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

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claaa7
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is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by claaa7 »

i can't believe how excited i am by this revival, it is taking up my headspace everyday and i come here to read every day for months now.. of course David Lynch is a cinematic god to me (forming a holy trinity with Stanley Kubrick and Andrei Tarkovskij) and anything new from him at this point would excite me almost to lunacy. However the whole phenomenon of Twin Peaks is something totally else, sometimes i just have such an urge to go back and revisit that world again (many times i don't do it, bc i want to savor it - although i've seen it in full a good 4 times, and seen all the lynch episodes probably 6-7 times).. and with all the book tie ins, promo stuff, etc. and the great fan community it's amazing to be a Twin Peaks fan.

which got me thinking if there's actually any other series that come even closer for us here.. probably not. but it would be interesting to hear what comes closest for you (i know this is somewhat similiar to the What you're watching in wait for S3 but this is only the top of the top, this needs to be somewhat obsessive stuff). i mean i absolutely LOVED Boardwalk Empire and The Sopranos, especially the former i would say quality wise is on the same level as Peaks but would a revival happen in 10 years i think i would be like, hmmm, maybe they had better left it alone. it's not something that i want to read about too much after i finished the series, and though i bought the box sets that itch to go back into that world only comes around every 5-6 years or something tops i would imagine. "Breaking Bad" was incredible television as well, so was "The Wire", but same thing there - it's not something i'd spend a lot of time on after the fact nor want to revisit very often.

something that occupied my mind lately as i've been going to A LOT of cinema screenings this year is Lynch's quote that a film needs "ROOM TO DREAM" and mystery.. that's what keeps me coming back and can make me obsess. i don't like every little detailed laid out. and while socio-realistic dramas have their charm i can only tae so much of that. on the other hand, i used to be a HUGE "X-Files" fan back in the day though.. i have all the 9 box sets on DVD, read quite a bit on it, but over the years i just felt that it lost a lot of its magic and not only in the later seasons bc i still liked it well enough up to Mulder dissappeared but i'm talking about it not holding up to well over the time. much of it feels very dated, and there's few episodes that sucks me into a complete world of wonder and mystery these days whenever i try to watch an episode... i like to have a balance between the world we can see and the world we can't, the mysteries, the room to dream.

HOWEVER (and sorry for the long winded post to get here), there is one other TV series that would be my second after Twin Peaks and it was created by the same team as X-Files - Chris Carter, James Wong, Glenn Morgan and them. It was called MillenniuM and it was one of the boldest, most interesting, well-written series i have ever seen. Placed in the real world but full of an otherwordly darkness that loomed somewhere deep in the atmosphere, a greater force of evil. and it was very dark, which i tend to like. it actually had a lot of similarities to Twin Peaks; a great archetype good guy of a hero that you really enjoyed the company of - Frank Black, brilliantly portrayed by screen legend Lance Henriksen in his best performance ever imo. he had a mysterious gift that allowed himself to get into the minds of the serial killers, take on that darkness, but it took his toll on him and he worked for a company that helped police and FBI solve the worst and strangest murder cases and disapperances. some of the times it was a quite regular procedural show, sometimes strongly supernatural (in a really dark, horror way - the two parter episode "Lament" "/ "Powers Principles" rivals the best horror movies i've seen and similiar incredible moments with BOB).. as the show got deeper into the second season, just like Peaks, it took on a new dimension as the occult and the mysteries of the MillenniuM group started becoming more apparanent, and there were prophecies, angels, demons and even a build up to an apocalypse.

unfortunately the show got canceled by FOX after it's third season, like with Peaks we got a beautiful ending that's still open (although it was a bit more wrapped up). there has been a huge fan phenomena created around it, lobbying for FOX to bring it back (a campaign called "Bring Back Frank Black"), message boards and fan communities, some great books written, etc. i can watch the entire series about once every two years or so, and it always totally sucks me in, and when it's over i'm really itching for more, and i need to find the forums to read and discuss and pick out the books from the shelves. Highly recommended if you haven't seen it!



Do you have any series like this?
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by WhiteLodge90 »

Twin Peaks has another vibe to it but I will admit to being a pretty big Lost fan when it aired during the early seasons. The final season and a half I really lost interest but I was heavily involved in fan theories and online discussions during the first three or so seasons.

Other shows I'm very big into are Game Of Thrones and Breaking Bad (When it was on) Those are/were two of the only shows I still HAVE to watch live and not record them.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

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Only one pops into mind: Carnivàle.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by djerdap »

The Wire and The X-Files, although the latter is more of a bittersweet, nostaglic feeling of a first pop culture obsession that went down the drain due to increasingly insipid writing in the show's later years. The former is the closest to perfection the TV format got so far in my humble opinion.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by Rainwater »

Twin Peaks, Mad Men and Deadwood are my holy trinity of TV series.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by laughingpinecone »

Not a TV series, but the Myst games top it. They are also trying to make them into a tv series, actually. Fingers crossed for that.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by Gabriel »

I used to love Doctor Who and Star Trek almost as much, but the 2005- show has ruined Doctor Who for me and The Next Generation onwards has ruined Star Trek for me, although I remain fond of the original versions of both shows. It's a warning actually that you have to face facts: shows you love coming back years later might not suit who you are now and might ruin the original for you too. I still adore The X-Files and didn't hate the latest series; it was enjoyable on the whole, even if it's central conceit had already been dealt with in the middle years and proven wrong, making season 10 an outright contradiction of established facts from earlier on.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by djerdap »

I think the new X-Files would have fared much better if it didn't begin and end on such an awful note. Chris Carter has become a truly terrible writer. But Darin Morgan's episode was brilliant and certainly the best episode since season 7 at least.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by AXX°N N. »

I think in terms of sheer mindless addiction I was more obsessed with LOST, although I for sure love and at that respect Twin Peaks more just out of sheer artistry. The only other TV show which comes close in the department of subversive art is all the way over in Japan, with Evangelion.
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Gabriel
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by Gabriel »

AXX°N N. wrote:I think in terms of sheer mindless addiction I was more obsessed with LOST, although I for sure love and at that respect Twin Peaks more just out of sheer artistry. The only other TV show which comes close in the department of subversive art is all the way over in Japan, with Evangelion.
Yes, I loved Lost from start to finish. No issues with the ending either – classical literature is full of tales of characters travelling through the underworld!
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by AXX°N N. »

Gabriel wrote:
AXX°N N. wrote:I think in terms of sheer mindless addiction I was more obsessed with LOST, although I for sure love and at that respect Twin Peaks more just out of sheer artistry. The only other TV show which comes close in the department of subversive art is all the way over in Japan, with Evangelion.
Yes, I loved Lost from start to finish. No issues with the ending either – classical literature is full of tales of characters travelling through the underworld!
I'm an adherent to the ending -- I loved it on a purely emotional level the first time I saw it, but have come to appreciate what it was going for that whole last season because I keep finding parallels in it when reading about many different topics -- mesmerism, elan vital, lots of Eastern, especially buddhist, ideas of the afterlife. None of what it was going about was pulled from thin-air like people made out. In fact it appears Lost and TP are about the exact same thing in terms of the idea of energy as interpreted roughly the same by multiple histories and cultures but made their own fictively.
Recipe not my own. In a coffee cup. 3 TBS flour, 2 TBS sugar, 1.5 TBS cocoa powder, .25 TSP baking powder, pinch of salt. 3 TBS milk, 1.5 TBS vegetable oil, 1 TBS peanut butter. Add and mix each set. Microwave 1 minute 10 seconds. The cup will be hot.
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Gabriel
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by Gabriel »

AXX°N N. wrote: I'm an adherent to the ending -- I loved it on a purely emotional level the first time I saw it, but have come to appreciate what it was going for that whole last season because I keep finding parallels in it when reading about many different topics -- mesmerism, elan vital, lots of Eastern, especially buddhist, ideas of the afterlife. None of what it was going about was pulled from thin-air like people made out. In fact it appears Lost and TP are about the exact same thing in terms of the idea of energy as interpreted roughly the same by multiple histories and cultures but made their own fictively.
Yes. Too many people bang on about producers 'just making it up as they go along' on TV shows and, indeed, that is often the case in the cutthroat world of network TV where you're lucky to survive half a season at a time. Lost had the unprecedented advantage of having three guaranteed seasons in order to wrap up everything. So many people misunderstood the ending though, where it seemed obvious to me. Actually, because of Twin Peaks, I reckon I'm able to make jumps of logic and deduction that mean I'm very rarely surprised by anything I watch. Usually I work out the twist in a story or the killer in a detective show in the first couple of minutes and simply accept that the fun is in seeing how the characters come to the right conclusion!
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by WhiteLodge90 »

Gabriel wrote:
AXX°N N. wrote: I'm an adherent to the ending -- I loved it on a purely emotional level the first time I saw it, but have come to appreciate what it was going for that whole last season because I keep finding parallels in it when reading about many different topics -- mesmerism, elan vital, lots of Eastern, especially buddhist, ideas of the afterlife. None of what it was going about was pulled from thin-air like people made out. In fact it appears Lost and TP are about the exact same thing in terms of the idea of energy as interpreted roughly the same by multiple histories and cultures but made their own fictively.
Yes. Too many people bang on about producers 'just making it up as they go along' on TV shows and, indeed, that is often the case in the cutthroat world of network TV where you're lucky to survive half a season at a time. Lost had the unprecedented advantage of having three guaranteed seasons in order to wrap up everything. So many people misunderstood the ending though, where it seemed obvious to me. Actually, because of Twin Peaks, I reckon I'm able to make jumps of logic and deduction that mean I'm very rarely surprised by anything I watch. Usually I work out the twist in a story or the killer in a detective show in the first couple of minutes and simply accept that the fun is in seeing how the characters come to the right conclusion!
I was not a fan of the ending or the sudden abandonment of characters and or story lines without closing them. Felt a bit sloppy to me. Also the creators are on record saying they didn't have an ending to start with. I understand the ending completely just feel it could have been handled a lot crisper for a show so solid to start with. I think the show hit it's peak when the flash forward was revealed and steadily declined after that.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by LaurenceBranagh »

Yes: Downton Abbey.
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Re: is there any other show that even comes close to your obsession with TP?

Post by Ross »

Nothing has ever even come close to TP for me. There's been tons of shows I've enjoyed since. But nothing that has captured me in the same way. Nothing that I've really cared to go back and rewatch, let alone rewatch countless times. Most of the shows I find rewatchable have been comedies or cartoons, such as the Simpsons (early days), Futurama, South Park, Venture Bros, Archer.

But TP has just been something way different for me. Its in its own category above everything else.
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