I've been doing a very protracted re-watch of Season 3 (I guess that's what we're calling it now?
). I started out watching quite quickly, like a few episodes a day, but I got tired of it. I just find the thing to be too dispiriting and dark and cold and all those adjectives to be really watchable. I mean, and I love dark stuff. I love e.g. Lost Highway and other Lynch things, naturally. But S3 has a kind of joyless misanthropy at times... I don't know how else to describe it. That as well as a weird miscalculation of tone, where scenes drag on and are either meant to be funny or meant to be compelling somehow, but simply fall flat. For a less dramatic example (it's still a good scene), I'd say look to the long conversation between Truman and Ben in Part 12 - and then Ben's odd conversation with Beverly, ending with another profession of love for that old bicycle of his. It's just... weird. Not even because too much exposition, but it's a scene I don't know quite what to do with. We're given so much time to ponder in S3 but it's almost deliberately spent on uninteresting things or unimportant things - meanwhile, the juiciest material too often zips past as if L&F were unaware of its potency. I dunno.
I feel kind of like this during a re-watch:
Parts 1-2: intriguing, exciting even. A promising start mostly.
Part 3: fairly superb...
Part 4: ...but it wears thin, and I can't abide much of the Dougie stuff this time around. A certain glumness sets in here as it becomes clear what we'll be saddled with for over 10 episodes...
Part 5: Things heat up nicely with a propulsive pace and that great Trouble/Richard scene, though I wish Dr. Amp never made it from page to screen and overall it's more a collection of short punchy scenes than it is a more concentrated work - because there's so much "stuff," most scenes don't get time to settle in and make a deeper impression. Stuff like Becky and Stephen almost grates watching now, knowing that it will just turn into the most beguiling whimper of a narrative...
Part 6: ...and then we slow down again for a wrenching hour of pure cruelty, which is still somehow fascinating (unlike the weak Part 10). I guess Red's scene kind of carries a lot of the weight, what a great character and performance!
Part 7: momentum, etc etc. Not terribly interesting though... well, the last few scenes do stay with me. But the plotty Mr C plot doesn't.
Part 8: honestly haven't re-watched in full since the premiere of it. I love it but it's also like Eraserhead - very very dark and dangerous and... gross at the end, ha. But no, it is really terrific.
Part 9: underrated but mostly just a pleasant hour because its breezy low-key nature is a nice reprieve from the darkness.
Part 10: ugh, I dunno man... I can't re-watch much of this, it's pure cruelty without balance, yes yes that is the point perhaps but whatever. The Laura/Cole scene and Log Lady scene redeem it a bit though.
Part 11: great, surely one of the better hours...
Part 12: dull, aimless padding
To be continued (maybe) as I rewatch...
Just going from the first watch (or two, as I watched most twice initially) - I'd round things out by saying 13 was a decent if kind of stiff hour, 14 was exciting tho I don't like the mythos ramping up with GreenGlove, 15 is heartbreaking and creepy, 16 is satisfying but frustrating for taking so long to arrive, 17 is half greatness half questionable or even terrible decision-making, and 18 is the best of them all.
BTW - can I just vent here to say again how much I truly dislike the whole Dr. Amp thing/what they did with Jacoby..? And similarly, everything with Nadine was little better. Ugh, what a waste. And such a waste of time, spent on Jacoby. The joke was old the first time 'round! Why repeat it so, so much? Baffling. Nadine's revelation in 15 with Ed is kind of nice, if rushed, but I could not care less about all of the other repetitive shots of her admiring Dr. Amp's show. Again, such a waste, to give us these characters but reduce their arcs to the tiniest fragments and often just repeat the same image/scene/idea over and over... (look at Leland for a quite literal example!)