You know, I don't get upset over different opinions about a tv show but what really, really hacks me off is when people say "We" when they mean "I". Please remember, you speak for nobody but yourself here; there is no safety in numbers.
Anybody else ready to quit this thread? This thread is a dead shark.
(-;
Hahaha!
You know, I don't get upset over different opinions about a tv show but what really, really hacks me off is when people say "We" when they mean "I". Please remember, you speak for nobody but yourself here; there is no safety in numbers.
"We are half way through" is just true. I start by saying "I think" and continue in that register.
Warning: First Post/Wall of Text Incoming!
I'm nowhere near ready to quit. In fact, I just want more, and I suspect I still will after this season is done.
I've loved every second of it. Every deranged, maddened, strange, beautiful second. And in my opinion, I love this new, dark direction more. I don't want the old Coop back. Granted I want actual Coop and not half-Coop, but if he came back and was just like "Coffee!", to me that would be disregarding the point of this series. It was called an odyssey. A journey. A big point of the journey, as well as how it gets somewhere (in the case of TV whether it be conventional or weird), is where it goes. And with the darkened mood we've had, I don't want the soap operatic feel back. I liked it, yes. But I look at Twin Peaks as a gradual descent into madness. And Cooper can still be about coffee and all those wonderful quirks that made me love him, but he should be changed. To me, hating how Twin Peaks has changed is missing the point (you can still have your opinion of course). This new Twin Peaks is 25 years on... things will have changed. I feel like the scenes showing Jacoby and other different characters are to illustrate that (they might have some other significance later, but it's too early to tell). Twin Peaks' slow descent into madness has been slowly going, and it can have bumps along the way (the moments I just mentioned). I feel that the moment Dale Cooper walks into the waiting room, and hears Jimmy Scott's ethereal voice, you should know that we're not in Kansas anymore (or Washington as the case may be). After that moment, I knew Twin Peaks could do stuff like that effectively, and wanted the descent to continue. And it did. And I feel that for it to stop just to please people is not what the show is about. It's not what David Lynch is about. If you miss the old show, go watch it. It'll always be there. I for one will stay with my batshit insane headless Majors who died years ago and killer nicotine-addict hobos (for no other show should I have to write this).
You know, I don't get upset over different opinions about a tv show but what really, really hacks me off is when people say "We" when they mean "I". Please remember, you speak for nobody but yourself here; there is no safety in numbers.
"We are half way through" is just true. I start by saying "I think" and continue in that register.
Yeah, I did mean to point out I was only being half serious but got sidetracked by an exploding cat situation. Well, we have a kitten with no sense, trying to play with one of our old grumpy guys.
Anyhow, sorry for coming across as harsh and unfriendly. I'll choose my words more carefully in future. Probably.
I think we can begin to criticise the show quite harshly now...There is a point where open, diffuse storytelling actually becomes poor planning and bad structure!...Twin Peaks: The Return has really lost it!
I get that. If these scripts had been handed in to a screenwriting professor, or submitted to a literary agent, a producer, a studio, they would have been roundly rejected for being meandering, undisciplined, pretentious, "throw a dart to choose a scene" messes that only amateur writers could contrive. Practically every accepted story telling technique and format is rejected in every episode, and even individual scenes often have no dramatic curve to them. It's not uncommon for dialogue to seem amateurish and clumsy, and for characters to behave in inexplicably unbelievable ways - such as Janey-E talking to Dougie-Cooper for days as if he can understand her, when he's obviously in a virtual walking coma.
These scripts could be called self-consciously arty, self indulgent, sprawling and aimless concoctions - vanity projects which could get on film only if they were self-produced. And of course they are self-produced, Showtime buying in based on the fame and track record of the creators, Lynch and Frost.
Once in awhile during these first 10 episodes I've thought things like, "Maybe this is the biggest prank pulled on an audience in television history. Maybe Mark and David have no point other than proving fans will watch and support anything, even when it's just a collection of nonsense and red herring mysteries that lead nowhere."
Nah. I don't agree with anything I just wrote. All of the above only sums up the reason I Do love The Return. My brain feels gratefully scrambled after every episode. When I watch other conventional, plot-driven episodes of TV gristmill product, I feel even more grateful from the respite from the normal which TP gives me.
In other words, there's room for at least one Twin Peaks: The Return in my life. If I want to just sit back and be entertained in a predictable, unchallenging way, there's no end of opportunities for that in the TV schedule.
I have no need to think or say TP 2017 is "brilliant" or "a masterpiece," (though it could be argued it is) nor think the opposite, that it's junk and a joke (which could also be argued). I just watch it. Over and over. Episode 8 has had more plays on my TV than any episode of any other TV show ever.
I'm loving it, precisely because it's "diffuse storytelling...(with) poor planning and bad structure," among other expectation-thwarting things. Maybe I wouldn't tolerate more than one TP: The Return in my life, but I'm thankful to David, Mark and their entire creative team for giving me this one delicious slice of bizarre escape from the mundane.
@Randy Bowser:
I gave up on tv entirely, years ago, because of the "I'm smarter than the entire cast" syndrome, the endless plot holes, illogical developments, lazy writing, deus ex machinae, pointlessly complex characters, filler episodes and so on.
Twin Peaks is the first thing in many, many years that forces me to think about what I'm watching and after, what I just watched. Now, I know I'm a bright guy; not bragging, it's the truth. If a show can leave me guessing as frequently as this one - without the usual script writing cliches - then they're doing something right.
It's a demonstrable fact that collectively, human intelligence is getting lower all the time. Come to this site, though, and the ratio seems to be firmly in the other direction. People are engaging in critical thinking, logical analysis and all the other things which indicate a certain degree of intelligence. In cases like this, like tends to attract like. It's a horrible thing to admit but I really don't enjoy the company of stupid people; there's nothing in common. I prefer those who are smart enough to join the dots, those who can do the leap of intellect sometimes needed to get to the next screen. So, when I see a place like this, full of people as confused as me, and knowing they're all pretty smart, too, I know the show is on the right track.
@Randy Bowser:
I gave up on tv entirely, years ago...
Excellent. Best thing I've read today. Thanks, SamXTherapy.
I'm not only new to this forum, but new to The Return. I only started it around a week and a half ago and have watched all 10 parts in that short amount of time. The wait from watching part 10 earlier this week until today has been excruciating and I wonder how I might feel about this show had I been forced to wait a week between parts EVERY TIME. Perhaps I'd be frustrated and ready to quit, too; I don't know. It's not the usual pacing; it's uncomfortable on purpose.
Oh my oh my. This epiphany may have been reached by others long before that penny rolled down my chute and dropped, so snigger behind your hands at your leisure.
The original poster (OP) of 'Anybody else ready to quit,' has not made a single comment on this thread since he declared the show as a dead shark.
Many moons ago when I was in my late teens I knew a drug dealer (allegedly who would bring pot for us and then smile wryly as we all tripped the light fantastic.
At risk of reclaiming the Captain Bleeding Obvious crown, I assume it had crossed your minds that OP had similar intent in mind?
Assuming that's true, hat's off to you OP, R E S P E C T... WORD.
ROFL...
It's a possibility. Occam's razor.
Oh well, still an interesting discussion.
Oh my oh my. This epiphany may have been reached by others long before that penny rolled down my chute and dropped, so snigger behind your hands at your leisure...
The OP definitely gave us a good opportunity to criticize, defend, complain, theorize et al about the series, so he did do a cool thing.
Colin - there's a note that you edited your post, apparently after it was first posted. Howudothat? I've looked and looked, found no Edit button, been frustrated that errors and things I'd like to change seem set in stone. ---- OMG! -- Instantly found the HUGE "Edit" button right after posting. -- I'll leave this up anyway, feeling it's good for my ego to be publicly humbled now and then. 😎
Edit disappears after a short while. It's to stop people constantly, retroactively altering their posts and twisting the conversation totally out of shape. If you could edit forever, you could make the person replying to you look like a complete idiot.
Me, I manage to make myself look like an idiot without needing to edit. It's a gift.
Of course, if you really want to cause some posting mayhem, judicious use of "Strikeout" is advised:
I have a definite idea regarding the shape and direction of Twin Peaks and the people who don't understand all the nuances are a bunch of fucking idiots who should be boiled in oil going to take some time before they get it.
Fire walk with