A Twin Peaks Continuation - For or Against

[The Magician]

I implicitly remembering right when the credits were rolling apologizing to my friends for getting her involved in the show too.

Seriously, Audrey. It seems like you hate this show...

I'm throwing a big time 4 day marathon party of the Pilot through 29 this December. It's going to be amazing, and I'm showing 10 of my best friends (people who's opinions I respect more than anyone else int he world), and they have never even heard the phrase "who killed Laura Palmer?" They have no idea what to expect. I'm so excited for their reactions, and I'm sure they are going to love every minute of it.

And I can just now hear them apologizing to me for not getting into this show sooner...

[Audrey Horne]

No, not at all -contrary, quite contrary. I probably got such a bad GPA for a couple of terms because I was so obsessed. God, I probably should have paid more attention in trig instead of making my little charts and drawings. I didn't even want to go to the movies back then, because I thought who cares, no where near as exciting as Peaks.

I was just commenting on the thoughts most people were having at the time, mine included. I think the last episode is great now, except for Annie replacing Audrey in the Lodge.

Yes, I think Twin Peaks is the most beautiful and impressive television experience -up to a point. After the body of Maddy is found, I think it gets very sloppy and lazy. I mean, I was following the show for a good portion of a year and in love with it. If it were continued now, but they put in footage of say, Two and a Half Men, but since it has the Twin Peaks title cards in it, are we to not call things out on it? I think it's valid. And I don't think I'm any less of a fan.

By the way, it's great you're here. Enjoying reading your posts, and enthusiasm.

[Audrey Horne]

Magician, that's great about the showing.

I did the same thing to a friend and his wife this past summer, and they were hooked. Now they're at the post Palmer episodes though, and yes, I'm afriad their interests has waned saying it's not as good.

[The Magician]

The thing about you, Audrey, is that you have such strong convictions in your beliefs, and I respect that a lot. It's clear you've given Twin Peaks a lot of thought over a great many years, and therefore, while I disagree, I appreciate how valid your opinion it is.

I can understand how it must have been, being a long time viewer, with Audrey being the driving force behind that. I can see how you felt they wrote her out and replaced her with Annie.

I think my experience (watching all 30 episodes in just under 2 months) made it more along the lines of "going along for the ride". Therefore, I let the writers tell me what the show was doing and where the characters were going, leaving less time for my own speculation.

Still, I think it strange that I was not mad at the show for killing off MY favorite character, Maddy Ferguson. She died at the SAME POINT you stopped liking the show, but I kept on board and my interest only increased.

Still, (one of?) your favorite show(s) is a 15 episode murder mystery ending with the confirmation of the murderer, correct? And while I love the Lodge and Earle arcs, there's nothing wrong with Twin Peaks being a 15 episode experience for you. There are several shows I loved only the early episodes of, such as Ren & Stimpy, Jeeves & Wooster, Reno 911, The Simpsons, etc.

Oh, and thanks for the compliment! I am enthusiastic about Twin Peaks. In fact, this is the first forum I've ever joined! Haha.

[Audrey Horne]

magician, actually I think (in sort of an ironic) statement is the fact that Twin Peaks is unfinished, gives it a sort of longevity -at least in terms of discussing it. If it has been as tight as the first season, or kept coming on for a seven episode run every year we'd probably be left with nothing to really dissect. "Twin Peaks was/is perfect. Okay, moving on."

yes, I think a big part of the divide is between people who found it years later and could watch it as a complete product, viewing one episode after another, and the ones who watched it when it was originally on. Neither one is right, how could they be? But there was the feel of when it was happening, and reading the media critism and still rooting for the characters, that there was a letdown. ABC was more involved, more detailed outlines had to be met by certain dates, we were in the Gulf War, etc. Even Peyton talks about the dip. I loved Who Killed Laura Palmer, not because I gave a hoot about her, but because she was the Macguffin to pull us into the town. It was all character driven. New writers were brought in, even the actors admit some of the directors were trying to immiate the style of Lynch without the substance. Why should I care about a chess game that goes nowhere? Why should I care about Windom stalking Audrey, Shelly and Donna only for it to change the next episode? Things like Benjamin Horne being Donna's father felt like lazy common denominator soap writing, that Peaks was skewering already, however now with none of the nuance. There was no clear throughline.

The Audrey character was hardly written off, she was still the big draw. But now what happened was Cooper and Audrey are both essentially having the same plotline in each episode, but with two other people, so we're getting the same thing twice to essentially accomodate the show's arguably most popular characters.

Still love this show. And keep posting, Magician!

[Brad D]

i love reading all of your opinions guys, but i'm going to chime in too! up until maddy's murder i think this show is genius, but the writers just screwed this series sideways. so many possibilities with audrey and coop, who shot coop, the hunt for bob (not to mention burying sarah palmer's character), were all squandered and we got little nicky, evelyn, and a drunk truman instead. i dont know how it happened, it is embarassing, and at the time a fatal wound. you can tell they are trying to get into recovery mode once annie is introduced but it was just too little too late. i still think the last episode is worth all of the terrible arcs right after leland dies.

something i also wonder about, is even if the writing had stayed top notch after maddy's murder - how bad were the ratings at the time? would it have been cancelled anyway? it seems to me that alot of the supernatural elements at the beginning of season 2 (not to mention some of the more haunting imagery with bob) turned off alot of viewers that were expecting more of the first season.

[Gabriel]

It's interesting how our views of TP change down the years. I was 14-15 when it first turned up and it was and is still one of the biggest influences in my life. My expectations of what could be achieved in TV were raised massively by it.

As an adult, I picked up the R2 season one DVDs in 2002 and watched it in a completely different way (my Betamax copies no longer being playable,) understanding all the Peyton Place references, seeing all the characters in a different way. In fact, I'm going to Camden, Maine, next year, where PP was filmed, so that'll be a fascinating experience.

The colossal wait for a season two release means I'll be watching the show at more than twice the age I was when I first saw it! Knowing what happens will affect how I view it.

The final episode infuriated many people, the dragginess of those scenes in the bank with the old man, the overlong sequence of Truman sat outside Glastonbury Grove and so on alienating even patient fans.

Now, it's a done deal and I accept it for what it is. But the thought of Sheryl Lee walking into Twin Peaks with red hair as another mysterious Laura Palmer lookalike setting off a new chain of events is something that is intriguing to say the least!

[Red Room]

Against.

Much as I would have loved to see the planned series 3, it's done now ' over. Even the "25 years later" concept would most likely suck in my view.

Enjoy it for what it is, but Twin Peaks would (in my view) only be tarnished by such a late 'update' as the world has moved on.

RR

[Brad D]

would dopplecoop be the one to kill red-headed laura, or would bob inhabit someone else before it happens?

[GeekBoyEric74]

I gotta say, I have always been for a continuation. I know some people think it ends perfectly, and although I can kind of see how the Cooper/BOB stuff is an ending of a sort, but the cliffhangers involving Audrey, Ben, Leo etc. are just straight up cliffhangers, and not resolving them just plain sucks.

I would have been fine with the graphic novel actually. I'm still irritated that Lynch nixed that.

[Red Room]

I know some people think it ends perfectly, and although I can kind of see how the Cooper/BOB stuff is an ending of a sort, but the cliffhangers involving Audrey, Ben, Leo etc. are just straight up cliffhangers, and not resolving them just plain sucks...

I personally don't think it ended perfectly ' Those cliffhangers were clearly meant to set-up the next season... But ' season 3 never happened, and too much time has elapsed (in my view) to pick it up now.

Whilst a graphic novel would have been 'interesting' for sure, Twin Peaks is a film/TV medium that I feel wouldn't translate successfully onto the page. There are too many oblique elements that are (again, in my view) better suited to film.

If David had been given the support 10-15 years ago he would almost certainly have done more, but the world seemed to have lost interest at that point. Now he's moved on, and over time I've gotten used to the open-ended ending, and in 'some ways' find it quite fitting. Do we really want everything tied up in a neat little bow?

RR

[GeekBoyEric74]

If David had been given the support 10-15 years ago he would almost certainly have done more, but the world seemed to have lost interest at that point. Now he's moved on, and over time I've gotten used to the open-ended ending, and in 'some ways' find it quite fitting. Do we really want everything tied up in a neat little bow?

RR

Well, I certainly don't want the more metaphysical/supernatural elements explained or tied up in a bow...that's for sure. I would like most of those elements left up to interpretation. But the fates of certain characters? I would have liked to have had those tied up, yeah. Killing Leo and Ben would have been a totally fitting end to those characters, but leaving it vague is annoying. I just feel like Lynch is being greedy when it comes to Peaks. He is but one of the creators involved in the show ( although a key one ) and the fact that he's stopping other people involved with the original show from doing anything with the property, evena graphic novel, is totally lame on his part.

[Gabriel]

Agreed. TP was a collaborative project. While Lynch had a huge impact on the style of the show, so did the likes of Mark Frost, Scott Frost, Harley Peyton, Duwayne Dunham and and countless others. Indeed wasn't one of the issues during season two that Lynch didn't get all that involved until the end?

It has to be said, though, that in putting out the final episode of TP season two - one of the most whacked out finales since the last episode of The Prisoner - Lynch gave the conventional minds of the TV executives a massive two-fingers!!

If TP was a wholly David Lynch project, I'd have more sympathy with his refusal to countenance any more stories.

And Red Room, when you talk about TP not translating to the page, have you ever read The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer: one of the most heartbreaking reads ever? Have you ever read My Life, My Tapes: the hilarious and disturbing autobiography of Dale Cooper? TP, with its elastic nature, has worked fine in just about every medium it's turned up in!

[Red Room]

If TP was a wholly David Lynch project, I'd have more sympathy with his refusal to countenance any more stories.

You see, I pretty much do see Twin Peaks as David's project. Sure, he didn't write or direct them all, but his signature is in every episode, and I'm 100% certain that it would never have existed (at least in a recognisable form) without his driving force, Frost or no Frost.

And Red Room, when you talk about TP not translating to the page, have you ever read The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer: one of the most heartbreaking reads ever? Have you ever read My Life, My Tapes: the hilarious and disturbing autobiography of Dale Cooper?

No Gabriel, I haven't. And I have no desire to do so either.

I'm sure these things are great, but they just don't interest me at all. For me they aren't relevant, and I only speak for myself. I also have little interest in TP memorabilia, collectables, etc.

Here's the thing - I love the work of David Lynch, both his film works and other mediums, such as sound design, music, and painting - this is why I'm here on the boards. As an artist he inspires me immensely. I also love Twin Peaks - it's one of the greatest TV series ever, and has clearly spawned a multitude of new genres... But - I don't hold it in the same esteem as some evidently do. And for me it's best left where it ended.

Ultimately these are just my personal views. You can take them or leave them. But surely the point of such a thread is to encourage a free debate? I am therefore no more 'wrong' than those who wish to see Twin Peaks go on and on...

RR

[Gabriel]

Hi Red Room.

Twin Peaks was created by David Lynch ***and*** Mark Frost. It included a lot of Lynchian quirks, but was far from purely Lynch. Indeed, he was apparently barely involved in season two.

When the series came out, it was one of the first to make an actual issue of the book being part of the franchise. The original press reports even pointed out that the book was marketed to 'help' people work out who killed Laura and to reveal more details about TP's background.

The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer features material directly referenced later on in both the series and FWWM. To dismiss it as a mere marketing ploy is a big mistake. This isn't some random Star Trek novel that isn't canon. The book is written by Jennifer Lynch and provides essential extra information for the show and the film.

The reason I wasn't surprised at the different tone of FWWM was precisely because the book had prepared me for it. The book even has the torn out pages seen in FWWM, years before they were seen in the the film!

I can understand your reticence to get involved in the sub-culture, but to dismiss fully-sanctioned works by the children of the show's creators (one of whom was a TP series writer) that are part of the continuity is bizarre for someone who claims to be so into Lynch's stuff!