I thought that going public with my Lost in Twin Peaks podcast would be easy, since the material was already recorded for patrons over the past three years - it just needed to be divided into smaller episodes and accompanied by an illustrated companion full of screenshots and timecodes. To my surprise, that challenge proved so consuming that I spent the weeks of mid-autumn falling behind and eventually dropping one goal or side project after another...until, prior to the season one finale, I had to pause the podcast itself (returning to wrap just that single season as 2021 came to a close). This was the last gasp for an organized "Path to Journey Through Through Twin Peaks" after years of trying to fix particular deadlines, falling short, and re-inventing my schedule so from this point forward, I'd have to let the work take as long as it took, and see where that got me.
During the anticipatory lead-up to my October bust I recorded a fresh review on the time-twisty sci-fi of Arrival; even while struggling to meet certain deadlines, I debuted my Twin Peaks Conversations podcast by turning the table on guests who'd hosted me many times - and would soon have me back to explore the abandoned Ronnie Rocket - and launched my standalone Twin Peaks Cinema feed with the "What's in a name?" miniseries (including Vertigo both for the overt character references and its much broader network of connections to Peaks); and once I finally stalled in my public output, I caught up with long-delayed Patreon obligations by loosely linking the whimsical baseball fantasy of Field of Dreams to a certain woodsy mystery show.
Since my work on the episode-by-episode Peaks podcast defined this period, I'll highlight LOST IN TWIN PEAKS #1: The Pilot S1E1 podcasts & illustrated companion (+ #0: introducing show format) above all else for diving into the show's background, establishing the podcast template (though there would be some tweaks going forward), and turning up new, interesting historical tangents even at this late stage in the process.
SEPTEMBER
An uneasy holiday in Hawaii bridges '67 and '68 for a new season of Mad Men
Boldly announcing a few of my many new projects (but the political podcast will be cancelled before it can even begin)
The Dick Whitman flashbacks return after several seasons, as Don appears to abandon any last pretense of a moral code
My first brand new review for the public podcast, on an eerie, provocative, and moving sci-fi film from Denis Villeneuve in the mid-teens
As summer ends, I optimistically (if a bit nervously) lay out my ambitious schedule for autumn
A new podcast endeavor: interviews with other Peaks commentators, half on YouTube and half on Patreon, launched by podcasters who had me on their own show many times
The late sixties cultural shift is virtually a fait accompli, with even Joan visiting a psychedelic nightclub - but Don ping-pongs between progressive sophistication and reactionary domineering
My Villeneuve coverage continues by re-presenting an already twice-released discussion (the planned podcast trilogy will be aborted next week when I realize that I miscalculated Dune's release date; by the time it does come out, my schedule is already disintegrating)
OCTOBER
The public premiere of my in-depth Twin Peaks podcast opens with dozens of screenshots and details on a week's worth of episodes covering the pilot, each dealing with a different aspect of the moody whodunit (and the historical context, including celebrities mourning Ryan White)
Looking back on Bushman's great series of interviews with Peaks co-creator Mark Frost, as well as forward to his upcoming true crime mystery about the murder that inspired Laura Palmer, we also discuss the complicated Lynch/Frost relationship in season three
Martin Luther King is assassinated, and the show's almost entirely white ensemble stumbles through a series of complex and conflicting reactions
In the first of many compromises, I curtail some of my projects to share thoughts on a meat-and-potatoes (or pumpkin?) holiday classic
A new week, another seven podcasts on a single episode - this time the first regular hourly (and non-Lynch) entry, with the surrounding TV context including the wacky cop show Max Monroe: Loose Cannon
Belatedly rounding up the previous month's Patreon podcasts (already shared piecemeal on the site) - including extensive study of Lynch's debut
A competition turns into a collaboration and Peggy finds herself at the center of yet another agency re-shuffle
As Twin Peaks Cinema gets its own public feed, the "What's in a name?" series kicks off with the film noir that inspired Lydecker, Waldo, Jacoby, and of course Laura herself
The legendary dream episode gets its due with an aside for historical context including a basketball brawl
Power dynamics with dramatic reversals play out in bedroom and boardroom alike in the days before another Kennedy is taken down
In one more desperate attempt to maintain a crowded itinerary, I lay out my priorities
Laura's funeral centers this episode, which aired on ABC the same night as a news special about U.S. involvement in Cambodia
One of the most memorable episodes of the series sends the agency on a speed-fueled lost weekend in which Don navigates a current crisis by re-tracing past traumas
An underrated midseason gem launches the investigation in earnest as Cooper and the cops follow clues to different locations (meanwhile the top-rated Cheers ends its season as NBC's counterprogramming)
NOVEMBER
Despite a notable if temporary re-kindling, relations are strained or broken between numerous duos (romantic, professional, and familial)...even Megan's soap opera performance splits in two
Offering up not just my own reaction to this avant-garde TV film about the Troubles, but also discussions with a listener and between other critics
Into the woods for Laura's mystery and off to a Great Northern party for the town's intrigue (while the historical context episode dips into Howard Stern's contemporaneous antics)
Los Angeles is caught between Reagan conservatism and Hollywood hashish while battles over clients preoccupy New York, but there's also a third city on everyone's TV sets: Chicago, where the Democratic convention dissolves into a police riot
Finally I officially abandon the "Path back" schedule which was crumbling for months, in order to set a simpler approach going forward (although one last collapse is forthcoming)
In my last consecutive week of Lost in Twin Peaks, the top-notch penultimate episode crystallizes three investigations into Laura's life - Cooper's criminal, Audrey's social, and Donna's psychological (and in my historical context coverage, the long-running soap Falcon Crest comes to an end)
The Draper neighbors try to keep their son out of Vietnam, and Sally is shocked by what she sees in their apartment
"What's in a name" continues by using Madeleine, Ferguson, and, of course, Judy as springboards into one of Twin Peaks' richest connections and this podcast's longest episode
Rosemary's Baby inspires Peggy but her ad concept is caught in the crosshairs of Ted's infatuation and Don's manipulations; meanwhile, Pete gets Bob Benson'd
Finally even the Twin Peaks podcast falls apart (for the moment), re-defining my goals one last time and forcing a slower, less ambitious pace to wrap up long-awaited work over the coming year and a half
Mad Men - "In Care Of" (season 6, episode 13)
A Hershey meeting provides Don's moment of truth (brutally and memorably so) as Peggy rides a romantic roller coaster that hinges on that breakthrough - or breakdown
A Hershey meeting provides Don's moment of truth (brutally and memorably so) as Peggy rides a romantic roller coaster that hinges on that breakthrough - or breakdown
DECEMBER
Pairing a couple genre pieces - a posh sixties horror movie and a grungy twenty-first century prison flick - to round out a tumultuous season of podcasts
Cross-posting a chat uploaded back on Halloween, in which I tangle with the great Peaks scholar's theories about what's really going on in - and outside of - season three
A flashy premiere sends Don to Hollywood, but he doesn't stay long: he's determined to do his job, even if his job is not so determined to have him
Iowa cornfields meet Washington woods as I link these two mystic works from the same period (alongside a discussion of the Peaks mythology) for my first entry in this patron podcast after two and a half months of distraction
Mad Men - "A Day's Work" (season 7, episode 2)
Valentine's Day '69 reveals racist reshuffling at the workplace and, perhaps, the makings of a father-daughter reconciliation on the road
Valentine's Day '69 reveals racist reshuffling at the workplace and, perhaps, the makings of a father-daughter reconciliation on the road
The last of the "What's in a name?" trilogy seeks Peaks parallels in a movie star's delusions, which may have given Lynch's work a Norma and a Desmond, as well as a Max Von's and, of course, one Gordon Cole
Returning the favor from a few months back, I invite these podcasters to discuss their ongoing work on season three and their reflections on the earlier seasons/prequel film they'd just covered
A return to the office captures a phenomenon I'm not sure I've ever seen captured so palpably before: the feeling of no longer belonging to a place or an experience or a group where you were once completely at home
Just under the wire at year's end, I return to wrap up the first season with Mark Frost's solo finale (and the last pre-Gulf crisis historical context discusses Bush's Chief of Staff Sununu)
Twin Peaks Unwrapped - A Very Ronnie Rocket Holiday Special (w/ John Thorne)
Guest appearance on a returning podcast to discuss this strange Lynch artifact - a never-produced screenplay about an electrified Franken-teen and a seemingly unrelated detective's odyssey (Ben and Bryon also invite "unseen players" to re-enact many scenes)
November 2021 Patreon podcasts: LOST IN THE MOVIES #85 - Twin Peaks Cinema: Drugstore Cowboy (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Windom, Maj. Briggs, Airfields in Twin Peaks & Oregon, Audrey and John Justice Wheeler romance /Season 3 Part 12, Elephant archive reading & more) plus TWIN PEAKS CONVERSATIONS
Another '89 classic fuels patron Peaks comparisons - this time closer to home than Field of Dreams, since Gus Van Sant's junkie opus unfolds in the Pacific Northwest too (and shares a few cast members)
Clever riffs on 2001: A Space Odyssey surround a supercomputer's arrival at SC&P and Roger's visit to his daughter's hippie commune
JANUARY
With a new Fire Walk With Me book on the horizon for the thirtieth anniversary, we explore Scott's personal relationship to the film and some of his issues with season three
A computer messes with Michael's mind (and body) while Don heads to California expecting to find an old friend but several surprises are in store
Amidst all my conclusions and catch-up, there's also this fresh beginning - a loosely themed season focused on a trio of directors, starting with Jane Campion's most acclaimed work as it makes its Criterion debut
Ending the old year and kicking of the new with one of the closest films to Fire Walk With Me, plus finally offering some brief thoughts on Denis Villeneuve's Dune months after abandoning my rollout for the "new release" podcast
Peggy second-guesses her family-friendly approach to a fast food commercial so Don - brooding after a wistful, melancholy visit from Megan - joins her for a classic, boozy brainstorming session
Don's nine lives appear to be up while pitching hamburgers with Peggy in the Midwest (meanwhile, a Midwesterner lands on the moon)
(in which I conclude my Olympic Series, Mad Men viewing diary, and long-time Patreon format, making room to focus on big projects)
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