I can’t stand this bloody series. ‘It’s art for the sake of art’. ‘This is really Lynch’s gift to all subsequent media’. ‘There is so much we owe to this series.’
What the hell. It’s just random pieces of script written by monkeys on a typewriter, slapped together. No part of the story is ever finished. ‘Ah but that’s where the depth resides!’. Rubbish. Anybody can write a story that doesn’t properly finish.
Oh I know I will introduce 20 new characters, this will add so much depth. Yeah, they have no motives, no character development BUT I will add this random surreal thing that happens to them, for additional depth. But what happens to X? Who knows! And to Y? You have to guess! And to Z? No one can tell!
Maybe using steel-faced actors will improve the plot? I know I will cast myself in one role with quirky details because it’s so fun. Yeah I don’t know how to act, why? Is it necessary?
And the goddamn music is unsufferable. ‘You can’t separate Lynch’s work from Badalamenti’s music’. Yeah I know they’re both shit. Oh and the effing gigs in the sequel of the series. Aaaaaah!
But at least there is some symbolism! Yes, what is it? Who fucking knows!
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The tv show aired while I was in college. If you knew who Lynch was before going into it, you kinda expected it to be weird just for the sake of being weird, because that’s David Lynch in a nutshell. And it did live up to those expectations, I must admit. The backwards taking dream sequence, the log lady, agent Cooper’s obsession with coffee, all fit. In fact when MacLachlan’s character in Fallout was making coffee I fully expected to hear his famous line from Twin Peaks
It blew me away because there was nothing on television like it at the time. Twenty years later I bought the gold Twin Peaks DVD collection and didn’t get more than halfway through the first season. Not because it was bad the second time around, but because it was so good the first time around I remembered everything about it.
I think David Lynch is like cryptic crossword clues.
If you get it, it’s genius. If you don’t, it’s nonsense.
I don’t get it, but others do and that’s fine.
No part of the story is ever finished. ‘Ah but that’s where the depth resides!’. Rubbish. Anybody can write a story that doesn’t properly finish.
Lol, I like your style
It was patchy, especially in the middle of season 2, and somewhat compromised. The studio forced Lynch to name a killer (he wanted to keep the mystery open, as he would have in a film), and sometime after that it sagged into soap-opera tropes. On its own merits, it is a mixed bag, and if judged as “high-quality TV drama”, it’s middling.
Though its main impact was the shows that followed. Before it, TV drama was mediocre soaps and sitcoms with formulaic plots, of the sort that didn’t aspire to be more than chewing gum for the eyes. Twin Peaks and its success showed that TV could aspire to be more than that. If it hadn’t had its cultural impact, there’d have been no X Files, Sopranos, West Wing, Breaking Bad or similar series, just more variations on General Hospital, Hill Street Blues, The Young And The Restless and so on.
Exceptionally well put. I wish I could make words like you make words. This is a weird comment, but I’m jus saying i like the cut of your jib a lot
If you look at the credits for the patchy part in session two, you find out that’s when Lynch was working on other projects and wasn’t really involved. When he comes back it immediately gets better.
Chris Carter named Twin Peaks as a direct inspiration for the X-Files.
to me it’s good in historical context the same way the cave paintings are good in the historical context. Do we paint better paintings now? Sure! Are there better shows now? Sure!
But at the time it was a fantastic blend of genres and surrealism that just came out of nowhere like a freight train in the night.
It’s like watching 4 different shows all blended together. I really like it for that boldness. Sure sometimes it doesn’t quite land but that’s ok.
The spots that didn’t land are some of my favorite. Like the civil war reenactment
They didn’t use Lynch for some of season 2. It was clear they just did weird shots for the sake of being weird when Lynch wasn’t around. Those are terrible. Lynch is very intentional.
This cat begs to differ
I didn’t say Lynch did typical stuff. :) Dune is definitely weird. Possibly Lynch’s worst movie. I’ve heard the phrase for movies “show, don’t tell” but Dune is full of exposition. Contrast Dune with say Mad Max. Mad Max doesn’t tell us anything, it is all shown, and is better for it.
May I ask how old you are? I’m not prying, but I’m curious if you watched it when it was new or if you are younger and only know it from DVD/streaming.
I am old enough that I watched it as it was broadcast, and it was unlike anything that had been done on TV before. I don’t even know how Lynch got it made. It landed like a bombshell in the midst of sanitized pap. It was gritty and played with sex, drugs, and evil in a way that made shows like Miami Vice look vapid. It may seem like half finished, trope laden junk now, but it cut the path that every edgy show since had followed. Issues like the duality of people - the homogenized surface facade of presenting how we want to be vs the inner desire and how we are just hadn’t been addressed in that way before.
There is some deliberate hokiness to it. The parallel of the soap opera to the town is deliberate and a wink to the fact that every story is largely the same but dressed up in a new way. Think of “a stranger comes to town, or someone goes on a journey” level analysis. The humor is pure Lynch.
It may seem different in retrospect because it’s done better now. Audiences are comfortable with this kind of thing. It was brand new then, and somehow approved by the same network that approved Thirtysomething and cut 40 minutes of sex and drugs from Scarface.
I’m reminded of the first time I saw Citizen Kane. I was a teen back in the 90s, and I thought it was pretty bad. But that’s because a lot of the cinematography that it pioneered became commonplace in everything from adverts to training videos. It was groundbreaking to such an extent that it redefined the fundamental techniques of filmmaking.
That said, Twin Peaks has always fascinated me. The weird, unsettling, menacing, cryptic, and darkly sexual undercurrents that typify most things Lynch touches just struck an instant chord with me.
Without giving too many details: I’m old enough to have watched it on TV years ago and I had to go through it again with my wife recently.
I was in university and I remember being in Montreal in a bar when an episode was about to air. I went to a stranger’s home to watch TV with them and their friends because none of us wanted to miss an episode.
This is some interesting context, which I was aware of but never properly considered. I think this has given me a better appreciation of Lynch. I saw Twin Peaks well after it was made. I also saw it after having been exposed to a lot of alternative cinema. I think I missed the chance to love it, both from a era of film perspective and from a gateway into more weird stuff perspective.
I think Twin Peaks suffers from the Seinfeld problem. It was SO influential there are now pieces of it in almost everything that even remotely shares a genre with it. And if you grew up watching all the stuff it influenced, going back to watch the origin, that sparked the imaginations of all those creators, can seem kinda hokey, trite, and underwhelming.
You’re wrong and Twin Peaks is peak television. Take my upvote.
peakdamn fine televisionFTFY
I also find his style annoying. How on earth were you able to finish the series?
Have you seen all 3 seasons? An honest fan will tell you season 2 is kinda bad because they were forcing Lynch to pivot on core plot points because ratings needed a boost.
Also, you are supposed to be somewhat confused on some of best twin peaks lore if you don’t watch the movie: Twin peaks: Fire Walk with Me.
I love this post tho. I can relate with your frustration, as it was my initial reaction too. You have to somewhat admit that if the shows is as bad as you claim, how did it stir such a reaction in you unlike other more enjoyable/simple tv shows?
I’m not the biggest fan of twin peaks, but I slowly found it’s other-worldliness almost comforting beyond belief. Initially I felt there was no substance to it all. It’s just pointless mystery for the sake of creepy and darker depths and plot twists with no resolution. But after awhile I found myself longing for that open-ended weirdness that only a madman like Lynch would allow. I was looking for the douglas furs, the red rooms, and most importantly, I was looking for a way to get back home. Then you start to really connect with some parts of the show that I’ll refrain from ruining. I’ve prolly said too much. Explore your curiosities of the twin peaks world, unless you aren’t a curious soul, but if that’s the case how did you stumble across such a work? I’m gonna have to rewatch season 3 after all this. Thanks op
Classic “Twin Peaks” was great. Season 3 was complete rubbish, though - chaotic, cringey and ultimately hollow. I wish Lynch has never done it - it killed all “Twin Peaks” appeal for me.
I don’t fully disagree with most of this. I just don’t see how you resolve the greatness of season 3 episode 8 with this take. Season 3 didn’t feel like season 1’s level of composition and depth, but it absolutely held a similar vibe over an insane amount of time difference. I also don’t see how one dumps on season 3 without explicitly noticing how little passion Lynch had with making season 2. 2 is almost not even accepted as authentic cannon compared to 3, tho this is only due to how trite and stale season 2 is. I completely identify with your frustration but for me, 2 is the abomination that “ruined” twin peaks. Bob wins in season 2 and only in 2.
I am not really sure if I saw it - I was so repelled that I quit at some time around episodes of Agent Cooper acting like a moron and noone noticing for at least two episodes straight - it was two much.
First two seasons were disciplined by unity of place, time and action. Season 3 flipped it up and was a terrible mess. So many characters I could not care about them, Cooper turned into mediocre comic relief, all spirit of “Twin Peaks” lost. Sorry, but I was so upset that I wish the 3rd season was not made at all, than made like that.
Is season 3 better than the rest? Do you need to watch the movie?
I can’t say it’s “better” but something about seeing the exact same cast having aged so much and then working this time-skip into the plot is a hyper-rare feat that you can’t find anywhere else. Also episode 8 is exceptionally well-known for a damn good reason imo. Anyone trashing season 3 will have to admit they just didn’t enjoy that episode or the ending essentially.
I highly highly suggest the movie if you crave authentic resolution to the mysteries and confusing lore. Twin Peaks is supposed to be confusing and full of incomprehensible twists. The movie was intended to be a absolutely necessary “key” to decode the puzzles and see through the illusions that each character (can the viewer be a character or an influential but also confined part of what is being viewed?) is ‘trapped’ in. I have said too much, please any and all DM me your thoughts and opine to me even if you were disappointed!
I live out by where it was filmed - and by an old timber company town. There is a bit of truth to how weird and fucked up they were. Obviously the show dramatized the situation, but it captured the vibe.
Snoqualmie/North Bend? Or was that just the opening credits?
The cafe is in North bend at least.
If it makes you feel any better, the weirdness and fucked-up-ness of North Bend and Snoqualmie has got nothing on the weirdness and fucked-up-ness of Aberdeen/Hoquiam.
I think those are better examples lumber company towns. These days Snoqualmie and North Bend are more tech centric (read: tons of $$). If you ever need a drive, Seleck, WA is a fascinating old company “town”.
Eh.
For me Twin Peaks was about individual scenes that really nailed it. As a whole it can be a little flimsy and David Lynch is a love him or hate him director.
I think there’s a separation between the original 2 seasons and the followup over 2 decades later. The “who done it” of the original 2 seasons was genuinely good as far as I’m concerned. And those seasons had a cozy factor to them as well. Very soap opera.
The new season was much darker, and I do like that, but the direction was a lot sloppier. Holding the main character back for almost the entire season was also a real rough decision that pissed basically everyone off. I do think the origin story (nuclear bomb) episode was one of the cooler episodes of TV I’ve seen in recent memory.
And, as always with Lynch, you never get real answers.
I wanted my Agent Cooper, damnit!
Great post!
I don’t know that I would go as far as rubbish though. It is mostly artsy fartsy though. I think the thing that makes it interesting is the fact that a show like that was made for a network and ran for more than a few episodes. Very much unheard of for TV to do experimental stuff like that.
I wasn’t a fan at the time, and subsequent exposure to the occasional episode since then haven’t changed that. But I can see the value in it having been. It did break a lot of ground in terms of non traditional shows being made.
I think David Lynch is massively overrated in general. He makes stuff that SHOULD be up my alley (I love weird art) but it just feels so…conceited? He seems like the type of guy who thinks his farts don’t stink
This was really present in season 3 for me. He did this thing CONSTANTLY in that season where the dialogue would end and the scene really should shift to the next scene but instead the camera would hang on the characters as they just stared at each other or started doing some other mundane thing like pouring a cup of coffee and reading a newspaper and it would often go on long enough to get cringey.
It was some attempt at being artsy fartsy that didn’t pan out. Or maybe he was trying to fill time so every episode was 45 minutes or whatever. I generally like Lynch’s work, but he over-extends himself trying to be “edgy” sometimes.
