is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

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Saturn's child
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by Saturn's child »

Another big MillenniuM fan here -- season 2 may be the least 'stable' overall, but I absolutely love it. 'The Curse of Frank Black', 'Jose Chung's Doomsday Defence', 'Anamnesis', 'Beware of the Dog', 'A Room With No View'... so many fantastic episodes. I adored the first season as well & still have time a lot of time for the third (even though it doesn't measure up for me personally with the first two). To answer the OP, no, it doesn't match my Lynch/TP love, but it's absolutely one of my diamonds in the rough.

& Darin Morgan, ahhhhh. Good to see the love flowing for that guy, I'm also of the opinion that he outshone (by a laaaaarge margin) the other episodes from the most recent season of X-Files. I think he did some further consulting on Season 2 of MillenniuM (aside from writing 2 brilliant eps), helping out his brother & James Wong with dialogue, etc. He definitely wrote some unforgettable hours of television in my book.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by dl_fan »

No other show comes anywhere close to my obsession with Twin Peaks, but other shows I can watch over and over again are Fawlty Towers, SCTV, and Life on Mars (the British version).
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Soolsma
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by Soolsma »

Utopia, Channel 4, not the reality show but the British thriller series. I can't believe how little mention there is of this in almost every media. Hell, it hasn't even gotten an rotten tomatoes critic review yet, Believe me. It's brilliant.
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tmurry
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by tmurry »

Man, so many things to say (great thread!).

1. The first season of Utopia and the first episode of the second are so fantastic, I get kind of mad that Black Mirror stole the allotted American-BBC-show-obsession slot from it. I got less into the remainder of the second season, but that show is seriously underrated. The colors lone are worth watching it.

2. Northern Exposure was a really nice show. Maurice (Barry Corben) is the only actor I know I'm related to. The other of the big three direct Twin Peaks descendants (NE, X-Files) was Picket Fences which had a small town quirky/friendly vibe very similar to NE. Do you remember the TP homage scene? (All I can find is a Hungarian version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C1AfNIjHio)

3. No one mentioned Babylon 5 yet, which my first post Peaks show crush. X-Files hadn't started yet, and it was so monolithic in it's big story approach.

4. Add me to the Hannibal lover's column. That show is all visceral visuals and emotional undercurrent and diaphoretic madness. It's like one element of Twin Peaks sustained for 3 seasons.

5. The Prisoner was the first show I ever geeked out on (6th grade, 1978-ish, PBS). Probably warped me into my current taste profile.
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underthefan
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by underthefan »

madeleineferguson wrote:Nothing compares to Twin Peaks for me.

But my second favorite show of all time is the Sopranos.
Same here. And didn't Sopranos have a few moments that felt very much like TP? Like the one with the fish? Davis Chase is a known Lynch fan.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by Agent Earle »

tmurry wrote: 2. Northern Exposure was a really nice show. Maurice (Barry Corben) is the only actor I know I'm related to. The other of the big three direct Twin Peaks descendants (NE, X-Files) was Picket Fences which had a small town quirky/friendly vibe very similar to NE. Do you remember the TP homage scene? (All I can find is a Hungarian version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C1AfNIjHio)

3. No one mentioned Babylon 5 yet, which my first post Peaks show crush. X-Files hadn't started yet, and it was so monolithic in it's big story approach.

Please, give my love to Maurice! :D I definitely remember NE homage to TP - the episode ran during its first season, if I'm not mistaken, in 1990 when TP was still boiling hot.

Picket Fences was another great feel-good show that's all but disappeared from public memory. My favorites were Ray Walston as the cranky but kindhearted judge Henry Bone and Philip "Fyvush" Finkel as the lawyer Douglas Wambaugh with a penchant for outlandish cases - boy, the standoff between these two was priceless!

Always meant to check out Babylon 5 as I hear it was very consistent and meticulous in developing its epic storyline over the course of five seasons - it's supposed to be one of the harbingers of "new" television with focused storytelling where its showrunner sticks to his vision all the way through the series.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by Soolsma »

tmurry wrote: The colors lone are worth watching it.
So beautiful :)
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by Agent Earle »

underthefan wrote:
madeleineferguson wrote:Nothing compares to Twin Peaks for me.

But my second favorite show of all time is the Sopranos.
Same here. And didn't Sopranos have a few moments that felt very much like TP? Like the one with the fish? Davis Chase is a known Lynch fan.
Despite the fact that I love The Sopranos dearly, the claim that it wore TP influence has always felt as a stunt to attract publicity to me (maybe in its early stages, when the series wasn't the universally praised juggernaut it became later on?); I've strived to notice the famed, David Chase-reported influence often but I always came up with nothing - the two shows are nothing alike. The talking fish that haunts Tony in relation to him whacking his friend Big P**** for being a rat that you mention is "just" another example of the series' stellar use of symbolism, why would it be in any relation to TP (unless if one thinks that any kind of paranormal display in a show is necessarily a TP influence)?
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

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I've always disliked both Northern Exposure and Picket Fences, whether fairly or not. But what I disliked so much about them was the way in which they seemed to represent a retreat from the advance of "the show that changed TV" as Peaks was acknowledged to be then, taking the easy lessons of appropriating the comfortable quirk with precious little of the disturbing undercurrent (it would take premium cable to get us past this impasse). They both were obviously "inspired" (a charitable term) by Peaks but what I resented was their success, that they lasted for years when Peaks did not, but also that in being successful they safely domesticated Peaks. In that way, those shows were a retreat from its breakthrough, a retreat back into the realm of conventional TV safety in which what was daring and innovative about Peaks was tamed and comodified to make it both palatable for audiences but also to neutralize its challenges to the medium.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by Dead Dog »

Agent Earle wrote:
Dead Dog wrote:Northern Exposure for me. It's eerie how many similarities there are with TP. A professional urbanite (Coop and Joel) lands in a podunk mountain town, surrounded by quirky folks.

Both out of towners have an ornery local girl (Audrey and Maggie) who doesn't quite fit in and have moles near their left eye become smitten with them.

Both shows have a young waitress named Shelly and young outcast in leather (James and Ed).

Both have a character that owns half the town (Ben and Maurice).

Both have flourishes of mysticism or magical realism.

Both have great music and cinematography.

Both have a featured hang out (Double R and The Brick).

Of course NX is much more light hearted and sweet, I love them both more than I can express here.
Heyyy, nice catches! Yeah, Northern Exposure's sure the one for the ages! It's sad that hardly anyone remembers it now, though it enjoyed a substantial and quite successful (much more than Twin Peaks did) run back then (after starting its life as a thought-to-be-short-lived replacement show in its first season, it steadily picked up reputation and piled on devoted viewership from the end of the first season onwards). Joel Fleischmann was one of my all-time favorite TV protagonists, sometimes even rivaling Cooper! Must say I was shocked when I learned David Chase, The Sopranos creator, presided over Northern Exposure after the show's founding fathers, Joshua Brand & John Falsey (both responsible for another series I hold dear to my heart, I'll Fly Away), split after the first three seasons and that he didn't even like the show and looked down on it with lots of hostility; well, I don't remember the fact reflecting in the quality of the show, as I loved all the seasons till the bittersweet end (yep, I even loved the Capras, a new fish-out-of-water protagonists who replaced Fleischmann as leads after Rob Morrow left the series halfway its last season to focus on his movie career).
Yeah, bizarre that Chase looked down on NX. Can't imagine what he didn't like about it. To me it is one of televisions crown jewels, one of my favorite works of art period. It's a shame it doesn't stream anywhere, as, like you said, it's been largely forgotten, despite how successful and decorated it was in its time.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

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John Justice Wheeler wrote:I've always disliked both Northern Exposure and Picket Fences, whether fairly or not. But what I disliked so much about them was the way in which they seemed to represent a retreat from the advance of "the show that changed TV" as Peaks was acknowledged to be then, taking the easy lessons of appropriating the comfortable quirk with precious little of the disturbing undercurrent (it would take premium cable to get us past this impasse). They both were obviously "inspired" (a charitable term) by Peaks but what I resented was their success, that they lasted for years when Peaks did not, but also that in being successful they safely domesticated Peaks. In that way, those shows were a retreat from its breakthrough, a retreat back into the realm of conventional TV safety in which what was daring and innovative about Peaks was tamed and comodified to make it both palatable for audiences but also to neutralize its challenges to the medium.
well said. i never actually disliked northern exposure, but just didn't find it quite engaging enough to follow. it certainly had some good qualities, but i always thought of it as "twin peaks lite". i had friends at the time who enjoyed it though.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

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dl_fan wrote:No other show comes anywhere close to my obsession with Twin Peaks, but other shows I can watch over and over again are Fawlty Towers, SCTV, and Life on Mars (the British version).
i've never seen life on mars,, but yes fawtly towers and sctv still work pefectly. i have all the sctv network 90 epis on disc, but have never been able to find the original 30 minute epis in a decent version. i wish i could see them again though. i used to watch the ed grimley cartoon show just to catch the little live action count floyd segments.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by Agent Earle »

John Justice Wheeler wrote:I've always disliked both Northern Exposure and Picket Fences, whether fairly or not. But what I disliked so much about them was the way in which they seemed to represent a retreat from the advance of "the show that changed TV" as Peaks was acknowledged to be then, taking the easy lessons of appropriating the comfortable quirk with precious little of the disturbing undercurrent (it would take premium cable to get us past this impasse). They both were obviously "inspired" (a charitable term) by Peaks but what I resented was their success, that they lasted for years when Peaks did not, but also that in being successful they safely domesticated Peaks. In that way, those shows were a retreat from its breakthrough, a retreat back into the realm of conventional TV safety in which what was daring and innovative about Peaks was tamed and comodified to make it both palatable for audiences but also to neutralize its challenges to the medium.
Though I absolutely respect your opinion about these shows (and as someone who never gave The X-Files a proper chance on account of his bitterness that it was so successful when TP wasn't /well, other than the fact that the two catatonic-like leads, completely opposite Coop's aliveness and vibrancy, did absolutely nothing for me/, I sure see where you're coming from :wink: ), I don't think it's quite fair to compare NE (to focus just on this one) to TP. Like I said, I find their similarities to be limited to the surface level, but other than that, the shows are completely their own entities and should be taken - and judged - on their own terms. NE, specifically, is this beautiful meditation on human condition that pulses with the very specific, delicate rhythm that includes symbolism, magical realism, dreams, psychoanalysis, make-believe, fantasy, and what-not. I can see why in some aspects, it could be argued that it adheres to the "old-school" TV model (long seasons of loosely connected episodes that could be watched without knowledge of what came before), but on the other hand, there are definitely certain central thematic threads which run through the entire series (on this account, it's hard to catch the show's complex pulse with just a handful of episodes, so one does best to see them all from the beginning to the end) and the characters are absolutely marvelously rich, life-like and endearing creations that grow and develop with each passing episode, becoming the viewer's life-long friends in the process.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by Dead Dog »

^ Well said. Also, accusations of NX stealing much of its premise from TP simply don't work. It premiered two short months after TP in June 1990. The similarities are coincidental.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by underthefan »

Agent Earle wrote:
underthefan wrote:
madeleineferguson wrote:Nothing compares to Twin Peaks for me.

But my second favorite show of all time is the Sopranos.
Same here. And didn't Sopranos have a few moments that felt very much like TP? Like the one with the fish? Davis Chase is a known Lynch fan.
Despite the fact that I love The Sopranos dearly, the claim that it wore TP influence has always felt as a stunt to attract publicity to me (maybe in its early stages, when the series wasn't the universally praised juggernaut it became later on?); I've strived to notice the famed, David Chase-reported influence often but I always came up with nothing - the two shows are nothing alike. The talking fish that haunts Tony in relation to him whacking his friend Big P**** for being a rat that you mention is "just" another example of the series' stellar use of symbolism, why would it be in any relation to TP (unless if one thinks that any kind of paranormal display in a show is necessarily a TP influence)?
Yeah, you could be right, it was never overt, just a feeling I had watching it but maybe that's my bias. Here is an interview of David Chase talking about TP:

http://www.vulture.com/2015/05/david-ch ... egacy.html

I am not sure if this happens to other fans but I will find myself watching a show and be certain it's TP influence even if it isn't. But then other times, like watching Bates Motel a couple of weeks ago, a White Horse Bar with red drapes will pop up, a place where revelations are being made, and I'm like, "Okay, I know I'm not crazy!" :lol:
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