World of Blue - Archived Forum 2007-2022

Zabriskie turned in the most chilling/horrifying performance among the characters in S3. So, why use her so little?

A let down on the same level as almost leaving Ray Wise out completely.

Well... I suppose this is more a topic for the disappointed thread, but since you asked: S3 was Twin Peaks in name only. Lynch and Frost didn't have story to tell with Sarah Palmer so they didn't. Same with Leland. They just didn't. And won't.

Kilmoore wrote:Well... I suppose this is more a topic for the disappointed thread, but since you asked: S3 was Twin Peaks in name only. Lynch and Frost didn't have story to tell with Sarah Palmer so they didn't. Same with Leland. They just didn't. And won't.

It seems to me that they had a huge story to tell with Sarah. She's practically the centerpiece of it all. But they decided to give us only fragments of that story.

She was one of my favorite parts of the new show, and I feel we got just enough. Depending on the day you ask me, I might even feel that we got a BIT too much, with the murder in the bar. Bit I think this was definitely a case of L/F surgically deciding how much to show vs. leaving it to the viewers’ imagination.

The more I dwell on it, the more I think that a huge part of the aesthetic and feel of the show was driven by the decision to have such a large cast, and to therefore only spend a short period with each actor. That precluded a show where a smaller cast interacts regularly, which would generate a more cohesive feel.

Just enough. Actually, it's essentially quite similar to Laura's screen time/importance ratio (excluding FWWM).

Soolsma wrote:Just enough. Actually, it's essentially quite similar to Laura's screen time/importance ratio (excluding FWWM).

Also, Zabriskie was pretty criminally underused on the original show after the Pilot. What we got on the new show, while minimal, felt like a tactical deployment with clear artistic intent, as opposed to the original series seeming not to really be sure what to do with her.

I wonder if there would ever have been any Sarah/Judy or a likewise plot would the series have continued in the 90s. Though she was always on the spiritual side, it's really hard to imagine the warm yet broken Sarah from the originals hosting a prime evil like Judy. Actually, due to the huge contrast of original Sarah/The return, up until Frost confirmed she was really the new Mexico girl, I was pretty certain she was only recently infected with help from a couple of woodsmen in between the supermarket scene and Hawk coming by her house. ("Men are coming!')

But that could still maybe be true, the frogmoth being more of a seed and Judy like a plant. This notion would also fit the glass box snuggly in to the equation.

I thought there was just enough of her. The scenes she was in I thought were creepy and memorable, and she never overstayed her welcome (although I'm still not 100% sold on the bar scene, that has more to do with the writing than her acting, which was superb as always).

missoulamt wrote:Zabriskie turned in the most chilling/horrifying performance among the characters in S3. So, why use her so little?

A let down on the same level as almost leaving Ray Wise out completely.

The more you spend time with a character - even an evil one - the more familiar you are with him/her. The more familiar, the less uncomfortable you are. We see Sarah so little, and in such upsetting scenes that it is impossible to familiarize with her DESPITE knowing her background from S1 and S2. If you ask me, it’s great that I don’t know more about her given Z’s incredible performance of a disturbing character.


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Mr. Reindeer wrote: ↑Wed May 16, 2018 3:17 pm She was one of my favorite parts of the new show, and I feel we got just enough. Depending on the day you ask me, I might even feel that we got a BIT too much, with the murder in the bar. Bit I think this was definitely a case of L/F surgically deciding how much to show vs. leaving it to the viewers’ imagination.

How do you feel about the murder in the bar now? I have to admit I did not know what to think about it back when it first aired, but it is one of my favorite scenes 4 years later. Utterly dark and dreary.

Toss my hat into the "just enough" pile; her scenes are among my favorite of the season. She really nailed what they were asking of her given where that character is at. And what they show are all scenes that indicate she's in a pattern of behavior, so in a sense it instructs us on what she does off-screen and what she's been doing for 25 years. It's unnerving to leave it to imagination; just like the Jumping Man is skulking around at any given moment, Sarah is on a couch in screen glow, rapt at a felled prey animal.

Similarly, her scenes in Inland Empire are super memorable and set the tone of the whole thing and she's in it for what, 3 minutes tops?

I think there are probably more minutes with Grace in TPTR than in the entire old series combined. Also I think she is in The Return quite a lot, she is just put on the board pretty late in the chess game.

Let's see, off the top of my head I recall these scenes with Grace:

At home in front of TV
At market
At house when Hawk visits
At home running out of booze
At bar
Smashing Laura’s portrait

I thought that she had a reasonable amount of time onscreen, although I wouldn't have complained about more. The Sarah scenes were some of my absolute favorites. Grace beautifully conveyed Sarah's haunted nature, which in turn helped to echo the horror and trauma familiar from the original run and FWWM.