Twin Peaks

[Rrobynne]

Funnily enough per The Prisoner comparisons, the low points of Season 2 of Twin Peaks don't half remind me of the scraping-the-barrel end of the Prisoner's run. Yellowface Piper Laurie high up there for all-time "What on earth were they thinking?" TV direction, for me. Worst part is enough is set up in those episodes they're not even excisable without losing the lead-in to the finale and the rest of the franchise. When the *good* 90s soap opera parts are dated enough for most people already, it makes it very hard to recommend the series to all but those with THE most ironclad patience.

[therewillbeblus]

It’s been hard to watch so many friends totally give up on Peaks as a result of the season two low, especially when there are so many spectacular gifts coming after. On the other hand, I don’t think The Prisoner ever sunk too low- it was pretty consistent overall and a thrilling piece of work, even if I agree that the earlier and middle episodes are often better. Its Sisyphean central conceit transmitted into intra-episode structure disallowed any loud quality departures a la the second half of Peaks season two

[Big Ben]

Neither of you have mentioned in detail the much loathed James/Evelyn plot which is pretty bad and feels weird even by Twin Peaks standards. I'd wager however that there are parts of The Return that are much harder to get through for the average viewer. The intentional and constant obfuscation is certainly not something I could hype up to a buddy in the bar and neither are the static shots where very little happens for well over a minute. How the hell do you explain the Dougie Jones plotline to the average person for instance?

And I say this as someone who unabashedly loves The Return.

[therewillbeblus]

After watching the show a countless number of times I’ve come to think the James/Evelyn plot to be one of the more manageable ones to sit through due to how it’s reflexively aping several classic noir films’ basic structures to hilariously shallow depths. I don’t think it’s totally out of step with the show’s influences- it’s just lazy. Other plot lines, on the other hand, take the eccentric nature of Lynch’s stamp on Peaks at its best and invert it into what his most obnoxious followers have tried and failed to do for years since

[feihong]

After watching the show a countless number of times I’ve come to think the James/Evelyn plot to be one of the more manageable ones to sit through due to how it’s reflexively aping several classic noir films’ basic structures to hilariously shallow depths. I don’t think it’s totally out of step with the show’s influences- it’s just lazy. Other plot lines, on the other hand, take the eccentric nature of Lynch’s stamp on Peaks at its best and invert it into what his most obnoxious followers have tried and failed to do for years since

I have a pet theory on the James/Evelyn storyline: I think Evelyn was supposed to be played by Sheryl Lee. Imagine how that would streamline James' story arc: James sees Laura, his secret love, murdered, then meets Madeleine Ferguson, an absolute duplicate of Laura, who––at his request, as part of his scheme in the first season––transforms herself a la Vertigo into blonde Laura Palmer. Throughout this storyline, James is pulled away from Donna, his girlfriend, called back to Laura in her various forms. Then Maddy is killed, and James' girlfriend brings him the news, and he bugs out, heading for somewhere else, anywhere else, to escape from the specter of his dead love. So he comes upon this mansion down the road somewhere, as he drives to escape his troubles. And there he runs into a blonde woman, who teases his heartstrings––and, like Laura, she's in trouble.

If that woman, Evelyn, had looked exactly like Laura Palmer...just imagine how that would have shaped James' storyline into something really articulate. James, the ultimate outsider, escapes Twin Peaks to get away from the memory of Laura––but every woman he meets is another Laura to him. How far must he run before he escapes her? How far must he run from himself? This would also add an extra charge to Donna's attempts to keep James. She has that soliloquy in front of Laura's grave, trying to dispel Laura's spirit ("how come we're all still dealing with your problems, Laura?"). When Evelyn is going to put the noose to James' neck, Donna comes in crying ("please don't take him away from me!"), shielding James from Evelyn. Imagine how much more effective that scene would be if Donna was essentially begging Laura not to take James away from her––or, at least, another woman, who looked exactly like Laura, but who was a genuine femme fatale in so many of the ways that Laura actually wasn't?

I feel like this has to be the origin of James' subplot with Evelyn. I could totally see the network balking at this––they already went too far with Madeleine, and now they want Sheryl Lee to play another character (supposedly Mark Frost had another character in mind for Sheryl in his ideas for a network Season Three)? It sounds ridiculous. But on the other hand, it would have served the story so immensely; it would have given meaning to what is otherwise a really meaningless tangent in the course of the show. Of course, I have no evidence this was what was really supposed to happen. But it just makes too much sense to me, even if it sounds like a conspiracy theory. Could Oswald really have acted on his own? It's all too much of a coincidence not to be a conspiracy! You get my drift.

[therewillbeblus]

Uh, regardless of whether or not that was the intention of the subplot’s conception, I’m just going to choose to look at it that way from now on. Love that interpretation, thanks for sharing!

[colinr0380]

That's a great notion feihong and certainly puts that much maligned subplot into some more plausible form! (It might even tie James together with the way that Cooper becomes obsessed with Laura Palmer himself, as if she is the ultimate siren figure for certain men who wish to save/destroy her. Two sides of the same coin). Your comments also make me think a bit of the tripling of the Meg Ryan character in Joe Versus The Volcano too, which came out at around the same time as season two. It is pure speculation but maybe that made people shy away from tripling the main character in their own show?

[flyonthewall2983]

I was stunned not to make the connection Kyle Maclachlan made in the closet video regarding Dougie, saying he took a lot of inspiration from Being There and Peter Seller’s performance.

[Roger Ryan]

I was stunned not to make the connection Kyle Maclachlan made in the closet video regarding Dougie, saying he took a lot of inspiration from Being There and Peter Seller’s performance.

Of course, Lynch’s take on the concept was stretched far beyond the point of credulity, reveling in the absurdity of everyone accepting the last word in a sentence being repeated back as meaningful conversation.

Since Jeff Tweedy picked Being There as well in his closet visit, that makes two consecutive closet videos where the guest picked the same film. I suppose that’s happened before, but I don’t know when.