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.

[Finch]

My old copy of the Entire Mystery BD set had to be thrown away because so many discs slid around in the cardboard packaging and glue got onto them that they became unplayable. I was curious about the extra footage of filming The Return on the Z-A set plus the interview with Kyle and Sheryl that I thought getting the reissue due February 3 might be worthwhile. What kept me back was the prospect of a 4K do-over for all three seasons. Over at the other forum, a kind soul took caps of the 4K and HD versions of the Pilot and while I do like the more nuanced colors and grain on the 4K SDR version, I don't know that I'd buy a 4K upgrade of the entire thing unless Lynch managed to approve an HDR/DV pass before he died or whoever is in charge of his estate (possibly Sabrina Sutherland) oversees it. Should Paramount pass this on to Criterion, I'd beg Peter Becker not to house the discs in cardboard slots.

donat96's caps batch 1

donat96's caps batch 2

I copied and pasted the shots of Bobby with Truman and Donna as they were among the more noticeable changes.

4K SDR top Blu-Ray bottom

[flyonthewall2983]

Interesting interview with Peter Deming about the digital filming of The Return.

Some good information, but, man, the numerous grammatical errors were frustrating. In case anyone was curious, DSLR cameras can have a rolling shutter problem, not a "rolling shudder" problem.

I watched the last four episodes again last summer, on my Roku tv. The anomalies feel like part of the story to me now.

[hearthesilence]

Does the Z-A set's regular Blu-rays have the same encoding as the other sets? I went through a few episodes on the Complete Television Collection and I was surprised how less-than-ideal the encoding really was - must've completely forgotten about that. Also the way the package stacks the discs is much worse than what I remembered - some of the discs are indeed right on top of other discs, making actual contact.

[dwk]

Pretty sure they are the exact same discs.

[Maladroit Aggregator]

I assume the first two seasons were originally broadcast in stereo, but are the 7.1 and 5.1 options on the discs created and/or approved by Lynch?

[Finch]

Did the audio sync issues on the first two seasons and FWWM reported on the OG Entire Mystery set ever get fixed for the EM reissue, the Complete TV series set and the OG Z-A set? Criterion fixed it on their FWWM release and also encoded the film better. If no one here knows for sure, I can try a spot check on Monday when my copy arrives from B&N.

[Finch]

The discs are stacked, unfortunately.

[domino harvey]

Stacked on a spindle or in trays that stack?

[midnitedave]

In trays that stack.
FWIW, the hinges are thicker and more sturdy compared to similar TV show packaging. So, at least there's that.

[nicolas]

Despite the less ideal packaging, it’s always a plus with Paramount that they’re manufacturing their discs in Germany at a proper plant where scratches aren’t an issue, so unless a disc gets damaged while being packaged or in transit they should be fine once you get your copies.

It would’ve been a nightmare having that many discs from Mexico and no way to get them replaced other than frankensteining with a replacement copy.

[Finch]

Sorry for the delay in confirming but those are the same discs that were in the respective season sets including the audio sync issues on S1&2. Not checked FWWM yet but probably the same. I watched the Pilot in full in 4K and most of Part 8 and found the difference more noticeable on the Pilot than the digitally shot material. If all we're getting from Twin Peaks in 4K is the entire thing in SDR, then I'd have a really hard time justifying a purchase at full price, especially if Paramount were to oversee the 4K encode of the entire set. I already don't see myself rewatching the OG seasons for anything other than Lynch's episodes which leaves FWWM and much of The Return. I might even be perfectly content with a Criterion 4K of FWWM with Dolby Vision added which Lynch hopefully managed to sign off on before he died.

[nicolas]

I might even be perfectly content with a Criterion 4K of FWWM with Dolby Vision added which Lynch hopefully managed to sign off on before he died.

I’m also hoping for exactly that as the inclusion of HDR/DV would mean that they did a new master. The current one was made by MK2 and only graded in SDR. It doesn’t look all too great even though Lynch approved it.

[Finch]

If FWWM turns out to be SDR only I'll still get it because Criterion's encode on the UHD should easily be better than Paramount's and their own BD, plus Criterion cared to fix the audio. The grain looked nice on the Pilot's 4K and the colours always looked more true to life than the show's blanket red tint did. The difference will be more obvious still to me when I get a larger and better TV. Right now we only have a 43 inch TCL TV with very mediocre HDR playback but my Sony X800M2 produces really nice results in Dolby Vision. Arrow and 88 4ks (except the comparatively DNR'd looking Fist of Legend) are the chef's kiss.