Twin Peaks
There are a few shows over the years that either premiered with spectacularly bad timing with events in my life or I just flat out missed them until everyone around me was talking about them. I have this thing where if I miss the first few episodes, then forget it. Especially a show like Twin Peaks. You miss an episode or two and you are hopelessly lost. (Lost is another show I watched long after it aired, funnily enough.)
I've seen enough tributes and references to Twin Peaks over the years (Psych!) that I suspected I would like the show and having Hulu recommend it to me yesterday was perfect timing. I'd just finished binge watching Agents of Shield and Grimm and needed something new to watch. I am now one episode in and, yep, I'm hooked. It's been SO long since the show aired that if I ever did know who killed Laura Palmer, I've totally forgotten. So...no spoilers there.
1990 was a rocky year, personally. A lot of loss and grief. Watching a show about a popular high school teen who was murdered did NOT sound appealing, quirky or no. And this show is certainly quirky. I do love off-beat and weird as a general rule.
So, episode one... Lot's of characters thrown at you. Some suspects. Loads of mystery. And that weird music playing behind it all! Some of the acting is just awful. Laura Palmer's mother, for instance. Grace Zabriskie is a familiar face. When I see her, I picture a chain smoking and scary woman with a gravelly voice. That is her wheelhouse, in my mind. Character actor. Scary chain-smoking, gruff, maybe drunk, but never a sympathetic character. Seeing her as a grieving mother is just...jarring. I'm assuming the screaming and over-the-top swooning is a deliberate acting choice for this character but I just cringe whenever she appears on screen. That could be deliberate too. We shall see. For now, she is my least favorite character. On to episode 2. I may just leave this entry as a draft and come back to edit after I watch another episode or 2.
Episode 2: Laura and her shrink?! That was a weird shocker. He's the one who dug up the necklace that James and Donna buried. The whole Mill side story just has me scratching my head, so far. And log lady. Oh! And Agent Dale Cooper. Wow. He kinda has this whole goofy Columbo shtick going for him. Less bumbling and more air-headed tho. But the local sheriff nailed him on day 2 by saying he felt like "Dr. Watson". Yes. He does seem to have this hidden Sherlock genius. I'm still trying to figure him out. He's a lone wolf FBI agent? I thought those guys usually travel in pairs. And who is the chick he is making the recordings for? Maybe that is just the name of his tape recorder. With the weirdness of this show, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.
Episode 3: Throwing rocks, dreams of dancing little people, unrelenting cheerfulness...Agent Cooper is crazy. There is a LOT of crazy in this town. And coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. And pie.
Episode 4: Laura's Dad is now losing it worse than his wife. Flinging yourself on top of the coffin? Yikes. Secret society and civilians trying to bust a drug ring? Yikes.
Episode 5: Is there ANYONE in this town NOT having an affair with someone else's boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse?! Yeesh.
Episode 6: Everyone is having fun at the local casino whorehouse. And Laura's look-alike cousin is helping her friends try to find Laura's killer. What is with the local shrink? He looks like a 70's disco hippy tragedy.
Episode 7: I really hate abusive men. I love just desserts. But what a "Who Shot J.R.?" moment at the end. Good thing they got a season 2. *snort*
Season 2, Episode 1: Lying on the hotel room floor, dying, but the room service guy doesn't notice the blood? Just sign the check while you lie on the floor. Silly. Visions of giants. This season looks to be even more woo woo than the last one.
S2E2: Uh...everyone is in a coma.
S2E3: Missing for 2 days and the dad isn't worried and the mother is nowhere to be seen. The brothel, meanwhile, is hooking the poor girl on heroin KNOWING who this girl is (the owner's daughter.) Crazy! Meanwhile, Donna is having a meltdown. Smoking? Acting wild? and pushing her new boyfriend away and into the arms of another girl...who looks like Laura. And is her cousin. So Donna runs to the strange shut-in she met delivering meals on wheels. What? The guy could be a total LOON. Ugh. I'm watching this with mom goggles now.
S2E4: A secret diary hidden in a secret bookcase! Intriguing. Laura's Dad confesses to killing the fluffy French Canadian fella. Will Cooper EVER see that note under his bed?
S2E5: Things are starting to run together. Is Nadine a superhero now? What is with the freakish strength? I know she worked out that one time and broke her ab rower... Cooper does yoga and finally sees the note under his bed! Which makes me wonder about the level of housekeeping at the Inn. Off to rescue...why can't I ever remember her name?! Audrey! Ya. Rescue mission! Go!
S2E6: Well, at least they got Audrey back. Multiple personalities or spirit possession...really guys?
S2E7: Uh...has that evil spirit been there the whole time???
S2E8: The one armed shoe salesman is a prophet? He was also a suspect and they kept him in a first floor hotel room with open windows? Yikes. I do not like Mr. Palmer's new golf clubs.
S2E9: Uh oh. Bob is out and on the loose.
S2E10: Well, this is lasting much longer than Season 1. They figured out who the killer was. Where do we go from here? Is this just turning into a weird nighttime soap now?
S2E11: Yep. Very weird nighttime soap. OMG David Duchovny in drag?! He actually makes a very attractive woman.
OK. I've lost track of what episode I'm on now. I've been watching non-stop for so many hours they are starting to blur together. Leo woke from his coma and went homicidal. No big surprise there. Running off into the woods in his bathroom only to run into the deranged ex-FBI agent/partner of Cooper squatting in a remote cabin? Yeah. I'm skipping the whole red headed seductress story line. It was just silly. The owner of the Great Northern hotel going bananas and thinking he's some Civil War general? Also silly. Busting the drug ring and killing the last of the Renault clan? Good. They still need to clear Cooper of wrongdoing. Again, David Duchovny in drag is just all kinds of awesome. I grin from ear to ear every time he appears on the show.
This show is really hard on local law enforcement. They make most of them look like total fools and sometimes borderline drooling idiots. I'm still trying to figure out the loony ex-FBI story line. Cooper's ex-partner went insane (supposedly), killed someone, his own wife (a witness) and is after Cooper for some crazy reason. I assume it's because Cooper was in love with his wife.
Skipping over Laura's old boyfriend the biker and his born-to-be-wild ride into the clutches of a black widow murder plot. Donna saved the day...again. She goes from annoyingly weepy and hysterical to cool, chain-smoking chick in stolen shades. It's a bit jarring.
Crazy dream sequences, white lodge/black lodge, possession, new love interests...and a rather cliffhanger ending with a lot of unanswered questions. I guess I'm glad I watched it before the revival/new season. I do plan to watch that too, at some point. I'm wrapping up this entry as it's sat in draft form for many months now. I enjoyed Twin Peaks, but I won't say I'm a "fan" exactly. It was certainly entertaining. Very weird, but entertaining.
I've seen enough tributes and references to Twin Peaks over the years (Psych!) that I suspected I would like the show and having Hulu recommend it to me yesterday was perfect timing. I'd just finished binge watching Agents of Shield and Grimm and needed something new to watch. I am now one episode in and, yep, I'm hooked. It's been SO long since the show aired that if I ever did know who killed Laura Palmer, I've totally forgotten. So...no spoilers there.
1990 was a rocky year, personally. A lot of loss and grief. Watching a show about a popular high school teen who was murdered did NOT sound appealing, quirky or no. And this show is certainly quirky. I do love off-beat and weird as a general rule.
So, episode one... Lot's of characters thrown at you. Some suspects. Loads of mystery. And that weird music playing behind it all! Some of the acting is just awful. Laura Palmer's mother, for instance. Grace Zabriskie is a familiar face. When I see her, I picture a chain smoking and scary woman with a gravelly voice. That is her wheelhouse, in my mind. Character actor. Scary chain-smoking, gruff, maybe drunk, but never a sympathetic character. Seeing her as a grieving mother is just...jarring. I'm assuming the screaming and over-the-top swooning is a deliberate acting choice for this character but I just cringe whenever she appears on screen. That could be deliberate too. We shall see. For now, she is my least favorite character. On to episode 2. I may just leave this entry as a draft and come back to edit after I watch another episode or 2.
Episode 2: Laura and her shrink?! That was a weird shocker. He's the one who dug up the necklace that James and Donna buried. The whole Mill side story just has me scratching my head, so far. And log lady. Oh! And Agent Dale Cooper. Wow. He kinda has this whole goofy Columbo shtick going for him. Less bumbling and more air-headed tho. But the local sheriff nailed him on day 2 by saying he felt like "Dr. Watson". Yes. He does seem to have this hidden Sherlock genius. I'm still trying to figure him out. He's a lone wolf FBI agent? I thought those guys usually travel in pairs. And who is the chick he is making the recordings for? Maybe that is just the name of his tape recorder. With the weirdness of this show, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.
Episode 3: Throwing rocks, dreams of dancing little people, unrelenting cheerfulness...Agent Cooper is crazy. There is a LOT of crazy in this town. And coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. And pie.
Episode 4: Laura's Dad is now losing it worse than his wife. Flinging yourself on top of the coffin? Yikes. Secret society and civilians trying to bust a drug ring? Yikes.
Episode 5: Is there ANYONE in this town NOT having an affair with someone else's boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse?! Yeesh.
Episode 6: Everyone is having fun at the local casino whorehouse. And Laura's look-alike cousin is helping her friends try to find Laura's killer. What is with the local shrink? He looks like a 70's disco hippy tragedy.
Episode 7: I really hate abusive men. I love just desserts. But what a "Who Shot J.R.?" moment at the end. Good thing they got a season 2. *snort*
Season 2, Episode 1: Lying on the hotel room floor, dying, but the room service guy doesn't notice the blood? Just sign the check while you lie on the floor. Silly. Visions of giants. This season looks to be even more woo woo than the last one.
S2E2: Uh...everyone is in a coma.
S2E3: Missing for 2 days and the dad isn't worried and the mother is nowhere to be seen. The brothel, meanwhile, is hooking the poor girl on heroin KNOWING who this girl is (the owner's daughter.) Crazy! Meanwhile, Donna is having a meltdown. Smoking? Acting wild? and pushing her new boyfriend away and into the arms of another girl...who looks like Laura. And is her cousin. So Donna runs to the strange shut-in she met delivering meals on wheels. What? The guy could be a total LOON. Ugh. I'm watching this with mom goggles now.
S2E4: A secret diary hidden in a secret bookcase! Intriguing. Laura's Dad confesses to killing the fluffy French Canadian fella. Will Cooper EVER see that note under his bed?
S2E5: Things are starting to run together. Is Nadine a superhero now? What is with the freakish strength? I know she worked out that one time and broke her ab rower... Cooper does yoga and finally sees the note under his bed! Which makes me wonder about the level of housekeeping at the Inn. Off to rescue...why can't I ever remember her name?! Audrey! Ya. Rescue mission! Go!
S2E6: Well, at least they got Audrey back. Multiple personalities or spirit possession...really guys?
S2E7: Uh...has that evil spirit been there the whole time???
S2E8: The one armed shoe salesman is a prophet? He was also a suspect and they kept him in a first floor hotel room with open windows? Yikes. I do not like Mr. Palmer's new golf clubs.
S2E9: Uh oh. Bob is out and on the loose.
S2E10: Well, this is lasting much longer than Season 1. They figured out who the killer was. Where do we go from here? Is this just turning into a weird nighttime soap now?
S2E11: Yep. Very weird nighttime soap. OMG David Duchovny in drag?! He actually makes a very attractive woman.
OK. I've lost track of what episode I'm on now. I've been watching non-stop for so many hours they are starting to blur together. Leo woke from his coma and went homicidal. No big surprise there. Running off into the woods in his bathroom only to run into the deranged ex-FBI agent/partner of Cooper squatting in a remote cabin? Yeah. I'm skipping the whole red headed seductress story line. It was just silly. The owner of the Great Northern hotel going bananas and thinking he's some Civil War general? Also silly. Busting the drug ring and killing the last of the Renault clan? Good. They still need to clear Cooper of wrongdoing. Again, David Duchovny in drag is just all kinds of awesome. I grin from ear to ear every time he appears on the show.
This show is really hard on local law enforcement. They make most of them look like total fools and sometimes borderline drooling idiots. I'm still trying to figure out the loony ex-FBI story line. Cooper's ex-partner went insane (supposedly), killed someone, his own wife (a witness) and is after Cooper for some crazy reason. I assume it's because Cooper was in love with his wife.
Skipping over Laura's old boyfriend the biker and his born-to-be-wild ride into the clutches of a black widow murder plot. Donna saved the day...again. She goes from annoyingly weepy and hysterical to cool, chain-smoking chick in stolen shades. It's a bit jarring.
Crazy dream sequences, white lodge/black lodge, possession, new love interests...and a rather cliffhanger ending with a lot of unanswered questions. I guess I'm glad I watched it before the revival/new season. I do plan to watch that too, at some point. I'm wrapping up this entry as it's sat in draft form for many months now. I enjoyed Twin Peaks, but I won't say I'm a "fan" exactly. It was certainly entertaining. Very weird, but entertaining.
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