I just started watching 'Twin Peaks' and I'm hooked.

I just finished up the pilot about a half hour ago, and I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Before I started watching it, I heard it was a show about slightly quirky characters and a murder investigation. I got that and so much more. What really stands out to me is the locations, Washington almost feels like a character itself, and Kyle MacLachlan is slowly turning into one of my favorite actors.

I can't wait to see what happens in the show. And since I'm sure Twin Peaks fans will stop by this thread, I'm curious if the movie is worth viewing after I finish the series? I am aware that it's a prequel. But that's about all I know about it.

 

For a lot of people there is a dip partway through the 2nd season, but I'd suggest you ride it out all the way to the end (I have, at least 11 times thus far.) Miguel Ferrer's character is just sensational.

The movie does have a little dangle in midfilm about something taking place slightly AFTER the end of the series, but the connecting material that causes it to make sense was cut (Lynch cut tons of scripted & filmed stuff from the film, and I guess none of it is ever going back in.)

The movie is really pure Lynch, as opposed to Lynch/Frost like the series, and while I find the movie very powerful and impressive in its own way, it doesn't feel like TP at all.

If you get really into it, you should look up WRAPPED IN PLASTIC, a long-time fan mag about TP. They had some amazingly detailed essays and interviews in it.

 

I should really watch this, I watched the original run on tv and it creeped me the hell out. But I'm totally desensitized now so I doubt this would be a problem.

 

I just finished episode 2. Still interesting, I really like the log lady, though I knew about her before hand (thank you Mad magazine).

When does it start getting more "out there" and weird. I recall Simpsons making fun of a TP dream sequence on the show, and I can't wait to see that. I'm assuming it's from a dream Agent Cooper has.

 

It's just right around the corner ...

 

I really enjoyed the first season but found most of the second season to be a disappointment. Still, as trevanian suggests, I still think you should ride it out to the end.

 

Yep, indeed I was

Just finished episode 3 and 4. If I didn't have work in the morning I'd probably do a straight run through of the first season.

I did notice something that I thought was too on the nose to be a coincidence. And considering it's Lynch, I'm sure it was on purpose:

Ray Wise is watching a soap opera, and they make it a point to show that the same actress plays two different characters. Well seconds later his niece walks in...who is also played by the same actress who plays Laura.

 

I'm a huge Twin Peaks fanatic. The movie is the best part of the entire franchise, but you have to leave it until the end as it's about the murder of Laura Palmer so will spoil the entire whodunnit.

 

SLIGHTLY quirky?

 

Fair enough

I just finished off Season 1, not too difficult as it's only 8 episodes long.

A little curious though, I had figured the Laura Palmer mystery would have been wrapped up. Not sure why I thought that.

 

Well when the show does wrap up the murder mystery, they tried to keep going and nothing they added to the show kept any viewer interest, so that was pretty much that. A national sensation one year, gone the next.

SNL had a funny sketch with Kyle MacLachlan where one character comes right out and admits he kills Laura Palmer and shows Agent Cooper the pictures he took of killing her. But Cooper was all, "If I say your name to this rock and throw it at a window and it breaks, it means you're innocent."

 

That is one show I am grateful to have seen unspoiled in the original run. There had never been anything remotely like it on TV before, and people did had no idea what to make of it. A lot of people couldn't hang with it, but for those who did it was great fun to swap reactions, speculation or WTF moments. I was in college at the time, and it was probably the funnest "water cooler show" experience I've ever had. And for me, Agent Cooper's cliffhanger definitely overshadowed that of "Locutus of Borg" the same summer.

Being familiar with British television, I argued with friends at the time that it should have been a limited-run series all along, and I still think that. The churn-them-out-indefinitely US network model was not something that show could have adapted to very well.

It's still a great show, I watch it every few years. But I have to imagine its impact is not as great now as it was in a world before The X-Files, "Buffy," The Sopranos, Lost etc.

 

I was in college at the time as well. I ended up leaving an RPG group I was in because they started playing while the show was on. I went to the TV room to watch it, only to find when I got back that they had killed my character.

In none of those water-cooler ( actually dining hall in my case ) discussions that I was privy to did anyone accurately predict the identity of the killer, probably because they hadn't read The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, which kind of telegraphed it.

 

"This is a Formica table.... green is it's colour!"

After you finish the series, check out "Fire Walk With Me". The prequel movie. A lot of people didn't like it, I loved it.

 

About four episodes into season 2 now.

I think one of the things that keeps pulling me into this show everytime has to be the musical score. It sounds a step above most television music.

 

Love Twin Peaks. It's actually my favorite show after TOS. You are actually in what I consider the strongest period in the show, from the season 2 opener to the end of the Palmer story is excellent television.

Everyone is right about the rough patch. Stick with it though. The last episode is one of the best in the series, and the preceding couple aren't that bad either. There is a run of maybe 7-9 episodes that are VERY weak, especially the first time you see them and don't know what to expect. I like some bits here and there in those episodes (mostly little comic things) but it is tough to get through at times.

I like the movie, but it is full Lynch and much darker than the series. It's missing a lot of the humor and most of the cast. I do think it's important to the larger story though, and if you really like the show it's worth a watch. For those who have seen it, I especially like the opening prologue and the ending.

 

Season 2 opener has that bit in the hospital where Big Ed recounts the day he shot Nadine's eye out ... The way Ferrer's character is struggling against losing it, tearing up, is one of the funniest things I've ever seen on television. I practically start laughing again just typing this.

Between that and his 'moment' with Truman, Ferrer's Albert is probably my favorite character of that whole era.

One adjunct to the series that has not been brought up yet is the MY LIFE MY TAPES book, which is excerpts from Cooper's tape recordings, dating back to his youth. You DO NOT want to read this before you get through the whole series, but man, there is a LOT of food for thought about the nature of evil and how it manifests in man.

Funny as hell a times, too, especially the drawings Cooper makes of himself after being up for 48 hrs straight.

I have probably read this little book more than a dozen times, much more fun that the ultra-serious meta-textual ones that came years later.

 

I might have had everything end a la Dante's Peak, it all being set in the Cascades. Mammoth Mountain has its own unusual traits
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs172-96/

 

Well I finally wrapped up the Laura Palmer storyline...or at least discovered who killed her. For all I know there are still a few episodes dealing with that aftermath.

I'm also interested to hear that this was the shows biggest strength and also it's downfall. Seems people tuned out once it was revealed who killer her? As if that was what all the show was about.

Anyways, as I said uphtread, I intend to finish out the series, there are still a lot of interesting plot-lines running, and I'm hoping some of those get resolution as well. Plus I love seeing Lynch show up as Cooper's superior, and know he returns some more.

 

I think the movie is the best thing about Twin Peaks. It's what that world is like without the pressure of dumb network executives seeking to appease advertisers. Genuinely out there stuff.

The weakest period is after the case is solved, up until the Windom Earle plotline gets going properly.