Twin Peaks: Classic or Dud?

The actor who played BOB (Frank Silva) died not long after Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me came out, so no danger of spotting him on the street. The scene where he crawls over the coach to Maddy's horror is terrifying.

I'll try and chase the second season.

Classic. Classic. Classic.

the seldom seen Hayward sisters Harriet (twee and so hilarious - 2 scenes) and her piano playing sister Gersten (awesome boogie woogie retainer speech affect - sadly one scene).

Another continuity error that sticks in my craw was how in the last episode, Norma and Ed repair to her home to look after Nadine (thwacked by a sandbag during the Miss Twin Peaks contest), but make no mention of Norma's sister Annie who has been kidnapped by Wyndam Earle. My guess is that David Lynch (who wrote/directed the final episode) was not too fond of the plot contrivance that was Annie and just acted as though she were marginal to the story.

I haven't even watched this series for years, but such was my devotion to it that I remember such minutae even now. Embarrassing, isn't it?

Twin Peaks: mostly Classic. Faltered a lot in the middle, and then got canned just as things were really picking up at the end. Lynch had pretty much left the other writers to do as they please, if I remember right, only to come in and ditch their plans for the last episode, leaving us with ... well, that.

I spent a month in college doing nothing but watching David Lynch stuff, for a paper. I can never watch Eraserhead again.

It's hard to believe this was ever a network television show, I can't imagine any of the networks airing something like this now (I think the failure of Mulholland Drive as a series confirms this).

I always felt like Lynch just ran out of ideas or something.

We own the DVDs for the first episodes - they're great and the "extras" aren't bad, either. Purchased the vidoes from Amazon - quality so horrid that toward the end we could not hear the dialogue. But the creepy music came through.

I liked that I kept being thrown for a loop with the plot lines. I hate it when things are predicatable. (And, well, I thought that the sheriff was a hottie - but I found Audrey more enticing. Never understood how Cooper restrained from kidnapping her and showing her the error of her ways, or something equally as entertaining.)

my other theory is that lynch, with TP, had an almost perverse understanding of what makes teenage girls with a certain disposition tick. as a dude, i can be a fan of course, but all the sinister, hidden shit going on with mom, dad, boyfriends, sisters, etc., ... everything is not okay! anyway, these theories are, like, quarter-baked, obviously.

i like the show. it's weird!

I always thought that was part of the point. You have to remember this came on toward the end of the primetime soap era (Dallas-Dynasty-Falcon Crest). I remember an interview where Lynch, typically deadpan, said he didn't see why people thought it was weird, it looked just like a regular TV show to him. A lot of people took that as a put-on, but I think he was just acknowledging how weird "normal" TV shows really are.

Here's the latest DVD news from www.lynchnet.com

"It's almost the end of 2004 and the big question everyone is asking is, what's up with Season Two of Twin Peaks on dvd? Well, here's the latest. Our sources within Paramount say it's almost a sure thing that you'll see Season Two, as well as a re-release of Season One with the Pilot included, released by Paramount as soon as the rights revert back to them around September 2005. The current rights holder, Lion's Gate (formally Artisan) has no plans to further exploit Twin Peaks or any of it's Spelling Entertainment titles due to the short time frame they have before the rights are lost. So it's all up to Paramount now. Our sources also tell us that part of the reason for the delay of Season Two in other international regions is to have one big release worldwide around the same time in every country, US included. So for you folks overseas, you're also being affected by the rights issue here in the US. The other, though somewhat lesser reason for the delay is to allow more time to work on bonus features. But Paramount is committed to TV on dvd in a big way, and is eager to exploit all the Spelling holdings once they get the rights back, Twin Peaks and Beverly Hills 90210 being the first two they are planning on releasing. Keep in mind that none of this constitutes an official announcment, so these plans are always subject to change. But it looks like there's a good chance we'll finally get to see Season Two on dvd in 2005."

That being said: one of the best shows on American TV ever, period. We will never see anything this weird and idiosyncratic on network TV ever again. The fact that it got made and broadcast at all is a minor miracle.

Lynch did more than just direct the final episode, he basically totally rewrote it on the fly, from what I understand

Streaming on Mubi starting on 6/13

My local cinema is showing the first season 2 eps per screening over 4 weekends, so last week I got to see the pilot and “episode 1” on a massive screen in a packed theatre which was a hell of a thing. Audience skewed young, big laughs at the funny bits. That (poss apocryphal) story came up recently of Paul Newman attending a screening of the pilot & saying it was one of the few perfect films he had ever seen; obv I love it even on my little telly but seeing it in the cinema it’s even clearer what was getting ppl excited at those screenings. It’s a fucking masterpiece!
The music on those big speakers (Angelo’s, but also like the wind through the trees, the electrical hum of medical instruments)

That whole opening act of the town learning of Laura’s death, when it’s not yet a murder mystery — everyone seems guilty because they are — the palmer house already a nightmare (who’s upstairs?)

The sequence at the high school always stands out, obv you’ve got two of the greatest ever uncredited extras (dancing locker boy and running screaming girl) but also the unspoken breaking of the news in the classroom, Bobby's interrogation, the principals announcement (something interesting in how this is almost the first time anyone actually spells out what had happened and to whom, previously it’s either unspoken or incomplete (“she’s dead”) and by the end of the ep we have Audrey’s parodic announcement to the Norwegians)

Madchen and Dana even more smoking on the big screen

Even pouty lackwit James Hurley v effective this time round (i like him more than most anyway but still)

Maybe it was the crowd or just that I haven’t watched it in a while but I was surprised at how much I was charmed all over again by cooper, maclachlan is such a force & after the intensity of the first act having him just charge into the text in his car is a perfect disruption (& subverted so well in the first & last eps of s3)

Also this is my 1st time watching since s3 aired & inevitably a lot of things are hitting different: grace zabriskie’s whole (amazing) performance but particularly the animal noises she makes just before being sedated; ronette crossing the bridge, one of the scariest & spookiest shots in the series, & her trembling limbs called to mind American Girl’s juddery “when you get there, you will already be there”; Audrey is “here”; phones are already Very Weird; the twin peaks jail is a kind of hell

ep 1 was also great in the cinema btw despite being more in tv mode, I am hoping that they will show the other 2 seasons

My very slow rewatch has reminded me that this thing totally wouldn't work without Kyle.

Cooper may have been conceived with MacLachlan in mind from the start, which would make sense.

FWIW, I'm not sure if I ever knew this, but apparently Isabella Rossellini was originally cast as Giovanna Packard, who became Chinese when Rossellini dropped out and Joan Chen was cast in her place.

Streaming on Mubi starting on 6/13

― Lithium Just Madison (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 31 May 2025 bookmarkflaglink

Lol

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mubi-presents-twin-peaks-diner-experience-tickets-1387422300449

For anybody who’d like Twin Peaks-meets-Nancy Drew comics, I’d recommend the Hobton Mystery Stories by Kris Bertin / Alexander Forbes, set in a small Nova Scotian town in 1996.

Cooper may have been conceived with MacLachlan in mind from the start, which would make sense.

at least until he actually casts himself.

Picturehouse cinemas here in the UK are running day marathons of the first season at the end of July: https://www.picturehouses.com/movie-details/000/HO00016478/twin-peaks-season-one-all-dayer?filter=

Yikes.

The prince charles in London is showing all 3 seasons, in parts but also as 3 marathons. The season 2 screening is 1210 minutes!