Rialto wrote:With the demise of Chantal and Hutch, I'm left wondering - has Lynch been waiting since 1994 to let us know he's not that keen on Tarantino?
Honestly, what was the point of these two except to carry out acts of pointless violence, bitch about fast food, then get dispatched in an over the top shower of bullets as a result of a banal road rage altercation, unconnected to the main plot (such as it is).
This really is Lynch's Love Actually - a rag bag of incomplete ideas stitched together under a nominally unifying banner.
This. It's among the things that annoyed me the most. That guy who pop out of nowhere and kill two competent (for once) professional killers was a really lame move. Again I was under the impression that was Lynch doing Lynch. In fact what I like in a work is when the author disappear behind his story, just being a voice who tell a tale. And with the Return since the beginning Lynch, well it's like a text popped up on my screen every five minutes reminding me "You're watching a Lynch show" "Hey, did I told you you're beholding a Lynch show?" "This is a Lynch production you're beholding there!" Also too much emphasis on Gordon Cole. And to think they told Cooper would be at the center of the story. Now that sound like a cruel and unfair joke. Because honestly how long was Cooper on screen? The real one, not that ridiculous and tired Zombie joke. And Mr.C? And how long for Gordon and Albert? I'd really like to know, even a simple estimation.
I know, the Return isn't solely Lynch, Frost was there too, but still, for me that new season was an excuse for Lynch to create a sort of testament, a melting-pot of everything Lynch so much that it become a cliché. It was as if Lynch paid homage to himself, nodding to himself with a knowing wink.
This is what happen when you give too much creative freedom to someone like Lynch. For the majority it's pure genius and never seen before television. For me it's just disappointment and tired Lynch tropes.
boske wrote:When TP aired originally I was 18. I remember watching that very last scene with maniacal/giddy Cooper as Frost and Lynch names appeared on the screen. And I said to myself "can this really be it?" It was such a loss at the end of that dark, tragic, and yet beautiful and magical journey, to imagine that this iconic character would be resigned to such a fate without any possibility of redemption.
Does it matter? Sure it does, why not? Hundreds of years have passed and Shakespeare's plays still resonate, the same so with Dante's or Goethe's work, for example.
I always felt that Lynch sincerely liked this world that he and Frost have created, and that if it were up to him, and if the right moment and inspiration came along, he'd revisit it and give this world and its characters some closure, some peace and justice. So I never gave hope, just like the people who set up and ran this site. I was on this board in early 2000s (did not register until much later), when the show was as dead as a door knob. Why? So that I can be called a "hater" 15 years later? Some people feel like this thread is a like a zoo with some exotic animals. What I see are genuine fans of the show (not to take anything from people who like the Return), whose issues with the Return strike a chord with me. I understand them, I get what it is that bothers them, it bothers me too.
Anyway, in the intertwining years, I was still rewatching the originals occasionally, and the accompanying music was always (and still is) nearby (in the air) whenever I feel like listening to it. Soundtracks and both Julee Cruise's albums are still in my collection and on my phone and will remain there. Last autumn as I was travelling late at night, I played the entire TP Archive, that is about 7 hours of music. Yes, and some of that was while driving through forests, that was quite an experience.
And then: "Dear Twitter friends, that gum that you like is coming back in style". And here we are right now. That gum did not come back in style, there was no style whatsoever, and the gum was nowhere to be seen either.
The past pages of this thread give the reason why this Return for me is such a missed opportunity. This is once in a lifetime chance, and they blew it. Yes, it may receive some critical acclaim, and yes, most of the people will love it. But this is a pale shadow (no pun intended) of what it may have been. Would Return create a fan base that would wait another 25 years for it to continue if it were possible? Honestly?
We should have gotten a compelling story with real and compassionate characters. Around here nobody is watching it anymore. Years ago all my friends were, nowadays it is hard to find anybody who does. We did get some news articles when the Return was just about to air and that was it, nothing since then. Complete silence. Even HBO Europe is not advertising it anymore, has not been for at least a month if not more.
There can be no excuses for what they have done with Dougie, how that was played and executed. The same with these myriad characters. What was the goal here? What was their aim? What were they trying to achieve? The past pages also go into the feel, mood, atmosphere, heart. There is barely any.
So yes, at this point I do not care. Yes, I know, Coop is back. But it is like a story of a boy who courts a girl and week after week she gives him some excuses. One after another. Soon enough he feels the she may be playing him for sports and even suspects she tells her friends how dumb he really is. And then he goes cold, that's it. Whatever interest there was is now no more, it is not coming back. She may finally say yes to him, but that train has left the station and is not coming back. Yes, this may sounds cheesy or silly, but there are limits in teasing your audience. If your main goal is to tease them week after week and give that what they want in the eleventh hour or later, maybe it is better to have not given it to them at all. Otherwise it feels like you are having some pity for having humiliated them for so long.
I'll try to approach the last two hours as a standalone feature, maybe there will be just that one positive thing about it all. And then the curtain falls on it. As I said earlier, I should have read a book or two instead of watching this. For people who like the show, I hope you gets season 4, I'm not watching though.
I just want to thanks you because it's what I feel exactly. You put it better than I would ever been able to. It was like watching a cruel parody of what was once a beautiful story. It's like watching a kid who don't like a toy anymore and just destroy it with a hammer. It was a beautiful and precious toy, and now it's just reduced to broken pieces scattered on the ground.