Is it me or is there something special about Twin Peaks?

[Joe Washington]

I'm been watching episodes of Twin Peaks from the beginning and I'm hooked. The opening credits with its soothing music. The characters and their hidden layers that are exposed one by one with each passing episode. The sense of community in Twin Peaks and the feeling that it can be an actual place you would like to visit. Agent Cooper who's unlike any FBI agent character I've seen on TV. I love it all.

 

[Piper]

It's not just you. Twin Peaks is extraordinary, one of the finest TV shows ever made.

At least, it is until, ohhh, the end of Season 2's ninth episode (the 17th in all.) You might want to stop watching at that point...

 

[sidious618]

It's fantastic. It has a down point in the second half of season two but the last four episodes really pick up the plot again and lead to one of the best episodes of television I've ever seen.

 

[Mallet]

I agree with all that has been said above.

I would love, love, love, for David Lynch to take one last trip in to the Twin Peaks world before he fully retires, although he might have already. He doesn't seem to be very rushed to work on another film anytime soon. He seems pretty happy teaching meditation, doing wood work and painting. He just turned 64 a couple of days ago but seems in great health and still very energetic (must be all that meditation) so hopefully he will start writing and directing again soon.

 

[CmdrAJD]

I agree with all that has been said above.

I would love, love, love, for David Lynch to take one last trip in to the Twin Peaks world before he fully retires, although he might have already. He doesn't seem to be very rushed to work on another film anytime soon. He seems pretty happy teaching meditation, doing wood work and painting. He just turned 64 a couple of days ago but seems in great health and still very energetic (must be all that meditation) so hopefully he will start writing and directing again soon.

I absolutely agree. I know it's probably been way too long to finish the story, but there's so much that could be done. Or at the very least give him a chance to put together the massive extended edition of Fire Walk With Me that's been rumored for years now.

 

[TheGodBen]

I'll join the chorus and say that it is an excellent series up until episode 17 and if they had the sense to end it there it would have been one of the best miniseries of all time. Unfortunately they kept it going and the show lost its way with plots that were in no way as interesting as the original murder story. That being said, the finale is fantastic, it makes absolutely no sense.

Bob is the creepiest villain I've ever seen, and the scene revealing the truth about Bob is one of the best TV scenes of all time.

 

[23skidoo]

I'm been watching episodes of Twin Peaks from the beginning and I'm hooked. The opening credits with its soothing music. The characters and their hidden layers that are exposed one by one with each passing episode. The sense of community in Twin Peaks and the feeling that it can be an actual place you would like to visit. Agent Cooper who's unlike any FBI agent character I've seen on TV. I love it all.

No, it's not just you. Back in 1990-91 Twin Peaks was huge, both in terms of fandom and in terms of the general public. It was the Lost of its day. Or the Heroes of its day might be a better comparison because, like Heroes, it just could not be sustained. Problem was when the second season came along, the network had pretty much forced its influence on the show and Lynch had to do things he didn't want to do (this according to the Gold Box DVD release, anyway). The show remained atmospheric and cool till the end, and there were some fantastic moments. And the ending was eerie. But the ending was also, for its time, the equivalent of, say, the Sopranos' cut to black or The Prisoner's Fall Out. And to this day some fans treat it the same way some Trekkies treat These Are the Voyages.

Lynch later tried to do a prequel movie, Fire Walk with Me, but it was a trainwreck. See if only if you must.

But that first season of Twin Peaks was as close to perfection as network TV got in the 1990s.

Alex

 

[Kirkman1987]

Twin Peaks is one of my favorite series, I have a poster of it on my wall.

I think the series is perfection up until mid season two, when it falls off a cliff. The characters are some of the best ever on television, and the series has a feeling unlike anything else. I agree with what was said earlier, it feels like a real place that you could visit.

It does pick up in the last few episodes, and the final episode or two is as good as the early ones. I like the prequel film, but it doesn't feel like the series, I only suggest it to people who like other Lynch projects.

 

[nevermore]

It's not just you. Twin Peaks is extraordinary, one of the finest TV shows ever made.

At least, it is until, ohhh, the end of Season 2's ninth episode (the 17th in all.) You might want to stop watching at that point...

This. I find the second half of S2 to be virtually unwatchable. In fact, I've only re-watched it once when i first got the DVDs; every other time I sit down to watch the series I just lose the will to go on after the Palmer plot is resolved. Blech.

Bob is the creepiest villain I've ever seen, and the scene revealing the truth about Bob is one of the best TV scenes of all time.

Yah, that first reveal of Bob still freaks me the eff out.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

OMG YES! The first season was off the wall incredible! The second season had it's ups and downs, but generally it was excellent. Once complaint that i have with the show was that they seemed forced to tie up some loose ends, and those were poorly done. I didn't even necessarily want every loose end tied up! I loved Twin Peaks!

 

[sidious618]

This. I find the second half of S2 to be virtually unwatchable. In fact, I've only re-watched it once when i first got the DVDs; every other time I sit down to watch the series I just lose the will to go on after the Palmer plot is resolved. Blech.

You don't go and watch the finale?!

 

[Pingfah]

^ I have just started rewatching it. I can't even remember whodunnit it was so long ago I watched it, although it may come back to me as I watch it.

But David Lynch seemed to think the finale was strong enough to come back and direct it.

 

[trevanian]

If you can get the script for the finale/seasonender, you can see Lynch completely changed/subverted Frost's material.

Just one more contradiction in the multilayered cake of TP, but I love it anyway. Along with THE PRISONER, probably my most rewatched TV series outside of TOS.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I want David Lynch to just flat-out do a science fiction TV series.

 

[Mallet]

I want David Lynch to just flat-out do a science fiction TV series.

I don't know if he's really a flat-out sci-fi guy. His "Dune" wasn't very well regarded and I don't think the he was even a big fan of it.

I feel he's definitely more of a "fantasy/mystical" guy. I think he likes the more unusual stuff and the more of stuff where the laws of physics and reality arn't fixed but more fluid. Like with Twin Peaks, Mulholand Drive, Inland Empire, Wild at Heart, etc...

That said if you can ever track down his script for "One saliva bubble" you can see his take on a semi-sci-fi film (never made of course) that follws what happens in a town that has a secret governemtn supercomputer thing in it and how it gets all screwed up when one small bubble causes a computer malfunction that leads to big trouble.

Or his other sci-fi script (also unmade) call "Robbie Rocket Pants" (or something like that) set in a futuristic blade runner/noir type city and the title character (Robbie Rocket Pants) is a robot. Or maybe he's a human that thinks he's a robot. or something. It's been years since I read it. But I remember thinking it would be a good film.

 

[trevanian]

I want David Lynch to just flat-out do a science fiction TV series.

I don't know if he's really a flat-out sci-fi guy. His "Dune" wasn't very well regarded and I don't think the he was even a big fan of it.

I feel he's definitely more of a "fantasy/mystical" guy. I think he likes the more unusual stuff and the more of stuff where the laws of physics and reality arn't fixed but more fluid. Like with Twin Peaks, Mulholand Drive, Inland Empire, Wild at Heart, etc...

That said if you can ever track down his script for "One saliva bubble" you can see his take on a semi-sci-fi film (never made of course) that follws what happens in a town that has a secret governemtn supercomputer thing in it and how it gets all screwed up when one small bubble causes a computer malfunction that leads to big trouble.

Or his other sci-fi script (also unmade) call "Robbie Rocket Pants" (or something like that) set in a futuristic blade runner/noir type city and the title character (Robbie Rocket Pants) is a robot. Or maybe he's a human that thinks he's a robot. or something. It's been years since I read it. But I remember thinking it would be a good film.

Ronnie Rocket. Pretty sure the Little Man From Another Place (Mike Anderson, the carny master from CARNIVALE) was going to play the part.

 

[Kirkman1987]

He still talks about ronnie rocket every so often, it's still on his mind.

Back to Twin Peaks, there was talk last year that Mark Frost and Kyle MacLachlan wanted to create a Cooper TV series, or at least some web content. Kyle mentioned it in an interview once, but there has been no further word. they were likely just dreaming, with no real intent of doing it.

I wouldn't mind seeing Lynch do a straight detective film, the opening scenes of FWWM show he could pull off that type of thing. Chester Desmond was great, really cool.

my last thought is that i''m suprised that lynch hasn't worked with Ray Wise since then.

 

[DevilEyes]

Twin Peaks is one of my favorite series, I have a poster of it on my wall.

I think the series is perfection up until mid season two, when it falls off a cliff. The characters are some of the best ever on television, and the series has a feeling unlike anything else. I agree with what was said earlier, it feels like a real place that you could visit.

It does pick up in the last few episodes, and the final episode or two is as good as the early ones. I like the prequel film, but it doesn't feel like the series, I only suggest it to people who like other Lynch projects.

I pretty much agree with this assessment of the series. I really loved it at the time and I still consider the episodes in which Laura's killer is revealed to the audience and the episode 17 which concludes the murder story to be some of the most amazing TV dramatic moments ever. But the show went down after that so terribly that I found it unbearable to watch, so I quit. When I watched it again, I felt the same. I only saw the last few episodes a couple of years ago, having heard so many people talk about the ending and claiming that the story does pick up near the end, with Lynch returning to the show - and this is true. I don't think the ending is anything like the ending of The Sopranos - that one was vague and low-key, while the TP ending felt like a cliffhanger, despite the show having been cancelled.

I enjoyed the prequel film, but the only problem I had was that it felt like two different films which were tied together very loosely. Both parts felt very Lynchian, but the first part, dealing with a couple of agents played by Chris Isaak and Kiefer Sutherland, is slow, uneventful and open-ended, and a bit dull. The second part, which shows Laura's last days, is very intense and IMO much better. Sheryl Lee does justice to the character of Laura (I was concerned what it would be like seeing Laura on screen, having loved the character on the show despite the fact that she never actually appeared except in short flashbacks and recordings), and Ray Wise is great. Some might not like the fact that the actress for Donna was changed due to Lara Flynn Boyle refusing to appear (Moira Kelly played her instead), but I had no problems with it. One thing that the film improves on from the show is the portrayal of James and his relationship with Laura - he is not as lame and annoying as he was on the show.

 

[the Dagman]

I also loved Twin Peaks. I had them all recorded when they first aired on old VHS and went back to transfer them to digital files a few years ago. It was even more weird what with all the old commercials during the breaks (like a BK one featuring a pre-famous Cuba Gooding Jr. with parachute pants and a parrot set to early commercialized rap music!).

The thing about Twin Peaks is that it was already set up to revisit the series. When we see the famous Laura Palmer dream sequence inside the Black Lodge, that was set 25 years later. That is only five years away now! It's a perfect chance to pick up the story again and play with what happened at the cliffhanger ending. Plus, Heather Graham (who got her start on this show) is still as hot as ever.

Also, if there never was Twin Peaks there never would have been the X-Files. As X-Files pulled a lot of the moodiness from Peaks and of course David Duchovny also came to fame playing the transvestite Agent Dennis/Denise there as well.

 

[trevanian]

AICN has a story that supposedly Lynch pitched a TP continuation to NBC recently. It's just crazy enough to be true, but I thought Lynch had given up on narrative filmmaking (then again, there are probably folks who think TP doesn't count as narrative filmmaking ... )

I'm apprehensive but excited. Especially if Frost was going to be involved, because Lynch needed that yin yang on TP, if not his other work. But it's probably all b.s.