NP: Latest Twin Peaks

[John Bailey]

Season one is only 8 episodes of 47 minutes each, so binge it. Season
two is a bloated 22 episodes, and from episode 10-19 don't really have
anything to do with the Lynchian universe of the original. They're
straight 80s soap opera - think Bold and the Beautiful in both style
and substance. The last few episodes brings things back to the
Lynch-realm.
Fire Walk With Me is worth revisiting - it's much, much closer to the
Return than I remembered.
And there's so much in the original I completely missed that makes
sense of the new series - the absolutely pivotal role of electricity
Lynch's work, as well as fire and wind in TP, the meanings of the
colours red and blue, all the doubling of character names, the meta-
significance of curtains and television sets...
But yeah, the new series still works fantastically as a standalone thing.

On Thu, Jun 29, 2017 at 3:12 PM, Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com> wrote:
> What I mean in that first paragraph is that what little bits of context do
> help you access/enjoy the episode in question, I can explain.
>
> On Thu, Jun 29, 2017 at 12:10 AM, Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> First as in before watching this episode everyone's recommending? Hard to
>> say. For me, many of the reasons this episode is great are not really
>> dependent on being able to contextualize it against the rest of the show,
>> and I can explain them briefly if you'd like.
>>
>> But if you're up for it, I say yes--season one because it's good and
>> unique enough to compel and reward watching, season two because season one
>> will be so good that even the show's fans telling you season two isn't worth
>> it won't be enough to convince you. And because it'll be easy enough to give
>> the time required to sketch in your sense of the universe before you watch
>> the return.
>>
>> Season one of Twin Peaks is so good: fun and creative and fascinating and
>> endearing all the way through, punctuated by the odd moment of really
>> transcendent filmmaking. The strictures of television('s assumption of its
>> own audiences' demands that it adhere to) realism actually have an
>> interesting effect on Lynch in the first season.
>>
>> Season two is mostly forgettable save for the two episodes Lynch directed
>> (first and last I think).
>>
>> The Return (which you might call season three) has been terrific thus far,
>> much weirder and more serious across the board than the first season, though
>> some of the beauty of the first season is definitely lost. The characters
>> and settings and plot lines you might come to love. Even the existence of a
>> show that can/will give you those kinds of pleasures is basically gone,
>> replaced by something that works within the known universe of that first
>> show and embellishes certain things about it, extends a few core plot lines,
>> but is a totally different tonal inhabitation of that universe, done with a
>> much freer (more Lynchian) style.
>>
>> Both seasons one and three are, at almost all moments, unlike most
>> anything else you'll see in terms of mood and personality, I think.
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 28, 2017 at 10:58 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> OK, I admit I didn't watch most of the first Twin Peaks show.  Should I
>>> binge on that first?
>>>
>>> David Morris
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jun 28, 2017 at 10:20 PM jesse gooch <jlguuch at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Couldn’t agree more about episode 8. Have watched it a few times since
>>>> Sunday and I keep being impressed.
>>>> I had to look up “jumping the shark,” good observation.
>>>>
>>>> http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JumpingTheShark
>>>>
>>>> > On Jun 28, 2017, at 6:54 PM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> > I haven't seen the last four as I'm waiting for enough new ones to be
>>>> > released that I can watch them all in one hit, but a critic I know
>>>> > described the latest episode as the polar opposite of jumping the
>>>> > shark. I can't imagine what that might mean but can't wait to find
>>>> > out.
>>>> > Having just finished watching all of the old Twin Peaks (including the
>>>> > feature-length "Missing Pieces" of scenes dropped from Fire Walk With
>>>> > Me) I can confirm that season 2 is one of the great tragedies of
>>>> > contemporary television. Lynch must have been meditating 23 hours a
>>>> > day to come to peace with some of the awful subplots forced onto the
>>>> > show.
>>>> >
>>>> > On Thu, Jun 29, 2017 at 5:47 AM, Johnny Marr <marrja at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> >> I'm not sure how much it depends on the context of the third Twin
>>>> >> Peaks
>>>> >> season, but I'd definitely agree that episode eight is one of the
>>>> >> most
>>>> >> extraordinary things ever broadcast for television
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >> On Wednesday, June 28, 2017, Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> >>>
>>>> >>> If you haven't been watching the return of Twin Peaks, I'd recommend
>>>> >>> checking out the most recent episode (the eighth of the series).
>>>> >>> Lynch is
>>>> >>> usually to my taste and I'm a fan, so I'm not a great critic, but
>>>> >>> this
>>>> >>> episode is some of the most compelling video art of any kind that I
>>>> >>> can
>>>> >>> remember seeing.
>>>> >>>
>>>> >>> Lots of Kubrickian ancestry (which I'm always curious about with
>>>> >>> Lynch) in
>>>> >>> the middle to sensually astonish. Bookended by Lynch at his weird
>>>> >>> expressionist best, beginning and end both fucking horrifying.
>>>> >>>
>>>> >>> Plus it functions fairly well as a standalone piece of expressionist
>>>> >>> film,
>>>> >>> not being too overtly connected to the story lines thus far.
>>>> >>>
>>>> >>> I knew a lot of people--TP fans--who were skeptical about the show's
>>>> >>> return. It seemed wrong, to me, to worry that--especially at this
>>>> >>> point in
>>>> >>> his career--Lynch would attach himself to this project in particular
>>>> >>> if he
>>>> >>> didn't feel genuinely inspired.
>>>> > -
>>>> > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>>>
>>>> -
>>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>>
>>
>
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