UnpopularTrousers

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Posts posted by UnpopularTrousers

  1. Posted

    1 hour ago, Owl said:

    I thought it was deliberate too, but I think they're playing Monkey in the Middle (apparently more commonly called Keep Away).

     

    We always called it "Piggy in the Middle."  For whatever reason, I've always really enjoyed the slight regional differences in the names of kid's games. But, deliberate or not, I didn't notice the middle kid until the one kid saw the body and it cut back to the other two. It was confusing to the point that I thought something had been edited out of order and I restarted the episode to try and make sense of it. It's the only thing in the show so far that has made me immediately go back. But maybe this was just my band-aid moment of the episode....

     

    I feel like I found the vomiting child to be far more viscerally unpleasant than everyone else. It was more stomach churning  for me than anything else we've seen so far. It looked like the kid was going to choke and die on their own vomit, and nothing was being done about it. I was not okay with it. I also didn't like the rambling woman as she just felt like another repeat of the woman who found Ruth's body, Truman's wife, etc. I've grown tired of Lynch's hysterical woman caricatures.

  3. Posted

    4 minutes ago, marblize said:

     

    I saw a theory on reddit that:

     

      Hide contents

    it's all cooper's dream, a battle of sorts for his soul as he's lying on the floor dying in S2E1, and honestly I could see that working in a non-linear time way rather than a literal 'it's a dream' way, but it'd be so gut-wrenching. 

     

    If by 'gut-wrenching' they mean 'the stupidest shit ever', then I mostly agree. 

  4. Posted

    45 minutes ago, LostInTheMovies said:

    Great comparison. I've been saying for a while that there were a lot of similarities between the Dougie storyline and Mulholland Drive (at one point even humoring the idea that his world was some kind of dream/alternate reality though that's long past by now). But I think this was the first episode where the *mood* felt similar (except perhaps for the stuff with the statue in its own way) - from the "Viva Las Vegas" ride down the Strip to the closing credits, Vegas gets treated here with a kind of wistful, melancholy romanticism as Hollywood in Mulholland Drive. Though Lynch's Vegas hasn't yet captured, or shown interest in capturing, the ominous darkness underpinning of Lynch's Hollywood.

    In Mulholland Drive the imagined romantic Hollywood was a projection of Naomi Watts's internal reality, and thus there was a separate and distinct external reality for Lynch to show us in the second half of the film. In Twin Peaks The Return, I don't think it makes sense for the wistful romantic reality we are shown to be a representation of any one character's hopes and dreams. Dougie and Cooper certainly wouldn't want this bumbling comatose life for themselves. Yet in Mulholland Drive logic, the old lady from the casino thanking Mr. Jackpot for changing her life seems like it absolutely would a projection of Dougie or Cooper's inner delusions. It feels *so* much like Lynch directing a dream sequence, but there is no character who could be having the dream.

     

    So maybe we need to look at dream logic outside of the characters within the show. Maybe it's the wish fulfillment of the viewer/American people who thoughtlessly bumble through life, yet still expect to one day stumble upon a fortune and be the hero of everyone around them? Maybe the show is the first half of Mulholland Drive, and the second half is merely reality? Do we need to be shown the gulf between these things in order to understand it? 

     

    Or maybe Audrey is still in a coma and the whole show is her dream. Holy shit that would be terrible. 

  5. Posted

    1 hour ago, marfy said:

     

    But I...work...lunch...waiting for hours...I mean..

     

    ...okay.

    I mean, it makes sense that as an artist Lynch would be adamant that people only watch his work under ideal circumstances. I think I would be pretty frustrated too if I felt like people's opinions of my work were being warped by them viewing it under less than ideal circumstances and perhaps I would even prefer that they hadn't seen it at all. But the fact is that we all have lives and only have so much time to devote to various things and if watching Twin Peaks on a phone is what makes sense in your life then there is no shame in that. It's pretty much impossible to truly give your whole self over to a film and not be even a little bit distracted, anyhow. My mind drifts, I think about something that someone said to me earlier in the day or how my tummy is grumbling, or the two year old on the floor above starts crying and I look up and wonder what happened, or maybe one of the actors looks kinda like my brother and then I think about how he was so mean to me as a child for the rest of the scene, and so on and so forth. Lynch understandably wants us to watch his work on the biggest screen possible without any of the outside world creeping in...but that just isn't always possible. You do you. 

  6. Posted

    6 minutes ago, pokysharpy said:

     

    Yep. Here they are on Amazon Prime Channels:

     

    Huh, so the taglines are the same but the images are all different. My episode 6 didn't have Laura Dern in the episode image, so it was a real shock when Albert went to the bar and she turned around wearing that white wig. But since she was in the image for episode 7 I went in thinking "Oooh, this is the episode where we find out more about Diane!" which it totally was. 

     

    I'm sure the German preview images will wind up being canon when it comes out on Blu Ray.

  8. Posted

    I've come to realize that I like Twin Peaks (and to be honest Lynch in general) a lot better when there isn't a lot happening. In particular, I tend to like the bits immediately before and after big events.  I don't particularly love the Frost directed season 1 finale, but the first episode of season 2 is my favourite episode in all of Twin Peaks. I think Arbirtary Law (the episode where Leland is caught and dies) is actually kinda bad, but Drive With a Dead Girl is easily my favourite non-Lynch directed episode. I'm probably in the minority here.


    So keeping with that trend, my favourite two scenes in this episode were the straight-talk for teens sit down with Becky after her rampage and the congratulatory gangster dinner that closed the episode. The moments surrounding those scenes were more exciting on paper but fell kinda flat for me in comparison. But I could watch The Mitchum brothers talk to Dougie about his son's lack of a gym set (?) all day long. It reminded me of the first half of Mulholland Drive where Naomi Watts shows up in Hollywood and everything feels like a wide-eyed hopeful dream. The lady from the casino showing back up was basically the best.

     

    Other things:

    -The opening scene with the baseball was awkwardly put together. What was with the editing when there was suddenly a third kid there?

    -That kid vomiting in the car was the grossest thing we've seen so far. Really didn't enjoy that. 

    -WHAT'S IN THE BOOOXXX!?!? WHAT'S IN THE BOOOXXX!?!
     

    -Tammy's outfit looked extra ridiculous when 'covering them'.
    Untitled2.thumb.png.98207c342251f742891cc07f4428f42c.png

     

    -Cole's weird spiral sky vision went so fast that it barely registered in my brain. This is what he saw:

    Untitled.thumb.png.1bff30587d1ad655ff50b3bff13cc99f.png

     

    -I thought that Hawk's heritage-related coin discovery might have been Frost/Lynch subverting the original show's broad Indian mysticism. But then Hawk was all "Let me get out my gigantic cowhide map..."

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  10. Posted

    11 hours ago, Mike Danger said:

    Penguins are also black and white. I have no idea if those girls are actually aware of that stuff, but it was the first place my brain went to.

    They also look like they're wearing tuxedos, according to season 2 Coop:
    "I’ve got a joke for you: a couple of penguins are walking across an iceberg and the first one says to the second, “You look like you’re wearing a tuxedo.” And the second one says, “Maybe I am.”


    Also, that's Sky Ferreira who I knew was in the cast, but had assumed would just be a musical guest. Now I'm wondering whether Eddie Vedder will play a character or just sing a song. 

  12. Posted

    Just now, BonusWavePilot said:

    Totally!  Like silent-film era sci-fi!

    It's for sure very Méliès. 

     

    There were also a couple moments where the images associatively morphed into one another that made me think of Bunuel's un chien andalou. Specifically the bomb into Bob orb reminded me of the armpit hair into sea anemone in Bunuel's film. Granted, we see something similar in the opening of every episode with the waterfall into red curtains, but I think it being in black and white cast my mind back.

  13. Posted

    35 minutes ago, belamoscovitz said:

     

    If I'm not mistaken, he could also be referring to the Mounds in chiromancy. When reading someone's palm, the ring finger is related to the Mount of Apollo, which is believed to reveal their self-assurance, compassion, their desire to stand out on a crowd. The implication behind Cole's association of Tammy's fingers to the words DoppelCooper had said during their encounter is that "Yrev" being on the left ring finger indicates Cooper's persona is somehow inverted. The left ring finger is also where married folks in various cultures put their wedding rings, symbolizing a connection to a higher power. 

    I think all of these things work together quite well. Cooper's spiritual being is inverted in a way that is connected to the black lodge. In Twin Peaks, this place exists as a part of Indian lore and contains little people spirits as is the case with the Spirit Mound according to wikipedia. The owl ring serves as a connection between worlds. In the The Secret History of Twin Peaks, Lewis and Clark encounter the owl ring and figure into the lore. In real world history, they also literally visited the Spirit Mound. I think it can be both a topographic feature of her hand with implications according to chiromancy, and an actual place with relevant history. 

  14. Posted

    I was listening to last week's Fire Talk With Me (another excellent Peaks podcast) and they looked up the meaning of the Spiritual Mound that Cole mentions on Tammy's hand. According to wikipedia:

    Quote

    Spirit Mound Historic Prairie is a state park of South Dakota, USA, featuring a prominent hill on the Great Plains. The Plains Indians of the region considered Spirit Mound the home of dangerous spirits or little people; members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition climbed it on August 25, 1804


    So, that's crazy. 

    EDIT: They also proposed that Mr. Strawberry might have been the name of the warden's dog, and that the dog legs also carried the direct threat of violence against his family. I don't know if there is really any support for this theory, but I do like it.

  15. Posted

    Now that a teensy bit of time has passed, my feelings on this episode have already become more mixed. As a viewing experience I absolutely loved it. It was hypnotic and unlike anything I've ever seen. But it was also all awfully on-the-nose and featured a lot of images and symbols that I have seen a few too many times. I might have liked it better it wasn't explicitly set in 1945 and could more easily be seen as being a metaphorical aside; the space scenes at the beginning of Eraserhead showed a similar act of creation, but gained something by remaining more abstract.


    ALSO: Abe Sapien's origin story in Hellboy's BPRD: The Plague of Frogs was visually pretty much exactly the same, down to the weird egg and space uterus. 

    timthumb.jpg.47744db12b1033d7953a9b88be596043.jpg

     

  16. Posted

    1 hour ago, WickedCestus said:

    Also, was the guy who introduced NIN the singer from the Red Room in the finale? It kinda reminded me of him.


    Jimmy Scott who sang the sycamore trees song has been dead for a few years now. I knew this already, but still had a brief moment where I thought it might have been him.

     

    This episode reminded me of the myth of Prometheus. The fire orb from the nuclear blast was arrogantly stolen from the gods, and we were left to eternally suffer as a result of our horrific actions. But instead of Prometheus giving birth to humanity, our evils birthed a new kind of being that reflected what we had become. Or something like that.  

     

    I really liked how the shot of the cicada frog being born remained centered on the egg as it crawled out of frame. I had trouble making my mind follow its movements because I've been trained to pay attention to the big bright thing in the center of the screen. It was compositionally unnerving. 

  18. Posted

    -This definitely felt like the conclusion of the first act: All that Roadhouse garbage being swept up into a nice neat pile pretty much summed up where we're at. I like that we ended in the RR, and loved that you could hear Heidi giggle during the credits when she pinched a customer's cheek. 

     

    -If there was any doubt that Take Five was chosen because it was the most obvious song choice imaginable I present to you...Green Onions!

     

    -I burst out laughing at Truman's fancy wooden monitor desk. Weird anachronistic technology continues to be my favorite part of the show. The conversation with Doc Hayward was a little awkward, but I assume that they could only get Warren Frost for a Skype call before he passed. I was happy to see his face.

     

    -I'm thinking that Bad Coop may have assaulted or raped Diane the last time they saw one another and that she's had to live with that for the last 25 years

     

  19. Posted

    It's interesting that Chris and Jake thought the coin trick was reminiscent of the creamed corn trick. They're probably totally right, but for whatever reason I saw that whole scene as being filmed from Richard Horne's perspective. He took some crazy strong coke, his perception of time got all weird, and the coin guy started moving all hurky-jerky. Then he pulled off some "What's that behind your ear? It's a coin! My, my, what dirty ears you have!"-level slight of hand but it blew his mind because he was unbelievably high. But thinking back on this now, it was probably just regular Twin Peaks weirdness. 

     

    I also wanted to bring up my favourite Dougie moment of the episode: When he went up the stairs to see Sonny Jim, he put his foot on the first step and then put his second foot on the same step and paused before continuing up the steps in a more fluid manor. It was this little moment of hesitancy that highlighted what great job Kyle Maclachlan is doing. 

  20. Posted

    33 minutes ago, dartmonkey said:

    He was actually in the restroom?! Good work!

     

    I have noticed that Al Strobel is credited as Philip Gerard and not MIKE. Where was Gerard last time we saw him (chronologically) before season 3?

    Does anyone remember how he was credited in the original show and FWwM? Did it remain to consistent? Or did we get a "Piper Laurie as Catherine Martel and Mr. Tojamura" type situation? 

  21. Posted

    1 hour ago, purps said:

    I don't really see how Ike the Spike is any more insensitive than The Man From Another Place. Why having a little person play a hitman disrespectful? 

     

    I think part of it is that 2017 is a different time than 1991, and new characters face more scrutiny than those that were already in the original series. This is true even for returning characters: If Denise hadn't been in the original series, then I would have taken issue with them getting David Duchovny to play the part instead of hiring a trans actor. But it was an acceptable thing to do in 1991, and the only way to have the character return was to get David Duchovny again. So I'm fine with it.

     

    I think the issue that people are taking with Ike is not there is something inherently bad about a little person playing a disturbing hitman. It's also not inherently bad to have a middle eastern person play a villain, or to someone with a deformity play a dumb loser, or an asian actor play a mystical wizard, or to have a woman play a character who does nothing but spend money and complain to her husband. However, these things become an issue when these actors are ONLY used to play these roles. Ideally, the casts of American movies should average out to being roughly representative of the demographics of America.  But little people are rarely given roles as just regular people, and when they are their characters are still usually defined by their size. Sure, it's probably better than them getting no parts at all, but this excuse can only take you so far. The problem is not with Ike in isolation, the problem is that Lynch only uses little people to play creeps.

    What makes this especially shitty is that the actor who played Ike did an AMAZING job, and his deranged creepiness owed more to that than his appearance. I think it was great casting. I just wish it was balanced out by having a more varied cast play the normalish folks.

  23. Posted

    I'm almost certain that this is meaningless, but I rewatched the episode and screen-grabbed the two random feeds that show up on the security monitors when Bad Coop does his phone magic. I think the blindfolded guy in the cooking show is inexplicably hilarious.

    Untitled2.thumb.jpg.275e542f4c180bcede85c1c1640bf77f.jpg

     

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    Also, I don't know anything about wedding rings but "To Dougie, with love, Janey-E." is just about the longest, most needless inscription imaginable.

  24. Posted

    1 minute ago, Argobot said:

    Did anyone take it to literally mean that the bar creep actually raped that girl? I assumed not, but the way some people are referring to that scene makes it sound like we're meant to believe that her and her friend's inability to do anything kept going even after the scene cut. 

    No, I don't think so. But what we saw on screen was still sexual assault, and pretty intense/disturbing. 

  25. Posted

    40 minutes ago, LostInTheMovies said:

     

    My God, how many Lynch actors are in this thing? I noticed Jim Belushi, Robert Loggia, David Warner, Ernie Hudson, and maybe one or two others. Thought I saw Diane Ladd in there somewhere too but guess not, nothing comes up on Google. (Ok, wiki lists Brad Dourif too - wow.)

    It's like what would have happened if Frost/Lynch Productions had worked on Overdrawn at the Memory Bank.