Well yeah, the Evelyn saga, the civil war stuff, and Lana instantly turning every man in the show into a leering creep, that stuff is all totally indefensible. The only redeeming part of that experience was trash talking it.
Almost every episode has at least one bit that’s legitimately fun though. Denise and Dead Dog Farm were surprisingly good, every time Gordon Cole is on screen it’s a great time, and Cooper and Pete are both almost always charming throughout.
It’s actually pretty surprising they never fucked up Pete’s character or gave him a totally idiotic arc of his own.
Lana’s whole arc was the worst. She has this magical “curse” of seduction that makes every man instantly fall in love with her, and the show devotes like 3 hours of screentime to two weird horny old men fighting over her.
Her arc was the biggest way the show ever farted on Cooper, actually. There’s a bit in the police station where every dude there is creepily fawning over her, even Coop. It’s completely out of character.
Gordon getting horny for Shelly did make me cringe, but the bit where she’s the only one who he can hear was actually kind of sweet and a fun twist to it? It ends up being less gross than I thought it would be. And it does result in the pretty great line “YOU ARE WITNESSING A FRONT THREE-QUARTER VIEW OF TWO ADULTS SHARING A TENDER MOMENT.”
I heard that the actress who played Lana had that thought too, like “this is a show full of beautiful women, how do they have me playing this part?” Apparently she tried to compensate for this by putting on a southern accent to try and hit the sexy southern belle archetype. It’s just all bad.
it had been long enough since I saw it that there were some good moments and nostalgia sensations when I rewatched later season 2 for the first time right before season 3 came out, but also I thought okay I’m never rewatching that again. the first time you watch the show it’s not as bad because you just want to stay in the world as long as possible, even this goofy dumb version of it.
but I’m at the point now where I think even the good episodes of the original series never quite lived up to the pilot. There’s moments that come close and I think the best ones are really in early season 2, not season 1, even though the dumb subplots are slowly starting to creep in.
I really hate those two mark frosty explanation episodes of the palmer murder though, after that great ending of cooper and everyone crying in the roadhouse.
i don’t know if you’ve ever just watched the like six or seven episodes that lynch directed but that’s what i did before the return and, like, those are all pretty fucking good
that’s kind of what I did last time I rewatched the show just focused on the european pilot and the finale and skimmed through the other lynch directed episodes inbetween. you go from there to fwwm + missing pieces, to palmer family interview + s3, it’s a pretty natural continuation. it doesn’t feel like s3 is “more like mulholland dr the series” or whatnot it just feels like more twin peaks
I’ll give shitty 2nd half s2 this: that part where cooper talks about the sentience of animals and the game beyond the game and whatnot is a great cooper moment. and denise bryson was better done in s2 than s3, though “fix your hearts or die” is an all timer. also the part where evelyn marsh’s uh, lover or brother or whatever says “lucky, lucky, lucky” and the way he says it has been stuck in my head forever.
this is like half of his total characterisation incl. s3, be it self-awareness or the reflection of others involved re. lynch’s foibles see above re. denise
Well, the idea of Lana as a riff on Laura Palmer never occurred to me before… Can you imagine if season 2 tried to take that to its logical conclusion?
I’ve always thought that Cooper is kinda disappointingly downbeat through most of season 2. His joyful bro-outs with Truman are almost removed, and he seems somber and depressed as he works through his history with that woman he loved who died. It felt like such a disappointment following how wonderfully chipper in the face of awfulness and weirdness he was in season 1.
Watched The Missing Pieces for the second time today. Almost all of this stuff did deserve to get cut, but it’s a blast to watch. I love all the goofy check-ins with the wider cast. I’d forgotten that Lynch was still trying to make Heidi and Dell Mibbler happen after randomly introducing them in the last episode of the show and acting like they’d always been there. Dell is underrated, imo.
This scene definitely should have stayed in the film though, holy shit:
I’d also forgotten that there was an epilogue to the series tacked on to the end of this. It shows Annie in the hospital with the green ring on, and a nurse taking it from her and slipping it onto her finger. That worked well for me as an “it’s over… or is it?” horror movie stinger. It also added a couple of minutes after Cooper’s famous “How’s Annie?” scene, with Doc Hayward and Truman talking with him. It adds absolutely nothing except that it clarifies 100% that Bob is going to try to assume Coop’s identity. Not really necessary, but fun to watch.
That green ring is such a weird bit of lore, as is the electricity imagery. I’m about to embark on my first rewatch of season 3, and it’ll be interesting to see if I can make any further emotional or logical sense of these, as I do remember them persisting as major motifs.
