Twin Peaks

[Jigen]

So after hearing about it for so long I bit the bullet and watched Twin Peaks. I loved Season 1 and 2 and honestly am very disappointed with Season 3. It seems like almost everything that made the original appealing was stripped out of season 3. I think I heard the sentiment best by a random user on Reddit "Season 3 was made for David Lynch fans not Twin Peaks fans."

I loved what I saw in the first seasons and my head canon has the cliffhanger ending as "official" and season 3 just wiped out of existence. So I hope any fans out there are willing to discuss this mostly amazing series with me.

 

[Guppy]

Twin peaks is still up to this date my favorite TV series. It's been a while since I watched all three seasons, but from memory I still find that Season 3 retains all the elements from the previous ones. The main difference is that it's way tighter and focused on its main element, the horror underneath the mundane. As the older seasons had almost every episode swapping different directors, they had almost a procedural feel to them so a lot of episodes were mainly focused on soap opera type of drama. Season 2 specially had way too many fillers and the quality of the show suffered because of them. Season 3 in the other hand was still funny and quirky, while never lost sight of its horror mystery, and I doubt any fan will complain about the amazing cinematography from Lynch on every episode of that season.

 

[Vivi-gamer]

I haven't watched it in a while but my biggest complaint with the 3rd Season was Dougie, it wasn't funny and just a massive diversion for most of the Season. The series would have really benefitted from have Dale Cooper active for the entier Season and it suffered for it.

The other big problem for me is I simply wish David Lynch never learned of CGI, one of the confrontations near the end of the series looks b-Movie budget awful.

Overall I was very half and half with it, I liked what was happening with the other cooper and the mystery was compelling.

 

[Kyo_JP]

Season 3 is much better when watched for a second time. The main problem with Season 3 is that there is almost no Twin Peaks, and for me what meake really special this show is that the town is a character it self. But that said this season is not different from Fire Walk With Me, there you watch this other town that is corrupted, and now Twin Peaks has gone full bad like that town. Also all the lore behind it is awesome. I think that the main problem is that Mark Frost has less to say in this season, so the cozy, familiar and welcoming character are less present. Anyways I love season 3, but I still prefer Season 1 and Season 2 until episode 8 and just the final chapter (filler episodes in Season 2 are pure crap). I dedicated a program in my podcast to Twin Peaks original run, but it is Spanish.

 

[Nigel]

Great thread!
As to the Reddit point of Season 3 being for Lynch fans, not TP fans: What do you want? Ask the same of Yu Suzuki and Shenmue 3. I wanted Virtua Fighter!, etc.

With reference to Season 3, I consider two key points:

a. The nature of seasons 1/2
He aimed to lampoon soap opera/good ol' America vibes. It got him an ABC gig, but they didn't get his underlying point. He never desired to reveal the killer, but instead use the show as a medium for getting viewers into his frame of mind.

b. Lynch's overall style
He's a surrealist, and the end of season 2 was a middle finger to ABC for cancelling the series. BOB and the lodges go over the heads of many: just make it a cheap whodunnit!
Contra YS, I will admit Lynch has grown cocky over time and may suffer from "irony poisoning"; that said, I'd think Showtime took him seriously, but perhaps he took himself a little too seriously in the process.

(I have mixed views on the movie; besides elucidating plot, I still don't know what I think of it.)

 

[Jigen]

Removing Agent Cooper / The Dougie plot - One of the most frustrating things in the world, watching this beloved character become relegated to a zombie like state is just so disheartening especially when we know he is the main driving force behind this. It would've helped much more if it were actually any funny, I guess Lynch lost his edge on humor over 25 years.

 

[Riku Rose]

Twin Peaks is one of my favourite shows ever but can't say I've liked anything Lynch has done outside of it. There are scenes like the diner scene in Mullholland Drive which are amazing but as a package I've never 'got' his films. That being said I thought The Return was one of the best things of TV since Breaking Bad.

I would have loved more of Agent Cooper but I don't think he would have fit in the style of the 3rd season much which went with a darker tone. Dougie appearing once an episode at times compared to having Dale Cooper's quirkiness in town every other scene like in the originals would have been very strange for the tone of the season. We only really got one scene in the hospital of the old Dale before he went very serious for the end as him being cooky would just be weird with everything going on around him.

I feel like the third season will get even better if they end up doing a forth season. Even in episode 18 it felt like we was still being caught up on what had happened since season two in this world for whatever comes next.