Twin Peaks Rewatch 29: Miss Twin Peaks

[Jake]

Penultimate Peaks! (Except for the movie!)

[mikemariano]

Man, if I were Catherine Coulson I would have been insulted by the latest Windom Earle getup.

[LostInTheMovies]

Not a very good episode. In fact this is my least favorite outside of the mid-season block of terror (roughly ep. 18-24). It's "better" than those in the sense that it actually has a plot function to serve but it puts no heart into it whatsoever.

 

There are a few good bits - Windom's creepy face most of all. And keep your eagle eyes sharp for Shelly and Donna (or maybe just Madchen Amick & Lara Flynn Boyle) goofing off in the back of the chorus line during rehearsals.

 

Also, we get the first Laura Palmer reference in a few episodes and the first of any real substance since Leland died (setting up the idea that the community is still haunted by her death even though they've appeared to move on). Note that the contestants dance the opening number wrapped in plastic (raincoats).

 

Mostly the value of this episode is to serve as such a pointed contrast to the next one. When Lynch returns to the director's chair it's like switching from some really diluted narcotic to the pure stuff, uncut. What a shock to the system.

 

Man, if I were Catherine Coulson I would have been insulted by the latest Windom Earle getup.

 

True, although I would have been even more insulted by the lecherous gropes of Mr. Pinkle.

 

And to think

that was gonna be her last appearance, until Lynch rewrote the finale.

[agorman]

Wow! I disliked this episode a lot! Honestly a lot of the episode felt like out of Scooby-Doo or something. All the conversations between Cooper and Truman showed no trust in the audience to reach any conclusion about the Black Lodge/White Lodge stuff. "That evil in the woods? I think its the black lodge" "Bob lives in the Black Lodge and I think he had something to do with Josie's death!" "Fear opens the door to the Black Lodge and love opens the door to the white!" More quotes I am forgetting that are bad bad bad.

And holy crap the Miss Twin Peaks stuff. Creepy choreographer! Terrible seductress subplot rears its head again (that dance! blargh!)

The Laura Palmer reference was really shocking to hear in this episode and yet another reminder of what the show once was.

I agree with what people have said about Earle this episode, I did find him to be genuinely creepy in many parts (although the obvious fade from his creepy face to a commercial break was pretty jarring.) And even though his entrance to take Annie away was basically creating a bad haunted house (from the fog machine to the fire) it somehow struck me as creepy? (I'm honestly not sure how).

I also found Donna's conversation with her parents to be pretty good (maybe I was just desperate for something to grab onto), but an authentic conversation that a teen would have with her parents who are hiding something from her. Though the scene with Pete, Catherine, and her brother was kinda dumb I enjoyed watching pulling out a massive handgun and just shooting the remaining box (which somehow the key survives unscathed???) Although this may be in part, as I've said before, I really find where this plot takes us next episode to be one of the most fun scenes to watch in the series.

Anyway I'm excited for the last bit of the podcast here, as I really love the last episode and FWWM.

[mikemariano]

Oh hey, Audrey.  Nice red dress.

[Cleinhun]

I really did not think Earle's disguises would get more ridiculous than last episode's horse costume, but now we's dressed up like the log lady for some reason, so that's pretty...cool. And I guess Cooper loves him some strained chess metaphors. something like "this chess game contains more pieces that we ever imagined"? Buh, why.

 

This episode is not very good.

[LostInTheMovies]

Haven't done this in a while, but I'm curious to hear newcomers' take at this point in the series, with one episode & the film to go. So...some questions for first-time viewers:

 

- Do you feel the series improved in the last 4-5 episodes or do you feel these have been just as weak as the mid-season? If there was a turning point in quality for you, when was it reached? How do you think they stacked up against the first half of the show?

 

- Do you have any thoughts on why/how the series changed course so drastically? Do you stand apart from the general opinion and feel that these episodes were more enjoyable than their reputation?

 

- What do you make of the turn toward "lore" which has been discussed a lot by Chris & Jake, the decision to codify the mythology which was very abstract and vague up through Leland's death?

 

- What have been the bright points of these episodes for you? The low points?

 

- Did you find your interest flagging at any point, where you almost stopped watching?

 

- Do you care for Windom Earle? What did you expect when he was first hinted at, way back in the later days of the Laura mystery?

 

- Did you expect threads from the Laura Palmer mystery to continue even after the investigation was concluded? Were you disappointed when the show basically moved on to new subject matter?

 

- Josie in the drawer pull: approve? Disapprove? Just utterly baffled?

 

- Did Bob's and the Little Man's reappearance in that episode work for you, or did it seem like Twin Peaks was desperately grasping at former glories (that wording may betray my own prejudice...)?

 

- Has the quality of the show's second half impacted your enjoyment of the first half in retrospect?

 

- Since Lynch's reappearance as director has already been spoiled by the podcast and pretty much everyone on the forum (including me) what are you expecting from the finale?

 

- What do you WANT to see in the finale? What would excite you and what would disappoint you?

 

- Same questions for the films. I think it's been pretty well-established what the subject of the movie is but if I'm wrong about that, I won't say anymore. What are you expecting it to be like, what do you want to see, what do you not want to see?

 

- Had you seen any Lynch films before watching Twin Peaks? If so, how did the show play out based on your expectations from that? If not, what's your impression of him from watching these, and are you now more/less interested in watching other Lynch works than you were before?

 

- On the show in general: who were your favorite characters? Favorite moments? Favorite part of the show? Did you think the first part of the second season (up to the killer's reveal) was as good as season one, or did you see a dropoff in quality even before the mystery plot ended? What did you expect going in and how were those expectations fulfilled/disappointed so far?

 

- Do you think we will see any familiar sights/characters we haven't seen in a while in the finale or do you think it will continue on the different trajectory of season two, or do you think it will find a way to combine both?

 

- What are you expecting from the Black Lodge?

 

- How's Annie?

[pabosher]

- How's Annie?

 

Spoiler Q + A because I think just reacting to it gives a shit-tonne away.

 

Ahahahaha you fucker  

[Elen]

And I guess Cooper loves him some strained chess metaphors. something like "this chess game contains more pieces that we ever imagined"? Buh, why.

Haha, I missed that one! Yeesh.

 

Yeah, this episode is pretty lackluster. I think I prefer the pine weasel to Miss Twin Peaks. It kinda makes the already deeply weird finale all the more shocking, following this episode.

[Ozzie]

The idea of the show building up to a Miss Twin Peaks contest already seemed awful. How couldn't this turn out badly? What potential lies in a storyline like that? I couldn't see it, and I think I was right to doubt it. It certainly feels icky to me. It doesn't feel like these characters really should or would want to put themselves through this experience...and the dubious aspects of it are merely made fun of. Oof.

Thinking about it, it could have had potential. I'm disappointed that Coop is into it. :/

 

Has Kyle MacLachlan stopped taking his role seriously? I can't blame him, but it looks like he parodies his character by now. Coop's and Annie's love scene...wooden, boring, unconvincing...heck, almost all their romance is boring to watch.

 

Still, I liked quite a lot of the episode, it helped that it had momentum. The show isn't lost at sea anymore, though not in the harbor yet.

 

I like the visual flair of the episode, but is it just me or is the acting generally worse than just the week before? Maybe the director didn't know how to direct his actors? Dunno...

[LostInTheMovies]

The idea of the show building up to a Miss Twin Peaks contest already seemed awful. How couldn't this turn out badly? What potential lies in a storyline like that? I couldn't see it, and I think I was right to doubt it. It certainly feels icky to me. It doesn't feel like these characters really should or would want to put themselves through this experience...and the dubious aspects of it are merely made fun of. Oof.

Thinking about it, it could have had potential. I'm disappointed that Coop is into it. :/

 

Has Kyle MacLachlan stopped taking his role seriously? I can't blame him, but it looks like he parodies his character by now. Coop's and Annie's love scene...wooden, boring, unconvincing...heck, almost all their romance is boring to watch.

 

Still, I liked quite a lot of the episode, it helped that it had momentum. The show isn't lost at sea anymore, though not in the harbor yet.

 

I like the visual flair of the episode, but is it just me or is the acting generally worse than just the week before? Maybe the director didn't know how to direct his actors? Dunno...

 

In Brad Duke's book Reflections, I think Tim Hunter (who directed this as well as two previous episodes) says that when he came back for this episode everyone's spirits seemed really down. He particularly noticed that Kyle MacLachlan was uncharacteristically cynical about where the show had gone. Don't have the book onhand but somebody who does should post the relevant passage if they can find it!

[SuperBiasedMan]

Rewatching all this is really making me very disappointed in my younger self for not particularly disliking the mid-late season 2 episodes. (it's not that I liked them a lot, I just watched right through without any real fatigue at all)

[Argobot]

Earle's creepy white face and black teeth at the beginning of this episode was the highlight for me. Genuinely unnerving because it goes uncommented on and then ramps up to something even more unnerving. The rest of this episode was not very good.

[Turgid]

Spoilered for space, though obviously not for content since I've never seen the show before:

 

Haven't done this in a while, but I'm curious to hear newcomers' take at this point in the series, with one episode & the film to go. So...some questions for first-time viewers:

 

- Do you feel the series improved in the last 4-5 episodes or do you feel these have been just as weak as the mid-season? If there was a turning point in quality for you, when was it reached? How do you think they stacked up against the first half of the show?

They have definitely improved, I'd say since s02e17 Wounds and Scars. (Just after Josie's death.) However there's still plenty of terrible stuff in there, at least the directing seems somewhat better. Still nothing like the coherent style and inescapable plotting of the first half.

 

- Do you have any thoughts on why/how the series changed course so drastically? Do you stand apart from the general opinion and feel that these episodes were more enjoyable than their reputation?

Feels like the writers totally lost interest in the main point of the show, which IMO was the town's reaction to tragedy and more generally to this creepy presence. The plotlines got scattered and the characters self-absorbed. Even in the absence of external conflict, they could have done a better job showing the characters together, interacting or at least affecting each other. Many of the individual scenes had nowhere to go and no credible drama (aka someone wants something, but there's some obstacle).

 

- What do you make of the turn toward "lore" which has been discussed a lot by Chris & Jake, the decision to codify the mythology which was very abstract and vague up through Leland's death?

I think you know the answer, which is I disliked it very much. Heck, even at the Season 2 premiere I disliked the explication of the supernatural (e.g. Leland's hair change, or a spirit giant literally appearing before Cooper and talking to him), compared to Season 1's ominous hints and shadows and plausible deniability. I wish the show had continued with dreams and premonitions and Tibetan rock-throwing. Then Leland's death speech was a disappointment although it left open some possibilities at least. 

Although the one time Cooper and Hawk discussed the Black Lodge and White Lodge wasn't so bad, everything that Windom Earle ever mentioned or touched is complete boring garbage. Owl Cave, god so dumb.

 

- What have been the bright points of these episodes for you? The low points?

In scanning through the last few episodes quickly to answer your first question, I did notice that the Ben Horne line has been consistently interesting to me, and decently well-acted. Richard Beymer portrays that character so damn well. I didn't even mind that much the third and fourth and fifth time he did the exact same scene, the one where he explains how Ghostwood Must Be Stopped. It helps that he's always bringing in Audrey and various other people in the town to interact with. (See my complaint above re: scattered plotlines.)

 

- Did you find your interest flagging at any point, where you almost stopped watching?

If it wasn't for this podcast I would have stopped after an episode or two of James doing his pointless thing at the place. Actually I kind of wish I had stopped anyway, if only to avoid the disappointment of seeing how low the show got. My last vestige of interest was seeing what happened with Leo, and then he ran into Windom Earle and I cared for nothing. Even brain-damaged Leo would have made a better villain than Earle.

 

- Do you care for Windom Earle? What did you expect when he was first hinted at, way back in the later days of the Laura mystery?

See above. Actually I was curious what his significance might be to Cooper's past, and thought they might spend a couple episodes exploring that or something. Unfortunately by the time Catherine and Earle became significant, the show was in "Tell Don't Show" mode and the quality of Cooper's portrayal fell off a cliff so we didn't get much in the way of character development.

 

- Did you expect threads from the Laura Palmer mystery to continue even after the investigation was concluded? Were you disappointed when the show basically moved on to new subject matter?

I did expect those threads to continue at least a little bit, you know, get some wrap-up and further reaction. It was pretty bizarre when pretty much none of it mattered to anyone. Except James.

 

- Josie in the drawer pull: approve? Disapprove? Just utterly baffled?

Haha, wow such a non-sequitur. Creepy, strange, in principle I approve. But why a drawer knob? An object so arbitrary that it distracted from the creepiness. Also the special effect was over the top IMO, should have kept it more subtle, but then that's my preference for Twin Peaks supernatural in general I suppose. I do like that Pete later discovers she's trapped in the Great Northern woodwork but fails to ever mention it again.

 

- Did Bob's and the Little Man's reappearance in that episode work for you, or did it seem like Twin Peaks was desperately grasping at former glories (that wording may betray my own prejudice...)?

Yeah pretty much the latter. Especially the Little Man, how was he connected at all?

 

- Has the quality of the show's second half impacted your enjoyment of the first half in retrospect?

I don't think so, if anything it's heightened my appreciation for the first half's consistent epicness. After the movie I plan to go back and rewatch through the mystery to appreciate it even more, and wash the bad taste of the second half out of my memories. (Also I get to listen to spoiler sections!)

 

- Since Lynch's reappearance as director has already been spoiled by the podcast and pretty much everyone on the forum (including me) what are you expecting from the finale?

Honestly through this whole show I haven't had many expectations, although I imagine he'll add some weird creepy stuff in. Also we'll get to see more Lodge/Red Room stuff.

 

- What do you WANT to see in the finale? What would excite you and what would disappoint you?

I would love to see a Leo/Shelly interaction again, or really Leo/anybody at all. I want to see the Little Man do something significant and creepy to bring home the whole supernatural presence storyline. I want Nadine to finally pay off her whole stupid superpowers amnesia BS that's taken up way too much screen time to be pointless and unexplained. I want everyone to talk about Laura/Maddie/Leland Palmer and nobody to talk about James. Basically I want real closure on all the things that were once important in the show. And all the main characters should come together and discuss all the crazy shit that's happened or at least have a scene where they get to do something with somebody outside their own normal bubble. Oh yeah and for God's sake tell me what is up with Eckhardt's boxkey. (By the way maybe update us on Sarah Palmer and Hank and whoever else I'm forgetting that got dropped without comment.)

 

- Same questions for the films. I think it's been pretty well-established what the subject of the movie is but if I'm wrong about that, I won't say anymore. What are you expecting it to be like, what do you want to see, what do you not want to see?

I really don't know.

 

- Had you seen any Lynch films before watching Twin Peaks? If so, how did the show play out based on your expectations from that? If not, what's your impression of him from watching these, and are you now more/less interested in watching other Lynch works than you were before?

I saw his Dune when I was very young, in fact that was what I knew Kyle MacLachlan from. I don't think I've seen anything else by him, but I think I could get behind his brand of emotionally striking imagery and creepy stuff. Especially in a more condensed (and therefore hopefully coherent and focused) format like film.

 

- On the show in general: who were your favorite characters? Favorite moments? Favorite part of the show? Did you think the first part of the second season (up to the killer's reveal) was as good as season one, or did you see a dropoff in quality even before the mystery plot ended? What did you expect going in and how were those expectations fulfilled/disappointed so far?

Pretty much all of Season 1 is gold, as far as I can remember, perhaps with a few minor exceptions. Too many favorites to count. Maybe I'll go back and point some out in the episode threads when I rewatch. Before watching, I had vaguely heard of Twin Peaks being supernatural but did not know anything else. It has certainly expanded my view of teenage/adult 90's culture. (I was born in '87 so I was too young for Twin Peaks in its heyday.)

 

- Do you think we will see any familiar sights/characters we haven't seen in a while in the finale or do you think it will continue on the different trajectory of season two, or do you think it will find a way to combine both?

Yeah like I said above, I'm hoping it calls back to the actually interesting important stuff from earlier. I imagine if it does, it will also have to combine it with this new lore / Earle stuff. I can only hope the latter is brief, vague, or both. Honestly I think the finale will focus on Earle, unfortunately, but you guys have hinted that it's good so maybe my hopes won't be dashed.

 

- What are you expecting from the Black Lodge?

Like the previous answer, I'm expecting it'll be some kind of superpower-giving and/or mind-consuming adjacent dimension that empowers/insanifies Earle and then Cooper has to save Annie or some dumb thing. But I'm *hoping* it's some kind of weird mind trip vaguely creepy and subtle influencer deep in the woods, Earle turns into a Bob-like thing and nobody can explain exactly what happened, case closed. He's gonna take over Annie isn't he, goddamn it.

 

- How's Annie?

Yeah I accidentally saw that spoiler up there.

But since you asked, I'm O.K. with her character in general. Kind of contrived, but decently well portrayed. I like that she's self-aware and deliberately subverts the Nun perception.

 

[LostInTheMovies]

Spoilered for space, though obviously not for content since I've never seen the show before

 

Ah great, I was worried I put that post up too late for anyone to respond! Really enjoyed reading your thoughts - one of my favorite things about this (ironically titled) Rewatch podcast has been the ability to see the show unfold through first-time viewers' eyes.

 

I won't say too much more at the moment since it would mostly involve spoilers but I can sympathize with a lot of this and look forward to your response, and other newcomers, to the finale and film which are my favorite parts of the Twin Peaks experience. At the very least, both provide endless fodder for discussion.

 

Also, reading about your thoughts on Lynch films makes me really hope Chris & Jake will continue the podcast with Lynch film episodes after FWWM. Maybe not every week, but like maybe once a month would be cool with new threads on the forum to discuss each episode. I've enjoyed interacting with this community and think it would be really great to hear both their thoughts and other users' on stuff like Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway. I think they're probably (understandably) ready to move on though.

 

If unfortunately we can't get any more podcasts, what about threads to discuss the various films on this board, once the podcast is over? And then if/when they do decide to do Lynch episodes they could maybe incorporate some of the ideas thrown around on the thread. Just a thought.

 

Could also provide a good bridge into a 2016 podcast if we EVER had the good fortune to find it's gonna happen (ugh, don't get me started on that...)

[richardco]

Kudos on the sub-heading for this episode.

 

Miss Twin Peaks

Something you won't be doing after this week's episode.

[Jake]

Thanks, I was very pleased with myself after writing that.

[richardco]

Wow.  I feel like I HAVE to see the Lyon's Den now.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lyon%27s_Den

 

There's barely even a clip of this thing on youtube.  Not available on Amazon.  Might have to explore more shady means.

[SuperBiasedMan]

If unfortunately we can't get any more podcasts, what about threads to discuss the various films on this board, once the podcast is over? And then if/when they do decide to do Lynch episodes they could maybe incorporate some of the ideas thrown around on the thread. Just a thought.

 

If Chris and Jake want to keep this subforum largely for official threads, we could always set up a Lynch film club thread in another forum and continue on there. I've only seen Blue Velvet and nothing else of Lynch so I'd be interested.

[Jake]

We can open it up to new threads when the cast is done.

[LostInTheMovies]

Great discussion of Twin Peaks' second half. One of the things I've enjoyed about your coverage of these later episodes is that you don't skirt around how disappointing they can be and yet you seem equally fascinated by just how strange it is that it's all part of the same show. And you really dig into WHY that is so fascinating. Your ep. 20 coverage in particular had me in stitches.

 

I agree that, while it's easy to pin blame in Peyton/Engels, they deserve some sympathy too. They were really in over their heads. To hear Peyton tell it, he did not want the role of showrunner, describing himself as a dialogue/character guy rather than a plot guy. He is actually directly responsible for a lot of the details people remember best about Twin Peaks: Audrey's cherry stem, many of Rosenfield's lines, the character of Harold Smith, etc. And Bob Engels - who was co-producer and executive story editor by season 2 - also penned some truly classic moments in the first half of the series.

 

From what I've heard (from Reflections and also conversations w/ John Thorne, who wrote the TP fanzine for a decade and interviewed pretty much everyone involved with the show) two camps emerged: Frost/Peyton & Lynch/Engels. I don't think there was much active hostility, but the alignment was clear by the time the series concluded and Lynch invited Engels to co-write the movie. To be fair, Frost was unavailable because he was shooting Storyville (and has also said he was not interested in Lynch's desired approach) but there's still something about the move that feels like a snub especially given the wider context.

 

Peyton apparently clashed with Lynch on several occasions, most notably when Lynch wanted a last-minute adjustment to include Piper Laurie in an episode and Peyton, feeling this was unfair to the episode's director, nixed it. More importantly, I see a different sensibility between Peyton and Lynch. Peyton's sense of humor, which is often very snarky and clever, feels a bit closer to Mark Frost (remember Frost did Invitation to Love) than it does to Lynch, who despite his love of absurdism also has a basic sincerity to his approach. Peyton has also described himself as a "die-hard Frost partisan" despite his tremendous respect/admiration for Lynch. Perhaps due to tensions between them, Peyton was not invited to participate in On the Air, the Lynch/Frost sitcom which followed Twin Peaks (Engels was invited and co-wrote the final episode with Lynch).

 

In Reflections, Peyton mentions that near the end of the series, Lynch was often to be found in Engels' office laughing it up over private jokes, even as Lynch and Frost drifted apart. I think Lynch and Engels definitely have a shared sense of humor: preferring arch, very dry absurdism to the verbose playfulness of Peyton or Frost. This is most apparent in the droll, deadpan

Deer Meadow sequences of FWWM.

In other ways, they may not be so similar. When I first watched the show, I noted that Engels' episodes often emphasized the teenagers' connections to Laura and concluded that he must have been very invested in the Laura storyline, like Lynch. Hence his involvement as co-writer on FWWM, right?

 

Actually, I think this was an incorrect deduction on my part because whenever I've heard Engels talks about the film he mostly ignores

the 3/4 of the movie that focuses on Laura. Instead he emphasizes the Phillip Jeffries and Bob lore, presenting it in a very wacky, sci-fi light. (He also has stated that he was surprised by the emphasis on incest and that he was more interested in the metaphysical mechanics of how Bob possessing Leland). In interviews, Engels talks about Judy could have been Josie's cousin and recalls that Windom Earle played a role in early drafts. This sounds more like the goofy throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks cross-pollination of the show's latter half than the eerie, resonant mysticism of the actual movie. 

 

Most famously, Engels has claimed that he and Lynch tossed around the idea of Bob and Mike coming to earth from a planet made of creamed corn. Yes, you read that right! The finished film is dark, grim, and disturbing (one critic described it as "like 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' directed by Michelangelo Antonioni," which oddly enough was not meant as a compliment!). But to hear Engels talk about it, you'd think they were writing Spaceballs. This is odd but perhaps explains where he was coming from with the tone/sensibility of the second season.

 

Peyton & Engels had a great grasp of the kind of flourishes and details that worked within the Lynch-Frost narrative but I don't think they took it seriously enough on a certain fundamental level. Lynch & Frost had a great time too but beneath their own winks and pranks were a very strong dramatic/thematic purpose and a sense of ambitious storytelling scope. At the risk of sounding dismissive, for Lynch and Frost, Twin Peaks was a passion project. For Peyton and Engels, it seems more like it was a really cool job.

 

Ultimately, the redeeming quality in the show's second can be found less in the viewing, which is often tedious, than in the subsequent analysis. Episodes 18-29 offer a perfect counterpoint enabling us to tease out, by contrast, just what made Twin Peaks so special in the TV landscape.

[quantum_leopold]

I liked the email explanation of all the VHS/laserdisc/DVD releases.  It was such a hard show to try to watch before Netflix and bluray.  I first watched Twin Peaks with my college girlfriend after we picked it up at the arty video rental store (the whole place was indexed by director name rather than genre and/or title, which was occasionally cool but often totally maddening, especially in the pre-smartphone era).  We unknowingly rented the European version of the pilot, and of course next got the tapes that started with Episode 2 and were totally confused.  After we'd watched 10 or so episodes, my girlfriend bought me the Season 1 DVD for Christmas right when it came out, and I recall knowing already that it only contained the first 7 episodes which we had already seen and trying to figure out how to feign excitement for that gift and when best to "discover" the problem.  We slowed down on our attempts to watch the series at some point (I recall multiple trips to the store only to find the next season 2 tapes weren't available), and then broke up sometime later.  After our breakup, when I spent a few weeks as a depressed shut-in, I went back to the arty videostore and mainlined the final 10-15 episodes of the series, but I don't recall processing much beyond being sad I couldn't talk with her about how shitty the show had become.  Rewatching the series on Netflix while listening to this podcast has made for a very different experience!

[syntheticgerbil]

Holy shit, Bob is from the Black Lodge????!?!?!?!?!?!

 

Wait, was this not established 12 episodes ago?

 

Also, an episode dedicated to get all of the female cast members to wear skimpy clothes. I see what those producers did there. Cool show, it's like Baywatch.

[Jake]

I like how little Lucy seems to think of the Miss Twin Peaks proceedings.

[feelthedarkness]

As a first time viewer, I haven't strongly disliked the 2nd half, but now I definitely feel the first 40% has been diminished by working through the rest. I didn't have the gut hatred of James that other people had. In his world he has a place, even in his woodenness, and I don't think they're significantly better off without him. The BLACK LODGE EVIL NEXUS is not really better than his clunky noir.

 

If I had one specific gripe it's that for its focus on lore I can't believe they abandoned the chess metaphor. They build it up, Earl accused Coop of cheating when he really isn't and then Earl totally abandons the chess thing?

 

I did like the strobe sequence, and Bobby getting konked for mouthing off to Fauxg Lady.