MalcolmLittle

Wow... In Part 17, did Sarah block Cooper's attempt to change the past? Dale tried to change the night of the murder, but it didn't work? Did it? Cooper tried to change what he did to Diane, but did he? Linda acted like she knew what they were trying to do, but seemed to despair regardless. I can't stop thinking of Cole's dream. Who is the dreamer?

Found this interview with sound designer Dean Hurley, who worked with Lynch on The Return. Very illuminating in its brevity. I have linked to to the soundtrack earlier, I'll do it again.

I have been reading a lot of threads in (other) forums where people vent their disappointment over the substance and style of season three. I absolutely love the new series and think the oddness is a large part of the greater themes of horror in Lynch’s work. I do understand however that loving something for 20+ years can fuck with any sense of “healthy” level of expectation one can have, and that “knowing” what Twin Peaks is (to you as a fan) can get in the way of any kind of innovation in what is a continuation of a beloved work. People don’t like everything, and there is of course a plethora of reactions to any art, but the disappointment of long-time fans is a particular thing. Very interesting. The best text on expectation and the eventual backlash against the new season was written before the premiere, by Vulture’s Matt Zoller Seitz. A very good piece. Anyway, one thing people hated early on is the lack of more typical music by Badalamenti. I would like to link to the real soundtrack to Twin Peaks The Return, by Dean Huxley. It’s good.

Wow! Dale has turned into some kind of anti-investigator in this season. He does nothing, repeats what others say and still manages to uncover crimes and expose criminals. This inversion of investigation tropes is kind of incredible. I like many thought Cooper would only be in an impaired state for a short while, but it has been this season's mainstay. It has be a comment on detective stories. I discussed last episode whether Dale-as-Dougie was this season's version of the happy-go-lucky boy scout that Dale Cooper was in season 1 and 2, and this episode cemented that for me.

I agree wholeheartedly. The first version of Twin Peaks ended on such an unusual and dark note, and even with FWWM Cooper is left in a literal limbo. That was basically his end.. until we got season 3. If they just gave us chipper, happy-go-lucky Dale, in a world where most of his old comrades have been betrayed or wronged by him, or are dead or dying, where would his character go from there? I don't know if the old Dale fits anymore. Weird, silent Dale in the Red Room fits, and Dale-as-Dougie does too. The current "innocent as a lamb" Dale is perhaps our version of what was earlier the 90's boyscout.

I thought this episode had some great stuff. "General momentum" is not something we can count on with David Lynch but I suppose people really got excited once some sense narrative normalcy showed its face for a couple episodes. I am myself a bit surprised that we got episodes that had any typical momentum at all. The scenes with Sarah Palmer were choice. So creepy, so erratic. Audrey's introduction into season 3 was sooooo good. So funny, so weird. Expectations seem to apparently get in the way of some viewers. And talk about "damned if you do...", we finally get at _pure_ soap opera scene with Audrey and husband Charlie, complete with inscrutable motivations, obvious deep character history that a glancing viewer would never know, stilted acting and complex (as in, soapy "who the fuck are they talking about again" complex) character connections, and people still poo poo it.

I loved the scenes with Becky. She is on an out-and-out rampage, basically steals her mom's car, injures and scares Shelly in a stunt that could have seriously injured her, if not outright killed her, and finally shoots an apartment door. Did she truly think that the place was empty, and that it was therefore "okay" to light it up in an attempt to release some rage, or did she shoot through the door hoping that she would kill either Steven or Gersten? The parents' total paternal downplay of the situation was incredible too. "You could have gone to jail..." You think!? Being a cop's daughter has its perks... And Becky childishly rolling her eyes at Bobby was priceless. Becky flies back in forth between extremes throughout the scene. Her "realization" of the danger she had put her mom through was strange too. It came so apropos Norma's lecturing gaze that I don't know if her reaction was genuine or just a put-on to assuage her parents' concerns. She obviously didn't give a shit in the moment, throwing her mom to the curb, literally. The accidental shooting by the child outside the diner was a great juxtaposition. Shelly's "crazy in love, drop everything" response to Red walking by really saddened me too. Christ, what a fucked up family.

ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod

Ah man, I loved the scenes with Bad Coop, both in his cell and when he gets his phone call. Kyle MacLachlan deserves a lot of accolades for the work he has been doing this series. Bad Coop has such a eerie and forceful presence. That "Mr Strawberry" line was both funny and super intimidating. I wonder why that line creeped the warden out so...

About the slowed down version of American Woman in Episode One, there is a mix "genre" called Screwed & Chopped, where (mostly hiphop) music is slowed and pitched down (allegedly to not "harsh" listeners who are buzzed/baked), creating this weird affect. Two examples: Beautiful Nightmare, mixed by Pollie Pop Call Me Maybe, mixed by Party Trash I thought it was funny as hell when I first discovered it, but I have really fallen for these mixtapes, often to the bewilderment of my work colleagues. The mix in the first episode captures how strange and unsettling it can be.

Okay, this season might even be surpassing my wildest hopes for the series. I should perhaps stop watching the Handmaid's Tale, I can't stop thinking about the episodes so far in The Return, everything else on TV is getting (unfairly) overshadowed. Thoughts on Episode Three: * Cooper materializing in the carpeted room scared the shit out of me. There is something so "waking dream/night terror" about how he forms. Generally goofy effects aside, this particular one was really affecting. * Dougie's death(?) in the red room: hilariously strange. The sudden "pop" made me laugh and laugh. * Hawk and the team's survey of the case files and evidence boxes was so drawn out. I loved it, especially Hawk's doubts on whether the bunny was significant.

Concerning Dorf, there is a great O'Reilly book about the game (made with v0.34 in mind), which is hilarious condsidering that the publisher mostly produce books on programming. The book's tutorial really helps learning the fundamentals and it has illustrations from the great chronicler of DF, Tim Denee. A must have. http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920022565.do Some of Denee's work: http://oilfurnace.timdenee.com/

I should have of course been more precise, repressed memories are often characterized as experiences so traumatic that the main chain of events of the trauma, in other words the trauma itself, is blocked out and forgotten, and they can be later be remembered through therapy or sensory triggers.

Yeah, that's the general idea. The main thing with repression is that it is often coupled with the concept of repressed memories re-emerging. And that's where you get into problems with them being "planted" or created rather than being remembered (if there are no repressed memories, what are you actually remembering?). Of course, very young children might not remember things but that is most probably because they don't remember much of anything from that time in their life. Horrible stuff usually sticks though. Aversion or denial is one thing, the mind often wants to avoid revisiting traumatizing events, but not to remember them at all? I might just being too pissy and not giving the creators enough credit. It could be that Bezzerides is just remembering the episode while she is mansion, with terrifying hallucinations to boot, and it is not that she's actually discovering a previously hidden past. We'll see if more comes up in the coming episodes.

I saw Velcoro's rage-binge as a way of working up the nerve to sever his relation with his son (plus, him giving into despair after his perhaps last failed attempt at bonding with Chad). He needs to be frustrated and coked-up enough to destroy his dreams of having a relationship with his son (ie the model planes) and then needs to be drained enough to have a calm conversation with his ex-wife, so she will believe him and agree to keep the paternity test results from Chad. I also was struck by what a fucked up thing it is drag the paternity test into the custody fight. Sure, it would certainly weaken Velcoro's claim but it would utterly destroy the boy, forever, if he learned the truth, especially at such a young age. I mean, you want to keep the boy safe of course, but at what cost? About Bezzeride's arc this episode; It's not that I don't like how her flashback was portrayed, it was really effective, I just dislike it being staged as a repressed memory, a Hollywood trope with little to no basis in reality. Even children remember the horrible things that happen to them. It's cheap storytelling, with no real psychological bearing. It also perpetuates a hack, new age belief that we need to lay to rest.

Exactly! The crazy thing is that the timelessness of the Red Room is introduced in the last episode, strangely eluded to in the end of the European pilot, and made "clear" in the movie (with Cooper's contact with Laura and Annie's message, etc). The fucked up thing is: 1) The old Dale Cooper in the foreign pilot / dream sequence of the series proper, is in the Red Room talking to an unchanged Laura (he lives, she's dead), foreshadowing his prolonged imprisonment in the Lodge. 2) The final episode ends with Cooper being possessed, pitched as a cliffhanger with the hope of a third season (which doesn't happen). The episode also includes the "see you in 25 years", a callback to the ending of the European pilot. 3) Fire Walk With Me, fully entrenching the timelessness of the Red Room, was made with the plan to continue the story as upcoming movies (which doesn't happen either). So, all this works together perfectly now in hindsight, despite the fact that the creators wanted to continue the story twice! It was like they hedged their bets and said "let's stick this in here in case Twin Peaks never gets picked up again". And NOW we're going to get a third season, circa 25 years after season 2. Too much fun! Too weird!

Concerning Dale Cooper's knowledge/sense of the Red Room/Black Lodge prior to Twin Peaks season 1: I do think that the Red Room exists out of time and therefore cuts threw the timeline of the show. I also think that real world Cooper is in tune with his later Red Room self. It would explain his uncanny intuition and his knowledge of coming events (like in the last episode, the scene when he knows that the Log Lady will arrive in one minute). I think that the scene with Annie lying bloody in Laura's bed further strengthens this (and of course, Cooper being in the Red Room during the film, prior to his investigation in Twin Peaks). If you focus on Cooper, Fire Walk With Me is not so much a prequel to the tv series as it is a sequel. The Cooper who is looking at the surveillance footage had gotten a glimpse of the future and acts on it, maybe giving Jeffries the opportunity to break through and manifest for a short time? I also like that the running back and forth in the scene, which mirrors Coopers running in the Red Room in the last episode. The "logic" of how to traverse the space of the Red Room bleeds into reality and has some kind of effect there too. And! all this before Palmer's death. Anyway, the Cooper of the future can affect some parts of the past. You could even say that the movie we've watched may not be the reality of what happened before season 1, but what happened to the past AFTER Cooper got stuck in the Black Lodge.

I found this great YouTube film via producer @hicks_206: It really gets the actual mood of the game.

Okay, 0.50 has just been launched on the stable build of the game. The new stuff includes horticulture, further development on the temperature mechanics and plus a lot of new items (and the ability to lock doors!). Are there any here who would like to try out the game out and see what we could do together? I am itching to get back in the game with other players.

In that case, I do understand the hesitation. The SA is in really good shape compared to other Early Access games like the Forest or Planetary Assault, where everything is still in a really primitive state. DayZ SA is a reasonably stable game. It is less susceptible to hacking than the mod was in its heyday and the current systems all work. Sure, there are many features not available yet, like vehicles, but the SA has stuff that the mod doesn't have (the more advanced nutrition and health systems, the modular "condition" status of the inventory items, etc). Some people prefer the responsiveness of Arma 3 to what DayZ has to offer, but DayZ seems to have much more reliable net code compared to other Arma games (which is to be expected from what is basically an mmo), so the SA has a lot to offer. If money is tight, and you already can play the mod or Wasteland, I can, as I said, understand the hesitation. The graphics alone make it worth it though. The new DayZ on a fast machine looks incredible. Chernarus has never looked this good.

Jacob: well, the game has been on two Steam sales since launch, but only at 15%. The developers never seemed too keen on having the game on sale and I seriously doubt that it will get any cheaper. I think that DayZ is one of the most interesting games ever made and it is of course worth 30 dollars (the price will probably rise when it eventually leaves Early Access). The thing is, Arma-styled FPS is its own beast. Some people hate the way it handles, you having a body to move around and not only a lightning fast crosshair to whip about in the game world is a turn-off for some. I would try downloading the demo version of Arma 2 and test the boot camp tutorials. If they feel horrible to you, you'll know. I personally _love_ how Arma handles the movement of your character. The sense of presence in the world is palpable. It has a weight and verisimilitude I find lacking in practically any other shooters after having played DayZ. It is however an acquired taste; some people miss the extreme quickness of titles like CS:GO or Titanfall. The demo for Arma 2 can be found here: http://www.arma2.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=517〈=en&catid=50 Tell us what you thought and if you're planning to buy the game or not.

White leather shoes are fucking lux when you are otherwise clothed in a ruined wool coat, ruined canvas pants and a damaged motorcycle helmet. http://cloud-3.steampowered.com/ugc/3299192730250398405/2FC153322756469E826B7776B407FCA7C9835B32/

Nice! I'm in the Steam group, with tha same name as here. Just befriend me if any of you want to play.

Any thumb forumites who want to play some DayZ today, 18:00 CET on a European server? A friend of mine has to write a diary post about DayZ for a game publication and I thought that maybe we could try the new hell that is the current zombie spawn rate and perhaps visit a hospital in Chernogorsk. Or attempt to free Berezino from bandits. Or something. :-)

It was fun playing with forumites! I only died twice! Once from walking off a dam (always look ahead when traversing narrow walkways), the other due to walking right into a stranger who was waiting for me with a rifle (vacate a building via another entrance if you can help it when alone). It was great to meet up, and we only managed to hurt ourselves when we were finally gathered. No hold ups, no murders. There is strength in numbers. Join us! You are going to die anyhow, do it with friends.