I re-watched during the height of COVID, and I think upon release people talked about how "the evil of Twin Peaks" continued to spread over 25 years, rather than the more obvious throughline wrt the rest of Lynch's work--very apparent in ~2021--that everything was always bad all the time.
Someone did point out to me how weird it was to watch The Return without having seen "the Hollywood Lynches" (Mulholland, Inland, etc.). I'll get to those soonish and see what it does for re-contextualization but the vibes in Twin Peaks were never awesome to begin with...
I'm also enamored of Ashbrook - my favorite scene of his performance is when he opens the little tube that contains the letter about Jack Rabbit's Palace, and the way he looks off into the distance and loves his father. One of the finest performances of maturing I've ever seen.
Another great scene - I like what they did with his character and the lore around him in The Return, but I'd be remiss to say I didn't miss Don Davis's presence in the new eps.
I love the Bobby scene in question, in part because it shows him being good at his job. It makes for a bizarre punctuation to the soap operatics of the previous scene’s interrupted family reunion. There’s no irony or arc to the chaos that erupts once a kid gets his hands on a gun, and it’s frankly a huge relief no one was killed. Just another day in town!
I do love the previous bit where Norma and Ed invite him to dine with them. If you live in a town with people long enough, you can have dinner with whoever you want!!
I'm just circling back to this b/c I was not in front of a computer for the last 12 days (I don't do Substack stuff on the app) and I made the mistake of commenting in a *certain subreddit* similar thoughts as you re: S2 vs. FWWM & The Return and was very loudly shouted down as being "objectively wrong."
Anyway my 2017-2018 was, for very different reasons, profoundly shitty. So rewatching The Return now hits way differently (in a good way)
if it's the subreddit I'm thinking of.... they haven't agreed with anything I've said/thought/written in years... there's no wrong in this town except being anti-Maestro.
Silly me for thinking that FWWM with its multiple non-Twin Peaks settings and Harry Dean Stanton would be more relevant for new watchers than 12 episodes about Windham Earle and Adam West Batman-era campy death traps and a beauty pageant.
The Return felt like a gift when it came out – so original, special, and wholly indifferent to what anyone wanted from it. I rewatched it over the summer for Blank Check’s Lynch miniseries (and also finished watching all the Lynch movies), worries it wouldn’t hit the same. And it didn’t, but it did, but it was also different. The Return remains my favorite thing Lynch made (maybe sacrilege). Anyway, love the write up!
I love this, Fran! Also I think I have told this anecdote before, but, to your point about how The Return totally smashes the expected TV form, Chris and I watched two episodes in the middle out of order and didn't realize it until after we'd finished the second one (which should have been the first one). We were just willing to go with the flow, as the show seemed to be asking us to do, and the temporal non-linearity seemed like something that show just WOULD do.
thank you! and omg lol - yes that makes perfect sense to me!! reminiscent of my friend Miranda's note that watching it reminded her of a short story she'd once written where every character had a concussion... that's just something you gotta go with when it comes to Lynch!
I always plug the recap podcast The Lodgers that covered the show as it was airing because it’s smart contemporaneous TV criticism and Kate especially did a good job teasing out what was problematic and regrettable about the show, namely Lynch’s old man horniness and the Chrysta Bell Problem. The qualities of Lynch that are personally unpleasant sometimes converge with what’s great in the Return; it’s unignorably a metatext about the desire for more Twin Peaks and what ideas of closure or continuation mean. What happens to Audrey, or hasn’t happened, is a kind of spitefulness perhaps directed at the character or at the audience for wanting to see her again at all. But it’s a principled spite.
I listened to a few eps in mono-induced haze while I was puzzling my way thru season two, would like to go back and listen less as a companion and more as summation now that I am thru all of it mostly having read very little. The Chrysta Bell stuff was a total ??? to me... both acknowledged as self-aware but never exactly purposeful... what was going on there? I guess I don't really know; it's all there in what we do/don't know about her and how she functions in the team. (Maybe my fav bit with the FBI guys is the two seconds we see Miguel Ferrer and Jane Adams on a date together - CUTE ALERT!!!) The Audrey stuff is all very frustrating and spiteful but very effective/effecting to me overall.
Ashbrook and Sheryl Lee did a Q&A at the Music Box after FWWM I think in 2021 and they were both so sweet and charming. I would not have their grace and good humor if I had dealt with insane David Lynch fans for 30 years. The best bit was when someone said they were a student filmmaker and Ashbrook said “just so you know ... we’re available.”
I have no desire to make movies but one of my thoughts about the show was "I would love to put Dana Ashbrook in a movie." over the course of mentioning TP, a few other people who attended that Q&A have said similar things... I'm envious!!!! in general would love to see FWWM on the big screen one of these days.
FUCK, now I have to watch it all again just to see the last 25 minutes. BUT I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS. IT'S 6:30. SHE'S SICK. I HAVE TO GET HOME. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING.
one of television's great bugs/creatures as well
there you are
I re-watched during the height of COVID, and I think upon release people talked about how "the evil of Twin Peaks" continued to spread over 25 years, rather than the more obvious throughline wrt the rest of Lynch's work--very apparent in ~2021--that everything was always bad all the time.
Someone did point out to me how weird it was to watch The Return without having seen "the Hollywood Lynches" (Mulholland, Inland, etc.). I'll get to those soonish and see what it does for re-contextualization but the vibes in Twin Peaks were never awesome to begin with...
One of those is his best movie!
I'm also enamored of Ashbrook - my favorite scene of his performance is when he opens the little tube that contains the letter about Jack Rabbit's Palace, and the way he looks off into the distance and loves his father. One of the finest performances of maturing I've ever seen.
Another great scene - I like what they did with his character and the lore around him in The Return, but I'd be remiss to say I didn't miss Don Davis's presence in the new eps.
I haven't watched much X-Files but Davis' appearance as Scully's father is fantastic.
Phil has long advocated for an X Files watch... maybe soon on the docket
How serendipitous, I finished my The Return rewatch not 12 hours ago
🫱🏻🫲🏻 - us reaching across time and space
I love the Bobby scene in question, in part because it shows him being good at his job. It makes for a bizarre punctuation to the soap operatics of the previous scene’s interrupted family reunion. There’s no irony or arc to the chaos that erupts once a kid gets his hands on a gun, and it’s frankly a huge relief no one was killed. Just another day in town!
I do love the previous bit where Norma and Ed invite him to dine with them. If you live in a town with people long enough, you can have dinner with whoever you want!!
I'm just circling back to this b/c I was not in front of a computer for the last 12 days (I don't do Substack stuff on the app) and I made the mistake of commenting in a *certain subreddit* similar thoughts as you re: S2 vs. FWWM & The Return and was very loudly shouted down as being "objectively wrong."
Anyway my 2017-2018 was, for very different reasons, profoundly shitty. So rewatching The Return now hits way differently (in a good way)
if it's the subreddit I'm thinking of.... they haven't agreed with anything I've said/thought/written in years... there's no wrong in this town except being anti-Maestro.
Silly me for thinking that FWWM with its multiple non-Twin Peaks settings and Harry Dean Stanton would be more relevant for new watchers than 12 episodes about Windham Earle and Adam West Batman-era campy death traps and a beauty pageant.
The Return felt like a gift when it came out – so original, special, and wholly indifferent to what anyone wanted from it. I rewatched it over the summer for Blank Check’s Lynch miniseries (and also finished watching all the Lynch movies), worries it wouldn’t hit the same. And it didn’t, but it did, but it was also different. The Return remains my favorite thing Lynch made (maybe sacrilege). Anyway, love the write up!
thank you!
I love this, Fran! Also I think I have told this anecdote before, but, to your point about how The Return totally smashes the expected TV form, Chris and I watched two episodes in the middle out of order and didn't realize it until after we'd finished the second one (which should have been the first one). We were just willing to go with the flow, as the show seemed to be asking us to do, and the temporal non-linearity seemed like something that show just WOULD do.
thank you! and omg lol - yes that makes perfect sense to me!! reminiscent of my friend Miranda's note that watching it reminded her of a short story she'd once written where every character had a concussion... that's just something you gotta go with when it comes to Lynch!
I always plug the recap podcast The Lodgers that covered the show as it was airing because it’s smart contemporaneous TV criticism and Kate especially did a good job teasing out what was problematic and regrettable about the show, namely Lynch’s old man horniness and the Chrysta Bell Problem. The qualities of Lynch that are personally unpleasant sometimes converge with what’s great in the Return; it’s unignorably a metatext about the desire for more Twin Peaks and what ideas of closure or continuation mean. What happens to Audrey, or hasn’t happened, is a kind of spitefulness perhaps directed at the character or at the audience for wanting to see her again at all. But it’s a principled spite.
I listened to a few eps in mono-induced haze while I was puzzling my way thru season two, would like to go back and listen less as a companion and more as summation now that I am thru all of it mostly having read very little. The Chrysta Bell stuff was a total ??? to me... both acknowledged as self-aware but never exactly purposeful... what was going on there? I guess I don't really know; it's all there in what we do/don't know about her and how she functions in the team. (Maybe my fav bit with the FBI guys is the two seconds we see Miguel Ferrer and Jane Adams on a date together - CUTE ALERT!!!) The Audrey stuff is all very frustrating and spiteful but very effective/effecting to me overall.
Ashbrook and Sheryl Lee did a Q&A at the Music Box after FWWM I think in 2021 and they were both so sweet and charming. I would not have their grace and good humor if I had dealt with insane David Lynch fans for 30 years. The best bit was when someone said they were a student filmmaker and Ashbrook said “just so you know ... we’re available.”
I have no desire to make movies but one of my thoughts about the show was "I would love to put Dana Ashbrook in a movie." over the course of mentioning TP, a few other people who attended that Q&A have said similar things... I'm envious!!!! in general would love to see FWWM on the big screen one of these days.
FUCK, now I have to watch it all again just to see the last 25 minutes. BUT I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS. IT'S 6:30. SHE'S SICK. I HAVE TO GET HOME. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING.
We have a four day weekend for a reason, and it's to rewatch all of this all over again...
I'm so glad you tried Twin Peaks!