by Ace! on Sun Dec 05, 2010 9:04 am
My third time through Twin Peaks has drawn to a close. While it always makes me sad, this time through, due to our protracted viewing of the series, I noticed more of its flaws. Before, when four to six episodes were viewed a night, it was easier to get through the three unsteady episodes that prominently featured James' adventure, Nadine's return to high school and Ben Horne's Civil War reenactment. But this time, when we were watching one or two a night, the sudden shift from dark and menacing to light and goofy was very noticeable. It really does feel like they got pushed into revealing Laura Palmer's killer a few episodes early, and were suddenly left with their light and happy B stories as the A stories. Sure, Windham Earle was introduced in those episodes, as was Josie's backstory, but that stuff wasn't enough to hold off the super silly 30 minutes each episode.
It also feels like the last five years of television has taken away some of the wonder of Twin Peaks. My last viewing must have been in '04, before I started watching TV again. Back then, Twin Peaks WAS television. Today, I see its cliches and its pretty poor acting. I still get totally sucked in, however, and find myself instantly engaged each time.
I cannot reccommend Twin Peaks enough, and it is something that will always be close to my heart. The final scene is still heartbreaking, and the final episode is still terrifying.
David Lynch, however, is the ultimate "take my ball and go home" director. Granted, he doesn't ever have to do anything for anyone else ever again, but man. Fire Walk With Me is a frustrating, nonsensical piece of steaming shit, and instead of continuing to tell the story that was already in progress when the show was canceled, he decided to revisit the Laura Palmer storyline, just with more boobies and less sense and class. In the show, the reveal of Laura's killer was tragic and painful, and it made sense because we had spent so many hours with these characters. We had the time to see them deal with their grief, to see them unravel the mystery. And, looking back, we had plenty of clues all along, which only made it more terrifying when we found out who did it.
But in Fire Walk With Me, we know from the beginning, and the killer's harrassment of Laura is hilarious instead of terrifying. It's out of place, constant and overdone to the point of high comedy. It's not classy and it hardly tells Laura's story effectively. The story of Twin Peaks is, ultimately, about a place where the food tastes a little better, where the air is a little cleaner, but where an evil lurks in the woods, just out of sight, which might be the trade off for all these good things. It's also the story of a small town coming to terms with the murder of its prom queen and the many shocking revelations that come out because of it.
It's not a story of a girl living in terror. Even in the show,
Lynch did it again with Mullholland Dr., a great pilot that every single network passed on. So what does he do? He takes the pilot, follows the two least interesting characters and adds an hour of total nonsense (and boobies) and takes home countless prizes and nominations, and a huge box office return. He's an incredible manipulator, playing the biggest joke on his fans, and had he not done that to Twin Peaks, I'd love him for it. Instead, I just like him for it. I guess.
But man. Really? It's just not fair.