First off I'm writing this as I've just finished watching the last episode. I've recently picked up watching again as I lost interest at around episode/part 7. I just started to feel quite bored, and was afraid to where this may go, yet a part of me wanted to give it a chance. However as I kept watching, I kept experience my same concerns.
The biggest problem for me was the characters! There were new little to no characters that I cared about throughout the entire show. So many minor characters you would think may became important but don't. For instance, 'Steven Burnett' and 'Richard Horne' just to name a few, add little to the whole scheme of the show. If you're going to introduce these characters give them proper introductions, or establishment. Grant you, Richard's character towards the end does end up being involved a little bit. Yet his character set up and development throughout the show doesn't pay off or make sense. Including Steven, who is Shelly's daughter's boyfriend who's character was very forgetful, and useless to anything going on within the story. The whole point he's included is because of 'Becky' who funnily enough forgetful! haha I even had to look up there names because they just didn't make an impact on me. This isn't to the fault of the actors of course, they were really good in their scenes. Their characters just didn't have the proper time, and execution to flesh themselves out on screen because they are not main characters nor crucial to the story... BUT they should be!
Look, I'll stop right there for now.
And I'll come back to edit it later with further points.
There were many people who were confused/disappointed by the ending, which has spawned much discussion and theorizing. It may be a good idea to give yourself some time to think about the viewing experience. If you'd like some insight into what people here thought, there are many threads about the ending in particular.
I was OK with Stephen not meaning much. All he was, to me, was a sign that the town of Twin Peaks was still caught in a loop with youngsters getting hooked on drugs and not doing well for themselves. Shelly was also still caught in the same loop as she was in the first two seasons: At this point in her life, Bobby was all cleaned up and was a good servant to his community, but Shelly was still stuck being attracted to a nasty man, Red, whereas when she was young, she was attracted to evil Leo and irresponsible drug-dealing young Bobby.
Stephen and Becky served as a counterpoint to the virtuous elders in the show. Most of the heroes and good people were older than 60: Cole, Albert, Norma, Hawk, Log Lady, and my new favorites, Bushnell and Carl Rodd. So I was just fine with characters having small roles that served a symbolic purpose even though we never came back to finish their "stories."
This season really did not run like any normal TV show or movie though. It was solid Lynch, with our expectations constantly broken left and right. Just last week I thought about the Paul Thomas Anderson movie Inherent Vice from a couple years ago. The first time I watched it, I kept on trying to keep track of all the characters and names and settings, but none of them mattered. It was really just a ride. When I watched it the second and third times with this in mind, I really loved it. You just had to let it take you for a ride. That's what TPTR was like. Return back to the first episode when detectives first go to check out the smelly bedroom where they find Maj. Briggs' body. The woman with the key recounts a long story with a ton of names and relationships. In most shows/movies, we would expect for that to be setting the scene for the upcoming narrative. But in this show, none of that woman's story mattered!
This is what Lynch has been doing since Blue Velvet if I understand correctly. He toys with the audience, setting us up and taking us in totally unexpected directions; sometimes it's very frustrating, but it's a method used by musicians and comedians too; it's just used less frequently in film/tv/novels. Some people don't like it. Some of us love it because it's different from most of the film we see, and I myself enjoy the "thrill" of the unexpected, even if it's depressing.
I can totally understand your disappointment, and I definitely do not mean to argue and change your mind. But I wanted to offer some explanation about why some of us loved this season so much.
Wow, thank you for that awesome response! I understand completely what you're saying! I've been thinking alot about the ending, and listening/reading about different theories and it's been refreshing looking at things differently, however I just miss the charm of OG twin peaks. Lot of unanswered questions from the last season, and this one makes it full lynch which is great for Lynch fans, yet not to good for that fine balance of reality and dreamlike worlds!
Sleight of hand and altered timelines, dream sequences and death dreams, moving the POV around and inserting characters that may or mat not be significant, making us look to the left while a child is mowed down by a truck but the important issue is just off camera. Just a bunch of parlor tricks that are supposed to end up as an avante garde film noir style TV show.
Who killed JR was about as disappointing in my opinion.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me...fool me thrice!!! Must be TPTR!!!
A lot of good points here, and one thing is for sure: context is everything. I read "The Secret History of Twin Peaks" book before the series and although it had little tidbits of interesting info, frankly I was disappointed. It seemed to get way too bogged down in connecting the Twin Peaks universe to unexplained events and conspiracy theories. I watched TPTR as each episode dropped, and it took at least 4 episodes for me to get into the swing of things. After episode 5 I really got into it, because I figured out (late in the game) that I had to alter my expectations. I felt like I had to unlearn the tone and structure of the original series in order to enjoy the new one. While I enjoyed TPTR I have to admit that I, too, was disappointed in the ending because it was difficult for me to put the pieces together. The real game changer was "The Final Dossier" because it acts as the connective tissue between all the written and visual narratives. I was totally stunned by how much information is in that book. While it still leaves a few stones unturned, it re-inserts many missing pieces of the puzzle. Anyway, it probably goes without saying but I believe that "The Final Dossier" is essential reading for anyone with questions or frustrations concerning TPTR. A free audiobook download of it is available with a trial membership at Audible. Highly recommended!
Fire walk with