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[BennyBlanco]

Never watched this when it came out, but rewatched season 1 and 2 this year with my wife and had forgotten how good they were. Just great 90s TV.

Last week we started The Return season. Last night we got to the Needa Light episode and I am about ready to tap out. Lynch getting into some Eraserhead type stuff. Just bizarre imagery for the sake of bizarre imagery. The first 2 seasons were weird but were way more grounded and had a very comfy vibe. Now it’s just all weird shit all the time. Love Kyle Mclaghlan but I don’t think he is pulling off this otherwordly crime boss thing they seem to be going for. Also they really couldn’t get Harry back?

Does it get better or should I just move on?

 

[EviLore]

It’s basically Weird Shit Variety Hour—even has a band. You have to be okay with it lacking a traditional narrative structure. I liked it and thought it came together well by the end, but if you don’t enjoy the journey then probably don’t bother continuing.

 

[NeverYouMind]

Also they really couldn’t get Harry back?

The actor died of cancer. It is actually amazing how many of the old actors make cameos in this belated season of the show. I really loved the Dougie plotline...

 

[BennyBlanco]

The actor died of cancer. It is actually amazing how many of the old actors make cameos in this belated season of the show. I really loved the Dougie plotline...

Ontkean was approached to reprise his role as Sheriff Truman for the 2017 revival of Twin Peaks. At first, Ontkean was reportedly excited about returning to the role, and enlisted Twin Peaks authority Brad Dukes to help him find the jacket which his character once wore on the show. Dukes located a suitable replica, bought it and sent it to Ontkean. However, in 2015, Ontkean dropped out of the Twin Peaks revival, for reasons which were never made public. Dukes recalled: "We last spoke in August and he informed me he wasn't going to Washington after all. I told him I was heartbroken to hear that. Aside from being heartbroken, I am puzzled. Twin Peaks is not Twin Peaks without Michael Ontkean as Sheriff Harry S. Truman."[12]

Ontkean's role was replaced by Robert Forster, playing Sheriff Truman's brother Frank. Forster was initially David Lynch's first choice to play Harry Truman in 1990.[13]

I know Pete and the Major died but my boy Harry is still alive and well. Wonder what happened.

 

[Revolutionary]

It's probably a mistake to think of it as Season 3 of the show (it was just "Twin Peaks: The Return" when it was airing), because it's much closer in tone to Fire Walk With Me than the original series.

 

[NeverYouMind]

I know Pete and the Major died but my boy Harry is still alive and well. Wonder what happened.

Sorry, I got my wires crossed. I was thinking of Miguel Ferrer, who portrayed Albert. He did reprise his role for the filming of the third season, but it released posthumorously.

 

[Rien]

I fucking loved Season 3. Episode 8 is the best thing I have ever seen on television. Reminds me to do a rewatch, thanks for the tip

 

[DGrayson]

I loved Season 3, i mean it was fucking weird and frustrating but its David Lynch. Guy has a vision and doesn't compromise it so that has to be respected.

 

[SJRB]

I'm currently watching Twin Peaks for the first time. Having a cult status and after so many references in so many games, shows and movies I thought it was time I finally watched it.

Blasted through the first season in a couple of evenings, it was great. Little weird or downright goofy at times, a lot of extravagant characters. Amazing amount of beautiful women, too. Jocelyn Packard, whew. Dale Cooper is awesome and has amazing chemistry with sheriff Harry. Their interactions are the highlight of the show, excellent bromance. The first two episodes have a very oppressive tone that somewhat shifts later on in the season and things get more.. mundane.

Anyway, Twin Peaks get often mentioned as a weird, bizarre, surreal show but so far there has been literally one surreal moment and one utterly weird one (the red room and the rock throwing methodology, resp.). Interested to see where it goes in the next seasons.

 

[John Bilbo]

Recommended reading: Lynch on Lynch by Chris Rodley

 

[Power Pro]

I am still trying to wrap my head around exactly what was going on in that show. I keep seeing people say that Twin Perfect's youtube video is stupid, and blah blah blah "dumb fan theory" but I have yet to see anyone come up with a better explanation for the meta narrative of that series. I sure as hell can't come up with one.

 

[John Bilbo]

I am still trying to wrap my head around exactly what was going on in that show. I keep seeing people say that Twin Perfect's youtube video is stupid, and blah blah blah "dumb fan theory" but I have yet to see anyone come up with a better explanation for the meta narrative of that series. I sure as hell can't come up with one.

I think his theory is quite plausible. Of course the theory can be considered dry as it strips the world of Twin Peaks of mystery.

 

[Nukedisk]

I really didn't like season 3. The first two seasons had that small town comfy feel but with weird mystery shit going on but season 3 only focused on the wrong part which is the bizzare and weird stuff. It's like a fever dream. If they kept the formula from S01/S02 it would've been so much better. Instead it was just weird for weirdness sake.

 

[NeverYouMind]

I really didn't like season 3. The first two seasons had that small town comfy feel but with weird mystery shit going on but season 3 only focused on the wrong part which is the bizzare and weird stuff. It's like a fever dream. If they kept the formula from S01/S02 it would've been so much better. Instead it was just weird for weirdness sake.

I found parts to enjoy like Dougie plotline, but Season 3 certainly failed to capture the nostalgic vibe of the original. If the theme of the original was small town nostalgia, then the theme of the new one is "life comes at you fast in the David Lynch Zone".

 

[Rien]

It's like a fever dream

Yes! That’s exactly it.

 

[Power Pro]

I think his theory is quite plausible. Of course the theory can be considered dry as it strips the world of Twin Peaks of mystery.

Well that's why I think people can be so hostile towards his theory, they don't like the mystery being taken away from them, so they toss it off as being stupid. I like a bit of both, leave things open for interpretation, but also have some form of closure. The end of season 2 was self explanatory compared to how season 3 ends. Season 3's ending doesn't really tell us much of anything if you just take it all at face value. You can infer some things, but I felt like there isn't enough evidence one way or another. That can be just as frustrating as having all the answers explained. There needed to be more middle ground with season 3. That's why the first 2 seasons of twin peaks work so well for me, because those seasons, combined with fire walk with me do tell us a lot. Every thing I feel gets turned on it's head in season 3, and it was like Lynch said "try to figure this shit out now mother fuckers" with how season 3 ends.

 

[pel1300]

I hated it so much. Every week I was hoping for Dale Cooper to return. I was so over the Dougie stuff within a couple episodes.

Felt more like Mulholland Drive than Twin Peaks to me. Way too much Lynch. Would have been better if he only wrote and directed a few episodes like in the original series.

 

[Chittagong]

I loved S3. Not as a sequel or continuation, but as an incredibly rare example of a piece of filming where the author, one of the most creative minds of our age, has been given complete creative freedom and final sign off. The results are weird, memorable, hard to follow, frustrating, bizarre, awe inspiring, puzzling, beautiful, ugly, funny, sad.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

It's probably a mistake to think of it as Season 3 of the show (it was just "Twin Peaks: The Return" when it was airing), because it's much closer in tone to Fire Walk With Me than the original series.

I disagree. Fire Walk with Me is a very passionate movie in a soap opera-y kind of way. Twin Peaks The Return is a very cold show. In many ways it's the opposite of Fire Walk with Me. The emotional tone is very flat and monotone, to the point of being very alien

I liked The Return, but it's certainly not for everyone. I think Fire Walk With Me was the best piece of media in the franchise.

 

[Dirk Benedict]

I loved Season 3, i mean it was fucking weird and frustrating but its David Lynch. Guy has a vision and doesn't compromise it so that has to be respected.

Bro brought that creepiness in Mulholland Drive and fucking Lost Highway. The later had ...UGH! a Stellar! Soundtrack, to say the least...

 

[Futaleufu]

I found parts to enjoy like Dougie plotline, but Season 3 certainly failed to capture the nostalgic vibe of the original. If the theme of the original was small town nostalgia, then the theme of the new one is "life comes at you fast in the David Lynch Zone".

The whole point of season 3 was to shit on the show's nostalgia. "This is not the Twin Peaks you knew" The show itself at the end tries to do a soft reboot but its useless.

BTW Twin Perfect's video absolutely nails it. I had some theory about how characters are aware they are in a tv show, but the whole "radiowaves and electricity" angle/motif explains it way better than I could've ever done.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

 

[Trilobit]

Twin Peaks: The Return aka s3 is some of the best television I've ever seen. Absolutely magnificient!

I loved season 1 of Twin Peaks. Season 2 dropped the ball pretty much and lacked the feel of s1. FDWM was very dark and depressing, but it was worth it to get to The Return. The visuals in it were just astounding and so surreal. I don't think I'll ever get to watch something like it ever again.

I occasionally listen to the restaurant theme to reminisce:

 

[jonnyp]

Never watched this when it came out, but rewatched season 1 and 2 this year with my wife and had forgotten how good they were. Just great 90s TV.

Last week we started The Return season. Last night we got to the Needa Light episode and I am about ready to tap out. Lynch getting into some Eraserhead type stuff. Just bizarre imagery for the sake of bizarre imagery. The first 2 seasons were weird but were way more grounded and had a very comfy vibe. Now it’s just all weird shit all the time. Love Kyle Mclaghlan but I don’t think he is pulling off this otherwordly crime boss thing they seem to be going for. Also they really couldn’t get Harry back?

Does it get better or should I just move on?

As a major Lynch fan, I thought season 3 sucked. There are highlights but they are few and far between.

 

[DKehoe]

The whole point of season 3 was to shit on the show's nostalgia. "This is not the Twin Peaks you knew" The show itself at the end tries to do a soft reboot but its useless.

BTW Twin Perfect's video absolutely nails it. I had some theory about how characters are aware they are in a tv show, but the whole "radiowaves and electricity" angle/motif explains it way better than I could've ever done.

Yeh there's a lot to unpack with the show but I think one of the key themes is how poisonous nostalgia and the urge to keep things going can be.

The show ends on

Spoiler: Spoilers for The Return

Cooper bringing Laura back to her family home in Twin Peaks. It's setting things up for this happy ending that fans would want. But then he has this moment of clarity asking "what year is this?" as if it's suddenly occurred to him how unnatural this is, especially after so long. Because of course bringing her back to the place she was abused is a horrific thing to do, hence her seeming to have a flashback to that time and screaming at the end.

It's like Lynch is saying "you guys wanted more Twin Peaks? This is what that looked like" The characters get dragged back to life decades after we last saw them but so many of them are stuck in these miserable situations. A bunch of fans wanted Cooper and Audrey to get together. So now they've had a kid. But rather than the fanfiction style domestic bliss some envisioned how it actually happened was awful, with it being implied Dark Cooper raped her.

 

[Wildebeest]

Lynch actually directed very little of the first two seasons, so maybe if you don't like the return, or fire walk with me, you just don't like Lynch. Especially with season 2, Lynch didn't have as much say overall in the show direction because he was working on other projects.

 

[Clear]

Its an amazing show, but its more than a little sad how many of the episodes are dedicated to cast/crew members who have passed on.

I'd say the main thing to understand about season 3 is that its Lynch delivering on his original vision story-wise where the main mystery is just an engine that drops numerous other mysteries in its wake. His exact analogy for the original run was the question of "who killed Laura" was the mama duck, and behind her would be a gaggle of ducklings following in her wake!

Which might sound like Lynch being lazy or obtuse, but was in my opinion him explaining that you can make a plot thread pay off dramatically without killing it off by explaining it away completely.

In The Return, his MO is to do that for everything. And at the end of the show you will get the big dramatic/emotional character moments promised, but do not expect closure.

Lynch isn't interested in that, especially as the ever present shadow of mortality (those in-memoriam messages at the end of each episodes title crawl) already hangs heavy over the show. Death is the ultimate in closure after all.

 

[Futaleufu]

Lynch isn't interested in that, especially as the ever present shadow of mortality (those in-memoriam messages at the end of each episodes title crawl) already hangs heavy over the show. Death is the ultimate in closure after all.

It's uncanny how many actors of the show died shortly after the release of season 3.

 

[SirKicksalot]

>tfw you worked on the Matrix sequels and Avatar and then Lynch tells you to make weird, unrealistic CGI on purpose

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The FBI woman's acting was so bad lmao

 

[Dev1lXYZ]

Twin Peaks The Return is as divisive as The Last Jedi, but done much better. It does a fantastic job of playing to the audience expectation that Agent Dale Cooper is coming back any moment and as the series nears its conclusion…..you realize that you don’t really want Agent Dale Cooper back nearly as bad as you thought you did.

Frog-moths and nukes is something else.

 

[BennyBlanco]

The FBI woman's acting was so bad lmao

She is atrocious. Seems like somebody realized this too late and gave her basically no dialogue. She is extremely hot tho.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Ok I finished it last night. Getting Dale Cooper back for like 15 mins total was cool.

Why did that Michael Cera cameo need to happen?
Why did we need 10 minutes of butt rock at the end of every episode? (okay NIN was cool as well as James singing his terrible falsetto song)
Why did Andy go from a bumbling putz to an actual retard?
If you really couldn’t get Harry back, why go with the absurd explanation that his brother nobody ever mentioned is now sheriff?
What happened to Leo?
Why the fuck was Michael Bisping here?
Why did they spend so much time building up that weird box device in manhattan then never explain it?
Why did they spend so much time with Hawk and the log lady and it basically went nowhere?
Why did they cast the redhead in a central role who legitimately can not act?

I’m glad I watched it but this season stinks. Season 1 >>> season 2 > season 3. Sad.

 

[OneBigPuss]

Ok I finished it last night. Getting Dale Cooper back for like 15 mins total was cool.

Why did that Michael Cera cameo need to happen?
Why did we need 10 minutes of butt rock at the end of every episode? (okay NIN was cool as well as James singing his terrible falsetto song)
Why did Andy go from a bumbling putz to an actual retard?
If you really couldn’t get Harry back, why go with the absurd explanation that his brother nobody ever mentioned is now sheriff?
What happened to Leo?
Why the fuck was Michael Bisping here?
Why did they spend so much time building up that weird box device in manhattan then never explain it?
Why did they spend so much time with Hawk and the log lady and it basically went nowhere?
Why did they cast the redhead in a central role who legitimately can not act?

I’m glad I watched it but this season stinks. Season 1 >>> season 2 > season 3. Sad.

You won't get literal explanation to most of your questions because Lynch just doesn't work like that (mostly just theorys and some of them like for example "the box device" are pretty good in my opinion).

 

[Wildebeest]

Ok I finished it last night. Getting Dale Cooper back for like 15 mins total was cool.

Why did that Michael Cera cameo need to happen?
Why did we need 10 minutes of butt rock at the end of every episode? (okay NIN was cool as well as James singing his terrible falsetto song)
Why did Andy go from a bumbling putz to an actual retard?
If you really couldn’t get Harry back, why go with the absurd explanation that his brother nobody ever mentioned is now sheriff?
What happened to Leo?
Why the fuck was Michael Bisping here?
Why did they spend so much time building up that weird box device in manhattan then never explain it?
Why did they spend so much time with Hawk and the log lady and it basically went nowhere?
Why did they cast the redhead in a central role who legitimately can not act?

I’m glad I watched it but this season stinks. Season 1 >>> season 2 > season 3. Sad.

I don't remember all of it and just don't want to get into what is the Frost lore side of it and what is Lynch trying to make something dreamlike. The bands playing at the end established that season 3 is a sort of alternate universe to ours, where "the nine inch nails" were a band who played small venues, as opposed to "Nine Inch Nails" who play sold out shows in large venues. The scenes with the log lady were as they were because she was a big part of the show but was dying of cancer. Her parts were filmed very early, and they were emotional because it was known she didn't have much time. I think, in a way, that her plot ties together with Harry Dean Stanton's character in that they somehow both symbolically represent a sort of human goodness in the world that is fading away.

 

[Clear]

Why did that Michael Cera cameo need to happen?

It was hilariously silly yet heartfelt. Weird combinations being Lynch's stock-in-trade!

Why did we need 10 minutes of butt rock at the end of every episode? (okay NIN was cool as well as James singing his terrible falsetto song)

From a pragmatic standpoint its a pacing device as its less a season than an extremely long movie. Also Lynch showing off his exceptionally good-taste in music.

Why did Andy go from a bumbling putz to an actual retard?

Comic relief character does comic relief.

If you really couldn’t get Harry back, why go with the absurd explanation that his brother nobody ever mentioned is now sheriff?

As Michael Ontkean wasn't available the character as written had to be re-cast for a functional equivalent, and a brother at least offers a reasonable pretext for them being fundamentally interchangable.

What happened to Leo?
Why the fuck was Michael Bisping here?

With all the other weirdness, why would you wonder about this?

Why did they spend so much time building up that weird box device in manhattan then never explain it?

It serves a purpose of setting a serious, dark tone at the outset as well as showing how busy (and autonomous) Cooper's doppelganger has been over the years. What explanation does it need beyond being a sort of trap to impede the real cooper from escaping out of the lodge?

Why did they spend so much time with Hawk and the log lady and it basically went nowhere?

Catherine Coulson was too frail and so close to the end of her life its a minor miracle that she was able to participate at all. And TP wouldn't be TP without the Log lady. So her acting as a kind of Greek chorus commenting on the overall drama from outside was a fine choice in my opinion. Her final call to Hawk (the one ending with "Laura is the one") was beautiful and heartbreaking.

Why did they cast the redhead in a central role who legitimately can not act?

She's one of Lynch's musical associates, so why not? She spends most of the time sharing the screen with another non-actor (Lynch himself) so its not like she has to carry the show!

I’m glad I watched it but this season stinks. Season 1 >>> season 2 > season 3. Sad.

Your loss. Loved it myself.

 

[Krathoon]

Yeah. Really, you have to re-watch season 1 and 2 to get what is going on in season 3.

Maybe there is a You Tube refresher out there.

I need to finish the third season.

 

[Krathoon]

Season 3 is kind of the swan song season or the "fan season".

It is not going to be as good as the original show.