With my tenth anniversary approaching, I concocted a few forms of celebration: once a week, I included an "Opening the Archive" series on my podcast running down each of these chapters; once a day, I posted something - a film or TV episode review, visual tribute, interview, status update, or Patreon round-up - on Lost in the Movies; and ten times a day I tweeted pieces from my backlog in chronological order. The second commitment was particularly challenging, allowing me to finally share viewing diaries I'd been writing behind-the-scenes for several years...but also forcing me to finish them under the gun! As a result I covered the first seasons of Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Veronica Mars, The X-Files, and The Wire, novelty episodes or related films for Star Trek, The Clone Wars, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and both seasons of the short but dense Danish series The Kingdom.
Subjects with a Lynchian flavor include a review and visual tribute devoted to David Lynch: The Art Life, an interview about a Twin Peaks fan film, a trio of Lynch features, a discussion focused on a stretch of four season three episodes, and a Return rewatch in which I recorded responses to each episode around the first anniversary of its airing with guests joining for the big one - Part 8 (a part of the conversation was made public on YouTube).
My highlight for this period is Patreon update #15: Twin Peaks pilot & Eyes Wide Shut w/ Andrew Cook (season 3 rewatch prologue begins, the Frankenstein legacy, my short film Class of 2002 & more) because it not only ended up being a strong episode but also the only one immediately and entirely available to all would-be listeners.
MARCH
Announcing my commitment to daily posts (eventually all viewing diaries or podcast episodes)
The first of my "season 1 viewing diaries" for 2018, focused on one of the most popular cable dramas of all time
A high school chemistry teacher finds a new line of work
The sloppy partners in crime have a couple big problems
My podcast couples the first and last Lynch films, with another one as a bonus
A slyly clever flashback prepares us for one of Walter White's dramatic turning points
Walter and Jesse wander into separate stories after their big adventure
Old friends re-open old wounds
The iconic Heisenberg emerges
Concluding the first season as business settles into a groove
Wrapping up the "select a film" reward on my Patreon after three months
Aronofsky's debut feature becomes the first solo film subject of my podcast since the second episode
Introducing the second viewing diary of spring 2018, the season of Mad Men set in 1960
A typical day at the office for Don Draper and the very first day for Peggy Olson
Now that Don's family is part of his story, we split time between the advertising and domestic worlds
The Drapers throw an afternoon party in the suburbs
Pete and Betty both feel unmoored
Haunted by family ghosts in the bright light of day
My podcast gets lost inside Hayao Miyazaki's fantastical world
APRIL
Peggy's career at Sterling Cooper takes a surprising turn
Alcohol and oysters (and age) provide Don with an edge over Roger
Alternating between the Great Depression and the early sixties
Don's golden opportunity and Betty's poignant Coke campaign
Crisis hits the office late at night
Don and Peggy rise together, in different ways
My podcast focuses on one of the most meticulous World War II prison escape movies
From Dick to Don - the story finally gets told (and intercut with a crucial presidential election)
The first season closes quietly and effectively, with a fantasy bidding farewell to the fifties dream and the soundtrack hearkening to the sixties ahead
Revisiting the episode where it all began, twenty-eight years ago...
This documentary weaves together Lynch's personal memories and reflections with footage of him working on his paintings, clips from his early films, and snapshots/home movies of his youth
Screenshots from a vivid, vibrant Lynch doc
Trek's unusual beginning, with a different captain and a premiere not released until after many episodes, films, and spin-offs
Pilot is prologue for my Return rewatch, and I invite a guest to discuss Stanley Kubrick's last film on my first public podcast episode
To pave the way for my eventual Clone Wars viewing diary, I share reviews/discussions of the pre-series films/shows
A much-maligned Star Wars that was generally well-received at first - how does it prepare us for The Clone Wars?
The prequel film that leads directly into The Clone Wars - what can the show continue, and what can it improve?
Before The Clone Wars, there was Clone Wars - gorgeous stained-glass windows in the church of Star Wars
The worst-reviewed Star Wars film by far is actually the 2008 cartoon, but viewed as a pilot for the series it's pretty effective
My former Evangelion conversation partner, who is a big Clone Wars fan, joins me to explain and analyze the film and its style of animation, as well as the series that sprang from it
Re-visiting Jane Campion's arthouse hit twenty-five years later, plus surveying the first season of Twin Peaks for my podcast
Introducing a complete episode guide for the short Danish horror series
A grouchy Swedish doctor is introduced to a strange hospital alongside the audience
Haunted ambulances and basement corridors compete with bizarre misanthropes to foster a weird vibe
Amidst the gothic spookiness, Lars von Trier incorporates screwball comedy
The first season races toward its unexpected final moment
Although created several years later, only a few hours have passed onscreen as the second season begins
My podcast explores season 2 as a single unit (but also at three very different points) while focusing on a film about an early outsider artist
Glimpsing a spare, haunting vision of the afterlife
Decoding a mysterious painting to determine the spiritual structure of the Kingdom hospital
MAY
And so we must be prepared to take the 🕇 with the 😈
The TV phenomenon began life as a movie
Although never officially aired (or even released?) this "episode" has been widely seen and discussed by fans
An ambitious production, shooting at the Twin Peaks locations themselves, makes for a great conversation with the Obnoxious & Anonymous host (we also dive into Cameron's Golden State Killer project)
How does Frost intersect with the film he mostly stayed away from? Plus, my podcast finally catches up with one of the most acclaimed films of the decade...
Aside from my weekly podcast, three first season diaries dominate the last ten weeks leading up to the site's tenth anniversary
Kicking off a murder mystery in a divided Southern California beach town
Wait, is that (*squints*) Paris Hilton? Veronica Mars' parade of uber-zeroes guest stars has begun...
Veronica helps a student track down his missing parent (between the iMac and the DVD rental store, the top image is very much of its time)
Going undercover as a gamer to bust a college student's scam
Veronica investigates her own boyfriend - as well as her dad's new girlfriend
What once seemed to be the post-Twin Peaks era is, in retrospect, the inter-Twin Peaks era...my podcast breaks this down alongside a very unusual dystopian romance
As political fever sweeps Neptune High, Veronica both embraces and questions the populist candidate
One of my favorite episodes explores the apartment community where the Mars live, featuring Jessica Chastain as a troubled young woman whom Veronica wants to help
Veronica's attention is drawn to a controversial website (shades of the work that put Mark Zuckerberg on the map a year earlier)
The detectives' deep dive into a cult proves...surprisingly pleasant
The holiday party thrown by a movie star becomes even more dramatic than you would expect
Our emphasis shifts to another Mars as a serial killer prowls Neptune and the police grudgingly invite their ex-sheriff back to help out
In the last prelude to the Return rewatch, my podcast regards a Hammer horror classic and re-visits questions I posed beforehand to see how they were (and weren't) answered
Neptune High has its own secret society - is that creepy, or just goofy?
While her dad investigates a music industry kidnapping (maybe), Veronica tries to help a grieving classmate figure out his mother's fate
Veronica sticks up for a teacher accused of taking advantage of a student, while her father is hired by the student's parents
Rarely has a quasi-pun title covered so many bases: this episode features an eighties dance, a Russian bride, and an actor named Tom Cruz
A cross-town rivalry gets serious when the teams kidnap each other's mascots; Veronica goes undercover for her own community even though she sympathizes more with the underdog Pan High
While sleuthing for a harassed honors student, Veronica returns to the scene of her friend's death (this entry features my first big guess about the killer's identity)
The Return rewatch begins on the one-year anniversary of the premiere (rounded up here a few days after my podcast published on Patreon) - I cover Parts 1 and 2 alongside a British rock film
Nineties darling JTT pops up for a guest appearance full of surprises, as Veronica pursues a potential school bomber
One more relatively light high school mystery before the season heads into its dark, dramatic final stretch
Taking on a case of sexual jealousy and humiliation, Veronica is led to disturbing discoveries about her own life as well
This time, Veronica the detective is working for Veronica the client - it's her own mystery she needs to solve
And finally, who killed Lilly Kane?
JUNE
The X-Files opens with a light rather than a darkness in the woods
The joy of Dougie pairs with the joy of Astaire-Rogers in my podcast
The mythology really kicks in, as does the iconic theme song
Shifting gears to the urban and the (quasi-)human
Mulder connects deeply with a UFO case that reminds him of his own lost sister
Urban legend meets rural folklore as The X-Files splits an episode between city and country for the first time (but definitely not the last)
Mulder and Scully take a backseat to a secretary whose boss may be trying to tell her something...from beyond the grave
Going into nineties tech thriller mode, though the hook feels even more relevant decades later
Snapshots of two troubled blondes, one looking up, one looking down: my podcast continues the Return rewatch and tackles a new film in focus, in both cases exploring lives haunted by a big event in 1989
Drawing (pretty directly) from The Thing - or rather its source material - the agents are locked away in an Alaskan science station with a dangerous parasite
Not a popular episode, but I love the part cheesy, part creepy effects in the tale of a possessed ex-astronaut
Mulder goes rogue and connects with an amateur enthusiast who knows his reputation
One of the best early episodes of The X-Files uses a striking color palette and chilling performance to evoke seventies supernatural thrillers
Brits set fire to America once again, as the FBI pursues a psychic pyromaniac and Mulder rekindles a less literal old flame
My favorite episode of the first season introduces Scully's dad (a familiar face for Twin Peaks fans) and offers an unforgettable Brad Dourif performance
My podcast pairs a dark, violent episode with a warm, romantic film
Sharp contrast between metropolitan decadence and quasi-Amish simplicity
Two hearts beat as one - The X-Files dips into police procedural mode (with a twist of course)
An old case re-emerges for Mulder when a supposedly dead killer taunts him
Mulder and Scully plunge deeper into the UFO lore than ever before, racing cross-country to track a mysterious truck
Deep South preacher and faith-healing protégée ring X-Files alarm bells
Searching for a werewolf-like killer on a Native American reservation
Taking a break from films in focus (with one upcoming exception), my podcast centers an unusually plot-heavy Return episode and offers an overview of the sixties Stones
Loggers and environmentalists grapple with a primeval foe deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest
My guests are two veteran podcasters as my podcast reaches the most iconic episode of the new Twin Peaks and a Jane Campion film about a cult deprogrammer (part of the Part 8 conversation is public)
For the first time a monster-of-the-week comes back for seconds
Mulder and Scully shuffle off to Buffalo, pursuing a ghost cop and psychic killer kid
For the last time, one of the first season's favorite devices: a single person occupied by two different presences
The X-Files goes big for the mythology-heavy, high-stakes season 1 finale
A run-of-the-mill murder acquittal (after a witness backs off) launches an investigation with a much larger target, a tale told from two points of view throughout the season
JULY
The Daniels detail settles into an abandoned basement, where it seems both the police and the dealers are hoping they'll fail
My podcast on a quiet Peaks episode and melancholy Dylan montage
Omar bursts on the scene, figuratively and literally (he robs the stash house)
"It's a thin line between heaven and here."
The battle between Omar and the Barksdale organization turns deadly
Wallace experiences a crisis of conscience
Can the season continue to divide its perspective without appearing to take a side?
The cops get more than they planned for with a new informant
The Return rewatch reaches another dark, violent episode; elsewhere my podcast examines events in early seventies Chile
Basketball as the backdrop for a much bigger game, in which Avon isn't merely on the sideline
An episode thick with snitches
The aftermath of a big event has negative ramifications for both sides of Baltimore's battle
With one episode to go, I wonder what's left for the season - and the show
Police and dealers experience jarring ups and downs as the case and season conclude
As part of a longer series, this Peaks community invited me to discuss four episodes leading up to the big one - all kinds of interesting new questions and ideas arise in the midst of our conversation
(I covered this period on Episode 27 and Episode 28 of my Patreon podcast)
Next: An Extended Anniversary (July - September 2018)
(in which I finish looking back at both Twin Peaks and my site for my 10th anniversary)
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Previous: Packing the Podcast (January - March 2018)
(in which I finish looking back at both Twin Peaks and my site for my 10th anniversary)
•
Previous: Packing the Podcast (January - March 2018)
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