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[Cunth]

Let's look back at the greatest TV show troll of all time. I was just thinking about it today - but I haven't rewatched cause that would be painful as fuck.
This season was sooooo bad it's unbelievable looking back. It was like a collection of skits Lynch had kept in a scrapbook patched together into a show, with the beloved main character mentally retarded for 90% of it. I remember watching it each week and people online would be like 'today must be the day when Cooper comes back!' and they kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and then finally he's back, in like the second last episode! But then his nemesis is killed by some side character with a glove and he goes into some dream world in the last episode and I don't understand anything that happened. Lynch was given so much freedom, and then it bombed big time. People at the time were all like 'this is brilliant! best season ever!' as they lied through their teeth. But be honest now, did you actually like this season?

 

[Nymphae]

I did really enjoy watching it weekly, and while I don't think it was as good as it could have been, I do think it was successful. There are some very questionable decisions made by Lynch to be sure, but man, that's Lynch. I think the visuals and music were great, imo the whole ordeal was worth it to get that last track Dark Space Low (ok maybe not but I love that track)
I do think he held the audience by the balls a bit too long before bringing Cooper back, and then his return to TP wasn't as satisfying as it could have been, but yeah, I had fun with it.

 

[Airola]

Poll is missing "all of the above" choice.

I've been a major Twin Peaks fan since 1991 when I first saw the series. Season 3, some if it I loved and some of it disappointed me big time.

The first two episodes were horrible. I liked some of the ideas in the Red Room and the fact that a lot of those episodes had stuff happening there, but I was really disappointed in the look of the Red Room. The rooms were way too big and for some reason the curtains at times looked like a special effect even though they weren't. The rooms didn't have the same feel of a bit claustrophobic closeness the first two seasons and FWWM had. It didn't feel we are inside those rooms. It felt we were watching a stage play.

And then in those first two episodes when we were out of that place and in the normal world it felt really cheap.

I loved episode 3 though. I had no issue with senile Cooper and in fact when he came back to normal in Episode 16(?) that was disappointing and I would've rather continued to watch Dougie doing his thing. "I am the FBI!" - what a corny moment that was...

Audrey's scenes were really terrible except the cliffhanger moment that became one of my favorite cliffhangers ever.

Dr. Jacoby's show's joke was ok when we saw it the first time, but when it was shown two more times almost exactly the same as before it really became old.

With all the criticism I honestly have to say it has stayed in my head for the past couple of years really hard. I think I've thought about the season at least once in a week after it ended. I thought about it just a couple of days ago. And I've enjoyed thinking about it!

 

[F0rneus]

I did think, and still do think it was absolutely brilliant. They essentially let Lynch, be maximum Lynch with no limits. That's what you get, when you give David Lynch of all people, full freedom. Was it what I expected? No. But as a work, from a director I admire and whose style I adore, it could be his magnum opus.

 

[Noboru Wataya]

Love the first two series of twin peaks, warts and all. Only watched half of season 3 and fell off. I’ll probably give it another go as I wasn’t in the right mindset when it first came out. Own it on Blu Ray so no big excuse not to jump in again.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

I loved it from start to finish. Episode 3 was my favorite, starting off like Eraserhead, ending up Mr Magoo Goes to Vegas. When the smoke started pouring out the electrical socket and I realized what was happening I got so excited and happy.

He ended season 2 on the craziest possible cliffhanger and IMO they pulled off the impossible w this series. I love the ending so much, how it gives you the resolution you want, the FBI agent finally bringing home Laura, but it’s all wrong. Really underlines that trauma can’t be erased. Thematically I felt it was a very respectful send off to Laura’s character.

Dougie forever

 

[JCK75]

It was enjoyable but so much is wrong with it as far as ruining characters and building up so much for a lot of nothing.

 

[Rien]

Amazing season. Episode 8 was perfection to me

 

[jonnyp]

Let's look back at the greatest TV show troll of all time. I was just thinking about it today - but I haven't rewatched cause that would be painful as fuck.
This season was sooooo bad it's unbelievable looking back. It was like a collection of skits Lynch had kept in a scrapbook patched together into a show, with the beloved main character mentally retarded for 90% of it. I remember watching it each week and people online would be like 'today must be the day when Cooper comes back!' and they kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and then finally he's back, in like the second last episode! But then his nemesis is killed by some side character with a glove and he goes into some dream world in the last episode and I don't understand anything that happened. Lynch was given so much freedom, and then it bombed big time. People at the time were all like 'this is brilliant! best season ever!' as they lied through their teeth. But be honest now, did you actually like this season?

Yeah, huge letdown it was.

 

[Kreen101]

I thought it was great!

 

[Master Of Illusion]

The greatest season of television ever made.

 

[SirKicksalot]

 

[Jeeves]

Some amazing moments along with a couple of episodes that were real stinkers. Personally I felt the good outweighed the bad, but...yeah, the bad did dilute the good a bit.

Anyway, one of my favorite moments in TV history was when they capped off an episode with James Hurley's 'You and Me' song. I cackled for like ten minutes straight.

Also the arm wrestle.

 

[TindalosPup]

Okay so this video is nearly five hours long, but it goes into great detail about the whole thing. I suggest watching it if you can, it explains all of the weird shit

Spoiler: In case you're not feeling 5 hours: Spoilers for the video

The whole show was Lynch trying to make a point about violence in television, but the fans literally killed it in season two demanding the murderer be found and caught (the plan was to never find out who killed Laura Palmer, hence why Lynch left during that season). As a result of fan demand, again, the third season happened and it was highly mixed in reception because it's literally a reanimated corpse of a TV show. Season 3 is Lynch calling us rotten and giving us what we deserve. There's a lot more explaining leading to this in the video, though, so you should still watch it

This video gave me a whole new understanding of David Lynch

 

[Cunth]

Okay so this video is nearly five hours long, but it goes into great detail about the whole thing. I suggest watching it if you can, it explains all of the weird shit

Spoiler: In case you're not feeling 5 hours: Spoilers for the video

The whole show was Lynch trying to make a point about violence in television, but the fans literally killed it in season two demanding the murderer be found and caught (the plan was to never find out who killed Laura Palmer, hence why Lynch left during that season). As a result of fan demand, again, the third season happened and it was highly mixed in reception because it's literally a reanimated corpse of a TV show. Season 3 is Lynch calling us rotten and giving us what we deserve. There's a lot more explaining leading to this in the video, though, so you should still watch it

This video gave me a whole new understanding of David Lynch

Or that’s just some YouTube guys wild imagination

 

[TindalosPup]

Or that’s just some YouTube guys wild imagination

It very well could be. I just liked how he looked at every single detail he could and connected them all together, it's like a literary thesis, so it's all technically theory. Just thought I'd share it cause it all made sense to me and improved my opinion of season 3

I'm wondering to admit it could be entirely wrong, Lynch has one of them wild imaginations, too

 

[Scotty W]

I loved it. Scary Cooper was downright intimidating, and I laughed out loud at Dougie’s antics too.

 

[Nymphae]

Okay so this video is nearly five hours long, but it goes into great detail about the whole thing. I suggest watching it if you can, it explains all of the weird shit

Love really deep dives like this. The dude looks really punchable but I'm really digging what he's laying out so far and the editing is pretty good.

 

[Rien]

Okay so this video is nearly five hours long, but it goes into great detail about the whole thing. I suggest watching it if you can, it explains all of the weird shit

Spoiler: In case you're not feeling 5 hours: Spoilers for the video

The whole show was Lynch trying to make a point about violence in television, but the fans literally killed it in season two demanding the murderer be found and caught (the plan was to never find out who killed Laura Palmer, hence why Lynch left during that season). As a result of fan demand, again, the third season happened and it was highly mixed in reception because it's literally a reanimated corpse of a TV show. Season 3 is Lynch calling us rotten and giving us what we deserve. There's a lot more explaining leading to this in the video, though, so you should still watch it

This video gave me a whole new understanding of David Lynch

I have watched this earlier this week. Some stuff sounded out there but I really liked this view on the series.

 

[DKehoe]

Okay so this video is nearly five hours long, but it goes into great detail about the whole thing. I suggest watching it if you can, it explains all of the weird shit

Spoiler: In case you're not feeling 5 hours: Spoilers for the video

The whole show was Lynch trying to make a point about violence in television, but the fans literally killed it in season two demanding the murderer be found and caught (the plan was to never find out who killed Laura Palmer, hence why Lynch left during that season). As a result of fan demand, again, the third season happened and it was highly mixed in reception because it's literally a reanimated corpse of a TV show. Season 3 is Lynch calling us rotten and giving us what we deserve. There's a lot more explaining leading to this in the video, though, so you should still watch it

This video gave me a whole new understanding of David Lynch

I’ll need to give this a watch some time. Although five hours is a long time haha. But I was thinking about Twin Peaks just recently and getting a deep dive might be fun.

It sounds like their take on The Return is somewhat similar to mine

Spoiler

That The Return is a condemnation of nostalgia. It’s Lynch saying “you wanted more? Look at what that would actually mean” The best example
of that is bringing Laura back to her house at the end. It’s sort of the set up for the ultimate fan service. But really, bringing Laura back to an environment she suffered abuse at is a horrible thing to do, hence the scream. There’s also Cooper asking “what year is this?” as a sudden moment of clarity asking “wait, what the fuck are we doing still being here?”

 

[TindalosPup]

I’ll need to give this a watch some time. Although five hours is a long time haha. But I was thinking about Twin Peaks just recently and getting a deep dive might be fun.

It sounds like their take on The Return is somewhat similar to mine

Spoiler

That The Return is a condemnation of nostalgia. It’s Lynch saying “you wanted more? Look at what that would actually mean” The best example
of that is bringing Laura back to her house at the end. It’s sort of the set up for the ultimate fan service. But really, bringing Laura back to an environment she suffered abuse at is a horrible thing to do, hence the scream. There’s also Cooper asking “what year is this?” as a sudden moment of clarity asking “wait, what the fuck are we doing still being here?”

I watched the whole thing in one go, but it would probably be best to break it down, it's a large chunk of day to lose, plus the guy's voice and face aren't exactly soothing

What you gathered on your own there is actually a branch of the explanation he goes into, but there's still a lot of other things going on

 

[Nymphae]

I watched the whole thing in one go, but it would probably be best to break it down, it's a large chunk of day to lose, plus the guy's voice and face aren't exactly soothing

What you gathered on your own there is actually a branch of the explanation he goes into, but there's still a lot of other things going on

That video was amazing and I think that guy legitimately cracked Lynch's code. It explains pretty much every single last weird detail of the show perfectly, I love the interpretation. There were a few very minor things I felt were like a bit of a stretch, but maybe not even, like the white of the eyes part, he still explains even that fairly well I think. It all fits together soooo well. For example the Audrey Horne stuff makes complete sense under this guys framework, I had never heard a compelling theory for that anywhere else. This guy fucking nailed it.

 

[Nymphae]

 

[TindalosPup]

That video was amazing and I think that guy legitimately cracked Lynch's code. It explains pretty much every single last weird detail of the show perfectly, I love the interpretation. There were a few very minor things I felt were like a bit of a stretch, but maybe not even, like the white of the eyes part, he still explains even that fairly well I think. It all fits together soooo well. For example the Audrey Horne stuff makes complete sense under this guys framework, I had never heard a compelling theory for that anywhere else. This guy fucking nailed it.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, I think he nailed it too

He blew my mind the whole time with how connected and symbolic everything was, and once I finished it I started watching Twin Peaks from the beginning again armed with new understanding

 

[Nymphae]

I'm glad you enjoyed it, I think he nailed it too

He blew my mind the whole time with how connected and symbolic everything was, and once I finished it I started watching Twin Peaks from the beginning again armed with new understanding

I finally understand why Lynch doesn't like to explain his work and Twin Peaks in particular, it's far more than just that he likes people to come up with their own interpretations, though he does. The analyst here really does a great job of laying out the entire history of things and getting at the creative intentions with quotes from Lynch, and showing it all with clips from everything. Absolutely brilliant stuff. Here's a follow up video he did addressing some criticisms:

 

[TindalosPup]

I finally understand why Lynch doesn't like to explain his work and Twin Peaks in particular, it's far more than just that he likes people to come up with their own interpretations, though he does. The analyst here really does a great job of laying out the entire history of things and getting at the creative intentions with quotes from Lynch, and showing it all with clips from everything. Absolutely brilliant stuff. Here's a follow up video he did addressing some criticisms:

I didn't even catch this, thanks for pointing it out, I'm gonna have to watch this

 

[Airola]

That video was amazing and I think that guy legitimately cracked Lynch's code. It explains pretty much every single last weird detail of the show perfectly, I love the interpretation. There were a few very minor things I felt were like a bit of a stretch, but maybe not even, like the white of the eyes part, he still explains even that fairly well I think. It all fits together soooo well. For example the Audrey Horne stuff makes complete sense under this guys framework, I had never heard a compelling theory for that anywhere else. This guy fucking nailed it.

I loved watching his videos about Twin Peaks, but I can't get myself to agree with him that the show is about criticism of violence in television or criticism of television at all. i think that some things are shown the way they are because of Lynch disliking certain things in television and wanting to do it the way it should be done in his opinion. But that doesn't mean they exist because of tv criticism. It's more that he wants to tell a thing, and he wants to tell a thing in a way he feels is right instead of the wrong way things have been told, but the point isn't in the way he wants to tell the thing but the point is in the thing itself.

However, I agree with the show being really a tv show and the characters not being aware of it. The Lodge stuff exists somewhere between that tv show world and the world of the viewers and uses television technology to enter the world we watch on tv.

I really should watch those videos again, but I'm not sure if I want to Originally when I watched the first video I had to watch it in 3-4 parts and I regret I didn't take any notes whenever I saw something I didn't agree with and knew why it didn't make sense. It would be quite a struggle to go through the whole thing again - although it does help that he made the videos easy and fun to watch and listen.

I think the "tv criticism" part of it is on the level of "you have to watch these two episodes of Season 3 at the same time to understand it" - sure, a lot of that looked plausible on the surface and someone really dedicated on looking at it from that angle surely could find a lot of "evidence" to prove the theory right, but seemingly connected things doesn't yet make it right.

But really, the "it's a tv show where the characters don't realize they're on a tv show" angle is really interesting and felt more proven than the "tv criticism" theory where quite a bit came from assuming motivations and assuming content that's made in a certain style means the meaning behind the content is directly connected to the motivation. His evidence point more into that "tv show characters in a tv show" theory than in the "tv criticism" theory.

 

[Airola]

I mean, Lynch might've made Bob to kill the way he does and be the way he is because he doesn't like the way violence is portrayed on television, but that doesn't mean the reason for Bob's existence and the point of him in the show is based on the same thing. One can make a thing to appear in a certain way and style because of a certain motivation, but the real point of the thing that has been made to look certain way can be something completely different.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

Yeah I’ll have to check into this theory some day next week when I have a spare chunk of hours.

Lynch’s work is great because it really is open for interpretation. Having said that I don’t think any one interpretation is “the right one” but I do love exploring them. It’s something you don’t get so much in other movies or tv shows and I appreciate that.

 

[Nymphae]

Here's a different follow up he did, I should have posted this one first

 

[Rien]

Lol..

I figured Mulholland Drive (my fav movie of all time) and Lost Highway on my own but Eraserhead, Inland Empire and Twin Peaks were too complex for me to figure out.

The 4,5 hour explanation is to on point for me to dismiss. I think this guy got it figured out. Everything falls into place with his theory.
And it only cements the genius of David Lynch.
This guy has a style of his own and there is nothing like it.
I went to see his art exhibition last year and it really gave a deep dive in his brain.
Very interesting and also a bit disturbing. My gf at that time didnt really knew what to do with it Hahah.

 

[jdforge]

Have always been a massive Twin Peaks fan, however Season 3 was utter shite.

 

[Nymphae]

That follow up video I posted has some doozies in it too.

His theory/analysis of Senorita Dido from Season 3 made me a true believer. Watch that and tell me how he did not absolutely nail that, point me to any other similarly plausible theory for her and the Giant and that whole movie theatre scene. This guy's theory makes that scene make complete sense. Like the explanatory power of this theory is unreal, I'm downloading these before Lynch has them taken off of the internet for ruining his work lol.

 

[Airola]

That follow up video I posted has some doozies in it too.

His theory/analysis of Senorita Dido from Season 3 made me a true believer. Watch that and tell me how he did not absolutely nail that, point me to any other similarly plausible theory for her and the Giant and that whole movie theatre scene. This guy's theory makes that scene make complete sense. Like the explanatory power of this theory is unreal, I'm downloading these before Lynch has them taken off of the internet for ruining his work lol.

He's right about them being the vessels to bring ideas to the world of Twin Peaks.
But I still think they have nothing to do with the tv criticism angle.

It feels like that guy has been able to figure out a huge thing in what Twin Peaks is and how the weirder things are connected to it and how important the medium in itself is to it. Whatever we use to witness the world of Twin Peaks, it physically is connected to the living ideas that inhabit that world - tv, movie screen, books. Hell, even The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer written by Jennifer Lynch makes WAY more sense when you look at it from that angle! But instead of leaving it at that he has started to look at the reasons for why those ideas exist and when he found a plausible reason he started to force that reason to take part of the symbolism.

That's really my only gripe with his videos. The rest of it is spot-on, I think.

Part of why I feel like this is because I have a distaste for making a show where one of the biggest purpose and reasons for their characters and symbolism is to somehow show how shallow things others do and what we (Lynch and Frost) do is not shallow. To make these characters to be this sort of "I'm better than you" critical symbolism is in my opinion very shallow way to use symbolism in any art form. It's nothing more than self-advertisement, and I think both Lynch and Frost have no interest in taking part of that as part of their stories and messaging.

So that's what partly makes me push back that idea, but the other part is how I felt his explanations, whenever taking that angle, were in the hypothetical side of the analysis. The evidence for the medium physically being part of the whole thing was much more concrete, and the evidence for the creators' intention to show criticism towards other shows and viewing habits came more into the "stretching the evidence" side of things filled with assumptions of intent.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

does he talk about the golden egg? i always thought that was from Lynch's own interviews on Twin Peaks. he had discussed this idea for years.

"Who killed Laura Palmer was a question that we did not ever really want to answer," he said. "And that Laura Palmer mystery was the goose that laid these little golden eggs. And then at a certain point, we were told we needed to wrap that up and it never really got going again after that."

to me the whole episode 8 bit literalized this metaphor, with Laura being a golden egg. she was the spark that created so many mysteries, and Twin Peaks was originally dedicated to that mystery. Laura was the nuclear center, with all these mysteries swirling around her. it could spin off and be about so many things. when the network ordered the mystery solved, they effectively signed the show's death warrant. it needed mystery to live.

episode 8 was really a mind blower for me. but i think of it as "the nuclear core of Twin Peaks". maybe he was trying to distill what it means to him, boil everything down to the base elements; retro 50s stuff, a diner, a gas station, teenage love, weirdo murderous pod people, etc. it was like a glimpse into a Twin Peaks episode from an alternate reality, where Laura is a gift from some benevolent Gods, sadly looking down on planet Earth, who has just opened the door to a new level of horror with the invention of the nuclear bomb. it's mythic, it's legendary, it's a thrilling episode of tv. i really think it's one of the best thing he has ever done.

but still, it is romanticizing, it is glorifying, it is making a martyr of Laura. i think there is always this dimension to her story that bothered Lynch, her exploitation, this rape/murder victim, her horrific circumstance turned into entertainment (the kind now nightly on shows like Law and Order: SVU), or some kind of martyrdom for the sins of humanity. some think he leaned a bit too much that way in Fire Walk With Me. turning her into a martyr for all mankind removes her humanity. to me that final episode, stark and shockingly stripped of "weirdness", baking in the harsh reality of the mundane world, confronting the impossibility of EVER repairing such trauma. Cooper, this symbol of total optimism, now imbued with Godlike time travel powers, he can stop her murder, he has to try, it is his reason for being there.

but the memory of that trauma can never be erased, it is the only thing that has real permanence. Laura's trauma, rather than be romanticized, it given back to her, and the entire universe is centered on her personal, unknowable, experience. names and faces and bodies can change, the year can change, Cooper can follow the power lines, trying like an interdimensional FBI agent to solve the unsolvable murder, but nothing can erase what happened. all the insanity and ghosts and madness and yet, we end the series with the full admission that Laura's suffering is no one's but her own. her scream cuts things off in a was that leaves you shook. then that silent still of her whispering to Dale over the end credits, quizzically telling him something, like the sphinx. there will always be secrets. there will always be mystery.

 

[pel1300]

It was way too much Lynchian paced weirdness for me.

Would have been far better had they done it like season 1 where they had multiple directors with Lynch directing a few key eps like the pilot and finale.

Felt like the whole season was one long tease. Like give us old Dale Cooper back already. No, we only have him back in full glory for like.... 15 minutes in the end.

 

[pel1300]

Let's look back at the greatest TV show troll of all time. I was just thinking about it today - but I haven't rewatched cause that would be painful as fuck.
This season was sooooo bad it's unbelievable looking back. It was like a collection of skits Lynch had kept in a scrapbook patched together into a show, with the beloved main character mentally retarded for 90% of it. I remember watching it each week and people online would be like 'today must be the day when Cooper comes back!' and they kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and then finally he's back, in like the second last episode! But then his nemesis is killed by some side character with a glove and he goes into some dream world in the last episode and I don't understand anything that happened. Lynch was given so much freedom, and then it bombed big time. People at the time were all like 'this is brilliant! best season ever!' as they lied through their teeth. But be honest now, did you actually like this season?

Pretty much. I remember the folks at ERA gushing over every ep for how profound, edgy, Lynchian, and artsy it was.

The way they handled Dale Cooper was just awful. 2017 gave us the highly anticipated return of Luke Skywalker and Dale Cooper. Both actors aged well (especially Dale) and we get to see both act like their former selves for only a brief final scene or two.

Dale's return was far superior to Jake Skywalker though. I'll give it that. .

Bob/Dale was cool though.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

nah, Cooper was properly set up. did you watch all of season 2? he ends it by going into the Black Lodge. while in there, his doppledanger is running around, and escape to the real world. they go into this fact further in the Fire Walk With Me movie.

so he has spent 25 years in the Black Lodge. this would fuck with anyone's head, living with a backwards talking dwarf, or a Eraserhead-style electric tree with a lung on top of it. to me, it was true and honest to what had come before. Dale Cooper had lived with some serious shit. what's more, his evil doppledanger was on the outside fucking things up in the real world for 25 years. so Lynch takes both Dales seriously, and he takes the impact of the Black Lodge seriously. to me, season 3 was a wonderful extension of the brilliant finale from season 2.

the problem with Luke Skywalker was, there was nothing we had seen to explain any of it. there is the famous mirror cracking scene that ends the series, presenting a fucking up Dale Cooper. it set the tone. the end of Return of the Jedi is a happy, contented, peaceful Luke. Rian Johnson arbitrarily altered that and made up a backstory about Luke going evil (or not, i suppose there are 3 versions of that one scene, v sloppy storytelling imo) which occured in a movie we never saw, then made an arc where he becomes good again. the last we saw of Luke, he was smiling, holding arms with his friends, it was an image of pure love. that old Luke never returned. with the death of Carrie Fisher, the dream of that reunion was finalized, Rian rubbing salt in the wound, because he loves to troll, i guess. u all saw how much people talked about it on Twitter, right? this is what Rian cares about.

David Lynch is not a troll. he was taking his former creation seriously and continuing it from where it had left off. Rian Johnson was egotistically trying to make a statement while making a film on a low budget. David Lynch turned his mystical coming home slash nightmarish crime story into an 18 hour long slow burn exploration of that strange universe inside and out across space and time. Rian Johnson just shot Mark Hamill being a jerk on an Irish island and a bit on a green screen. the two are very different. with Luke, we get our former Luke replaced with a grumpy nihilist. with Dougie, we have Cooper's beatific sainthood, with Mr. C, we have the sort of Frank Booth evil base human form of Cale Cooper. it is almost like Superman vs. Bizarro Superman. Star Wars could only be so lucky to have something a fraction this cool or artfully written.

 

[Roufianos]

It was good but not nearly as enjoyable as the first two seasons and I say that without the nostalgia glasses as I watched them all back to back for the first time last year.

It just took to long for Coop to be himself and he was always the best character. The Dougie Jones stuff went on way too long.

Best thing about Twin Peaks overall though will always be that the villain is a demon named Bob.

 

[Airola]

does he talk about the golden egg? i always thought that was from Lynch's own interviews on Twin Peaks. he had discussed this idea for years.

to me the whole episode 8 bit literalized this metaphor, with Laura being a golden egg. she was the spark that created so many mysteries, and Twin Peaks was originally dedicated to that mystery. Laura was the nuclear center, with all these mysteries swirling around her. it could spin off and be about so many things. when the network ordered the mystery solved, they effectively signed the show's death warrant. it needed mystery to live.

episode 8 was really a mind blower for me. but i think of it as "the nuclear core of Twin Peaks". maybe he was trying to distill what it means to him, boil everything down to the base elements; retro 50s stuff, a diner, a gas station, teenage love, weirdo murderous pod people, etc. it was like a glimpse into a Twin Peaks episode from an alternate reality, where Laura is a gift from some benevolent Gods, sadly looking down on planet Earth, who has just opened the door to a new level of horror with the invention of the nuclear bomb. it's mythic, it's legendary, it's a thrilling episode of tv. i really think it's one of the best thing he has ever done.

but still, it is romanticizing, it is glorifying, it is making a martyr of Laura. i think there is always this dimension to her story that bothered Lynch, her exploitation, this rape/murder victim, her horrific circumstance turned into entertainment (the kind now nightly on shows like Law and Order: SVU), or some kind of martyrdom for the sins of humanity. some think he leaned a bit too much that way in Fire Walk With Me. turning her into a martyr for all mankind removes her humanity. to me that final episode, stark and shockingly stripped of "weirdness", baking in the harsh reality of the mundane world, confronting the impossibility of EVER repairing such trauma. Cooper, this symbol of total optimism, now imbued with Godlike time travel powers, he can stop her murder, he has to try, it is his reason for being there.

but the memory of that trauma can never be erased, it is the only thing that has real permanence. Laura's trauma, rather than be romanticized, it given back to her, and the entire universe is centered on her personal, unknowable, experience. names and faces and bodies can change, the year can change, Cooper can follow the power lines, trying like an interdimensional FBI agent to solve the unsolvable murder, but nothing can erase what happened. all the insanity and ghosts and madness and yet, we end the series with the full admission that Laura's suffering is no one's but her own. her scream cuts things off in a was that leaves you shook. then that silent still of her whispering to Dale over the end credits, quizzically telling him something, like the sphinx. there will always be secrets. there will always be mystery.

Laura was the goose that laid golden eggs, at least according to Lynch and probably Frost too. That was their intention.
And obviously Lynch was frustrated that the mystery of who killed Laura had to be solved too early as he believed in those golden eggs.

In my opinion though the eggs really weren't that golden to begin with.
The viewer numbers dropped to half already after the pilot episode, and the numbers kept going down except with season closers and openers (and the killer reveal episode). I think Lynch and Frost overestimated the "goldenness" of those eggs that came from Laura's death. It was no wonder the studio was desperate in trying to get the numbers higher.
It was the goose that interested viewers, not that much the eggs.

And this is something the dude in the "Twin Peaks explained" videos criticizes and implies was the reason for the series.

His claim in short is that Twin Peaks tv show is a tv show for its characters too, they just don't realize it - and I think there's a lot of evidence to support that. The characters are literally ideas that have become alive and are shown to us through television. And the Lodge stuff exists in between the television world and the viewers and they literally use our television sets to enter Twin Peaks. I agree with all of that.

But he also claims that the show was created to tell television shows are shallow and people only care about shallow violent crimes that get solved and we watch a crime to get solved and move on to the next one. Cooper represents the viewers and Bob represents television violence - and that's something I don't agree with.

In my opinion the problem with the show after the killer's reveal wasn't the killer's reveal but it's what they decided to do with that knowledge.
They made a huge mistake brushing everything under the rug.

Spoiler

After Leland's death Cooper just tells something like "it was not the Leland you know who did these things" and no-one ever mentions anything about it again. A man in the town raped and murdered his own daughter and had murdered at least two other young women too. They could've done a lot with the town and its people trying to come to terms with that. Lynch didn't understand that this particular egg was actually VERY golden and VERY shiny. They just threw that egg away.

My claim is that the show would've perhaps died even sooner had the murder not been solved. And we wouldn't probably have Fire Walk with Me and Season 3 either.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

yeah I’ve seen almost all of Lynch’s other work, he never really does media commentary as his main theme. I don’t really buy that argument. he certainly plays with form and violence but the idea that he cares that much about tv shows, I don’t buy it. to me it is about identity, persona, the fact that “you can’t go home again”, the natural passage of time, the PTSD impact of trauma, etc. he is saying far more about victims of trauma than tv violence.

Imo too many people think a meta take is interesting and I don’t really see TP as a commentary on tv shows. at least not as the main theme. maybe I would be convinced if I listened to the 4 hour argument but that’s a big ask

 

[Nymphae]

maybe I would be convinced if I listened to the 4 hour argument but that’s a big ask

It's extremely well reasoned and backed up with many interviews and quotes by Lynch addressing specific things, well worth the watch and pretty engaging media analysis not just a typical talking head YT video. You can tell this guy has read and watched probably everything Lynch has ever said about art, and he is using this to, I think successfully, locate the key to decoding the language used for the Twin Peaks project. Watch it before dismissing it.

 

[Chittagong]

I did think, and still do think it was absolutely brilliant. They essentially let Lynch, be maximum Lynch with no limits. That's what you get, when you give David Lynch of all people, full freedom. Was it what I expected? No. But as a work, from a director I admire and whose style I adore, it could be his magnum opus.

This most reflects my view.

Twin Peaks is quintessential Lynch, and Season 3 is a TV series length of unfiltered, uncensored, unfettered Lynch. 18 hours of carte blanche for a great auteur. What would we give for 18 hours of unrestrained Kubrick, or Hitchcock? It may not make sense, or be commercial, but it is refreshing, unpredictable and memorable.

 

[Valonquar]

On a semi-related note. That Lynch short on Netflix "What Did Jack Do?" was pure magic.

 

[Nymphae]

How is it that it's so hard to get region 1 blurays for Lynch's films? Can't find Lost Highway or Inland Empire, Lost Highway was recently reprinted or something but Lynch specifically said the version is trash and not taken from original source materials.

Seriously it's fucked up these have went out of print or whatever, you can't even get region 1 DVD copies of Mulholland Drive or Inland Empire for under 50 bucks here. Shameful that this is not more widely available.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

Twin Peaks is quintessential Lynch, and Season 3 is a TV series length of unfiltered, uncensored, unfettered Lynch. 18 hours of carte blanche for a great auteur. What would we give for 18 hours of unrestrained Kubrick, or Hitchcock? It may not make sense, or be commercial, but it is refreshing, unpredictable and memorable.

i love that question! plus it is as if Kubrick got to do a series with almost all his old actors again, and music writers, and cinematographers, etc. as well as new technology. just the chance to see these actors again, for them to interact, to hang out with other people you haven't seen in two decades. or Laura Dern and Kyle McLaughlan, who worked together way back on Blue Velvet, now in this.

i love how it is a mix of his work, Episode 3 and the whole Purple Zone and the lady with no eyes and weirdly steampunk industrial wall socket painting all strongly reminding me of Eraserhead. then there are moments like the dark car drive that begins Ep 8, which feel right from Lost Highway. as a Lynch fan i love it, all his old styles he can dip into and out of, all the old collaborators, getting one more chance to shine. we are indeed so lucky.

all of the old creatives are getting one last chance to play. for some, like Log Lady, and Harry Dean Stanton, and Miguel Ferrer, it was indeed one of their final performances. what a performance they give! i'm so glad we got to spend time with Albert, even if some of it was just sitting silent in a room, even that kind of experience with someone is valuable. just being in that universe with those characters and that ambient tweaked Lynchian reality going on. i love it.

when you consider the auspiciousness of the entire thing, how it was all setup decades ago, how Laura herself speaking some mysterious words that made no sense at the time quite literally came true 25 years later. that is amazing, and kind of magical.

when you go back and rewatch the first season having seen 3, it is almost shocking how weird it gets right from the start. this scene promising a return to Twin Peaks in 25 years appears in the 2nd episode, which also introduced the Black Lodge for the first time.

 

[Airola]

It's extremely well reasoned and backed up with many interviews and quotes by Lynch addressing specific things, well worth the watch and pretty engaging media analysis not just a typical talking head YT video. You can tell this guy has read and watched probably everything Lynch has ever said about art, and he is using this to, I think successfully, locate the key to decoding the language used for the Twin Peaks project. Watch it before dismissing it.

I agree that those videos should be watched.
I've watched them all, some parts of them several times.
IMO, he's still wrong about the tv criticism meta thing.

Nevertheless, the videos are an assault of all kinds of evidence, there's A LOT of evidence shown, and whether or not you agree with them it's absolutely entertaining to see him going through the whole thing. There's a bit of the same thing for me as it is in watching some conspiracy videos where a lot of effort was made to make connections between things and make them all seem plausible.

 

[Nymphae]

IMO, he's still wrong about the tv criticism meta thing.

I think it's almost completely spot on personally, but I'm going to need to do a rewatch with this new take in mind to come to any real conclusions.

I think of it less as an indictment of TV specifically, and more a critique of the cultural zeitgeist which was largely being created and reflected through television - the quotes from Lynch talking about the "negativity" in the air that had been introduced post 50's (I mean, he works in the medium himself, it's not about condemning the medium but altering the negative zeitgeist through well intentioned and thoughtful work)

The analyst does a lot of fantastic groundwork laying out the historical and cultural context of the creation of this show itself in the late 80's, the buzz in the media surrounding the kind of show it was (the public not wanting something that didn't have story that could be tied up and forgotten at the end of the half hour), and I think viewing it as a critique of the state of entertainment media in general and the cyclical effects it has on the zeitgeist and our actions makes a ton of sense, given what Lynch says about the zeitgeist of the time, and various comments about what he was trying to do with the show at the time.

I've watched this 3 times now (while I'm playing OG FF7 lol) and I find it hard to see any major leaps in logic he makes, just about everything he uses as a basis for a major argument comes almost directly from Lynch in interviews, these are absolutely key to understanding what the man himself intends in his work, to say nothing of any other valid interpretations of the work (for example, like the analyst says, it's almost impossible to view the ocean of nothingness from Season 3 as anything other than Lynch's "unified field", once you've heard Lynch talk about what that idea means to him. When you see Lynch give the presentation about it and he shows the huge body of water, it's like, oh shit, yeah that's what it was in Season 3.

His reading made so many things make sense for me that previously I couldn't even take a stab at - for example, the symbolism of Norma/Ed/Nadene, their whole plot line and what each symbolizes is beautifully explained under this framework. So many things, from Cole telling Cooper he reminds him of a chihuahua, to Nadene apologizing to Ed in Season 3, cooper raping Diane, it all just works too well.

 

[Airola]

when you go back and rewatch the first season having seen 3, it is almost shocking how weird it gets right from the start. this scene promising a return to Twin Peaks in 25 years appears in the 2nd episode, which also introduced the Black Lodge for the first time.

The "I'll see you again in 25 years" scene was in the last episode of the second season, not in the episode with Cooper's dream.

However, it is mentioned twice before that:
1. The European version of the pilot had the dream scene. It was originally filmed for that, and parts of it were later taken to the dream sequence in that later episode. That European pilot has a text "25 years later" on screen. That text isn't there in the episode 2 (or 3 depending on how you count the episodes) dream.
2. The episode after the dream sequence episode has Cooper talk about the dream. He mentions things that we didn't see in the earlier episode but what were in the European pilot. He even mentions Bob getting shot even though that wasn't shown in the dream. Here Cooper also mentions that in the dream suddenly it was 25 years later and he was old.

But yeah, the actual promise to see again in 25 years happened in the final episode of the second season.

 

[Airola]

By the way, just as a curious thing for Twin Peaks fans, the European pilot isn't the only thing that was different from the initial US airing.

Many fans already know about the carpet vision Maddy has in Season 2. In the US there was only stain of blood appearing in the carpet but in Europe we had Bob appear to the carpet too!

Then there are also at least a couple of small little differences in other places too:
-When the killer is revealed and the new victim is shown on the floor, it's a completely motionless still frame whereas in the US the camera moves a bit. (or it was the other way around - can't remember right now) (EDIT: oh wait, it's a completely different shot!)
-Also in a later episode where Bob is shown in the mirror he is completely still whereas the other version shows him do a small smirk.

Yeah, these are things that could interest only the nerdiest Twin Peaks nerds but it's still intriguing!

EDIT: Some of these differences could also be cases of TV vs DVD releases though.