Season 4? Or is it over after this? Wisteria/Unrecorded Night? Something else? (Speculation thread.)

[Brad D]

There is a big difference between staff writers be brought in under the supervision of two showrunners - in order to meet a non-negotiable full season network schedule, in order to have financing to make anything at all, compared to suggesting that control be taking away from the artists and given to a revolving door of "talent", resulting in some diluted and safe cover band version of "Twin Peaks". And I disagree with Jonah. The fact that the show was a big hit was unlikely to put it mildly, and had a lot to do with everything happening in culture and politically in the west around that time. As Frost pointed out at the season 3 announcement, there was always an artists manifesto behind this particular approach to storytelling.

I think everyone here became fans of the original show because it was different and uncompromising. As was FWWM. As was TPTR. And it i sad that some fans have lost sight of that.

This is laughable. We are all just spit balling ideas of the how’s and why’s and maybes of Twin Peaks continuing. No need to minimize the fun we are having.

(Very few people in the grand scheme care whose name is on an episode if they find it enjoyable.)

[JackwithOneEye]

it is true that most TV shows you don't pay so much attention to the directors. A show like Dr Who is setup in such a way that there's been dozens of showrunners over 60 years, that the mythology can always be expanded like an exquisite corpse art project,.

The Return sets up certain questions like "we live inside a dream, but who is the dreamer ?".. and if Nicolas Winding Refn did a TP follow up in 2040 and answered it, I really don't know if that could work. While TP started as a show with lots of freelance writers, directors, staff writers, Lynch and Frost took it back in the Return, and Lynch turned it into this auteur piece of work..

There are lots of seeds with TP. You could do something in 2040 where the body of Cliff Howard the deputy gets exhumed, and Bobby Briggs as sheriff is under investigation or something. Maybe you could do things like that and just avoid the bigger Lynch questions.

Having said that, Studios and Networks do crazy stuff when the creators are no longer living. I remember in the 1980s, USA Network re filmed episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and colorized his old intros, and then slapped those on the new episodes. Anything's possible.

[Agent Earle]

Having said that, Studios and Networks do crazy stuff when the creators are no longer living. I remember in the 1980s, USA Network re filmed episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and colorized his old intros, and then slapped those on the new episodes. Anything's possible.

And those weren't half-bad, in a naive, chintzy sort of way. True, I haven't seen the original show, and I've been hearing people singing its praises as being far superior, but for me, the 1980s version always provides solid entertainment!

[enumbs]

It’s true that casual viewers don’t generally pay much attention to television directors, but there are exceptions. Many fans of the Boba Fett series noticed the difference in style between the episodes directed by Robert Rodriguez and those directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, with the former often being compared unfavourably to the latter. As for Doctor Who, I know that during the Moffat era I would always be happy to hear an episode was directed by Rachel Talalay.

TV and even films are innately collaborative mediums, so its hard to make the same claim of authorship you can do with literature. To some extent even the most controlling director can still be perceived as a kind of curator, arranging a variety of artists work in accordance with their personal taste. Yet when people notice the presence of even fairly subdued directors like Howard and Talalay, it comes as no surprise that some Twin Peaks fans regard Lynch’s unique creative voice as the main appeal. At this point there is a significant contingent of people, myself included, who predominantly enjoy Twin Peaks as a means of creative expression for Lynch. If you view the show in this way then you’re obviously going to balk at any approach which dilutes his sensibility, but if you have reservations about the trajectory of his career then you might understandably think differently.

From everything I can tell about Lynch and his current approach to art, he views the show as his own personal canvas rather than as a sandbox in which other writers and directors can create. Maybe it’s arrogant or wrong-headed to some, but the idea of him returning to a season 1 and 2 model seems incredibly unlikely to me.

[mtwentz]

I believe the original Twin Peaks was probably more commercially successful because of multiple directors, but it would likely have been a better show artistically had Lynch been able to direct all the episodes.

So while I think the collaboration worked well on Twin Peaks, it was still less than ideal.

On the other hand, I think the addition of other writers probably did strengthen the show in many ways.

[AXX°N N.]

I'm not sure I agree with either "deconstructivist art project" or "highly commercialized" as adjectives for OG Peaks, or at least, disagree that it seems to be a black and white dichotomy. S3 was itself highly unconventional and in that sense non-commercial, but so was the original for its time period in many ways that were even more pronounced without the benefit of hindsight. And even though S3 is itself insular and "auteur," it still is in fact part of a multimedia franchise arrangement, it's just that this time around Frost helmed that side exclusively. But that conceit, something usually relegated to annually-released mega-franchises like the Star Wars expanded universe or Marvel, remains a consistent feature for the "non-commercial" S3, and it's something Frost considered integral in his vision when TP was created, likening it to old serials which used to have lunchboxes, radio dramas, spin-off novels, etc. For that reason I don't think even S3 can be considered non-commercial, or at least not in the popular or traditional sense. TP is a strange beast. Case in point, action figures were brought up as a touchpoint for the original to draw a difference between seasons, but there are in fact figures related to S3. L&F had final vetos on the marketing back in the day, and I assume so for the marketing for S3; for example, Lynch was supervisory to some extant in the VR game that was released on steam. They're as involved and parental as ever in side-materials of the commercial nature, but as for the core narrative, I can't imagine them letting up after Lynch helmed 18 hours of video and Frost two books of text, and I can't imagine this isn't the preferred/ideal form of TP for both of them; auteur multimedia.

[Audrey Horne]

I assume the general population if asked the question back in 1990 and 91 would answer Lynch directed all the episodes.

[bob_wooler]

John Ford

[Metamorphia]

I'd actually agree with the premise that the original Twin Peaks (as per the pilot) was a "deconstructivist art project". But of course it was done in a very different and more accessible/normative way to The Return!

[Brad D]

I believe the original Twin Peaks was probably more commercially successful because of multiple directors, but it would likely have been a better show artistically had Lynch been able to direct all the episodes.

So while I think the collaboration worked well on Twin Peaks, it was still less than ideal.

I don't see any truth to your first point, because Lynch episodes spiked viewership in the show from beginning to end. Pilot, S2 premiere, WKLP reveal, and the finale. Maybe that's just a circumstance of him directing "the big events," but I do not at all understand the absolutist take of "Lynch should/must direct everything," because it's impossible to know all ideas that originated from him and we can hand sole credit to.

Many folks contributed ideas to the show. If Lynch had done it all, who even knows if we would get to the s2 finale. Although he pretty much threw that script out, you must credit an entire team of folks that got Twin Peaks that far. I love what he did on the original series, but there isn't one hour that he directed that didnt have Frost's name (or someone else) on the script. I do wish he had directed ep 17 for many reasons I've stated previously.

What I'm getting at, is I dont understand why many are quick to credit Lynch with all that is good with TP, when they have little understanding of what is solely and strictly from him. I mean, it wasn't even his idea to plant most of The Return in Vegas. When you take Frost (or others) out of the equation, do you get Laura on the beach? Leland and Maddy in a living room? Coop staring into the mirror? Fat Dougie laying in the floor of a housing tract? Try removing some of those bricks from the wall and see what happens.

And as I type that sentence, I digress and I laugh, because that's kinda what Lynch did with Part 18

[AXX°N N.]

Yeah, it's a constant surprise to me what's 'non-Lynch' even in S3, as illustrated in this post here: http://www.dugpa.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 63#p133263

[Histeria]

Indeed. Frost's imprint on The Return is a lot greater than it's often given credit for. A lot.

[mtwentz]

I believe the original Twin Peaks was probably more commercially successful because of multiple directors, but it would likely have been a better show artistically had Lynch been able to direct all the episodes.

So while I think the collaboration worked well on Twin Peaks, it was still less than ideal.

I don't see any truth to your first point, because Lynch episodes spiked viewership in the show from beginning to end. Pilot, S2 premiere, WKLP reveal, and the finale. Maybe that's just a circumstance of him directing "the big events," but I do not at all understand the absolutist take of "Lynch should/must direct everything," because it's impossible to know all ideas that originated from him and we can hand sole credit to.

Many folks contributed ideas to the show. If Lynch had done it all, who even knows if we would get to the s2 finale. Although he pretty much threw that script out, you must credit an entire team of folks that got Twin Peaks that far. I love what he did on the original series, but there isn't one hour that he directed that didnt have Frost's name (or someone else) on the script. I do wish he had directed ep 17 for many reasons I've stated previously.

What I'm getting at, is I dont understand why many are quick to credit Lynch with all that is good with TP, when they have little understanding of what is solely and strictly from him. I mean, it wasn't even his idea to plant most of The Return in Vegas. When you take Frost (or others) out of the equation, do you get Laura on the beach? Leland and Maddy in a living room? Coop staring into the mirror? Fat Dougie laying in the floor of a housing tract? Try removing some of those bricks from the wall and see what happens.

And as I type that sentence, I digress and I laugh, because that's kinda what Lynch did with Part 18

Well specifically I was referring to episode 8, Season 2 premiere. That's the episode that really piqued my interest in Twin Peaks, but also the one that was the beginning of the end ratings wise.

I remember reading shortly after the series ended that the opening scene with the waiter and the Giant was the beginning of the audience mass exodus.

[JackwithOneEye]

Even doing an anthology thing and you're avoiding answering the big questions, new writers and directors are gonna be faced with
deciding even which timeline it's set in, it could be funky.

It could be easier at this point to do a Blue Velvet spin-off series set in Lumberton, since there's no alternative timelines and meta realities.

[Brad D]

Well specifically I was referring to episode 8, Season 2 premiere. That's the episode that really piqued my interest in Twin Peaks, but also the one that was the beginning of the end ratings wise.

I remember reading shortly after the series ended that the opening scene with the waiter and the Giant was the beginning of the audience mass exodus.

Without access to quarter-hour viewership, its kinda impossible to say anything re: the waiter and the Giant. Seems I looked up the trades once, and found separate hour viewership? Not sure where that is in my archives. I'll dig around.