Bjorn

Thanks for both of those, that interview with Shiels is great (the air conditioner improv bit is really good). I'll listen to the Lillard interview later. Here's a direct link to the show for anyone else who wants it.

I am bummed that we are most likely done with Matthew Lillard after this episode. Although we've only had a few scenes with him, every one of them has been an absolute treat. Also, no Roadhouse song this time. Instead Viva Las Vegas plus lounge piano. Which, in regards to music, Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima showed up again, although I'm not familiar enough to know when it was used to be honest. Oh, the scene in the desert was such a goofy ass mirror of the climax of Seven. "What's in the box?!"

But Season 1 is not Season 2 is not FWWM is not Season 3 is not the Frost Books is not the Secret Diary. The idea that Twin Peaks "is" something leads from an expectation created by Season 1 that is never carried forward by any of the creators. Every incarnation of it has shifted and changed, sometimes rather radically from Season 1 (which I think is what people mean when they say Twin Peak is something specific). I did the exact same thing.

According to the subtitles it was Friend (specifically, it was shown as something like [Mouth Full] Friend.) I audibly gasped when he said Damn Good. Because it's the most Cooper like his voice has sounded (to me in the moment, which might be wishful thinking). So much about that final pie scene felt like it was bursting with Coop now being just under the surface.

Doesn't Gordon say something like, "Make sure he gets his phone call, and let us know how it goes?" Or something? Like, it was clear Gordon wanted the warden to relay who was called and what was said, I thought.

Okay, so thinking about this thread in general, as much as it saddens me to see the way people were communicating with one another in here, in many ways it also strangely represents exactly why I'm enjoying season 3 so much. Everyone is watching the same thing, and yet the range of emotional reactions don't feel like they could be greater than they are. Because of my own background and experiences, I've having incredible personal and powerful responses to this show, and it's difficult for me to see it other than the way I am because of that. But I appreciate that people like @anderbubble and @Mangela Lansbury and @Gailbraithe and etc. and on are coming to it with experiences and frameworks that are different than mine and appreciating, or seeing, or interpreting things in ways that are different to me. Almost every week these threads have posts about how this was the best or worst episode. That it's been made gold or ruined by Frost or Lynch. That this scene meant this or that. It's kind of magical really. But please y'all, remember to show some kindness and respect for one another and their reactions to what they're seeing.

I'm not going to get into this argument, but I'm replying to this just to give you something to think about. My partner has many years of experience in criminal justice, both in formal education and work, although she ultimately left the field. She doesn't agree with you. A background in criminal justice does not dictate a particular way to view rape, or to view this scene. Your background informing your view is fine, but you presented this as a kind of special knowledge dictate that set you apart from everyone else, and that's simply not true.

So thanks to the current Humble Bundle I finally started playing this. And I had forgot how much I love this dumbass series. I was originally put off by the lack of a significant timer in Normal mode, and what sounded like poor time balance in Nightmare. Plus the PC version was reported to have some technical problems early on. But it turns out that I don't actually care about the timer all that much? At least not for a first playthrough. It's just fucking joyful to ducktape a couple of things together and then wade through a bunch of zombies. And the first boss fight was wonderfully absurd in the best way, fucking car combat with a biker gang. Sometimes dumb goofy things are good, and it's nice to remember that.

I've never actually got around to watching Cloverfield, but I loved 10 Cloverfield Lane. This essay on it was something I found really useful for going deeper on just how well it handles an abuse narrative through each of its acts. It's the rare movie that is so much smarter than one would ever expect from it on the surface. (It's also reinforces my belief that JJ Abrams is at his best when he's producing and supporting others rather than in the driver seat himself).

But Scooby Doo exists within the Twin Peaks Expanded Universe: Also, Mystery Incorporated is easily the best version of Scooby Doo that has ever existed, and if you have any fondness for the gang, it's well worth watching. And Lillard did voice Shaggy in the show, so it's his second time being in a tv show that features the Red Room.

Stolen from reddit. Jack Rabbit's Palace. It turns out it was about the bunny afterall.

@syntheticgerbil That was long, but actually pretty cathartic and good to read, because it captures so many of the things that I've thought about this game and wanted to write, but just hadn't had time to sit down and do it. I'm not sure I'm ever going to finish the Quiet mission. The last thing I did was the True Ending, and it was just so deflating. @Zeusthecat MGSV is probably going to be the strangest disconnect I've ever had with a game, where mechanically I was having as much fun with it as anything I've played in years, but the garbage baggage of the story and characters just slowly eroded and chipped away at any positive feelings I have about the game.

So this totally snuck up on me, Banner Saga 2 comes out in about three weeks. I knew it was slated for sometime this year, but I really wasn't thinking it would be spring. Major choices, and deaths, will carry over, which kinda makes me want to play it again, as I don't remember who all I did and didn't save in my original playthrough. I always meant to go back and try some different thing anyways.

A minor thing I like about that scene is the believable assholishness of Chad, who tries to argue, "but you guys have donuts and coffee in here!" Which ignores the point that donuts and coffee are a group thing, and usually (always?) done when multiple people are working on the same case, in that room. Whereas Chad just selfishly wants the room for himself. It's just exactly the kind of way that someone would see and argue that situation.

I absolutely loved that scene. Chad is a selfish, corrupt asshole who so far hasn't been shown to have a drop of propriety or empathy in him. Chad expects doors to be opened for him, but wouldn't ever stoop to open one for another. (Yes, I know, I'm basing a bigger picture of him off a lot of conjecture, but whatevs)

@Patrick R Ran across an article you might find interesting about a lost classic of Blaxploitation called Tough. Just struck me as something you might enjoy reading about.

If Laura's Secret Diary is canon, he's killed 2 people (probably, he deffo shoots someone in the Diary, but they don't stick around to see if that person lives or not). He and Laura both live with the belief that he killed someone though.

The Badalamenti song in the credits is titled "Chair". The text description for the episode is "This is the chair." And then the obvious Briggs and Andy/Lucy chairs, but the song one is easy to miss.

Oh, wow, I had misread something and also kinda missed some stuff with this patch. Fuck this game, will probably uninstall the next time I need to start Origin for anything. I was wrong in the previous post, each of the new variant weapons also goes from I-X. And every kit now goes up to XX (yes, they actually just doubled the number of ranks for character kits with some bonus stats above Rank X). Plus apparently there are new mods that you can only get with MF? Fuck if I know, this update is kind of confusing. The end result though is adding at least 1800 card drops to the drop table in one fell swoop. You could play daily for weeks, and not be likely to see something you like get leveled up much. This is thousands of hours of play to even have a chance at seeing high level UR weapons or characters. I tolerated the random, F2P monetization of ME3 because the game was so fucking good, and got such incredible support. But this, this is fucking garbage. Tripling the weapon drops with reskins of the weapons. Bloating the fuck out of the pool so god knows when or if you might actually get something new. This is like the most mercenary fucking F2P bullshit pay wall on a goddamned full price AAA game that is getting a fraction of support that the previous entry got.

Nice to see that they're doing more with Mission Funds. Watched a video the Batarian tonight. He's at least got a heavy melee, but looks like no lockon, so no hatesurfing or head popping But at least it can detonate combos. Apparently there are also new variants of all (or at least most?) weapons that become available once you've maxed a weapon. (Edited to add, this is totes wrong, they all go up to X) They're just one card (they match the stats of an X weapon) and have unique features, like explosive ammo or auto healing on fire. Nice idea, but feels like they just wanted to extend the grind more by making each weapon have a variant, rather than adding in something like a weapon augment or something. Taking a look at the BSN, it looks like the dataminers have found multiple new characters in the files. A couple of those have wet dream levels of power combos (the Batarian with Annihilation is nutso because of melee combo detonation).

I don't think I'd seen this brought up here. I've been reading The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, and ran across this exchange last night (which may be imaginary or not, its hard to tell what's real BOB and what's Laura's imaginings of BOB). It's a direct echo of the conversation in the diner where BadCoop says the Need/Want line to Darya and Ray. A neat callback to the Secret Diary, and arguably points to these mental and written exchanges with BOB being entirely real rather than partly imagined.

Hoozah!

We finished Penny Dreadful this evening, and that is a weird show that I both loved and at times disliked so much as to make me want to stop watching it entirely. But ultimately finished it because what it does well, it does so wonderfully well. I have a lot of thoughts about it, but don't know if anyone else has watched it in its entirety?

Thanks for those links, they're good pieces and ones I hadn't run across when looking for articles about PD last week. This show really needed a longer 3rd season, or even a fourth season, to let some of the characters and arcs have more breathing room to explored.