Twin Peaks Return: The Profoundly Disappointed Support Group

[Fire-blog-with-me]

E04 was a drop on E03, and now we have this sharper drop (apart from the music) acknowledged even by many of the enthusiasts, to their credit.

I think the most you can attribute to the 'enthusiasts' is some of them felt it was not quite as good as the first four.

Personally I thought it was the best yet, but that's me! I'll see myself out.

I also thought this (Part 5) was a great episode, if not the best overall episode of The Return yet. I was quite surprised when I saw so much disappointment on the forums but thankfully that doesn't diminish my own enjoyment of it.

[N. Needleman]

Well, again I think 'so much disappointment' is overstated. The most I've seen is some people thinking it wasn't as good as the first four, which frankly is understandable given we all binged them over and over for weeks in a block and they were full of eyepopping sequences.

They were all great to me, but this was insane in its melding of the sinister and dreamlike with new horrors and wonders in the real world outside the Lodge - particularly in Twin Peaks proper and Vegas, with the Mitchum brothers and Coop's growing epiphanies.

[LurkerAtTheThreshold]

Episode five was the first episode I've enjoyed first watch.

I don't know if it's because I've lowered my expectations and decided to roll with it, or just come to accept (even like?) whatever this thing is.

It was just as ridiculous as previous episodes, but when dopplecoop threatens to call 'Mr Strawberry' I burst into laughter.

The scenes of Amanda Siegfried were cool, and I think she could end up wrapped in plastic, triggering a whole new mystery, anyone getting that feeling?
Don't know if my faith has been absolutely restored in the creators yet, but this is such a unique television experience, I have wholeheartedly embraced it at this point. Anyone else still feeling profoundly disappointed? I miss that feeling.

[KillerBOB]

Anyone else still feeling profoundly disappointed? I miss that feeling.

The only thing profoundly disappointing to me in the last episode was the return to the Double R diner. It just looked wrong--can't put my finger on why--and, predictably, Lynch chose not to have either country music or Badalamenti jazz playing on the jukebox. No music at all, in fact. Totally lifeless

On the regular disappointment side of things, I also didn't like that Dr. Jacoby had changed so much. I felt it was all very in-character until he uttered his "Amazon acai bullshit" line and started hawking gold-painted shovels for $29.99.

[Agent327]

Episode five was the first episode I've enjoyed first watch.

I don't know if it's because I've lowered my expectations and decided to roll with it, or just come to accept (even like?) whatever this thing is.
.

I think it's interesting that plenty of people who had nothing but praise for the first 4 were more lukewarm on episode 5, while some of the previously disappointed fans really liked this one.

It's not because this was vastly different than the first, or ''way more classic TP''. It wasn't.

My theory is that people who from the very start were ready to love anything out of sheer appreciation for new TP, ones for instance praising Lynch for creating "Deliberately" bad CGI, people guided by the feeling that it's more fun to join a party than complain about it etc, will increasingly have points of criticism about the show.

Those who had a somewhat clearer vision of what the show could be, and got slapped in the face by the first 4 episodes of this experiment by Lynch, will start to accept that they wont get what they were after on key points, and start to, to varying degrees, genuinely get into the story and the world as is. Enough to follow it with interest.

This doesn't apply to everyone, but is a likely trend.

[Mallard]

Episode five was the first episode I've enjoyed first watch.

I don't know if it's because I've lowered my expectations and decided to roll with it, or just come to accept (even like?) whatever this thing is.
.

I think it's interesting that plenty of people who had nothing but praise for the first 4 were more lukewarm on episode 5, while some of the previously disappointed fans really liked this one.

It's not because this was vastly different than the first, or ''way more classic TP''. It wasn't.

My theory is that people who from the very start were ready to love anything out of sheer appreciation for new TP, ones for instance praising Lynch for creating "Deliberately" bad CGI, people guided by the feeling that it's more fun to join a party than complain about it etc, will increasingly have points of criticism about the show.

Those who had a somewhat clearer vision of what the show could be, and got slapped in the face by the first 4 episodes of this experiment by Lynch, will start to accept that they wont get what they were after on key points, and start to, to varying degrees, genuinely get into the story and the world as is. Enough to follow it with interest.

This doesn't apply to everyone, but is a likely trend.

I think that's true to an extent; Twin Peaks Fandom's own "regression towards the mean." But I don't think the circumstances of why one really liked or really disliked the show initially makes any difference with respect to this phenomenon.

It stands to reason that if you were elated by the first episodes, your experience is more likely to get worse (even if just a little) than get better. Likewise, if you initially hated it, odds are you'll like it least a little bit more as episodes progress (if you were able to stick with it).

[LurkerAtTheThreshold]

Episode five was the first episode I've enjoyed first watch.

I don't know if it's because I've lowered my expectations and decided to roll with it, or just come to accept (even like?) whatever this thing is.
.

I think it's interesting that plenty of people who had nothing but praise for the first 4 were more lukewarm on episode 5, while some of the previously disappointed fans really liked this one.

It's not because this was vastly different than the first, or ''way more classic TP''. It wasn't.

My theory is that people who from the very start were ready to love anything out of sheer appreciation for new TP, ones for instance praising Lynch for creating "Deliberately" bad CGI, people guided by the feeling that it's more fun to join a party than complain about it etc, will increasingly have points of criticism about the show.

Those who had a somewhat clearer vision of what the show could be, and got slapped in the face by the first 4 episodes of this experiment by Lynch, will start to accept that they wont get what they were after on key points, and start to, to varying degrees, genuinely get into the story and the world as is. Enough to follow it with interest.

This doesn't apply to everyone, but is a likely trend.

That would make sense. I definitely feel less emotionally committed to this series than others.
Reflecting on the fifth episode I still think it was ridiculous, whilst it's toying with hope and expectations, the 'clues' or plot of this remain as deliberately evasive and cruelly sardonic.

Like Dougie's ring turning up in Major Briggs stomach is not something that can ever be made sensical or thoughtful.

It almost feels like Stockholm syndrome, the way I'm opening myself up to Lynch to subsequently mock every character I once held dear, literally shit on their corpses, and insult the viewers intelligence. Then the darkest rapey mysoginy and seething hatred for the world I've ever seen in anything before...

Like others, I have been hooked in by hope that there's some goodness buried in all this darkness.
Like when Cooper calls the other guy in the boardroom a liar, that felt emotionally on target for the only time thus far in this series.

I really hope that goodness can burrow its way to the surface of this deep manifestation of evil p from Lynch's subconscious. If only in the return of Warren Frost, or some stable that feels tied to goodness not centred to Lynch.

Maybe I'm wrong.

[BigEd]

Minutes of screentime for black characters who aren’t sex workers; eastern USA, western USA or anywhere in between: 1?. Minutes before this character appeared: 250?
% of women shown as sexually active and brutally murdered onscreen: 80?
% of attractive young women around fiftysomething RussellBrandCoop shown as his for the taking: 100.
Minutes of woman/woman interaction: <5?.
Minutes of adults exchanging nonsexual and irony-free warmth: <3?

So what is the take away from all of this?? Is there a point here?

[Cstar84]

E04 was a drop on E03, and now we have this sharper drop (apart from the music) acknowledged even by many of the enthusiasts, to their credit.

I think the most you can attribute to the 'enthusiasts' is some of them felt it was not quite as good as the first four.

Personally I thought it was the best yet, but that's me! I'll see myself out.

Same. This is clearly not the thread for me. And I have to say, if you don't see how the haunting/beautiful scene with Amanda Seyfried as Becky relates to the nature of everything Twin Peaks is about, I'm not sure you were ever really a fan of the show. I totally respect being disappointed or not liking it, but this is what the show's ultimately always been.

[Northman]

hi dissapointed people!
episode 5 proved to be totally linear in fashion, pretty much free of surrealism and with plenty of time spent in twin peaks itself. This could easily have been one of the david lynch or tim hunter directed episodes from the first 2 seasons

heads up!

[Northman]

oh and badalamentis music is gradually returning especially in scenes involving dougiecoop

[claaa7]

oh and badalamentis music is gradually returning especially in scenes involving dougiecoop

there haven't been too much new Badalamenti, but there's definitely a whole lot more music in this episode which worked well

[4815162342]

Minutes of screentime for black characters who aren’t sex workers; eastern USA, western USA or anywhere in between: 1?. Minutes before this character appeared: 250?
% of women shown as sexually active and brutally murdered onscreen: 80?
% of attractive young women around fiftysomething RussellBrandCoop shown as his for the taking: 100.
Minutes of woman/woman interaction: <5?.
Minutes of adults exchanging nonsexual and irony-free warmth: <3?

So what is the take away from all of this?? Is there a point here?

If it wasn't clear before, I think this reaction illustrates it.

[Metamorphia]

Honestly think E5 is my favourite episode of the bunch so far. Just seemed to me the moment where the show properly 'clicked', firing on all cylinders, interweaving new and old plots, ongoing mystery, laughs, scares, etc. Or at least where I can say I have total assured confidence in the series going forward. Lynch and Frost know what they're doing and they're both at the top of their game.

I love them all though.

[a whole damn town]

Does anyone feel that the complexity quotient and ambition in scope of the new series is so high as to be dilutive? The level of complexity in the original Series and FWWM was absolutely right for me, high enough to be beguiling and keep me thinking about the significance of the ring, the Lodge characters, etc but with still enough clarity and focus for the universe to feel coherent.

It feels like there are so many things going on now that Twin Peaks is now more puzzle than mystery.

That's a good way of putting it.
It really hit me during the Pentagon scene - it didn't feel like a Lynch mystery. In fact, it got scarily close to an X-Files episode and it only gets LOST-ier whenever they encourage obsessing over numbers.
The latter is especially bothersome, so If it's not some big prank, I really hope they've found a witty way to subvert serialized TV puzzle conventions.