Chris

Twin Peaks Rewatch 1: Pilot

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Thanks for reading my mail! Sorry for the abstruse language (here i go again), i really love using hyper-specific names for psychological phenomena.

Though I have yet to watch the rest of TP, i'm inclined to agree with Sarah that the show is more about the darkness that has always underlined mundanity, rather than it being the corruption of modernity. I suppose from the characters' POV they may believe that; the encroachment of modernity being the catalyst that causes them to confront the darkness.

This reminds me that i've been describing Twin Peaks as being similar to True Detective, to friends who have seen the latter but not the former. Highly recommended.

Also I should have acknowledged the humour in the show, but I don't know if i'd say it is unique to TP. Lynch uses humour and tonal jumps very effectively in his other works that's another reason why his horror works so well, your expectations and sense of genre security are always being manipulated.

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The Twin Peaks exterior shots near Seattle are worth seeing if you're ever in the area. You can go to Twede's Cafe (location of the Double R) and pay way too much for cherry pie and then drive around the little town where some of the best landscape shots were filmed.

I didn't realize this until recently, but Lynch is actually from the PNW. It's the perfect setting for such a weird, terrifying-in-an-unnameable-way show like Twin Peaks. The colors are so unique to this area and they really set the right mood.

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This reminds me that i've been describing Twin Peaks as being similar to True Detective, to friends who have seen the latter but not the former. Highly recommended.

I can actually agree with that. I very recently (as in a couple weeks ago) finally watched all of True Detective, and while it lacks the supernatural characteristics of Twin Peaks, it has that strange tone attached to everything.

 

Plus it's just really good, in my opinion.

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Oh man! Great episode guys!

 

I've seen the series before but I still got bummed out after listening to the spoilers, so if you're senile like me don't listen to the spoilers even if you've seen it before :) Also thanks nj00s for clarifying the Norwegian thing. I'm a Swede but I couldn't tell if the accent was real or not. Also a Swede asked question... weird Scandinavian coincidence xD. Also my mom was watching this when it was airing and waiting to deliver me and my brother which explains a lot of things.

 

When I first watched the show and still today I I'm fascinated fascinated how my "boring" and ordinary parents and everyone they knew watched this because it was the big thing on TV. And boy is it bizarre and strange at times, must have been interesting for a audience who ordinary don't experience strangeness like this to suddenly be attacked by it, unexpectedly too! It feels as if it aired today that kind of demographic wouldn't watch this kind of thing but I might be wrong.

 

 

Anyway, first post, hello to all of you! I've almost listened to all Idle thumbs episodes twice because my previous job was boring and allowed me to do so :)

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So excited for this Twin Lords Rewatch podcast. The tone, taste and cinematography (which I supposed are all tone) get you so enveloped in the world that if, like me, your original watch of Twin Peaks was in large binge chunks on Netflix, when you come up for air you don't really want to be out of that world quite so soon. There are a lot of shows like that for me. Mad Men, Fringe, Hannibal. All great shows that are/were incredible for the majority of their run. Which makes the clunkers stick out so much more, just like the ones we know are coming in season two of Twin Peaks. And with all of those shows, it's usually a case of that tone being pushed too far to the other side. With TP, the examples that come to mind are

James sleeping with that lady, Donna hanging out with that guy who is scared to leave his home, a lot of Josie moments, and Heather Graham.

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Oh man! Great episode guys!

 

I've seen the series before but I still got bummed out after listening to the spoilers, so if you're senile like me don't listen to the spoilers even if you've seen it before :) Also thanks nj00s for clarifying the Norwegian thing. I'm a Swede but I couldn't tell if the accent was real or not. Also a Swede asked question... weird Scandinavian coincidence xD. Also my mom was watching this when it was airing and waiting to deliver me and my brother which explains a lot of things.

 

When I first watched the show and still today I I'm fascinated fascinated how my "boring" and ordinary parents and everyone they knew watched this because it was the big thing on TV. And boy is it bizarre and strange at times, must have been interesting for a audience who ordinary don't experience strangeness like this to suddenly be attacked by it, unexpectedly too! It feels as if it aired today that kind of demographic wouldn't watch this kind of thing but I might be wrong.

 

 

Anyway, first post, hello to all of you! I've almost listened to all Idle thumbs episodes twice because my previous job was boring and allowed me to do so :)

 

I think you're absolutely right that if TP aired today, not nearly as many people would watch it. Maybe the pilot, but as with most serialized shows today, the weirder it gets from there, the more viewers drop off. You saw it with shows like Lost and Fringe.

 

And just to mention one more show from back then that seemingly everyone watched: Grace Zabriskie (Laura's mom) also played Susan's mom on Seinfeld. She was equally heartbroken when she found out her husband was having an affair with John Cheever.

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I kinda like the idea of Twin Peaks dealing with the idea of modernity. Though I don't really have any fully formed notions about the concept.

 

I understand the concept that Twin Peaks has always had something evil in the woods.

 

What I will say is that one of the big drivers of all the horror at this particular point seems to be all the drugs that are being handed around in the background. Cocaine is a huge plot point in the movie. At the point TP aired, I think the drug trade in a small town might have actually been a little "laughable?" Especially because they picked Cocaine which is imported not produced in a place like Twin Peaks. What I am trying to say, is that this was a time before many of the people in larger cities (or even medium) ones realized that, like the prohibition era and alcohol, a lot of drugs like marijuana, meth, and mdma were actually being made in small towns. These were small out of the way places that benefited from having too small a police force to be up on it or were in some instances complicit in their production. I don't know what I am saying here in any concrete way, but I definitely like the idea of the town having to deal with the War on Drugs and how that lets the modern world knock on their door.

 

There is also the notion of the "outside investors" for the hotel being a threat to their current way of life.

 

Maybe this has something to do with the mixing of the old evils and the new evils and how you don't want that to happen in a place like Twin Peaks. I have always felt that in Twin Peaks evil is a currency worth more to than in other places, if that makes any sense.

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When I first watched the show and still today I I'm fascinated fascinated how my "boring" and ordinary parents and everyone they knew watched this because it was the big thing on TV. And boy is it bizarre and strange at times, must have been interesting for a audience who ordinary don't experience strangeness like this to suddenly be attacked by it, unexpectedly too! It feels as if it aired today that kind of demographic wouldn't watch this kind of thing but I might be wrong.

 

If you were born around this time (or even later for younger members here), it's probably hard to imagine how homogenous entertainment was then.  Cable was *mostly* reruns, movies and super cheap original productions.   Watching what was on one of the big 3 was the default entertainment choice for a huge chunk of America.

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When I first watched the show and still today I I'm fascinated fascinated how my "boring" and ordinary parents and everyone they knew watched this because it was the big thing on TV. And boy is it bizarre and strange at times, must have been interesting for a audience who ordinary don't experience strangeness like this to suddenly be attacked by it, unexpectedly too! It feels as if it aired today that kind of demographic wouldn't watch this kind of thing but I might be wrong.

 

Yeah, it was a phenomenon. I agree. So much so that there was a Twin Peaks SNL skit about it. But, I agree with what you are saying that you can't imagine it working now. I hope it does. I think one of Lynch's blessings is his inscrutability. Meaning you can scrutinize his work all you want, but in the end, what you are watching is the motion picture equivalent of a Dali painting. You are only listening in. Shows like Lost took a page from Lynch's book by trying to be mysterious, but in the end, fail to deliver the same level of inscrutability and maybe audiences today want that big reveal at the end. 

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Very interesting first episode, Chris and Jake. I listened to it at work and it was good listenin'. I especially like to hear all the crazy stories about how Lynch made it and the intricacies of the production. It's been a while since I saw the show, but I can still picture a lot of the broad strokes (not so much the details of all the plotlines).

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just wanted to post lil something many new people or even RR twins might have missed- watch Sarah's mother scream scene at the end, there might be someone or something in the mirror...

 

I read about this after I watched the pilot, and had to go back. Super creepy. Apparently it was another accident moment, like the doctor saying his name and Cooper repeating his line, and the light flickering that Lynch didn't fix because he liked the look of it. 

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Great first episode and I'm a huge fan of Twin Peaks. I was never into Lynch's work when Twin Peaks was on the air, but my roommate and closest friend from college introduced me to his feature films because he's actually related to Lynch. When I went off to begin my MFA in film production, one of my fellow classmates and neighbors was a massive Twin Peaks fan and upon hearing I'd never seen the show, vowed to marathon it with me in the evenings after classes. It was interesting watching Twin Peaks with someone who was so well versed in both the themes and content... I imagine they might mirror some of the discussions you'll have on the podcast moving forward (a lot of coffee shop talk about those stop lights and the ever present trucks loaded with logs outside the windows of various scenes).

You probably already have this answered in various ways, and I'll try not to spoil anything too badly - although I might - but my understanding was that the Laura Palmer mystery was never supposed to be solved. ABC pressured Frost and Lynch to provide an answer once they saw they had a real hit on their hands and that pushed the creation of the solution in the series. The European pilot I think does provide a concrete answer as well that was stumbled on somewhat accidentally with Lynch spotting Frank Dasilva.

The metaphysical angle gets downplayed, if my recollection is anywhere near correct, and the answer is more of a drifter-type being responsible (I think literally Bob who is literally Frank Dasilva). I might be hazy on that though.

Anyway looking forward to rewatching the show and keeping up with the podcast. Good stuff.

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Apologies, I just googled how to do spoiler tags to hide the part about the European pilot.  If I should spoiler tag more, let me know.  

 

Is there a way to tag the whole post as a spoiler somehow for forum filters?

 

edit:  Also, I wanted to agree that the moment Laura's Mom and Dad find out about their daughter's death was pure genius in every way... the writing, performances... all absolutely brutal to watch.  

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The announcement of this book should not be surprising. The creators weren't against creating a bunch of companion guides, i.e. "The Diary of Laura Palmer" and others. I remember my sister was so into the show that she bought a series of audio cassettes that were just recordings of Dale Cooper's notes to Diane.

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I feel like I've been living under a rock my whole life for not having heard of (maybe in passing I must have) this show. I was born the year it aired so I suppose that explains most of it. The tone is seriously masterful, and I'm a huge fan of the quirky black humor in films like this juxtaposed against horror elements. I'm trying to watch one episode a week to keep pace with the cast, but it's tough to resist binging out.

I really enjoyed the format of the cast too, I'm not a huge film critic so it was nice to have some freeform discussion and mullings-over leading into more in depth conversations. A nice way to ease into things. And splitting the episode with reader mail in the non-spoiler section is great.

Going to watch the second episode now, very excited.

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I was re-watching this episode with my wife and she pointed out the scene with Dr. Jacoby. Particularly, she pointed out it was funny and really creepy that his tie was a hula girl with an actual grass skirt. When he tells Cooper and Truman that Laura's parents didn't know he was seeing their daughter, he is actually caressing the hula girls genital area under the skirt. Creepy and funny.

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Rewatched the pilot with my wife last night, listened to the podcast today! Excellent discussion. Really looking forward to watching this along with you guys!

 

Some scattered thoughts on the pilot:

 

Troy Evans really sold the heck out of that principal's speech. I was almost in tears by the end! The long, ominous shots of the empty school helped..

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James Marshall as James Hurley did not, for me.. I may be irreparably ruined on that character/actor having watched his storyline unfold in S2. :(

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They couldn't have found a better Jack Nicholson smirk-a-like:

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I found it hilarious that the deer head was ever supposed to hang on the wall there, it's HUGE! How would anyone ever be able to walk around that table?

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On rewatching Andy is still my favorite goofy, naive, child-like trooper ever:

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I loved these two shots of the Major! That background in the sheriff's station scene.  :blink:

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Maybe not the most beautiful shots in a pretty visually stunning pilot, but they stood out to me!

 

"Know why I'm whittling?" "Because that's what you do in a town where a yellow light still means slow down, not speed up."

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Here's the mysterious mirror at the end of the episode, for those who missed it. Spoilered, just because..

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Anyways! Sorry for the image dump. Thanks for doing this podcast, it's an excellent thing and a good reason to rewatch this thing!

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So my feedback for the podcast is that I think its fine that you guys jumped around. Presumably everyone listening already has watched the episode so like a plot recap or whatever is pretty unnecessary obviously. I'm fine with you guys describing whatever was striking to you, and if it doesn't all fit together that's okay. This will be my fourth time rewatching the series, and one thing that is cool about it is every time I have rewatched it I end up with this different interpretive structure that informs how I view scenes. So the show seems to defy any kind of simple interpretation (it's about THIS, NOT THIS), and instead just encompasses so much (it's about this AND this AND this AND this, etc.)

 

I have to admit, I got a little frustrated when you decided to hold off during the spoiler section discussing the image of the traffic light because you decided that conversation was non-spoilery. From my perspective people new to the show will get to that stuff if they go back to the podcast, and meanwhile you've made the conversation a little more stilted, and you might not even get around to talking about that image anyway since there is always a ton of stuff to talk about on the show anyway. I think if during the spoiler section you discuss non-spoilery stuff that is okay.

 

tl;dr version Mostly, I just want the conversation to be free-flowing like it is on Idle Thumbs.

 

As for the Pilot episode, I was also impressed with how carefully the shots were framed to reveal how communication takes place. The way people learn about Laura Palmer's death, every time someone asks someone to shut the door (to constrict a conversation), anytime someone overhears another conversation (kind of a soapy technique there), or more comically the way Lucy explicitly states phone transfers. I think all of the attention placed on understanding the flow of communication does a terrific job of helping inform the viewer about the identity of the community, specifically a small town community in the pre-internet era. It's the sort of thing we can take for granted now where if something happens the assumption (perhaps dubious) is we're just going to find out about it, and quickly. Here we see all the work that is done. I think the value in that presentation is it really shows how horrific things like sexual violence and abuse against women can simultaneously be both hidden from view and in plain sight because of how these communication channels create different networks of knowledge, and form individual identities based upon a person's location within that network.

 

Lynch is also kind of playing with the audience of the show existing in a different communication network, and how much an audience knows about the show affects our understanding about the motivations of different characters. The clue to the audience that Lynch is playing with them is found in the video Cooper shows to different people, and gauging their reaction. the video is both something of a mystery (who is shooting the video?) and also supposed to be a source of truth.

 

Rewatching the show definitely really changes how I read the intentionality of characters, and that is super interesting. Like, knowing how the series ends makes Agent Cooper's actions in the pilot take on a much more sinister tone depending on how you interpret the meaning of the nature of evil in the series.

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I think we've moved on from this, but the idea that the invasion of modernity is one of the central themes of the show doesn't really work for me. As my wife pointed out, one of the major conflicts of the show appears to be older men targeting and exploting young women which is, in her words "the oldest crime that exists".

 

But, lets talk about Cooper. Caveat: I've pre-watched a handful of episodes, but not the whole series.

 

What's interesting about Cooper is that he in addition to being a narrative outsider to the town, he's also basically the epicenter of the genre-bending that the series embodies. Cooper is basically a 50's throwback. He's a noir detective. He's charmed by the small town atmosphere (because he didn't think it existed anymore). 

 

My wife noted that Twin Peak's setting has a lot in common with the fiction of Raymond Carver. But Cooper walked out of a Raymond Chandler novel and wandered into town. Twin Peaks isn't a 50's Leave it To Beaver town. Cooper isn't naive per se, he just seems that way because that's his milieu.

 

There's a somewhat common theme in a certain kind of fairy tale that state basically states that how you handle the magical and unexpected can have a big impact on your outcomes. If you take things in stride, try to fit in, and don't freak out, you'll probably come out a lot better than if you react violently. When the Red Queen asks you to play croquet with a flamingo, just politely play along until you see a graceful way out. Otherwise you may lose your head. Cooper seems to understand this: nothing fazes him (see: his reaction to the Bookhouse Boys).

 

Is it inaccurate to call Twin Peaks magical realism? I never see it described that way, but that seems like it may be appropriate.

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