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Jake

Twin Peaks Rewatch 34: Catching Up

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Twin Peaks Rewatch 34:

Twin Peaks Rewatch 34


Catching Up
Twin Peaks is coming back and so are we! Join us as we kick the rust off this podcast, in anticipation of following all of Twin Peaks season three in real time, starting next week. This week, we're warming up by sharing our own expectations for what the new Twin Peaks might hold, discussing Showtime's marketing of the series' return to television, and scratching the surface of Mark Frost's novel, The Secret History of Twin Peaks.

We'll be recording a podcast for every episode of the new season and we'd love to hear from you! If you have a question for us or thoughts to share on the Twin Peaks season premiere, write us at [email protected].

Some notes on upcoming scheduling: Showtime is airing the first four new episodes of Twin Peaks two at a time. During the next two weeks, we will be putting out two episodes a week, to keep pace! So look for the podcast covering the premiere on Monday, May 22, and the podcast covering episode two sometime mid-week.

 

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Am I more excited for Twin Peaks Season 3 or for new eps of Twin Peaks Rewatch coming back? (Probably the former, but I'm pretty pumped for the latter as well, let's be real)

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I am wholeheartedly looking forward to the return of the podcast but I am trepidatious about the series. It's going to be bonkers! And I am looking forward to Chris saying that it's "Bonkers" and that he's "Flabbergasted".  Finished a rewatch the other day and I've been avoiding stuff about the new one. I'm ready!

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I'm pretty hopeful for the show. I've seen a lot of people compare season 3 to the X-Files reboot but those shows are very different. The X-Files was Mulder and Scully (which is why the show flopped so badly when they tried to replace Mulder and Scully in season 9) and no reboot was ever going to recapture that former glory. As much as we think we want to see Mulder and Scully back at the FBI after decades away, there's something that's sad about these people doing essentially the same thing they were doing in the 90s, just now they look older. Twin Peaks won't have that same problem, because that show is a lot more than any one character. So the reboot nostalgia backfire shouldn't apply in this case.

 

That said, maybe we're in for a Ridley Scott/Prometheus situation here.

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I don't think David Lynch cares about appealing to nostalgia or fan service. I think it's more likely that it ends up barely resembling old Twin Peaks and is a wildly different thing.

 

Lynch & co. has been doing the rounds in interviews the last week or so and said something that sort of threw me a little and wasn't something I ever considered. 

Quote

Levine says viewers can come back to Peaks with encyclopedic knowledge of the original, or none at all. Watching the 1990 pilot episode wouldn't hurt, he says.
Lynch, cryptic as ever, makes no such recommendation: The new series "has to work on its own. It doesn't hurt to know the past, but it's not a prerequisite," he says. "And if (viewers) feel lost, there’s plenty of people to help them out" on social media, which effectively didn't exist in 1990

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2017/05/17/david-lynch-twin-peaks-showtime-kyle-maclachlan/101774630/

 

I guess I always figured that this would effectively be treated as Season 3, but that quote almost makes it sounds like this is a completely separate show that shares the universe and some characters of the old show. The idea that it isn't necessary to have seen the old show is very interesting.

 

 

However probably the thing that makes me the most confident in the quality of the new series is actually a short featurette on the blu ray, which I believe the timing works out to it being shot around when they would have been writing the scripts. David Lynch, as himself, interviews the Palmer family all in character. 

If we presume that all this dialog was written by Lynch, it proves that he still has it, and it also proves that these actors still have it. It's a pretty great little scene. It also adds more fuel to the fire to the "was Leland in control of Bob" argument.

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2 hours ago, mikemariano said:

Yay, you're back! Sorry for hogging reader mail. :getmecoat

 

Thank you for writing in! It was hugely helpful.

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I was really excited for the cast to come back, refreshing my podcast app constantly last night. I was disappointed you two decided against the spoiler music jingle for Audrey's fate. :P

 

Agreed with your sentiments on the book Jake. Hawk's reading (and Michael Horse's narration in the audiobook) of Norma, Big Ed and Hank's life was the high point of the Secret History of Twin Peaks. But ultimately I felt like the book told us too much and nothing at all about the mythology of Twin Peaks. I quite liked how it prodded around what happened to the Log Lady as a child, but really didn't like extending Twin Peaks lore to every corner of the globe.

 

I enjoyed Something True's retelling of Jack Parsons's attempt to summon a demon far more than this book's version.

 

Edit: I will say actually was really into the conceit of the Archivist and even the slight teasing of Tamara Preston (TP) from the season 3 in the Secret History.

Edited by Ash_NR
More thoughts

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On the advice of @Chris and @Argobot last year, I went to visit Snoqualmie (the town where some shots are filmed) and the Double R Diner and it was extremely cool. Also, the lady who works in the diner said she believed that Bobby would be the new Sheriff in town, so there's some EXCLUSIVE CONTENT. That may be false, who knows.

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I finished Reflections today and re-watched the finale just to get myself back in the mood. I still absolutely love the series finale. While reading Reflections, there's a part where people are speculating as to what the show could've been, and I'm just trying to imagine if that episode (or at least some of the ideas in it) had showed up ten (or fifteen) episodes earlier, how much more interesting the show could've been. I mean, probably the only reason Lynch came back to direct at all was because it was the final episode, but it's still fun to ponder. I guess we'll see if any of that is resolved in the new series.

 

I was also shocked by how much of season 2 I had just completely forgot. Hopefully, most of that stuff doesn't come up again...

 

One thing I noticed, was that in the final scene Cooper is wearing blue pajamas. I thought this was interesting, considering the comment in the book (that you referenced in the podcast) about Lynch trying to avoid the colour blue. If I remember correctly, aren't Cooper's pajamas blue for the entire series? Was the whole "no blue" thing just a joke Lynch came up with on the spot, or is this meaningful?

 

Really looking forward to the podcast. I re-watched the show for the third time along with your podcast - well, I skimmed through a lot of season 2 - and I'm excited to hear you guys talk about Twin Peaks every week again! (And I hope @LostInTheMovies shows up to school us all and add his insights! :))

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Out of curiosity, what do people think will be especially pertinent from the last week of Laura Palmer's life? I reckon the Chalfonts, and Leland's line "I always thought you knew it was me" are important, but past that??? Oh, and the ring I guess...

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Blue pyjamas! I hadn't considered that. Basic cinematic details like this just don't turn up much on TV, even now. These elements seem to come with Lynch.

 

Fantastic to hear the podcast again - after years of ads I finally registered for my 30-day Audible trial so I can listen to The Secret History over the weekend 👍

 

I also found this on sale:

IMG_4278_zpsrdgod42v.jpg?w=480&h=480&fit

and it arrived this morning. It's a beautiful thing!

 

I'll probably watch Fire Walk With Me and/or the season 2 finale as a series a warmer, too. I feel like I've arrived at an evolved state where my expectations are tempered but I'm still excited to devour every morsel - because at the very least, the choices will be interesting. What's picked up again, what's referenced, what's expanded upon, what's just dropped - interesting is certainly the right word here😉 I've glanced at the cast list before quickly closing Wikipedia. I'm excited to have 18 fresh hours to chew on.

 

The big Q is: Will the name Windom Earle ever again be uttered?

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I don't think we'll get Windom Earle, which is a shame. That character had potential and in some cases was used really well. In some other cases...not so much. But I imagine most of the "lore" in the second season will get dropped or only very, very indirectly referenced. My biggest question is whether or not Invitation to Love comes back. I kind of hope it doesn't; the soap opera has fallen so far from the place it had in the early 90s, it doesn't make as much sense for a TV show made now to have such an obvious reference to a form of television that is no longer relevant.

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Do you think there'll be some sort of Invitation to Love substitute? A reality show, perhaps?

 

I've spend the evening listening to the Firewatch 😉 With Me soundtrack - it's a real winner. While the TV show soundtrack may be a little too Invitation to Love-y to stand on its own, the movie score is generally far subtler and works well without the film. Also, it features Julee Cruise singing Lynch's lyrics dreamily on a song called Questions In A World Of Blue...

 

Everything is blue now! Like Laura Palmer's eyes...

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4 hours ago, Argobot said:

I don't think we'll get Windom Earle, which is a shame. That character had potential and in some cases was used really well. In some other cases...not so much. But I imagine most of the "lore" in the second season will get dropped or only very, very indirectly referenced. My biggest question is whether or not Invitation to Love comes back. I kind of hope it doesn't; the soap opera has fallen so far from the place it had in the early 90s, it doesn't make as much sense for a TV show made now to have such an obvious reference to a form of television that is no longer relevant.

 

I would be very happy if Invitation to Love is still on the air 25 years later. Soap operas aren't relevant now but that doesn't mean they aren't still on daytime TV at least a little bit.

 

That said, your pointing out that it was commenting on something a lot more prevalent in the culture at the time made me imagine "what would the modern equivalent be? would they all be binging the rebooted "Invitation to Love: RSVP" on Netflix and I got really sad. If Invitation to Love doesn't appear I hope that it is not replaced by something else to serve the same role. At least not something literal. I don't expect then to go there - or if they do it, for it to be very weird or backgrounded - but so many revival shows can't resist that kind of catnip. 

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The real question is if any time during these 18 episodes will the name "Dick Tremane" be spoken?

dicktremayne.jpg

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2 hours ago, Jake said:

 

I would be very happy if Invitation to Love is still on the air 25 years later. Soap operas aren't relevant now but that doesn't mean they aren't still on daytime TV at least a little bit.

 

That said, your pointing out that it was commenting on something a lot more prevalent in the culture at the time made me imagine "what would the modern equivalent be? would they all be binging the rebooted "Invitation to Love: RSVP" on Netflix and I got really sad. If Invitation to Love doesn't appear I hope that it is not replaced by something else to serve the same role. At least not something literal. I don't expect then to go there - or if they do it, for it to be very weird or backgrounded - but so many revival shows can't resist that kind of catnip. 

 

Yeah, I suspect it'll either be Invitation to Love or nothing. This is one of the few revivals/sequels where I'm not too worried about the modern world creeping into dialogue. No one will talk about Uber or Twitter or Netflix. Someone may have a smart phone (hopefully not though) and that'll be the extent of it.

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25 minutes ago, Argobot said:

 Someone may have a smart phone (hopefully not though) and that'll be the extent of it.

Hopefully it's Michael Cera who has a smartphone so that I can doubly tune out the people who are already going to complain he's in the show no matter what he does (I'm assuming they're also the people who will be annoyed if a cell phone shows up no matter what its purpose).

 

I mean, this photo makes me think there's going to be smartphones and people are just going to use them like they do normally. Who knows what the tone of things will be like once music and pacing and editing and of course acting come into play, but the blatant modern cars in this shot implies pretty heavily that they're not making any bones about the show taking place in present day. They didn't make an effort to mix in some old ones in the foreground to help push the tone to feel more "classic-feel-but-still-justifiably-modern-setting" or anything. (Of course, there's a difference between someone calling or even receiving a text on a smartphone, and Bobby deciding to open google maps to give him a driving route to Hungry Horse Montana or something).

 

rr.png

 

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My take on everything in these trailers, and the omnipresent "It is happening again" in all the marketing, is a Twin Peaks that hasn't moved on, that hasn't learnt anything as a community about the death of Laura Palmer. Then a thought popped in my head of seeing Lucy watch reruns of Invitation to Love, stuck in that same lobby of the Sheriff's department.

 

I am scared/excited that we are getting 18 hours of Fire Walk With Me that was discussed in the cast.

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On 5/19/2017 at 0:42 PM, Argobot said:

I don't think we'll get Windom Earle, which is a shame. That character had potential and in some cases was used really well. In some other cases...not so much.

 

I didn't follow the Thumbs' rewatch podcast a few years back because I wanted to save it all for right before the new Showtime series finally aired.

 

I seriously forgot that character was even in the show until doing my own rewatch recently (first viewing since the Gold Box DVD era). The imagery of BOB taking his "soul" at the end has always stayed with me, but in my head the character was someone else completely, I had replaced him with MIKE in that moment.


You're right he was used well in a few instances but I can't say I'll miss him. Plus he sort of met his end as it were in Lynch's finale of the original series. Of course nothing really seems definite or final in this world. I don't think I'd mind if he came back because was still a sizable part of the latter end of the series and could probably be better utilized by Lynch himself, but I also can't imagine how or why his character would return. And with the way his story ended so abruptly, to me it seemed like Lynch didn't care that whole storyline and where it went and so he basically washed his hands of it.

 

I haven't read any of the ancillary stuff surrounding the production of the old and new Twin Peaks so I really have no idea. I will say it was nice to see Kenneth Welsh pop up recently in the indie horror flick The Void, he delivers a decent and creepy performance. The movie is not that good, but still worth a watch if you dig well realized practical effects, rare these days.

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21 hours ago, pyide said:

I will say it was nice to see Kenneth Welsh pop up recently in the indie horror flick The Void, he delivers a decent and creepy performance. The movie is not that good, but still worth a watch if you dig well realized practical effects, rare these days.

 

This is extremely true.

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On 5/17/2017 at 6:04 PM, purps said:

If we presume that all this dialog was written by Lynch, it proves that he still has it, and it also proves that these actors still have it. It's a pretty great little scene. It also adds more fuel to the fire to the "was Leland in control of Bob" argument.

 

According to the blu producer Lynch sent over some scraps of paper with the dialogue that morning (it was just supposed to be an interview with the actors). No one except the actors was told what was on them and they went off in their corners to study for an hour. When Lynch arrived and they started shooting, he announced he would be interviewing the Palmers which was the first anyone on the crew heard of this idea, and they just rolled form there with the actors speaking the lines Lynch had given them not much earlier. Hopefully I'm not mangling that story but the short version is - yes, he definitely wrote it.

 

Regarding the series accomodating new viewers

Spoiler

having now seen it, I have no idea what Lynch was talking about lol. And I'm somebody who believes viewers can watch FWWM without the series! But this, straight out of the gate, was *extremely* reliant on knowledge of the old material, to the point of not even having a clear hook in the premiere. I'm loving it but I realized right away this was not going to be a repeat of the spring of '90 with tens of millions of new viewers all starting fresh.

 

The only mitigating factor is, this is Lynch and even people who have watched the rest of Twin Peaks aren't going to be sure what's going on a lot of the time themselves. I did show 3&4 to my parents - who had never watched Twin Peaks - the other night and they were able to more or less hang on. Some of it does speak for itself. But that tends to be true of any TV series - there are always people who tune in in the middle of a run or even an episode and try to make sense from there. That's quite different from claiming the series was designed with new viewers in mind which it certainly doesn't seem to have been despite the creators' counterclaims.

 

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