tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post8577529961030518424..comments2024-01-21T11:18:54.087-05:00Comments on Lost in the Movies: Twin Peaks: The Man Behind GlassJoel Bockohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-2661471468664329262008-11-22T10:53:00.000-05:002008-11-22T10:53:00.000-05:00Tony, you're right about Audrey - it was a bit of ...Tony, you're right about Audrey - it was a bit of a cheap shot. Doesn't justify Billy Zane though!Joel Bockohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-31296176320095831682008-11-22T08:49:00.000-05:002008-11-22T08:49:00.000-05:00I echo your sentiments, C. While not up to the lev...I echo your sentiments, C. While not up to the level of the Laura storyline, as a major Coop fan I have a soft spot for the Windham Earle storyline, dumbstruck Leo and all.<BR/><BR/>"Billy Zane showing up in town to seduce a suddenly virginal Audrey Horne ..."<BR/><BR/>MovieMan, I don't agree with your characterization of Audrey as <I>suddenly</I> virginal. It always seemed apt that just as Donna and Laura appeared "virginal" to everyone else, while being engaged in sexual activity (Laura to a dangerous degree), that the misfit Audrey would engage in sexually precocious behavior as a way of overcompensating for her social awkwardness. In some ways, I think she sought to emulate Laura who appeared to be someone who had it all together (tutoring her brother, object of Ben Horne's admiration, at least from her perspective). So she poured on the flirtatiousness. But like the expression goes, she was all bark and no bite.<BR/><BR/>It was only once she started to mature towards the end of the series that a viable adult relationship became possible for her.Tony Dayoubhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04632329277519635858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-64431798009844128902008-11-21T23:15:00.000-05:002008-11-21T23:15:00.000-05:00Most of the other low points you just mentioned (n...Most of the other low points you just mentioned (not including the fun reuniting of West Side Story's Tony and Riff) are, indeed, low points. <BR/><BR/>But I do like the Heather Graham/Windham Earle episodes. And I like the Josie Packard stuff - Dan O'Herlihy, who plays Josie's former lover/master, is one of my favorite character actors, and what eventually happens to Josie is genuinely chilling.<BR/><BR/>And we seem to be in agreement about the greatness of the concluding episode. Windham Earle and the Black Lodge provided more than enough potential for a compelling Season 3.C. Jerry Kutnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10901663264449536920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-19266459956906441312008-11-21T22:34:00.000-05:002008-11-21T22:34:00.000-05:00Hmmm, Jerry. I don't know...it has some stiff ...Hmmm, Jerry. I don't know...it has some stiff competition.<BR/><BR/>The mayor and his brother fighting over the woman whose sexiness kills old men (or something like that)?<BR/><BR/>James biking out of town to end up on the front cover of a Danielle Steele paperback with an older woman and some who-the-hell-cares melodrama plot?<BR/><BR/>Billy Zane showing up in town to seduce a suddenly virginal Audrey Horne (while we wait for the other shoe to drop and it turns out...there is no twist, he simply showed up for no reason, mugged around for a few episodes, and disappeared)?<BR/><BR/>I'll admit I find David Duchovney in drag and Maj. Briggs (a great character) bits mildly entertaining. Though of course there was also that fashion show, though I guess you could place that under the Dick Tremayne subplot. Re-watching season 2 a few months after I discovered the series, I am reminded that even the best episodes planted some seeds of the disappointments to come (and apparently Mark Frost thought they should have planted MORE seeds, weaving Windham Earle into episodes leading up to the reveal of Laura's killer. Um, no.)<BR/><BR/>And what about the Civil War reenactments (what was this, a Ken Burns thing?) which at least have the redeeming value of reuniting Riff & Tony from West Side Story?<BR/><BR/>The second season is almost three seasons in one: the genuinely good, sometimes, great section leading up to the revelation and capture of Laura's killer; the really horrible letdown afterwards when the writers concoct a bunch of half-baked quirky storylines only to kill them off after a few episodes when it's clear they are all - almost every single one of them - dead ends; and finally the Windham Earle/Heather Graham episodes which I wasn't crazy about, though they were certainly an improvement on the middle of the season, and did lead up to a great conclusion.<BR/><BR/>Have you read Keith Phipp's Episode Guide at the A.V. club? He has some very funny write-ups on these episodes, which I don't think I have the stomach to deal with now - after the climax of the series, I plan to skip ahead about ten episodes to the great finale.<BR/><BR/>To me the best elements of Twin Peaks are the mysteries, mostly revolving around Laura. Harold Smith is an interesting character. Obviously Bob and his connection to the woods is fascinating to explore. Even the James-Maddy-Donna love triangle, silly as it is, is charming...Lynch and many of the writers and directors who worked with him on this show have a way with teenage romance. And the drug/prostitution/criminal underground stuff, before it veers off into cartoonish pulp fiction territory, is great too (Jacques Renault is probably one of the best characters on the show).<BR/><BR/>Which reminds me, Bobby's involvement with all that just drops off the radar in season 2. And he even stops going to school (as do Audrey, Donna, and James...until Nadine starts thinking she's 18 anyway)! More evidence that Twin Peaks had morphed from offbeat to cartoonish and goofy by the middle of season 2 (remember how big a role the high school played in the series premiere?).<BR/><BR/>But I don't think the Josie stuff was ever that great. Nor was anything to do with Big Ed and Nadine, all the way back to the drape runners, very fascinating. Ultimately the heart of the show was Laura and I wonder if the show really could have succeeded for seasons on end, without keeping that in mind. Perhaps it would have inevitably gone off-track sooner rather than later. I guess we'll never know.Joel Bockohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-37327796390561414272008-11-21T18:53:00.000-05:002008-11-21T18:53:00.000-05:00Ah, the Dick Tremayne subplot, the worst single as...Ah, the Dick Tremayne subplot, the worst single aspect of Season 2.<BR/><BR/>Super-Nadine also goes nowhere, but the continuing development of the Donna/Harold relationship is nice. And I love anything to do with Sheryl Lee.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for a good write-up of a better-than-average episode.C. Jerry Kutnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10901663264449536920noreply@blogger.com