Windom Earle - Master of Disguise

[TwinPeaksFanatic]

Just for fun. I got thinking about all the crazy disguises Windom wore on Twin Peaks and decided to put a blog post together for it. What's your favorite Windom Earle costume?

http://twinpeaksfanatic.blogspot.com/20 ... guise.html

[LostInTheMovies]

Does the white face count as a costume? Probably not, so I'll go with he old man visiting Donna. One of the few that seemed designed to fool rather than just look flamboyant. Though the biker one is probably the most fun.

[Sidgwick]

I dug his appearance as a fireplace in the finale.

[TwinPeaksFanatic]

White face or fireplace, Windom still ranks higher than Evelyn, Little Nikki, Lana & MT Wentz

[Sidgwick]

All of whom are more tolerable than Heavy Metal Youth, who as has been pointed is the absolute nadir of the series. The bikers of Twin Peaks inexplicably congregate to listen to a breathy, haunting chanteuse. Heavy metal does not even exist in that world!

[Ajax Rules]

White face or fireplace, Windom still ranks higher than Evelyn, Little Nikki, Lana & MT Wentz

I've been watching S2 for the last couple of weeks, but in my opinion the Windom Earle-plot is the single worst plotline of the entire show. Both the chess-game (including Peter Martell) and the different disguises are beyond stupid. Just terrible.

Little Nikki, Lana and MT Wentz are bad too, but they take up little time, and they are not supposed to have any substance. But the Windom Earle story is supposed to be scary and ambitious and really an insult to viewers intelligence.

The Evelyn Marsh plot was just a little bit bad for my taste.

[TwinPeaksFanatic]

The Windom stuff is no doubt bad and over the top, but I think when you've seen the series many times in it's entirety he melds into the backdrop as being more amusing vs. scary. In that sense, I personally always enjoyed him much more. Where as the Evelyn plot is nearly unwatchable to me. "Love isn't wrong, James!" - when I hear that it's like nails on a chalkboard.

When I put silly posts together, it's because the good parts of Twin Peaks can be analyzed endlessly any day of the week, but the bad stuff (I would guess especially for new fans) is hard to accept as even being part of the same show. Levity, I hope, offsets the disappointment a little. Plus Twin Peaks is equally light as it is dark and some of the campy moments are entertaining, if nothing else.

And yes Heavy Metal Youth is a real head-scratcher.

[Ajax Rules]

I like some of the light stuff, e.g. Andy/Lucy and even Dick.

For me the problem with Windom Earle is that it is not supposed to be light and campy, but very disturbing and more or less the replacement of the Laura Palmer story.

For me the relevant distinction is not between light and heavy, but between high quality and low quality.

[LostInTheMovies]

I think I would have a problem with Windom Earle even if he was handled well because the idea of this mastermind Moriarty facing off against Cooper just feels too alien to the strengths of Twin Peaks. It disrupts the idea of the town as a self-contained microcosm and distracts us from the lingering grief/guilt of the townspeople, which the pilot established as the central theme.

[james]

I don't think it was Earle who distracted from the lingering grief/ guilt in the town, but the solving of the Palmer mystery!

What interests me is how the new volume of the show will bring this former aspect of guilt in again - it surely has to, because they're returning to the 'origins' I believe. I know Lynch and Frost have mentioned they're using the first season and the pilot as big inspiration, but then again maybe the Between Two Worlds feature on the blu-ray indicates that we will delve more into 'the truth' of what happened in the Palmer family.

[Furious Momentum]

The Horse, of course. Back on topic.