Twin Peaks Return: The Profoundly Disappointed Support Group

[mtwentz]

Hello everyone,

It's not news that a lot of fans have been disappointed with the latest season but I had a sudden moment of clarity regarding this very issue. I just noticed that when I'm watching season 3 so far that I'm mainly getting through the episodes only for the plot. I have a hard time imaging a full rewatch of season 3 even though it's been interesting plotwise whereas I can watch some of the original Twin Peaks episodes over and over again for the intriguing atmosphere. Season 3 so far lacks atmosphere in my opinion. I'm sure this has been discussed before but I had to say it..

Season 3 = Interesting plot (though slowish pace) but low rewatch value, lacking feeling. Dullness.
Season 1&2 = STILL High rewatch value after almost 3 decades due to the atmosphere we love even though everyone is familiar with the plot.

I don't think this is just nostalgia. Somehow season 3 is not sating all the human senses whereas old Twin Peaks does that. Maybe it's the lack of music?

That being said, I really enjoyed the latest episode. Perhaps my favorite episode of season 3. Also, no offense to any fans of season 3. I just wanted to voice an opinion.

I don't agree with the low re-watch value. I think what many of us have found is that each episode only gets better upon each re-watch. I think I've seen Parts 1-4 at least 7 or 8 times each, Part 8 about 4 or 5 and this latest episode should get up into that range.

I do understand why some people are having a hard time connecting. I think this new show is just as good as the original, but in a different way. So it's natural not everyone who liked the original will like the new show.

As for the re-watch value of this new show 25 years from now- I can't really hazard a guess on that. Only time will tell.

[depechehenke]

I think I rather watch Prometheus again than re-watching most of season 3. That is saying quite a lot about how utterly
disappointed I am with Twin Peaks anno 2017. I have unfortunately invested too much of my cultural identity in Twin Peaks
growing up so I guess I have to see it through regardless. I feel like Leo with the collar with Lynch&Frost controlling the remote...

[yaxomoxay]

I think I rather watch Prometheus again than re-watching most of season 3. That is saying quite a lot about how utterly
disappointed I am with Twin Peaks anno 2017. I have unfortunately invested too much of my cultural identity in Twin Peaks
growing up so I guess I have to see it through regardless. I feel like Leo with the collar with Lynch&Frost controlling the remote...

I liked Prometheus... I guess that I liked it because it's mostly Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness...


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[Rialto]

I think I rather watch Prometheus again than re-watching most of season 3. That is saying quite a lot about how utterly
disappointed I am with Twin Peaks anno 2017. I have unfortunately invested too much of my cultural identity in Twin Peaks
growing up so I guess I have to see it through regardless. I feel like Leo with the collar with Lynch&Frost controlling the remote...

With you there - the Leo analogy about sums it up for me. With all the repeated entreaties to 'watch it again' and 'treat it like an 18 hour movie!', I can't even raise a wry smile at the thought, it's too excruciatingly dull to think of.

[sugarhigh]

I think I rather watch Prometheus again than re-watching most of season 3. That is saying quite a lot about how utterly
disappointed I am with Twin Peaks anno 2017. I have unfortunately invested too much of my cultural identity in Twin Peaks
growing up so I guess I have to see it through regardless. I feel like Leo with the collar with Lynch&Frost controlling the remote...

Haha, I followed the production on Prometheus for two years thinking Scott would get the series back on track and produce an awesome Alien film. Boy was I wrong. Such a pile of crap. Then I actually thought that he'd learn from his mistakes and would make Covenant better. Wrong again.
Kinda had a sense the same thing would happen with this new season of Twin Peaks and it's looking like I'm right. Although I do find a lot to like in it, I'm hoping someone will be able to edit down the whole season and add music to create something that resembles the original show a little more.

[Guardian]

Although I do find a lot to like in it, I'm hoping someone will be able to edit down the whole season and add music to create something that resembles the original show a little more.

I've been thinking about this too, some fan with the right competence and appreciation of the Pilot, S1 and S2, could possibly do a fan-edit.
Sadly, I think just adding music to scenes won't do the trick to Peaks-up season 3.
Many scenes in the original run was without music, but it still felt like Twin Peaks.
This season doesn't feel like Twin Peaks at all (for me), except for maybe the Bobby crying scene.

So, it would be a very difficult and huge task to re-edit this to something Peaksy and watchable.
One would actually have to do a full color grading of every scene, to make it look like the old Twin Peaks.
And maybe even more tricks to make it look right.
Then trim down scenes, and cut the crap, and so on...
And cut music that don't belong in Twin Peaks.
Sadly, one cannot do much about the slow dialog, or mask bad performances out of scenes.
The end result will still be bad, I think.

But it would be fun if someone actually color graded and edited one of the ok scenes in S3, and made it look and feel like old Twin Peaks.
Maybe add some old music...

[N. Needleman]

Re: the music, from a new Vulture piece -

Perhaps most notably, Twin Peaks: The Return represents a huge shift away from the chock-full-of-music approach Lynch has historically displayed in his work. “The original Twin Peaks is very much like that, and some of the episodes are complete wall-to-wall music,” Hurley says. “And I think that becomes the saccharine, quick way to establish tone.” That’s also why the series managed to stay intact even after Lynch departed shortly into season two of Twin Peaks, though the quality of the plot itself suffered — something Hurley suspects may have been a consideration while crafting the sonic landscape of Twin Peaks: The Return. “I think that in retrospect — I don’t want to speak for him — but my impression of it is that affected the way he went into this. And he was, definitely, from the get-go, reaching and asking for much more soundscape-y kind of abstract, atmospheric things.”

These ominous soundscapes marry low-frequency rumbling and subwoofer-heavy tonalities, punctuating the many far-flung locales we’ve seen in Twin Peaks: The Return so far, from casinos to mysterious glass boxes in New York City. It’s almost a sister soundscape to the dark, dense blacktops of Lost Highway. As author Dennis Lim put it in his book about Lynch, The Man From Another Place, that particular soundtrack featured “enveloping darkness [that] gives way to flaring, overexposed white-outs. Dead air alternates with the belligerent soundtrack assault of metal-industrial bands like Nine Inch Nails and Rammstein … the dreamlike sense that everything is happening at a remove dovetails with the fixation on mediation.” Twin Peaks: The Return isn’t so different, given its subliminal effects on the senses and the extremities of the atmospheric score. “The scenes that are most successful that use very little music, and I still think [Lynch] thinks of that stuff … as music,” Hurley says. “So I think to him it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, that scene is scored with music,’ and other people are like, ‘I couldn’t believe the austere lack of music there.’”

[...]

The fact that many scenes in Twin Peaks: The Return are devoid of music at all is something that surprised Hurley, who’s been working with Lynch for 12 years. “Even myself early on, I was like, ‘Surely we should put music in the scene.’ And you know, being told, ‘No, leave it out,’” Hurley says of Twin Peaks: The Return. “I will say, first of all, I read the script before it was shot and even when you’re reading the script page, it was pretty obvious that the majority of that original finger-popping jazz quirk was not the tone of this thing.”

[The Gazebo]

Re: the music, from a new Vulture piece -

These ominous soundscapes marry low-frequency rumbling and subwoofer-heavy tonalities, punctuating the many far-flung locales we’ve seen in Twin Peaks: The Return so far, from casinos to mysterious glass boxes in New York City. It’s almost a sister soundscape to the dark, dense blacktops of Lost Highway.

Loving the sounds and soundscapes in The Return. The only sonic mistake I can think of so far is Del Rio's voice. Don't know if I've got sensitive ears or something, but it's physically painful to listen to that song with headphones. Absence of classic TP music also makes the sporadic use of it more powerful, in my view. The ominous theme underneath the end credits of ep 7, the Deer Meadow Shuffle in ep 9, etc.

For me, it's a lot more challenging getting used to the crisp, bright, digital - almost daytime-ish soap - image quality of the show at times, particularly the Vegas scenes.

[faroutsonoflung]

But Lynch doesn't normally make mistakes with sound, not even one! So I'm surprised he went with that choice for Del Rio.

To me, the quintessential sound of TP are those ominous chords that mark the beginning of Laura Palmer's Theme. Repeated over and over! Feels like I could listen to that forever, that's what made the original series and film work so well I think.

Sure, I understand that Laura is gone, but without those chords, TP:TR is worthless to me. Some enjoyable parts,definitely, but knowing we're more than halfway through, and that I have disliked at least 50% of it so far confirms that this won't be added to the collection or rewatched.

Sad to admit from someone who likes all DL films, even his albums!

[starmand]

"Where we're from, the birds sing a pretty song and there's always music in the air."

In the White Lodge (?) the record player seems to play music incessantly... except, in the first scene of season 3, the music is gone. The record player only chirps.

"Agent Cooper, listen to the sounds."

I think the lack of music and gradual reemergence of old songs is crucial to the plot and themes of the new season.

[anthoto1]

Sure, I understand that Laura is gone, but without those chords, TP:TR is worthless to me.

Seems like you were expecting a CD, not a TV show.

[Redlodge]

I thought Dougie would be gone by now. With each episode between 45-50 minutes this leaves only about 6 hours left of the series. If Cooper is coming to it needs to happen now. Maybe the Las Vegas Police will get Dougie's prints back and find out its really Cooper. I hope so because these distracting storylines are getting so boring.
I hate Richard Horne, the entire Vegas story, the painfully slow pace of the series in general and Dopplecooper is just a thug reminiscent of old 70's shows. I almost expect TJ Hooker to show up any minute. I think Lynch should have stuck to the original 9 episodes and told the story people want to see . Allot of the show is filler.
I waited 26 years for this ?

[mlsstwrt]

Yeah Redlodge, agree with all those sentiments.

I'm still finding it awful. Actually in disbelief at how bad/dull it is. Seeing Bobby get cucked by that fool was the icing on the cake.

[Venus]

I also have to admit I think it is pretty dire, imo, and I've tried to resist completely condemning it as much as possible but I've got to that point. If willpower alone could make it better then my willpower wishing it to get better, would have worked by now!

[Rialto]

Yeah Redlodge, agree with all those sentiments.

I'm still finding it awful. Actually in disbelief at how bad/dull it is. Seeing Bobby get cucked by that fool was the icing on the cake.

Ditto Redlodge.

That scene with Bobby and Shelly in the diner was just so tone deaf - one second Shelly's genuinely concerned that her daughter is in a bad marriage (and was so out of control she threw her own mother off a car bonnet!), the very next she's running off to snog her bad boy meme, with a big goofy grin on her face, like she's 15 years old. It made no emotional sense.

Why didn't they just intercut a silent movie style title card: "Well, we can all see where Becky's terrible decision making around men comes from, can't we!" It would have been more subtle.

And poor Norma, relegated to the books for eternity, unable to speak, forced to appear in endless recurring cutaways, nodding, looking 'wise' and 'understanding'.