Jake

Twin Peaks Rewatch 11: The Man Behind Glass

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That's the reason I'm glad they never had Audrey and Cooper enter into a physical relationship. The circumstances of that would've been different, but it's still not quite right and even ickier in context of the town.

 

It's a good point and I'm of two minds on the way that storyline went. On the one hand

I think it was a mistake to end their interactions altogether. There was something really touching about their connection - they are both lonely people in a way - and their sexual/romantic tension was certainly electric. Going forward in the post-Laura period this could have been something that really preserved the emotional undertone/gravity to the show, much more so than the silly subplots they went with. On the other hand, I agree that Coop & Audrey getting it on really would have felt weird and out of character for Coop. And beyond that, dramatically-speaking, consummation usually dereails the power of these types of relationships on TV. I wonder if the writers, pissed off that MacLachlan had vetoed the plan, threw their hands up and just said, "Fine. No more Audrey and Cooper at all then" or if MacLachlan actually asked them to end the character's relationship full-stop. If the latter, that would provide evidence for the general assumption on set (endorsed quite emphatically by both Mark Frost and Sherilyn Fenn) that Lara Flynn Boyle was calling the shots and it wasn't just about MacLachlan's perception of the character. The irony being that Lara Flynn Boyle the actress actually was 18 when she started dating MacLachlan!

 

I think what would have worked best is a storyline drawing Cooper and Audrey closer together (maybe Windom Earle is specifically targetting her, as he eventually did Annie) without actually putting them in a sexual relationship.

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Yeah, my memories are hazy at best but I do remember finding that Audrey gets disappointingly sidelined when rescued from One Eyed Jacks and that it was very unsatisfying and unfitting that their relationship is just excised from the show. Even if they wanted them to separate from each other, I'd have been way more interested to see Coop make a specific effort to not involve himself with her any more and the fallout of that than their interactions just disappearing from the show while both of them get more suitable romantic interests.

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Remember: John Lennon was a sarcastic jerk who was also sincerely committed to imagining peace.  I don't find Albert Rosenfield to be a walking contradiction at all.

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It's a good point and I'm of two minds on the way that storyline went.

I absolutely agree with you,

that was no reason to separate them altogether, especially since they're friends. Acted on or not, they had great chemistry with each other and were two of the most strongly defined characters, to boot.

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Does anyone else find it strange that it took leland basically a full day from deciding to go and tell the sheriff about the poster to actually showing up and telling them? I remember him in the previous episode rushing out of the office to go do it.

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I do wonder what direction the intended direction of the show was in respect to agent cooper then. I think they wanted their perfect man, (Cooper) to have some kind of a fall. Which happens at the end of the second season. All the male characters in the show, with a few notable exceptions allow desire to force them into some kind of negative action or affect.

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I do wonder what direction the intended direction of the show was in respect to agent cooper then. I think they wanted their perfect man, (Cooper) to have some kind of a fall. Which happens at the end of the second season. All the male characters in the show, with a few notable exceptions allow desire to force them into some kind of negative action or affect.

 

From the evidence, it seems this was indeed Mark Frost's intention, although David Lynch had a different reading of the character. The chapter on Twin Peaks in The Passion of David Lynch by Martha Nochimson provides a good overview of their divergent visions. I also recently created a video on the subject:

 

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Hey, lost in movies, Just found your videos today. watched your first one on my lunch break. Very well done. Look forward to seeing the rest of them soon. Thanks.

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Hey, lost in movies, Just found your videos today. watched your first one on my lunch break. Very well done. Look forward to seeing the rest of them soon. Thanks.

 

Glad you enjoyed it. I'm in the midst of writing the final chapters now, so hopefully some more videos will be up by the time you get to the end; if not, stay tuned - hopefully in a week I'll have the last chapters up (either 5 or 6 more, 4 specifically on FWWM, which seems like a lot but boy is there a lot to unpack in that movie!).

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The scene with Maddy and James at the Palmer house is very weird. First, James just walks in. I know he was Laura's friend, but wasn't that a big secret? So Leland and Sarah probably wouldn't know who this kid was right?. I mean I guess Maddy's allowed to have house guests over. Hey Maddy, kissing him isn't going to put out that fire, honey. But then Donna also just appears inside the Palmer house. Ok, she's her childhood friend whatever. Then James freaking smashes the Palmers' living room lamp in a rage! And Leland finally comes down to see what all the ruckus is about. Talk about a rude house guest! The scene where he screams "WHY?!" at Donna peeling away in her car is equally ridiculous, as if the answer is hard to understand. Well, maybe for him it is.

 

When Leland rushes downstairs after James smashes the lamp he's clearly completely baffled by the situation, which is fair, because ignoring everything else that ought to confuse Leland about what was going on, the fact that James' reaction to anything is just to smash up stuff in his deceased girlfriend's home, or anyone's home, is just absurd.

 

A nice touch is that we see James run out of the house after Laura leaving a distraught Maddie and baffled Leland and apparently doesn't even come back to apologize because when Truman and Cooper arrive later to arrest Leland they walk in through the door that he had left when he charged out of the house.

 

Man, James.

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Just finished the first three chapters, Bravo! Excellent use of music and the editing is well done and effective. Voice over sounds good too. I would recommend it to anyone that wants a deeper look at twin peaks. Also good of you to hold reveals to the obvious places where a first time watcher wouldn't stumble over them. My personal favorite stuff is the analysis of the last episode and the info about Theosophy. I was unaware of a lot of the philosophical background material. Also I don't think I was as aware of how much Frost had to do with the mythology of the show, though I read his book the list of seven years ago which should have clued me in. All in all a great guide to twin peaks.

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Twin Peaks fans can disagree about a lot of things, but everyone is united in the face of James being the fuckin' worst.

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James what a dope. I bet he kisses whoever he tells about his mum. 

 

Its reaaally gross and rough what blackie does to Audrey. 

 

Cooper is being a complete dense  here with regards to Audrey. He knows Audrey saw her in the suit and she’s missing come oooooon intuition man!

 

Later spoilers (maybe series 3)

 

Spoiler

How the heck can Albert be so cynical about the giant is really weird to me. Maybe he’s playing it cool but I don’t feel it. 

 

The show feels like it’s losing a lot of steam. I don’t know why but there seems to be a lack of snap and surprise to everything (jokes and whatnot). I’m not putting this down to a repeated viewing because series 1 ,which I’ve seen twice before, was still a gem. 

 

flowers guy is really off and Donna is insane for just popping round his house. She’s like sensible but also falling into Laura’s traps. She also moaned about Laura’s problems lingering past death while actively poking the hornets nest. Odd. 

 

When ed was singing a song I was hoping to hear James song (like it was a family song). 

 

How many diaries does Laura have?!

 

Lets go find mike! Nah let’s hypnotise jacoby. 

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