Twin Peaks Rewatch 2: Traces to Nowhere

[Jake]

Twin Peaks Rewatch 2:

Traces to Nowhere

The pieces start moving into place, and Jake and Chris start settling in, as we roll into episode two of our weekly look at the complete run of Twin Peaks. In addition to the shows' continued exhaustive launching of new storylines, we discuss Chris' trip to the shooting locations of Twin Peaks, the reasoning behind the first season's strange episode numbering, and plenty of great points raised by listeners.

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• Episode 3 Pre-Discussion Thread

If you haven't heard our discussion of the Pilot (aka episode 0, aka episode 1, aka "Northwest Passage"), you can listen here.

[mikemariano]

This is a fun episode to play "spot the changed haircut."

[Bjorn]

Chris, when you comment on the BluRay copy on the next episode, can comment on the audio quality?  I'm as interested in the remastered audio to it as I am the video, and particularly curious if the surround remix affects anything at all. 

[atte]

With fish-filtered coffee and Leo being a horrible person the range of moods is pretty huge again in this episode. I liked Truman's passionate pastry eating and this:
"The thing I thought of at four this morning when I was waiting for my husband to be released from intensive care? Cotton balls."

[Twig]

I totally forgot that Creepy Dude is introduced this early. God he's just the most disturbing character.

 

Someone pointed out in the episode one thread that he can be seen in the mirror at the end of the episode when Laura's mother is screaming.

 

Ahhh the MOST disturbing.

[WeakLemonDrink]

I might be being thick here, but I don't want to Google this in case I get spoilered; is the face that Laura's mum saw meant to be the deputy we see in the next scene?

[Golden Calf]

I might be being thick here, but I don't want to Google this in case I get spoilered; is the face that Laura's mum saw meant to be the deputy we see in the next scene?

 

I actually thought the same thing the first time I watched it. No, though.

[WeakLemonDrink]

I actually thought the same thing the first time I watched it. No, though.

 

Ah, thank you. I think I'm just primed to expect anything at this point.

[antikewl]

The podcast now seems to be live in iTunes, too.

[antikewl]

What's with all the fish?

 

Fish preparation.

Fish in the percolator.

Fish tie.

 

Actually, I think that's it. Do they symbolise anything, though?

[Dingdongfootball]

I can't tell if the guy who plays Leo is a genius or just a shitty actor. Maybe both. His woodenness, weird speaking patterns, and dead eyes make me feel really uneasy. It definitely seems intentional by Lynch to use him. I think it's really creative either way.

[Gamebeast23456]

I love Josie's overuse of idioms. Really funny little touch added in there.

Also, "I went in there to see that ridiculous smorgasbord" is classic Audrey.

[mikemariano]

I can't tell if the guy who plays Leo is a genius or just a shitty actor.

 

THIS IS WHERE WE LIVE SHELLY

[Golden Calf]

I want to punch a wall every time Nadine or Bobby come on screen

[SickNotes]

I can't tell if the guy who plays Leo is a genius or just a shitty actor. Maybe both. His woodenness, weird speaking patterns, and dead eyes make me feel really uneasy. It definitely seems intentional by Lynch to use him. I think it's really creative either way.

 

I don't think he is a bad actor. I seem to remember on watching the whole series that his range seems purposely overtly menacing. Also, David Lynch is a weird guy and he asks his actors/actresses to sometimes play parts in "off" ways. He seems to asks some actors to pretend to act poorly. So, I guess what I am trying to say is it must be tough to have him as a director, cause he asks his actors to play stuff overly sentimental or over the top.

 

Also, remember that Leo's "weirdness" is probably due to the fact that he is supposed to be suspected by the audience fairly early on to be Laura's killer. He was already home the day after the murder when he was supposed to be elsewhere. So, his acting directions were probably to play things overtly high strung.

 

Also, and I know this is dangerous territory to step into where acting is concerned, there is a central element of the series being like a soap opera. So, Truman has a lot of "gosh" and "golly gee" moments to the point where it feels they almost had to write Andy to make him seem less so. Don't get me started on Hawk. The dangerous part for the actors is that point when you put in for other roles in future casting calls and you have to explain, "No, I was acting poorly on purpose." Haha. "Yeah, when we need someone to act poorly, we'll give you a call."

[Argobot]

Good essay on Twin Peaks, the third season, and David Lynch (spoilers). http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/tools-chemicals-david-lynch-retrospective

[BobbyBesar]

I love Josie's overuse of idioms. Really funny little touch added in there.

Josie...oh, Josie.

 

Can we Real Talk for a minute?

 

Twin Peaks manages to not date itself too, too badly. Since it's in an unfashionable blue-collar town, you avoid a lot of 80s excess in the fashion and whatnot. With a few minor exceptions (e.g. cocaine vs meth), this could take place in any period in the modern era. There are some deliberate throwbacks with the bikers and Audrey and Cooper, but they're sort of an intentional Main Street USA set dressing.

 

Then, we get to Josie.

 

Sure, she's nominally Chinese from Hong Kong. But she's such a terrible 80's Japanese-sterotype pastiche. She's literally introduced by taking over a factory and shutting it down. Her terrible grammar and accent. Her wardrobe, which appears to be comprised entirely of silk / mesh kimono. It's just...*sigh*. I'm not one to look for racism as a general rule, but every scene with her in it is just cringes upon cringes.

[Bjorn]

Then, we get to Josie.

 

Sure, she's nominally Chinese from Hong Kong. But she's such a terrible 80's Japanese-sterotype pastiche. She's literally introduced by taking over a factory and shutting it down. Her terrible grammar and accent. Her wardrobe, which appears to be comprised entirely of silk / mesh kimono. It's just...*sigh*. I'm not one to look for racism as a general rule, but every scene with her in it is just cringes upon cringes.

 

I don't know if this has been linked anywhere on the boards yet or not. Joan Chen actually left TP because of those exact reasons, and it is now something she regrets (at least in part because the project she left for was a total disaster).  Which, I can see how many years later you could regret leaving something that was so unique even if your place in it was problematic because of how the character was written.

 

I have made countless stupid mistakes in life and wanting to be written out of Twin Peaks was among the stupidest. With the ignorance of my youth, and the influence of the PC factions in the Asian community, I naively rebelled against being an exotic flower. I believed that I should want to be something more meaningful. When I asked to be written out of Twin Peaks, I didn’t realize how impossibly precious the opportunity of being a beautiful Ming vase was. Unlike a real Ming vase, the value of which increases by the day, the human version, like a blossoming cereus, is only valuable for a few short hours. Couldn’t I have searched for meaning after my once in a lifetime bloom?

[BobbyBesar]

It's easy to see how in retrospect she might wish she had stuck with it, while at the time it may have been intolerable. It's laudable that she took a principled stance and walked away, regardless of how that specific project worked out in the end.

 

Not being familiar with her blog, I like that that link is a stealth recipe post. "Blah blah blah, seminal television program. Look, cookies!"

[mikemariano]

It was amusing watching her Missing Pieces scene cut out of Fire Walk With Me.  Josie is suddenly speaking fluent English in a scene that supposedly takes place a day before she gets flustered over her malaprops with Pete.

[Gamebeast23456]

I totally see why people take it that way, and why she did. Its probably true that's exactly where her character came from, but I just try to not read into thorny issues of race personally unless its so egregious that I can't not. But, certainly, one could easily take it the worst way, and I wouldn't fault them.

[Golden Calf]

I can't tell who's worse on this front, Josie or Hawk.

[BobbyBesar]

Hawk is pretty bad, but although he doesn't get many lines, at least he gets to do some police business (in both the colloquial sense and the acting sense) where he's just another deputy.

Of course, "not many lines" is part of the stereotype in his case, too.

I don't think there's anything to "read into" about it, it's just an unfortunate side effect of the time it was made.

[SickNotes]

I have hidden the post. Let me check episode 2. You are correct. My apologies. I was thinking that the pilot was 0 and that 2 was 3. I have hidden the post, how do I go back to edit it and reveal or at least copy it for the next episode.

 

I think my points were worth placing in the episode 3 discussion when that shows up.

[Twig]

There should be an edit button in the bottom right corner of your posts. I'm not sure how to unhide it. I've never hidden a post before!