Recommendations for Watching While Waiting for Season 3

[Mb3]

8. The Wire - possibly one of the greatest shows ever

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I wholeheartedly agree with you, even though it's totally different from TP this is my other favorite Tv series.

[Si78]

True Detective (first season)
Fargo (both seasons)
Gilmore Girls (all seasons)

I know, I know. One of these is not like the other. But if you enjoy the silly, quirky, small town aspect of Twin Peaks, you'll love Gilmore Girls. The show focuses on the best mother daughter relationship of all time (on TV), but it's set in Stars Hollow, a very small town filled with some hilariously weird people. It's difficult not to fall in love with the show, it's brilliantly written and features a fantastic cast. Plus, Mädchen Amick and Sherilyn Fenn have recurring roles in some of the seasons!

I absolutely love Gilmore Girls. It's my most anticipated resurrected show of 2016 (should have been twin peaks... damn contract dispute).

I also co-sign Fargo and True Detective (s1).

Mr Robot was another great suggestion. Amazing show.

[jordanlake]

In the void between now and the new season of Twin Peaks I would totally recommend the following:

American Crime - Season 2. It’s a stand-alone season so you don’t need to have watched the first season (because I haven’t either). This season focuses on male rape within a middle class American high school. The cast are astonishing and the quality is up there with the best of Twin Peaks, although (disclaimer!) it is nothing like it. It is not in any way surreal, yet it is one of the most unique shows that I’ve seen on television. This is due in part to the way that it is filmed (many scenes have the camera solely focusing on one character during a conversation between two people for the entire scene), the subject matter, the ambiguity of both the storyline and characters…Episode 8 is especially interesting as it unexpectedly interposes interviews with non-actors who have themselves experienced real-life incidents similar to what we have seen occur on the show.

Sex and Violence – This little known Canadian show really lives up to its title, and the sex is incredibly graphic (and frequent!), however it does not grate as the various actors who we see having sex refreshingly do not have perfect bodies, are not all in their 20s, and the nudity is mostly male (highly unusual!); it also deserves kudos for allowing Olympia Dukakis to play an intelligent woman in her 70s having sex with people half her age. Sex aside, the show is a gripping drama about a group of various professionals (social workers, psychologists and the police) working with abused and volatile people. There is a shocking moment in almost every episode however it never feels gratuitous (unlike some of the nudity!). Both seasons have continuing storylines however there is also the occasional minor but nonetheless gripping self-contained story within each episode. Season 3 is currently being filmed.

Happy Valley. Don’t let the title put you off – this is a dark, British thriller which has you gripped within the first fifteen minutes. Season 2 is a lot more contrived, as it milks the last few juices of the storyline from Season 1, but is still worth watching.

Enlightened Seasons 1 and 2 with Laura Dern, written by Mike White, is a fantastic comedy drama. Dern plays a completely annoying character with little self-awareness (at least at first), yet by the end of the first season you end up totally rooting for her. The second season is a joy too, and the supporting cast, including Diane Ladd, are fantastic also. I believe Lynch, Dern’s friend, attended the premiere of the second season in L.A. Was very disappointed that this wasn’t renewed for a third season, however its conclusion is still fairly satisfying.

Damages with Glenn Close…none of the seasons peak the excellence of the first one, however they are all still worth watching. The scenes are not shown in chronological order which forces you to pay attention, and the pay-off is wonderful. Glenn Close is fantastic as the bordering-on-sociopathic lawyer, as is Rose Byrne as her sympathetic protégé. The supporting cast are also great, especially the actor who plays Close’s immoral son.

UnReal: This is probably the trashiest of my recommendations, however it has surprising depth underneath the surface. It is a completely post-modern show in that it could only appear in the 2010’s; it is a ‘behind the scenes’ show of a romantic reality series (obviously based on The Bachelor). It shines a light on the ruthless activities of the crew involved in these often scripted reality shows, and works as a scathing commentary on what the American viewing public takes pleasure in watching. Most of the characters (including the protagonist) are unlikeable and completely manipulative, however there is something gripping about watching the ugliness of it all.

Transparent and Sensitive Skin are two intelligent and subtle comedy-dramas about aging and sexuality (amongst other things) which are also worth a watch.

[frahm9]

Have you all watched the trailer for this upcoming show, "Stranger Things"?



Very Twin Peaksy. Small town, electricity. Wonderful trailer.

[Brad D]

Breaking Bad
The Wire
Bloodline
Boardwalk Empire
The Prisoner

Not series, but I recommend Mark's books The List of 7 and The Six Messiahs as well while you're waiting.

[Agent Sam Stanley]

Bron/Broen aka The Bridge (the scandinavian original show, not the FX crap version).
Scandinavians are great with dark thrillers and I assume most of TP's S3 will also go in that direction.

Season 1 trailer:

[Nightsea]

If you don't mind VERY dark and disturbing (but also with moments of great beauty), Mysterious Skin is really powerful stuff, very reminiscent of Fire Walk With Me. An amazing performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, certainly the best work I've ever seen him do. The director Greg Araki is a huge fan of that film and cast Sheryl Lee in a later film (which I was disappointed by). Also featuring the theme of sexual abuse, but on a much more subdued level, is the achingly, melancholy The Sweet Hereafter, whose location very much gives me a "Twin Peaks with snow" vibe.

Excellent suggestions. In regard to White Bird In a Blizzard, I was disappointed too. It didn't quite work for a variety of reasons. The staging and blocking of actors within scenes really seemed off and the cinematography was uninspired. It was as if Araki's heart wasn't in it and he was on autopilot... like he was simply trying to give audiences a mainstream version of Mysterious Skin by casting Shailene Woodley in the lead role. I was glad to see Sheryl Lee, but she has a very small and underutilized part.

The Sweet Hereafter is heartbreaking! The editing for that film is really incredible... I recently watched a YouTube vid which featured director Atom Egoyan and his wife. If I can find the video again, I'll post a link to it, but he essentially said that the chronology of events in that film were completely different in the original script, and that during the editing process he restructured the whole timeline.

[jordanlake]

Excellent suggestions. In regard to White Bird In a Blizzard, I was disappointed too. It didn't quite work for a variety of reasons. The staging and blocking of actors within scenes really seemed off and the cinematography was uninspired. It was as if Araki's heart wasn't in it and he was on autopilot... like he was simply trying to give audiences a mainstream version of Mysterious Skin by casting Shailene Woodley in the lead role. I was glad to see Sheryl Lee, but she has a very small and underutilized part.

The Sweet Hereafter is heartbreaking! The editing for that film is really incredible... I recently watched a YouTube vid which featured director Atom Egoyan and his wife. If I can find the video again, I'll post a link to it, but he essentially said that the chronology of events in that film were completely different in the original script, and that during the editing process he restructured the whole timeline.

I'd recommend Exotica by the same director if you haven't already seen; think you'd like it; Mia Kirshner is compelling in it (she's also great in Love and Human Remains by Denys Arcand).

[LostInTheMovies]

Excellent suggestions. In regard to White Bird In a Blizzard, I was disappointed too. It didn't quite work for a variety of reasons. The staging and blocking of actors within scenes really seemed off and the cinematography was uninspired. It was as if Araki's heart wasn't in it and he was on autopilot... like he was simply trying to give audiences a mainstream version of Mysterious Skin by casting Shailene Woodley in the lead role. I was glad to see Sheryl Lee, but she has a very small and underutilized part.

I thought the colors were gorgeous but it was surprisingly lackluster. And from a story that was potentially compelling.

The Sweet Hereafter is heartbreaking! The editing for that film is really incredible... I recently watched a YouTube vid which featured director Atom Egoyan and his wife. If I can find the video again, I'll post a link to it, but he essentially said that the chronology of events in that film were completely different in the original script, and that during the editing process he restructured the whole timeline.[/quote]

I read the book shortly after the movie and do remember some big differences. I think there's a doc or Q&A on the disc (maybe the one you're talking about) where Egoyan says the end of the book was actually more "cinematic" (a demolition derby) but actually didn't work in the film! And maybe I'm misremembering but also in the book I don't think the Sarah Polley character low-key calls out her dad which is such a powerful moment in the film.

[mtwentz]

Breaking Bad
The Wire
Bloodline
Boardwalk Empire
The Prisoner

Not series, but I recommend Mark's books The List of 7 and The Six Messiahs as well while you're waiting.

Just finished Season 2 of Bloodline. Fantastic-Kyle Chandler (yes, the 'other' Kyle) gave an absolutely outstanding performance, and I hope he wins an Emmy for it.

However, Bloodline just highlights for me why Frost/Lynch/Showtime are doing the right thing by not making Twin Peaks Season 3 available for binge watching from the beginning. I absorbed Bloodline Season 2 in a little under 2 weeks. Now I have to wait another year to see what happens next.

[Nightsea]

I'd recommend Exotica by the same director if you haven't already seen; think you'd like it; Mia Kirshner is compelling in it (she's also great in Love and Human Remains by Denys Arcand).

One of my very favorite films! The dialogue in Exotica is some of the best written and most natural sounding dialogue that I've ever heard in a film. Atom definitely has a talent for capturing the way people speak and how they naturally interact with one another. And the Mychael Danna music is beautiful–especially the "Field 1-4" sections.

Each time that I see the movie, the very last scene becomes more and more powerful. I don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but the two characters in that scene– I bet they never thought that in only a few months time, as a result of those awful tragedies, they would essentially become polar opposites of themselves.

@ LostInTheMovies, yes, I agree . The actual look of White Bird is gorgeous. All of the ingredients are there, but for whatever reason it just didn't gel together as a whole. I still watch the film and enjoy it though, despite the weaker aspects. I read the White Bird book- which was wonderful. There was definitely nothing wrong with the source material.

In my earlier post, I had mentioned that some of the blocking and cinematography is off/clunky... as an example, one scene that comes to mind occurs midway or 2/3rds into the movie. Eve comes down into the basement, drunk and unhinged/dressed in a mini-skirt, and asks Kat's boyfriend to stay over for dinner. Then Eve's husband Brock comes home... he and Eve have a confrontation, which culminates with Eve opening the freezer to discover that all of the food has gone bad. For almost the entirety of that scene, the camera is stationed at almost floor level and remains static. Maybe Araki was trying to capture all of the actor's emotional responses at once? Unfortunately, it just didn't work, at least for me. Maybe they were rushed and that scene was filmed when everyone was drained or tired. There were so many other creative ways to film that scene. It would've been really interesting, for instance, to see everything play out more from Eve's perspective/ from almost a first-person point of view.

I didn't even know that there was a book for The Sweet Hereafter... I'll have to search that out.

@mtwentz, I didn't know that Showtime and Frost/Lynch had come to an agreement on how to release it- but if they have and it will be released in small measured doses, I'm glad!

[jordanlake]

One of my very favorite films! The dialogue in Exotica is some of the best written and most natural sounding dialogue that I've ever heard in a film.

Hurrah!

The actual look of White Bird is gorgeous. All of the ingredients are there, but for whatever reason it just didn't gel together as a whole. I still watch the film and enjoy it though, despite the weaker aspects. I read the White Bird book- which was wonderful. There was definitely nothing wrong with the source material.

I'd like to read the book of this, as I'm a big fan of Laura Kasischke's first novel, Suspicious River...I'd recommend the film adaptation of this too, starring Molly Parker; it's very Peaks-y.

[Nightsea]

@ jordanlake, definitely give the book a go– it's told entirely from Kat's point of view– which makes it all the more heart-wrenching at times. The reader gets the sense that Kat and her mother Eve would probably have been able to connect and support one another better had Kat's own teenage angst not gotten in the way. An unreliable narrator, to say the least. Keeps you guessing. I'll be on the lookout for Suspicious River.

As for my own recommendations:

Television:
Six Feet Under

Film:
Ingmar Bergman's Persona
Queen of Earth
River's Edge (this one is veryyyyyy Twin Peaks-esque and came out around the same time I think)

[Saturn's child]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picnic_at_Hanging_Rock

* Mysterious woods/nature
* Supernatural intimations
* Strange effects on time
* A somewhat Laura-ish character (school girl, well-loved, beautiful) who disappears near the beginning
* Her presence 'haunts' the film thereafter
* The town grieves her disappearance
* Dark after-effects upon connected characters
* Refusal to explain the mystery

It's based on a book (I've not yet read) that did originally 'solve' the mystery with a final chapter, although it was unpublished at the time. It was published much later as 'The Secret of Hanging Rock', which -- in a way -- made it even more Peaks-ian/Lynchian. I'm still waiting to read the 'secret' in full, just got to get my hands on a copy of the novel first.

Nightsea: I've heard River's Edge is great, I'll definitely have to check it out!
Kingdom/Riget is the other that's high on my hit-list, thanks to this thread.

[jordanlake]

River's Edge (this one is veryyyyyy Twin Peaks-esque and came out around the same time I think)

This is one of my all-time fave films; I think we have very similar tastes (plus, like you, I'm all about Laura)