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Sell me on Twin Peaks?

L

lifeexpectancy

Member
Didnt want to bog down the OT with this or come off as if I am trolling that thread. Mods lock if this is deemed unwarranted, but I assure you it is genuine.

Before I start, let me just mention a few campy/bad films I like: Night of the Comet, Warriors, Sharknado, The Room (not really campy, but obscure and nonsensical), and Rocky Horror (who doesnt like RH?). I'm no stranger to 'so bad its good'.

I had never watched Twin Peaks. Never even heard of it really. With S3 coming out it showed up in my radar. I tried to watch it (the original). Spent 30 minutes bored to fucking tears before shutting it off 30mins into the 1st episode.

Am I missing something? I mean how far into it do you have to get before you "get it"? Will finishing the first episode be enough? Do I have to watch more than one? I'm not tying to troll, just genuinely want to know if I didnt give it a fair shake 30mins in.

I get that the show is SUPPOSED to have terrible overly dramatic acting. But theres a difference between 'so bad its good' and 'so bad its terrible'. Does it ever let up or is the entirity of both seasons filled with interminably long pauses and people screaming/crying at the slightest bit of bad news?

I read some article about reasons why you should watch the show, and one reason was that the show's creator captures what a nightmare is like. Um, no? I have horrific dreams sometimes that most would consider a nightmare. I dont find them scary, but I can recognize them for meeting the criteria of a nightmare. This show isnt even remotely like a dream, nightmare or not. It feels more like a really bad 1970s cop show.

I'm struggling to grasp why the show is such a phenomenon. Seriously, did I just not watch far enough??
 
Z

Zach

Member
Watch the pilot (season one; not the new season). If you're not into it, it's not for you.

But it's great.
 
T

Timeaisis

Member
If you don't like S1, it's not for you. S2, though, I totally understand people losing interest. It's markedly weird, semi-aimless television.
 
H

Haloid1177

Banned
How much David Lynch media have you watched? I know that I started with Twin Peaks, hated it, watched Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, and Mulholland Drive, loved them, and when I went back to Twin Peaks I enjoyed it a lot more than I did initially, just finished the first season last night.
 
L

Lunarwhale

Member
"people screaming/crying at the slightest bit of bad news" uh it's been a while but i thought the bad news in the first hour was that their daughter was dead

It doesn't sound like it's your thing. It's a slow burn and if you're not digging the exaggerated camp (sometimes for humor, sometimes to just be disturbing/unnerving) now, you're not going to grow to like it later.
 
Z

ZOONAMI

Junior Member
See I liked S1, but can't be bothered with S2. S3 also don't think I'm gonna watch based on ep 1 being too over the top.

Fire walk with me is awesome though.
 
L

lifeexpectancy

Member
ElectricBlanketFire said:
Twin Peaks is not meant to be "so bad it's good." Season 1, particularly the pilot, is incredible.

It sounds like it's not for you.
Click to expand...

Ok then it probably just isnt for me. But I cant wrap my head around WHY the pilot is incredible. I mean its a 90 minute pilot, but if you cut out all the insanely long pauses it would probably be 45 minutes. Is that the point or is it more than that?

I only got to the part shortly after they announce the girl's death at the school. When the principal shut off his mic and started weeping was really the NOPE moment for me. Why on earth is a principal weeping about a student's death incredible?
 
O

otakukidd

Member
I started watching the show recently for the first time to get ready for season 3. I can't quite give an example of what this show is like. I'm a little into season 2 and this show is bat shit crazy. The comedy is super super dry and the characters seemed to have been created during a acid trip. But I'm fucking loving it. My theory is they put lsd in the pie at the diner... Would explain a lot.
 
O

Ordinaryundone

Member
As for the nightmare stuff I can't say much without spoiling but it gets unfurled more and more as the series goes on. And the movie, Fire Walk With Me, has some legit scary stuff in it. The whole thing has a very cloudy, lucid feel to it where everything is just quirky and strange enough to feel foreign despite its relative familiarity (to anyone living in the U.S., anyway), that's usually what people mean when they say it has dreamlike qualities.

But it really just sounds like you don't like the show. Which is fine. Normally I'd recommend watching past the pilot, most people tend to enjoy it more once Cooper is the center of attention, but the psychological horror stuff doesn't start coming in for a while and it's not going to be as intense as you are probably expecting.

lifeexpectancy said:
I only got to the part shortly after they announce the girl's death at the school. When the principal shut off his mic and started weeping was really the NOPE moment for me. Why on earth is a principal weeping about a student's death incredible?
Click to expand...

It'll make more sense once they actually introduce the main character. The opening half of the pilot is really more to establish the setting and get the viewer asking questions, like "Why does everyone care so much about this girl" and "why is everyone so weird?" which is what the show unpacks as it goes along.

It's also kind of a parody of the melodramatic day-time soap operas that were popular at the time, so if you aren't at least passingly familiar with those then it might go over your head.
 
B

Big One

Banned
Watch some of Lynch's movies first, primarily Blue Velvet is a good start since it's a sort of proto-Twin Peaks of sorts.

To answer your question, yes it's intentionally overdramatic. Twin Peaks did a weird thing by poking fun at soap operas (which were big at the time) while also juxtaposing with movie-level production values and an extremely darker plot underneath it all.
 
J

John Kowalski

Banned
In my experience if you don't have an immediate emotional response, it's not the kind of stuff you like. Much is said and suggested that Twin Peaks is somehow an intellectual thing for intellectual pleasures, but it's really not, thinking of it that way is the premise to a most boring experience and you'll gain nothing from it.
 
C

C.Mongler

Member
The moment I got into Twin Peaks:

giphy.gif
 
J

Jackpot

Banned
I watched 4 episodes before bailing.

I get the appeal, back when there were only a handful of networks you had a show whose motif was "Anything can happen!", but now it's not so unique.

It was the Lost of its time, with random mystical elements piling questions on top of questions and people breathlessly following it week to week.
 
E

ElectricBlanketFire

Member
lifeexpectancy said:
Ok then it probably just isnt for me. But I cant wrap my head around WHY the pilot is incredible. I mean its a 90 minute pilot, but if you cut out all the insanely long pauses it would probably be 45 minutes. Is that the point or is it more than that?

I only got to the part shortly after they announce the girl's death at the school. When the principal shut off his mic and started weeping was really the NOPE moment for me. Why on earth is a principal weeping about a student's death incredible?
Click to expand...

You haven't even been introduced to Cooper, the greatest television character of all time.

But it sounds like it's not for you.
 
L

lifeexpectancy

Member
Jackpot said:
I watched 4 episodes before bailing.

I get the appeal, back when there were only a handful of networks you had a show whose motif was "Anything can happen!", but now it's not so unique.

It was the Lost of its time, with random mystical elements piling questions on top of questions and people breathlessly following it week to week.
Click to expand...

I think you may have nailed it. I remember loving Lost until it jumoed the shark. I probably was just expecting too much of the mystical and wasn't expecting the stark 'poking fun at soap operas' aspect of the show.

I admittedly havent seen ANY of the creator's other works, that I know of. Maybe I'll give Blue Velvet ago. Thanks everyone!
 
Daffy Duck

Daffy Duck

Member
I'm watching it at the moment (season 1) and it's pretty funny if you let yourself acknowledge it, I can block out the things that make me laugh 99% of the time.

What I mean by this is the music and the way people act is pretty hilarious, and at some points I'm not sure if it's comedy or what, but I assume it's supposed to be straight laced and not comedic.

It's a proper product of the 90's.

One thing that made me and the girlfriend chuckle is when the music is playing in episode 1 when the girls gets in the car and it shows you her shoes and legs in a panning shot, we were both like WTF, is that supposed to be sexy?
 
G

Gigageiger

Neo Member
lifeexpectancy said:
people screaming/crying at the slightest bit of bad news?
Click to expand...


The most popular and liked girl in town dying by murder is the slightest bit of bad news? I only remember screaming/crying in response to that. Any other bad news I don't remember any crying. Andy cries a lot because he still has the mentality of a child, but that's about it, unless I'm remembering it wrong.

Back on topic, I'm still halfway into the second season, and things have certainly slowed down after a point, which also brings around a whole lot of weird and really uninteresting side plots. Personally, I'll still be continuing watching it, but I can certainly see people getting bored by the series.
 
M

munchie64

Member
Gigageiger said:
The most popular and liked girl in town dying by murder is the slightest bit of bad news? I only remember screaming/crying in response to that. Any other bad news I don't remember any crying. Andy cries a lot because he still has the mentality of a child, but that's about it, unless I'm remembering it wrong.

Back on topic, I'm still halfway into the second season, and things have certainly slowed down after a point, which also brings around a whole lot of weird and really uninteresting side plots. Personally, I'll still be continuing watching it, but I can certainly see people getting bored by the series.
Click to expand...
Keep at it. It'll be worth it, I swear on Laura's ruined grave.
 
A

akenatone

Member
same thing for me. I tried catching up on netflix before the new season comes out. And man, that was bad. I watched 3 episodes and could not do it anymore. Did not age well in my opinion. I just could not get past the acting style.
 
C

ChemicalCutthroat

Member
I don't think I can sell people on Twin Peaks. For the longest time I heard people talk about it, but had never seen it. From what I caught as a kid, I figured it was just some other soap opera so I skipped it.

Then as I got older, I saw people using it as a reference point for weirdness, and it got me interested.

When I finally sat down to watch it, it was just out of curiosity, but all the weirdness and charm pulled me in. But I can see other people just not digging it.

I just say give it a shot.
 
GavinUK86

GavinUK86

Member
It's David Lynch. The acting is so over the top and campy because he was saying something about mainstream TV back in the 90's.

Just roll with it. It'll grow on you and by the time you get to the end of season 1, you will love it.

Season 2 though. Eh. Some like it, some don't. I'm not a huge fan until a certain character comes into it.

The new season 3 though, wowzer, now that's good television.
 
A

ArcLyte

Member
Twin Peaks season 1 some of the most brutally boring things ever committed to film. Forcing myself through it was torture.
 
K

Kuraudo

Banned
Lynch's work is characterised by a combination of the banal and the macabre, which ultimately reveals the horror behind mundane, everyday behaviour. The "overacting" in Twin Peaks is just an extension of this--it combines soap opera melodrama with horror tropes to engage with an existential dread common to the human condition.

The show has influenced a lot of contemporary shows--True Detective, Hannibal, Legion, Fargo, etc--which use the show's "quirkiness" and repackage it into a more audience-friendly narrative framework, so its techniques may not seem as fresh, and its storytelling may not feel as satisfying, because unlike those shows it's not designed to satisfy so much as unsettle and unnerve.
 
C

ChubbyHuggs

Member
If you weren't digging it no one can sell you on it. I honestly didn't like it at all and I went three episodes in like I usually do to see if things improve or not.
 
S

StoveOven

Banned
I started watching the show for the first time this week and absolutely loved the pilot so I don't know what to tell you. I will say that Episode 3 is where things start to get weird so you might want to hang on until then. But generally if you're not down with high melodrama then the show isn't for you.
 
Shadax the wizard

Shadax the wizard

Member
I tend to watch series for a few episodes even if it doesn't click with me right away. Crossbones, Black Sails, Doctor Who, Vikings and Gotham are a few examples of that and I now love them. I understand that not everyone is willing to push on though. I think Twin Peaks really clicked with me in episode 4 (or was it 3?) and by then I started binge watching.
 
Z

zethren

Banned
You need to finish episode 1. You haven't even seen Dale Cooper yet, who (in agreement with a poster above) is hands down the best television character of all time.

If you give the first episode a full watch, you may fall in love with it. If not, maybe it's just not for you. The show is incredible, though.
 
T

TarpitCarnivore

Member
lifeexpectancy said:
Spent 30 minutes bored to fucking tears before shutting it off 30mins into the 1st episode.

Am I missing something? I mean how far into it do you have to get before you "get it"? Will finishing the first episode be enough? Do I have to watch more than one? I'm not tying to troll, just genuinely want to know if I didnt give it a fair shake 30mins in.

I get that the show is SUPPOSED to have terrible overly dramatic acting. But theres a difference between 'so bad its good' and 'so bad its terrible'. Does it ever let up or is the entirity of both seasons filled with interminably long pauses and people screaming/crying at the slightest bit of bad news?

I read some article about reasons why you should watch the show, and one reason was that the show's creator captures what a nightmare is like. Um, no? I have horrific dreams sometimes that most would consider a nightmare. I dont find them scary, but I can recognize them for meeting the criteria of a nightmare. This show isnt even remotely like a dream, nightmare or not. It feels more like a really bad 1970s cop show.

I'm struggling to grasp why the show is such a phenomenon. Seriously, did I just not watch far enough??
Click to expand...


Sounds like you're having a hard time suspending your mind from viewing the show through lens of a 2016 viewer. It also seems like you may not have understood the type of show you were getting into considering it's Lynch.
 
I

InaudibleWhispa

Member
The interminably long pauses are just Lynch's style. On its face it immediately just looks like a cheesy 90's soap opera, but Lynch has no interest in shooting things to mimic reality, he's more about instinct and atmosphere, so you'll get shots that go on a beat too long and then go another beat still. You'll get pauses between lines or takes that feel weird if you're not used to a filmmaker breaking the rules like that. You'll get actors Lynch hired just because he loves their performance and not because they feel real or natural. And then you'll get just pure Lynch nightmare/dream stuff that gradually creeps into the show. All wrapped in a 90's TV aesthetic that you'll either find a charming, warm comfort blanket reflecting the dark undercurrent, or a dated annoyance.
 
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