself, but know of him for that very reason).

For the record: I am in my early fourties.

[Northman]

I found the 2 wonderful reviews in AV and EW (also the one in the NY Times) to be the maybe most insightful written about season 3 so far:

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/twin-peaks ... ion-259086

http://ew.com/recap/twin-peaks-season-3-episode-13/

Very appropriately they also represent 2 individual ways to see the episode (and the show) as this is a show that very much leaves things up to each viewer.
The first Twin Peaks season divided viewers too, some loved it, some didn't and turned the TV off after a few episodes. Season 3 is similar in how people react. As Lynch and Frost have zero interest in nostalgia, apart from commenting on it as a part of our life/society, it is hardly surprising that some fans of the first show will not love this new season. Mr C reminded each and everyone that starting position is much more comfy, but we're not gonna stay in that forever and that is a punch in the face sometimes.

For my own part i am continuously mindblown over the details poured into every little scene. Episode 13's 'faded portrait of audrey' effect mirrored behind Charlie during their scene was another highlight. All of this while encompassing cosmic war between good and evil, and lonely 70 year olds eating soup alone because they ARE lonely. The scale is epic in ambition and scale like no other show on TV.

[douglasb]

The slight difference is that Twin Peaks originally divided the world into those who liked the show and those that didn't. The revival has divided Twin Peaks fans. Also, if you have zero interest in nostalgia, don't revisit your work of 25 years ago.

[RedRum]

Oh my, how I like a good off-topic photo in a thread
Beautiful. BEAUTIFUL.

And another great post from a newcomer. Not that I am happy that more and more people come out as disappointed but at least it's good to know that they can write good posts

Thank you

Oh and its not as off topic as you might think...

[N. Needleman]

The slight difference is that Twin Peaks originally divided the world into those who liked the show and those that didn't. The revival has divided Twin Peaks fans.

So did Fire Walk with Me. Time is a golden circle.