Favourite/least favourite things in Twin Peaks

[MysteryMan]

Not seen a thread for this in the forum, so thought I'd create one... What are your favourite things in Twin Peaks? Your favourite scene? Your favourite episode? Your favourite song? Your favourite character? etc...

Here are some of my favourites....

Favourite character: Madeleine Ferguson
Least favourite character: Jerry Horne

Favourite episode: The Pilot, closely followed by episode 16
Least favourite episode: torn between episodes 19, 20 and 22

Favourite actor: Ray Wise
Least favourite actor: David Patrick Kelly

Favourite actress: Sheryl Lee
Least favourite actress: Annette McCarthy (Evelyn Marsh)

Favourite Julee Cruise song: The Nightingale
Least favourite Julee Cruise song: None, absolutely love all her TP songs!!

Favourite instrumental song: Laura Palmer's Theme
Least favourite instrumental song: Night Life In Twin Peaks

Favourite scenes in Twin Peaks:

FWWM: The Twin Peaks - One Year Later scene introducing us to Laura Palmer
Pilot: Torn between the discovery and identification of Laura's body on the beach and the roadhouse scene/Donna and James' rendezvoius in the woods.
1: Shelly's discovery of Leo's bloody shirt
2: Cooper's dream
3: Laura's funeral
4: Maddy meeting James at the diner
5: Cooper, Truman, Hawk, Doc Hayward talk with the Log Lady & discovery of Jacques' cabin
6: Audrey tying a cherry stem into a knot in Blackie's office at One-Eyed Jack's
7: Nadine's suicide
8: The Haywards' and Palmers' dinner party
9. James, Donna and Maddy singing in the Hayward living room
10: Torn between Donna at Laura's grave and Leland comforting Maddy
11: Donna and Maddy at the diner
12: Donna telling Harold about she and Laura meeting up with the three older boys
13: Maddy saying goodbye to James
14: Shelly telling Norma she has to quit her job
15: Audrey and Cooper talking in his hotel room
16: Leland's confession and realisation of what he's done in his prison cell
17: Sarah's talk with Doc Hayward and Cooper preparing for the funeral
18: Torn between the scene with Ben Horne's slideshow and Catherine ordering Josie to work for her
19: Betty's talk with Bobby as Major Briggs return
20: The discovery of the unknown body placed at the sheriff's station
21: Leo stumbling into Windom's cabin in the woods
22: Evelyn telling the police about James
23: Torn between Shelly, Donna and Audrey's meet up at the roadhouse and Josie's death scene
24: Truman's memories of his times with Josie
25: Cooper in love telling the penguin joke to Annie
26: Cooper and Annie's picnic in the boat
27: Cooper and Annie's dance followed by the Giant's warning
28: The Miss Twin Peaks Contest scene
29: Naturally the long red room scene

Least favourite scenes: Most of the scenes involving the Evelyn Marsh, the Little Nick and the Ben Horne's civil war storylines.

Favourite book: The Secret Diary Of Laura Palmer
Least favourite book: None really, as I can't get enough of the show!!

Favourite director: David Lynch...of course!
Least favourite director: the director of episode 19 (the name escapes me). The scene with Andy imagining Little Nick as the devil in a thought bubble was way too silly and not worthy for a quality show like Twin Peaks.

[Teopeaks]

Great thread.

The director directing the episode with Little Nicky (ep.12, season 2) was Caleb Deschanel.

My favourite director is Lynch too.
Least Favourite: Tin Rathborne (ep. 4 season 1) (ep. 10. season 2).

[Evenreven]

Favourite director: David Lynch, followed by Todd Holland and Duwayne Dunham.
Least favourite: Tim Hunter

Favourite minor character: Judge Sternwood
Least favourite: Lana (and by a country mile, I might add)

Randomly chosen favourite moments:
-Leland confessing the murder of Jacques - one of the most intense things I've ever seen.
-Audrey praying
-finding Jacques' cabin with the chip. Scary stuff.
-Waldo saying "Laura" and "Leo, no!" after having been shot.
-Carl Rodd saying "I just want to stay where I am"
-"I am as blank as a fart" (at Partyland)
-the mayor saying "Something isn't right. There's something wrong here."
-the swaying traffic light at the end of the pilot
-a weird one: Andrew and Pete laughing, prompting Katherine to say "you two bring out the worst in each other". It speaks volumes.
-The World Spins at the Roadhouse in episode 14. I especially like the mystical connection between the spirit world and Bobby Briggs. Why is he suddenly sad? They should have explored that direction of his character more.
-"It's your move" - the mask of Caroline in Cooper's room.
-plus almost the entire pilot and all of FWWM, hehehe.

[Audrey Horne]

e-

Bobby being affected at the roadhouse was done on the spot -Dana Ashbrook was just hanging around on the set and wasn't on the callsheet, and Lynch put him in the scene.

I don't have least favorites or favorites. I think the first season is so tight -I only cringe at some of the extras wearing their stonewashed jeans and bad haircuts -that it pulls it from the timelessness. Also, I wished they had only used the date of the month and never said what year it was. Instead of Cooper saying Teresa Banks "1989" or Leo in jail "1988," I would have switched it to Teresa Banks was found last year, or Leo was in jail two years ago. Just to add to the timelessness of the series as a whole.

Lynch is great, but he's also directing the EVENT episodes, so I like to look at the regular episodes. Glater and Deschanel are really, really good at it. I thought the best episode of the second season for a non major event was the sixth episode directed by Glater.

[Brad D]

my favorite characters:

hawk. he seemed to always have a feel for what was going on or chime in at the right moment. i love when he tells cooper "you are on the path. you dont have to know where it leads. just follow." a great contrast to andy.

major briggs. i thought don davis was brilliant whenever he was on screen. casted perfectly imo. i think if the show had gone into season 3 he would have become a much more pivotal character, maybe even assisting in rescuing coop from the black lodge.

albert. i started a thread, so you know i'm a big fanboy for him. his lines are classic and he was always a welcome and unannounced appearance.

bob. i love how the mysticism surrounded this character. you never knew enough about him, and even if he didnt appear on the show physicially, i felt he was constantly looming over the show and ready to drop in and raise hell. i sort of wished the middle of season 2 had been more focused on coop hunting him down. would have made for much better TV than evelyn, little nikki, etc.

[Evenreven]

e-

Bobby being affected at the roadhouse was done on the spot -Dana Ashbrook was just hanging around on the set and wasn't on the callsheet, and Lynch put him in the scene.

Nice! I didn't know that. But I always felt that touch made a lot of sense after the father to son conversation from episode 8. There's something about the Briggs family. I was less surprised by that than the fact that Donna seems to know something.

[The Magician]

Oh! This is going to be fun!

Favorite Characters:
Albert Rosenfield (Solid character, lovable, hysterical, one of Coop's friends. Despite his callus and humorous outside, I found him a pretty deep character and the evolution of his relationship with Truman was a favorite of mine to watch unfold. Plus, Ferrer just has a great face for film, so subtle, but so powerful.)

Maddy Ferguson (The biggest crush I have in the world, she was an innocence sucked into a not so innocent world, and she paid the price for it. Smart, funny, and adorable to no end, I love Maddy!!!)

Leo Johnson (His character goes through so many interesting changes, from being an evil hate-able presence, to being a comical presence, to being truly terrifying, then to being pitiful, even ending the series with you praying he will survive and go save Shelly!)

Dale Cooper
Bobby Briggs
Windom Earle
Mike Nelson (Both dark and comical sides.)
post breakdown Ben Horne (His Civil War aside was one of my favorites, and his transformation to the good side made me love him so.)


Least Favorite Characters:
Let me preface this by saying that I LOVE to dislike these characters, and by no means do I think the show is weakened by their presence or performances. Remember, I think this is a flawless show...

pre-breakdown Nadine (blech), although I adore her post-breakdown
The Log Lady (double blech)
Hank Jennings (ugh)


Favorite episode:
So tough... each one is so worthwhile and essential and unique. I love them all for different reasons. I guess the only way I can answer this is by saying the last 6 episodes. After Josie's death I feel that the show just builds up more and more to an amazing and exciting ending, and I just love how those last episodes feel.


Least Favorite episode:
Episode 8
The only episode that stood out to me to be a little off was this one. Some moments made me cringe, and a few people seemed out of character... There was a lot I LOVED about it, but it's the only one that stood out to me as not being on par with the rest...


Favorite Moments:
Episode 2: My favorite moment is the scene with Coop showing "the gang" his Tibetan rock throwing method. This scene is so perfectly timed and paced, and it was after watching this that I knew this was the most "unique" show I had ever seen.

Episode 9: When major Briggs shows Cooper the message "from space" saying The Owls Are Not What They Seem. It was after watching this scene that I knew I was "hooked".

Episode 21: When Leo Johnson stumbles into Windom Earle's cabin (who we had been hearing about for so long). Reeling from my happiness that Leo was back, I got to meet one of my new favorite characters. This scene made me realize that Twin Peaks was my favorite show of all time.

Episode 28: The entire Miss Twin Peaks contest, specifically after Bobby notices the two Log Ladies. The way this scene was done, especially after the hype in the episodes leading up to it, made me realize wholeheartedly, especially knowing there was only one episode left, that I could say that Twin Peaks is the greatest television series ever made, and I will always believe that.

[The Magician]

Thought I'd bump this back up to the top. I think this is a fun thread.

[TheArm]

Favourite character:
Laura Palmer. Such a complex, dynamic, layered, fascinating character, all the more so because she's a corpse. But her spectre loomed so large over everything and her presence could always be felt haunting the background of every scene. She really was the embodiment of the light and the darkness that the show is all about. But Cooper and Leland I love too, and Albert, who always got the best lines.

Least favourite character:
Richard Tremayne/Little Nicky/Lana. Ick, ick, and ick. I just don't know what they were thinking.

Favourite episode:
The pilot, if just because I have such strong memories of seeing it for the very first time and it quite literally rocking my world. By the time it was over, I knew that I was in love with a TV show.

Least favourite episode:
Episode 17. I don't hate any of the episodes, but this one always makes me a little sad. After the Laura Palmer murder was wrapped up, I really wanted the TP team to blow me away with something crazy and new. And...not so much. But while I was happy to hang in there because I had faith in the creative team, most of the rest of America did not, evidently.

Favourite instrumental song:
"Twin Peaks Theme"; again, kinda like what I was saying with the pilot, I remember seeing it the first time I ever watched the show. The music was so gorgeous and ethereal, and even more so when matched with those sepia-toned shots of the Pacific Northwestern scenery. I knew I was watching something really special, and this really set the perfect tone to lull you into Lynch's dreamworld. When I watch TP with my friends they always want to fast-forward through the theme and it drives me nuts!!

Favourite scene:
The end of Episode 14, everything from the Log Lady's appearance at the Sheriff's office ("there are owls in the Roadhouse") to the very end where Cooper's face dissolves into the curtains to "The World Spins." The horrific, disturbing violence of Maddy's death juxtapositioned with the grief that subsequently descends on the patrons at the Roadhouse is so emotionally affecting and so powerful to me on so many levels. It's everything that's great about TP. We'll never see anything like that again ever anywhere else.

Least favourite scene:
The pine weasel event at the Great Northern. There are lots of moments in TP that I'm amazed made it onto prime-time network TV, and this scene is one of them...but more in a "did no one watch this before it went on the air?" kinda way.

Favourite book:
"The Secret Diary Of Laura Palmer." I sure learned a lot about life from this book as a teen, LOL. I made sure my mother never saw it, that's for sure!

Favourite director:
David Lynch; I mean, could it be anyone else?

Least favourite director:
There's no one I'd single out as a least favorite, but I've always felt like Tim Hunter let the side down a little with Episode 16. I think he tried his best, but he didn't have the chops. I loved it when I first saw it, but I don't find that it holds up as well as the others. Would love to have seen what Lynch could've done with that.

[Ross]

This is a fun thread, I'll give it a whirl...

Favorite Character(s): Cooper (of course), Truman, Annie
Least Favorite Character: Nadine

Favorite Actor: Ray Wise
Least Favorite Actor: None really

Favorite Actress: Sheryl Lee
Least Favorite Actress: Wendy Robie

Hottest Guy: Michael Ontkean. Easily.
Most Beautiful Woman: In TP, that's pretty hard! Heather Graham, Sherilyn Fenn (Although NOT in the pilot), and of all the ladies, Mädchen Amick has aged the best. No question about that.

Favorite Episode: I have to say the Pilot. Its amazing how much they introduce and set up here. Everything in this episode is here for a reason. And the characters, however briefly they appear, are all set up perfectly.
Other than the Pilot, I used to say episode 16, which I still love, but I think Episodes 8, 14, & 29 (Lynch's episodes) are the standouts.
Least Favorite Episode: Episode 19. Probably the weakest episode of the series. Its not awful or anything, but as far as storylines go, its pretty slim. Works better as part of the whole, rather than by itself.

Favorite Song: "Theme From FWWM". Amazing
Least Favorite Song: "A Real Indication". I may be alone- but I hate that "song".

Favorite Scenes:
The Pilot: Mrs. Palmer on the phone first realizing that Laura is dead. She screams and screams and screams. One of the most memorable and emotional scenes of the entire series.

Episode 8: Ronnette's dream. Scariest scene ever.

Episode 14: The whole ending, from the killing to Cooper's red curtain fade-out, is the highlight of the series. Bob/Leland kills Maddy: Has there ever been anything on TV that has even come close to being this powerful or disturbing? I still can't believe a scene this brutal and intense made it past the censors and onto network TV. Then comes the emotional release at the Roadhouse, and the combination of these two scenes is as powerful as it gets. The thing that still amazes me is that after all the buildup, the payoff manages to surpass expectations- and that's really saying a lot.

Most scenes with Cooper & Annie in the last six episodes, but especially:
Episode 25: Cooper tells Annie the penguin joke at the RR. Just one of the best, feel-good scenes in the whole series.

Character(s) I wish we'd seen more of: Mrs. Palmer, Harold Smith
Character(s) I wish we'd seen less of: Nadine, Lana

Most Underrated Character: Annie
Most Underrated Director: Diane Keaton
Most Underrated Episode: Episode 8: One of the most important and interesting episodes in the entire run. Essentially a "reinvention".

Favorite Quote:
"I can see half my life's history in your face... And I'm not sure that I want to." -Annie
A line that manages to be truly beautiful, and yet utterly tragic at the same time. Which is, after all, what Twin Peaks is all about; that juxtaposition of beauty & tragedy.
Least Favorite Quote:
"I can't understand a word you're saying, you have a thing in your mouth" -Catherine
I mean REALLY!! Makes Catherine seem like such a total idiot!!

[Audrey Horne]

Least Favorite Quote:
"I can't understand a word you're saying, you have a thing in your mouth"-Catherine
I mean REALLY!! Makes Catherine seem like such a total idiot!!

Ross, that's one of my favorite quotes ever! I love that scene between Shelly and Catherine so much. I love that Madchen never makes Shelly too bright too -and that is answers Catherine like a scared student who forgot to do her homework, "Shelly Johnson."

"Do you know who called me here?"
"No, I don't know anything..."
"Be quiet. I'm thinking."

I love Piper Laurie so much.

I think my personal favorite episodes are actually five and six (maybe because they were shown as one episode when they were rerun before the second season- and I was taping them and rewatching like crazy) -but mostly because they're Audrey and Catherine's best episodes. I like the pacing, the tone, the colors, the mood everything about those two episodes so much. I think the writing is outstanding.

[Ross]

Least Favorite Quote:
"I can't understand a word you're saying, you have a thing in your mouth"-Catherine
I mean REALLY!! Makes Catherine seem like such a total idiot!!

Ross, that's one of my favorite quotes ever! I love that scene between Shelly and Catherine so much. I love that Madchen never makes Shelly too bright too -and that is answers Catherine like a scared student who forgot to do her homework, "Shelly Johnson."

"Do you know who called me here?"
"No, I don't know anything..."
"Be quiet. I'm thinking."

I love Piper Laurie so much.

Don't get me wrong. I love Piper/Catherine too. That's why I find that line so cringe-worthy. Catherine isn't an idiot- why make her sound like one?

[Audrey Horne]

see, I cringe at all of Annie's lines, but I laughed out loud so hard with "thing in your mouth." It was just typical Catherine, no time for games or idol chit-chat. I think it's one of the best moments in the whole series.

I think my favorite line though is -

"You know there's a real bad accident outside. It sounded like a bus or something."

[Ross]

see, I cringe at all of Annie's lines, but I laughed out loud so hard with "thing in your mouth." It was just typical Catherine, no time for games or idol chit-chat. I think it's one of the best moments in the whole series.

I think my favorite line though is -

"You know there's a real bad accident outside. It sounded like a bus or something."

I just felt it made her sound really stupid. And even on first viewing it stuck out like a sore-thumb. I remember back after it first aired (and TP was still quite popular), some djs on the radio were talking about the episode, and making fun of that line. They played it, and when you heard just the audio- with Shelly's whimpering, it suddenly sounded SO sexual, like a clip from a porno. Which was quite funny- I have to wonder if the writers (I guess Frost) were making a veiled (or not quite-so) sexual innuendo here.

[TheArm]

I also like Cooper and Annie's scenes for the most part, but I have to say that 2nd to the pine weasel scene in terms of my Least Favorite Scenes is Cooper's "Your forest is green and peaceful," or whatever he says. Yeah, real smooth, Coop...