General Discussion on Season 3 (All Opinions Welcome)

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Rigpa
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Re: General Discussion on the New Series (All Opinions Welcome)

Post by Rigpa »

Just heard a short interview on NPR with David Lynch. After talking a bit about the new book Room To Dream, the interviewer asked him about his meditation practice. Lynch spoke about how with the meditation technique stress, anxieties, tensions, sadness, depression, hate, rage, need for revenge, and fear start to automatically lift away. So why, the interviewer asks, are his movies are so dark? His answer was an artist doesn’t have to suffer to show suffering. I understand that, but what I would have asked instead was why does he choose to give the world portrayals of suffering instead of joy? This is what so bewildered me about season 3. At this point in my life, with the world so full of pain and suffering and craziness, I don’t need to add to my consciousness, through the art I choose to experience, more suffering. I was knocked down for several days after watching part 18. So bleak and hopeless…Why not spread around calm, peace, happiness, love instead? At least a better balance of light and dark. There is still much I enjoy and admire in Lynch’s work. And I did re-watch parts 1-17—but I will never watch part 18 again. I’ll go re-watch Call Me By Your Name instead.
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Re: General Discussion on the New Series (All Opinions Welcome)

Post by Mr. Strawberry »

Kyle MacLachlan "Couldn't believe the premises" upon seeing the script for the first time:

Yes, Even I Was Confused by David Lynch’s Return to ‘Twin Peaks’
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Re: General Discussion on the New Series (All Opinions Welcome)

Post by Robin Davies »

Rigpa wrote:Just heard a short interview on NPR with David Lynch. After talking a bit about the new book Room To Dream, the interviewer asked him about his meditation practice. Lynch spoke about how with the meditation technique stress, anxieties, tensions, sadness, depression, hate, rage, need for revenge, and fear start to automatically lift away. So why, the interviewer asks, are his movies are so dark? His answer was an artist doesn’t have to suffer to show suffering. I understand that, but what I would have asked instead was why does he choose to give the world portrayals of suffering instead of joy? This is what so bewildered me about season 3.
I have long wondered the same thing. I suspect Lynch realises that he's simply better at dealing with darkness, weirdness and horror than with light and joy. Often his attempts at happy stuff seem a bit corny and embarrassing (Sandy's recitation of the "robins" dream in Blue Velvet, the good fairy in Wild at Heart). Sometimes he succeeds - the ending of Inland Empire seems to convey a mood of happiness and reconciliation which, though baffling in its details, is at least free from some of his cornier imagery - but he's the absolute master of disturbing surrealism and I'm glad he plays to his strengths. It never depresses me because, after all, it's only fiction and it can never be as depressing as real life. And of course he often mixes humour with the horror. In fact one of the most remarkable things about Lynch is that he seems to be the only person who can combine humour and horror without diminishing either emotion. The cowboy scene in Mulholland Drive is my favourite example of that.
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mtwentz
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Re: General Discussion on the New Series (All Opinions Welcome)

Post by mtwentz »

Robin Davies wrote:
Rigpa wrote:Just heard a short interview on NPR with David Lynch. After talking a bit about the new book Room To Dream, the interviewer asked him about his meditation practice. Lynch spoke about how with the meditation technique stress, anxieties, tensions, sadness, depression, hate, rage, need for revenge, and fear start to automatically lift away. So why, the interviewer asks, are his movies are so dark? His answer was an artist doesn’t have to suffer to show suffering. I understand that, but what I would have asked instead was why does he choose to give the world portrayals of suffering instead of joy? This is what so bewildered me about season 3.
I have long wondered the same thing. I suspect Lynch realises that he's simply better at dealing with darkness, weirdness and horror than with light and joy. Often his attempts at happy stuff seem a bit corny and embarrassing (Sandy's recitation of the "robins" dream in Blue Velvet, the good fairy in Wild at Heart). Sometimes he succeeds - the ending of Inland Empire seems to convey a mood of happiness and reconciliation which, though baffling in its details, is at least free from some of his cornier imagery - but he's the absolute master of disturbing surrealism and I'm glad he plays to his strengths. It never depresses me because, after all, it's only fiction and it can never be as depressing as real life. And of course he often mixes humour with the horror. In fact one of the most remarkable things about Lynch is that he seems to be the only person who can combine humour and horror without diminishing either emotion. The cowboy scene in Mulholland Drive is my favourite example of that.
Christian movies are a great example of the dangers of making movies based on a spiritual teaching. Frankly, they are effing boring and substandard movies (no offense meant to any Christians out there or to the Christian religion; I'm talking Christianity as a topic for dramatic tension, not rendering a judgement on Jesus or his teachings, most of which I agree with and try to integrate into my own life).

If Lynch were to make all his films showing his characters using TM to overcome all their problems, it would be no different than the films that show the characters accepting Jesus and all their problems melting away; temptation resisted, family held together, everyone lives happily ever after and goes to church on Sunday.

Now, showing the Christian pastor who goes astray and becomes an obsessed serial killer...or the TM guru who uses his position and knowledge to create a cult of personality around himself and turn his followers into captives/slaves...THAT is compelling drama that makes for interesting storytelling.
F*&^ you Gene Kelly
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Mr. Reindeer
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Re: General Discussion on the New Series (All Opinions Welcome)

Post by Mr. Reindeer »

I also think that, whether he admits it or not, DKL channels a lot of his own darkness and negativity into the work. As his best friend Jack Fisk said, if David didn’t make movies someone might be dead.
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N. Needleman
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Re: General Discussion on the New Series (All Opinions Welcome)

Post by N. Needleman »

Interesting quote from this Kyle interview re: the ending for the Joneses that confirms what I'd hoped:
Those kinds of tonal and character shifts were fascinating to watch. In other episodes, it’s the Dougie screwball comedy. I was glad Dougie came back to Janey-E. Of course, when Dougie shows up again in the last episode, it’s not Dougie …

He is yet another small shift in the Dougie-Cooper continuum. So he’s certainly not Dougie complete, and he’s not Cooper complete. But he is an entity that I think is the perfect choice, the perfect person to be with Janey-E. So they found each other.
AnotherBlueRoseCase wrote:The Return is clearly guaranteed a future audience among stoners and other drug users.
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Soolsma
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Re: General Discussion on the New Series (All Opinions Welcome)

Post by Soolsma »

^- Probably the most resolved subplot in all of s3.
Carrie Page: "It's a long way... In those days, I was too young to know any better."
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krishnanspace
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Re: General Discussion on the New Series (All Opinions Welcome)

Post by krishnanspace »

Soolsma wrote:^- Probably the most resolved subplot in all of s3.
That and Audrey's plot :D
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Xavi
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Re: General Discussion on the New Series (All Opinions Welcome)

Post by Xavi »

Those kinds of tonal and character shifts were fascinating to watch. In other episodes, it’s the Dougie screwball comedy. I was glad Dougie came back to Janey-E. Of course, when Dougie shows up again in the last episode, it’s not Dougie …

He is yet another small shift in the Dougie-Cooper continuum. So he’s certainly not Dougie complete, and he’s not Cooper complete. But he is an entity that I think is the perfect choice, the perfect person to be with Janey-E. So they found each other.
To my taste this is another fine example of Lynch "channeling" his view about the huge value of happiness within "ordinary" family-life. And in TPS3's context it seems a direct reference to the home-coming scene of Lost Girl, "her husband" and their kid, in INLAND EMPIRE. The way Lynch exposes this mundane occurrence gives it an almost otherworldly mood; heaven is not a place between the stars, albeit an everyday house (Smithy's) where people enjoy and share the most precious of things in life: love.
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N. Needleman
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Re: General Discussion on the New Series (All Opinions Welcome)

Post by N. Needleman »

AnotherBlueRoseCase wrote:The Return is clearly guaranteed a future audience among stoners and other drug users.
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Soolsma
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Re: General Discussion on the New Series (All Opinions Welcome)

Post by Soolsma »

"I had the green-glove idea from long ago and originally Jack Nance was going to wear it, and that would've been a whole different thing."
-David Lynch in Room to Dream
So would the show have continued in the 90's, chances are we might have seen a glove wearing Pete kickin' ass on a planet of garmonbozia. :lol:
Carrie Page: "It's a long way... In those days, I was too young to know any better."
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Re: General Discussion on the New Series (All Opinions Welcome)

Post by Mr. Strawberry »

Hawk never made it to Margaret's for cookies, but these Showtime executives surely would have.
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Re: General Discussion on the New Series (All Opinions Welcome)

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N. Needleman wrote:Fascinating.
whaaaaaat?!
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Re: General Discussion on the New Series (All Opinions Welcome)

Post by marchug »

N. Needleman wrote:Fascinating.
DAMN.
-23-
Kilmoore
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Re: General Discussion on the New Series (All Opinions Welcome)

Post by Kilmoore »

A relevant character, one shown to have a good heart using the glove would have made quite a lot more sense. When a meaningless side character beats BOB it means BOB isn't and never was a threat, and isn't important.
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