Comment by Trasmatta
2 days ago
I'm so grateful he was able to make Twin Peaks: The Return before he passed. It's one of the most brilliant and moving pieces of fiction I've ever experienced. If they had started it just a few years later it may have never been finished.
Some of the people who returned for it died not long after it wrapped. The "Log Lady" might have died before it wrapped, even, can't recall. Miguel Ferrer wasn't around much longer. Even with Lynch living a good while past it, it'd have been far more limited production if it'd started even a couple years after it did. They already had to do without Bowie and a few others that it seems Lynch might have liked to use (given what he did with the season), like Frank Silva (BOB) of course, and notably Don Davis (Major Garland Briggs).
Wow, what a great point. The Return actually being created is a miracle in so many ways.
And the fact that it actually was released 25 years after Laura said "I'll see you in 25 years"? I'm not a spiritual person, but it does feel like the universe wanted that show to be made!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL57-9171pk
> The "Log Lady" might have died before it wrapped
Yes, she was terminally ill and in hospice care. Lynch moved up the filming of her scenes as well as writing the part so she wouldn't need to travel. The fans really embraced her in the years after the original show aired, inviting her to conventions, etc. She wanted to finish her character's role for the fans before she died.
It was heart-wrenching to watch those scenes. You never knew whether it was the last episode you'd see her.
I literally just finished The Return two days ago, because the Blank Check Podcast, a very long form podcast about filmographies that I love, is covering Lynch.
The fact that The Return exists at all is amazing. The fact that it is not what you expected or wanted is really compelling. I absolutely loved it, even if I honestly have no idea what much of it means. Lynch's ability to use pacing -- lingering on a scene -- to cause unease is really something special.
https://www.blankcheckpod.com/
> or wanted
I forget if this is something Lynch ever explicitly talked about, but the way he pulled this off was masterful. We’re in an era of franchises, sequels, and reboots, and all a lot of people wanted from The Return was more Dale Cooper being Dale Cooper. And we get what, maybe 15 minutes of that out of 15 hours? Yet it’s one of the best seasons of television I’ve ever seen.
I finished that show with such mixed emotions. Dismay at the lack of closure. Foolishness for ever thinking that a Lynch production would provide anything approaching closure. But after letting things settle, it was the perfect ending.
Watching it as it aired, fans of the show were SO mixed on their opinions. Many people were so upset that we get very little OG Dale Cooper and so little closure on so many things.
But it couldn't have gone any other way. The director that gave us "how's Annie? how's Annie?!" approaching it any other way would have not been genuine.
Yes, I came here just to post this. I loved Twin Peaks and was devastated when it was canceled after the second season. It was just too deep and cerebral for early 90s prime time TV. But I somehow never even heard about Twin Peaks: The Return in 2018 because it was only on Showtime and I was busy with life stuff at the time.
Discovering it existed and watching it a couple years ago was such an awesome experience.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Peaks_season_3
Return was a phenomenal mix of things. It didn’t match the vibe of the original too often, and when it did it was probably weaker. But overall? Some of the best television.
The Mitchum (sp?) brothers arc evokes so much joy it’s just hilarious.
I hate season 3 so much. I don't even consider it part of the story.
The greatest ending ever to a TV show is the end of season 2. Nothing can ever touch that as an ending. Season 3 was not needed but I am just glad I got to watch the show when it aired originally.
That ending in 1991 on prime time network TV next to corny sitcoms is just so out of time. Like a transmission from another dimension.
Season 3 is so great it easily eclipses the first two, despite my pretty strong nostalgia-bias. It's like the first two were just a warm-up - and we needed the 25 years just to prepare ourselves for what he really wanted to do.
> Season 3 was not needed
I disagree! I consider it Lynch's best work.
Interesting you liked the ending of Season 2. About 1/3 of the way through, Lynch distanced himself from the series and stopped directing it. He stated that he caved to network pressure to resolve the murder early and combined with actor off and on-set drama, it derailed his plans for the second season. Mark Frost took over as the de facto show runner, but without that partnership, he just basically babysat it until the show was killed off.
I still enjoyed the season, but arguably, it's the most un-Lynchian.
Lynch came back and directed the final episode! That's why it feels like such a departure from the rest of the season. It feels like season 1, and season 3, whereas the rest of season 2 was this weird soap opera.
> Season 3 was not needed
The compelling thing here is that Lynch disagreed with you.
As pretentious as it may sound, The Return is both my favourite movie and my favourite TV show of the past 25 years.
Lynch said explicitly that it was best understood as a movie in 25 parts, if I recall correctly.
A bunch of professional critics put it on their best "movies" of the year lists at the time
It has always been on my list, but I haven't watched it yet. Thanks for the reminder!
Like most reboots/long awaited sequels I was very skeptical of it and it absolutely blew my mind. It's one of the most beautifully shot and hallucinatory TV series I've ever seen. I think it's his best work.