A Journey Through Twin Peaks: 4-part video series

[LostInTheMovies]

I've just uploaded the first part of a 4-part narrated video series analyzing Twin Peaks as a narrative cycle, from the pilot through the feature film. Each part opens with a musical montage (set to a different Julee Cruise song NOT featured in the film or show, but contemporaneous with them), follows with some presentation of context and then explores Twin Peaks chapter by chapter.

Part 1, "Harmony of the Dark Woods," covers the pilot through the season 2 premiere. You can watch it in one piece on Vimeo, or split into five chapters, for easier viewing, on YouTube.

Here is the post presenting it: http://thedancingimage.blogspot.com/201 ... art-1.html. Hope everyone enjoys!

[Jasper]

I enjoyed this, and I'm looking forward to the next installments. Very well done. I recommend that others check it out.

I must say that I never saw the premiere of season two as a mixed bag, though, in retrospect, it's easy to understand how it confounded some of the peasants . The Lynch episodes are uniformly masterful, in my opinion, and the absolute cream of the crop.

[LostInTheMovies]

I enjoyed this, and I'm looking forward to the next installments. Very well done. I recommend that others check it out.

I must say that I never saw the premiere of season two as a mixed bag, though, in retrospect, it's easy to understand how it confounded some of the peasants . The Lynch episodes are uniformly masterful, in my opinion, and the absolute cream of the crop.

Thanks Jasper! Really glad you liked it.

I go back and forth on the second season premiere. I first saw the series about 6 years ago, and absolutely loved this episode - it became my favorite right away. When I revisited it to write up an episode guide, I found it surprisingly disappointing in retrospect. I suddenly noticed all the exposition that had been shoveled in and it seemed rather meandering in its weaker moments. Since then, I've shifted back and forth in what I emphasize: sometimes the tedious jumps out at me, at others the brilliant. I love a lot of the stuff many viewers hated - the ridiculously drawn-out waiter and giant scene in particular - and as noted in the video, it has probably more great scenes per capita than any previous Peaks episode, maybe any Peaks episode period. I do think too much time is spent rehashing stuff but nonetheless, I'm leaning toward the more positive reading at this moment. Maybe just from digging out all those great clips for the video. Plus it was fun to slow down so much after documenting the relentless pace of the late-season one episodes (particularly the finale).

Regardless of my issues with it, it does a great job reorienting the show in its new direction: deeper, darker, richer. Foregrounding the supernatural, lingering moodily in a way that no episode since the pilot had, and most of all treating Laura's murder with a sharpness and sensitivity that the media hadn't seen coming given the more playful tone of season one (at times). Way before FWWM, the season 2 premiere shows that Twin Peaks wasn't afraid to shift into a new gear even if it meant alienating viewers who thought they had a grasp on what it was about. Can't wait to dive into the rest of the Laura Palmer mystery for video #2! (Hopefully starting tonight.)

[bosguy1981]

What an amazing job you did with this! Seeing the images from Twin Peaks set to "Floating" was a dream. The entire thing is so well-crafted: the choice of shots and scenes, music/sound excerpts, the narration (both how it was written, and how it was timed/delivered) is really exceptional. I'm looking forward to seeing the other ones in a big way!

[LostInTheMovies]

What an amazing job you did with this! Seeing the images from Twin Peaks set to "Floating" was a dream. The entire thing is so well-crafted: the choice of shots and scenes, music/sound excerpts, the narration (both how it was written, and how it was timed/delivered) is really exceptional. I'm looking forward to seeing the other ones in a big way!

Thanks, bosguy. I'm glad it all worked for you (even the delivery, which tbh was the shakiest part to me - I'm no voiceover actor, but I felt I should be the one to do it...). I'm looking forward to making the next parts though I seem to have been dragging me feet (hoping to get moving on Pt. 2 tonight - it's scheduled to go up in a week and a half).

I loved setting the images to Floating as well. Can't wait to do the same with several other Cruise songs.

[LostInTheMovies]

I received an interesting response (maybe from someone on these boards!) to the season 2 premiere chapter, disagreeing with my suggestion that viewers abandoned the show out of frustration with its slow pace (among other factors) rather than simply falling away because of the scheduling change. Certainly anecdotal evidence suggests otherwise (the press really ran with a "popular backlash against Twin Peaks theme" in all the articles I've seen) but I also recall reading somewhere that the numbers for episode 8 actually dropped over the course of the two hours vs. the pilot, where they rose, but can't find any account of this now. Anyone have a record of this phenomenon if it took place?

[Audrey Horne]

Sorry, forgot to comment ...great job you're doing on these. And what great timing.

I would say you're more correct. The second season premiere was a two hour movie of the week on a Sunday night. And if people really wanted to watch the show they knew what friggin night it was on, and, or like me, set their VCRs. But Nielson families and Peaks watchers aren't likely to go hand in hand. My family was on for a bit and it was a pain.

My personal experience seemed to be what was being reported in the papers. Less and less of my friends were watching it after the first season. I remember when the murder reveal was announced, I had to loan out my tapes to a few people so they could catch up, and then after it went back to a dim.

[LostInTheMovies]

Sorry, forgot to comment ...great job you're doing on these. And what great timing.

Thanks - and the timing is pretty amusing. I announced my "Six Weeks of Twin Peaks" thing about 3 days before the "gum you like" tweet. Total coincidence!

But then this whole year has been like that. I got back into the series and film in February, after randomly picking up a used copy of the Full of Secrets book. Had no idea a blu-ray or anything was in the works; the timing was complete happenstance (I needed an item to fill out a gift card online and that had been sitting in my cart for about 5 years). From there, I re-watched the series on Netflix, bought a couple more soundtracks, and then out of the blue a blogger - someone I hadn't had much communication with for years - invited me to participate in an online back-and-forth conversation on FWWM. And I haven't really been able to stop reading or writing about Peaks since. It's like something is just in the air because I've been hearing other stories like this as well.

As I noted on Twitter right after the first Lynch/Frost teaser, "I picked a hell of a year to get back into Twin Peaks..."

I would say you're more correct. The second season premiere was a two hour movie of the week on a Sunday night. And if people really wanted to watch the show they knew what friggin night it was on, and, or like me, set their VCRs. But Nielson families and Peaks watchers aren't likely to go hand in hand. My family was on for a bit and it was a pain.

My personal experience seemed to be what was being reported in the papers. Less and less of my friends were watching it after the first season. I remember when the murder reveal was announced, I had to loan out my tapes to a few people so they could catch up, and then after it went back to a dim.

That's what I've been hearing (a Newsweek article someone posted recently had a similar anecdote, except even worse - someone tried to throw a party for the big reveal and only one person showed up. Though frankly I don't know what would be more awkward - having one person show up to your Twin Peaks party or watching THAT scene in a festive atmosphere with tons of people around!). But it's interesting to reflect on the fact that it's always going to be, to a certain extent, speculation: the Nielsens are/were a flawed system and even they don't tell you WHY people weren't watching.

I'm wondering to what extent we'll see a repeat in 2016 if Lynch & Frost really push the envelope. Of course it won't matter as far as they're concerned, because the 9 episodes are guaranteed to run. But I wonder if the media, which is all whipped up with enthusiasm now, will sour on Lynch again? I always felt like part of the reason he didn't take advantage of his comeback in 2001 with Mulholland Drive was the lingering aftertaste of that really bitter post-Peaks backlash. You read the things people were writing about him in '92 and it's a wonder he continued making movies at all...

[FauxOwl]

I just watched this... very well done and I'm looking forward to the next installments. My experience with the second season premiere largely echoes yours. I absolutely love everything about the opening scene, especially the exaggerated deliberate pacing. It still may be my favorite scene in the entire Twin Peaks saga. It had been some time since viewing the series, and I remembered this episode being my favorite in the series. But on my most recent rewatch, I did find some moments dragged a bit. Still I thought Lynch's direction in taking the show deeper into the murky, mysterious supernatural layers of the Twin Peaks universe was absolutely spot on. Though the pilot was a better written, constructed and consistent feature length television episode, the second season premiere had the more dazzling, evocative highs.

That's largely how I feel about the second season in general. The moments from the Lynch directed episodes in the second season are some of my favorite and most mesmerizing scenes the series had to offer. Beyond the moments in the premiere, there was BOB crawling over the couch; Major Briggs sharing the deep space transmission after receiving instructions from The Log; the entire "revelation" episode, which, even though it was imposed upon Lynch and Frost to reveal the killer too early, still was an absolutely incredible hour of television, with a climax that still ranks as the most intense thing I've seen on television, cable or otherwise; and of course the incredibly bizarre and disturbing final episode -- aside from the extended Black Lodge scene, I also loved the extended bank bombing scene, which had the same amusingly exaggerated slow pacing of it from the first scene in the season. I especially love that the pacing runs so contrary to what is expected on a television program. Nothing like that was ever allowed before or since. I'm thankful they were able to get away with it, if only for that brief window in the history of television.

[LostInTheMovies]

I just watched this... very well done and I'm looking forward to the next installments.

Thanks!

My experience with the second season premiere largely echoes yours. I absolutely love everything about the opening scene, especially the exaggerated deliberate pacing. It still may be my favorite scene in the entire Twin Peaks saga. It had been some time since viewing the series, and I remembered this episode being my favorite in the series. But on my most recent rewatch, I did find some moments dragged a bit. Still I thought Lynch's direction in taking the show deeper into the murky, mysterious supernatural layers of the Twin Peaks universe was absolutely spot on. Though the pilot was a better written, constructed and consistent feature length television episode, the second season premiere had the more dazzling, evocative highs.

Yeah, that's how I feel about the whole second season vs. the first. Oh wait...

That's largely how I feel about the second season in general. The moments from the Lynch directed episodes in the second season are some of my favorite and most mesmerizing scenes the series had to offer. Beyond the moments in the premiere, there was BOB crawling over the couch; Major Briggs sharing the deep space transmission after receiving instructions from The Log; the entire "revelation" episode, which, even though it was imposed upon Lynch and Frost to reveal the killer too early, still was an absolutely incredible hour of television, with a climax that still ranks as the most intense thing I've seen on television, cable or otherwise; and of course the incredibly bizarre and disturbing final episode -- aside from the extended Black Lodge scene

These are my favorites as well - plus the hilarious bank scene. Aha, great minds think alike again:

I also loved the extended bank bombing scene, which had the same amusingly exaggerated slow pacing of it from the first scene in the season. I especially love that the pacing runs so contrary to what is expected on a television program. Nothing like that was ever allowed before or since. I'm thankful they were able to get away with it, if only for that brief window in the history of television.

We're definitely simpatico on this. I'd also add, among the non-Lynch directed moments, Todd Holland's episode opening with the ceiling hole and Leland's confession (I like this one more than Bob's confession in ep. 16) and so many moments from Lesli Linka Glatter's pre-reveal episode: all the Gordon Cole stuff (whose scenes in ep. 25 & 26 are easily my favorite in the whole post-Laura series, until the finale), Leland creepily snatching the white fox fur and putting on his best sociopathic corporate lawyer act, that cheesy yet absolutely irresistible James-Maddy goodbye scene by the lake, and especially, especially Al Strobel's magnificent monologue at the end of the episode, easily my favorite non-Lynch-directed moment of the series.

It will be really fun diving into the second season in the next entry. Especially because, as Twin Peaks returns to the news with a vengeance, I keep reading variations on the same old CW: great first season, all downhill after that, Laura was the MacGuffin etc etc. I'll do my little part to counter that! I think Lynch knew and Frost learned (or re-learned) that Laura Palmer was at the heart of everything in Twin Peaks and the first 9 episodes of the second season reveal all the pitfalls and advantages of that centrality. That's why it'll be named after the famous quote from Pete's favorite poet, W.B. Yeats:

THE SECOND COMING

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

[FauxOwl]

I was reminded going through the influx of news about Twin Peaks that Don Davis, Frank Silva and Jack Nance are no longer around to reprise their roles, which is unfortunate, but then I recalled that even if Jack Nance had been around, it'd be tough to bring back Pete after his fate at the end of the bank scene. Which was the other great thing about that scene...it concludes with a shocking gut punch that includes the possible deaths of two beloved characters who were introduced in the pilot. I know they planned for Audrey to survive somehow, but given the way the poor old bank teller's specs came flying out of the blast as debris, there wasn't much hope for Poor Pete, standing right next to the bomb. The way that scene toys with audience expectations, with an extended setup mostly played for comedy and hi-jinx, with Audrey's protest in handcuffs, the bank teller's slow pace and hilarious shocked reaction at seeing Andrew Packard alive and well... then suddenly pulling the rug out with the appearance and detonation of the bomb... I do wonder if that may have been one of the earliest, if not the earliest, example of what has become a common gut punch set up in television: setting up a scene to play out one way and then suddenly shifting course with a huge shock. Some examples come to mind: The train scene in "Breaking Bad"... numerous examples in "Game of Thrones" and "Lost". I'm hardly literate enough with early scripted television to declare that with authority, and there are probably precursors in feature films, but given how different Twin Peaks was and how influential it was in shifting the landscape in television, I would think an argument can be made that this scene was yet another example of how the seeds planted by Twin Peaks continue to spring up all over modern scripted television.

[Audrey Horne]

It really was just a cliffhanger. Frost and co. writing it to raise the stakes to get picked up for another season. And if that wasn't the worried about getting picked up, I think it would be the norm if the series continued in for many seasons. Bombs, fires, hails of gun fire went down on season finales of Dallas, Dynasty, and others all the time. And it has to be to the fan favorites to get people to tune in. I think Engels told us one summer that they had no idea what would happen...just that they would figure it out later when they would go back to work in the summer. And I don't think Lynch would put Jack Nance out of a job.

[FauxOwl]

I'm not talking about cliffhangers, I'm talking about the way the scene was constructed. Haven't seen much of Dallas but I'll go out on a limb and guess they didn't develop scenes like that. I really can't come up with a decent scenario where Pete survives that...

[Audrey Horne]

Sorry, you meant the tone of the scene and subverting our expectations. I guess I read it wrong... So used to people saying Ben, Leo, Audrey, Pete, etc, etc, etc, etc died in the finale when it was obvious soap world.

[LostInTheMovies]

Part 2 will go up Sunday night (the post presenting it on my blog will go up Monday). But in the mean time, I decided to share a montage I created for the "Killer's Reveal" sequence using the Yeats poem and footage from Twin Peaks, Fire Walk With Me, and The Missing Pieces:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvON5bBncpU