Audrey Horne wrote:Baffled to me meaning when they sat down and were compelled to revisit their hit show by their train of thought with it. Like how did they start with their past product and remembering when it was in its glory and come up with things like take hit character Cooper and make him not Cooper for 90% of the show. Like if Friends came back and they made Rachel an astronaut in space, and the five others in Monica’s apartment were placed by other actors. Not saying whether or not I like the direction Lynch and Frost went in, just baffled at their desire of revisiting the show in the manner they did and how that talk even began.
I’m thinking something along the lines of Lynch saying let’s do Peaks again, and Frost says yes! Frost getting ready with his notes of what the greatest hits were that made their show top for that brief moment... Cooper and his coffee, Audrey and her cherry stem, the dancing dwarf in a red room, hot girls in diner uniforms, the girl in plastic all in the strange soap opera town, etc. “okay, David what are you thinking? Cooper fights to become himself again. Audrey, Bobby, Shelly are grown up and we can bring in some younger hip actors as their kids...”. Lynch: “234 actors and Vegas, Mark! Vegas!!” Frost throws all previous notes away.
Love your input Audrey Horne, and I definitely see why a lot of folks were disappointed in the final product, and I personally think it's the lack of traditional narrative suspense that is really deep down made it a hard work to digest, but here's how I break it down:
The Series Twin Peaks is about
The Town. Major Theme: Hidden lives of seemingly normal people
FWWM is about
Laura. Major Theme: Sexual Abuse
TPTR is about
Cooper. Major Theme (s): Aging, nostalgia, dying and coming to terms with one's own life.
You have the same world, but you tackle from different perspectives. Also, the series, the movie and The Return have radically different formats from each other, so there are natural differences not even related to the story Lynch and Frost wanted to tell.
And I feel that though people pined for the 'old Coop', that was definitely not in the cards. Ultimately, 'Richard' was how Lynch and Frost envisioned what Cooper would become after 25 years. In some sense, Mr. C and Dougie are just glimpses of aspects of his personality, but 'Richard' Coop is the vision of a man beaten down by life and by time.
Having the old bouncy, Boy Scout-y Coop for 2 episodes is just there for contrast, IMHO, and the superimposed face of Richard comes in right at the moment when Cooper is being a Boy Scout, and I believe it's to show the contrast between what he once was to what he ultimately became.
But that's just my opinon