Yes, true, but Hawk's search provided rays of hope that Coop's situation would be figured out, or discovered. Without that hope that Coop might be rescued from being Dougie somehow, the never ending Dougie scenes may be too much to take. Additionally, the actor who plays Hawk fell back so perfectly into his role, and thereby provided the feeling of the old Twin Peaks. ("Is it about the bunnies?") Plus his conversations with the log lady were so moving. I nearly cried during her calls. Plus, you can't have Twin Peaks without the log lady. Also, Hawk is outside Sarah Palmers house when something besides Sarah is in there (he hears someone else, though Sarah denies it) and that is a clue that must be retained. Of all the returning supporting characters, he was perhaps the best actor. The actors who played Andy and Lucy were not quite gelling in scenes of their own, but played off Hawk very well ("You're an Indian!" "Yes, Lucy.") Speaking of the Sherrif's office, what exactly was Bad Coop there for again? And was sitting around Truman's office chit chatting something Bad Coop needed to do? I guess I will have to rematch this show some time after all.
All this is true. Hawk (and Gordon et al) are the Coop surrogates, the investigators while Dougie-Coop is still walking into doors. We need to believe in the possibility that some mysteries are capable of being solved to keep us involved. Even if we're ultimately denied some solutions. I don't think the Sheriff's Office was where BadCoop meant to be. The co-ordinates were for Judy; the White Lodge scoops him up, stuffs him in a little cage and then spits him back out at the Sheriff's Station (thinking about it, the Fireman has a shot of Sarah Palmer's house on his celestial flat screen, which he then changes to the Sheriff's Station, so I guess we can indeed infer that Judy is either inhabiting Sarah or hanging out at her house). Once he's at the Station I suppose BadCoop thinks he might as well chill for a bit, perhaps build up to murdering some of Coop's old friends, potentially father some more devil-babies, etc.
Instead of 3 minutes of sidewalk broom sweeping, maybe it'll be 6 minutes included with the extra scenes. That was a very, very cool episode. I wish there was a payoff about the little girl and the alien bug.
So you want to get rid of all the elements that make Twin Peaks what it is, sacrilege.. For me the show is perfect in every way, I've loved every second and I really hope that there is more of the same to come.
Rewatched eps 16 and 17 last night. I think I view ep 17 as a satisfying end to season 3 and ep 18 as an extended version of the Soap trope "scenes from next season." I am puzzled as to why Frank Truman, who had never spoken to Cooper, was able to be convinced by his voice on the phone that the person in front of him, who had been identified as Cooper by folks he knew and trusted, was not Cooper.
I thought the two Coops' very different reactions to coffee was a clue. Beside that, one of the Coops was giving off some menacing vibes, and it wasn't the one on the phone.
Each of the Coops had his own unique response to coffee, in fact you could almost say they were characterized by their relationship to coffee. Richard had the most measured, true-to-life response, which adds to the evidence that he's the most balanced of the Coopers. Perhaps that indicates that all the others are offshoots of him, which is a theory that doesn't necessarily make me happy, as it marginalizes the Cooper we all know and love.
I disagree with everything you say. I absolutely love the long drawn out scenes with people just staring at each other, I think the pacing is perfect. This is Twin Peaks, it is exactly how it should be, roll on the next season, more of the same please...Can't wait for the Blu-ray..
Sure, I can go along with that, but my post was a response to Rfreeman's question about how Sheriff Truman could differentiate the two Coops. I think the coffee reaction was a wink, wink to the viewers.
Do you think the fact that Lynch used the real life homeowners for the final scene is indicating the Coop and Laura have stepped out of the world of television and into ours? Why the people at Judy's look at him like he's some kinda nut? Why Coop and Laura stop at a gas station for a snack and it's not a fake gas station like Big Ed's, it's a Valero, a real-life place? Have they left the dream world of the dreamer and emerged in our world?
Same here in California. The prices in the episode are at $2.95-$3.00, so the characters are surely stuck in 2015-17.
I have a Valero down the road from me. It replaced the old Getty. They showed up about 6 or 7 years ago, I think. What it Valero is Judy?!?!
But Twin Peaks isn't about long, boring shots. How many long, boring shots were there in S1/S2 combined? I recall basically one long shot (the world's most decrepit room service waiter). Twin Peaks was about, um, Twin Peaks. Lynch himself said the Laura murder was a MacGuffin used as a doorway into the lives and relationships of the people in this small northwestern town. And the "Hulk Hand smash BOB the flying meatball" scene was worse than Ben's Civil War delusion, Nadine throwing wrestlers 200 feet in the air, pine weasels, and yes, Evelyn Marsh, combined.
In Season 3, Lynch uses the Bang Bang Bar as a means of showing the cultural aspect of Twin Peaks, which, like the rest of the country, has undergone great changes in the last 25 years. Also, with the geographical spread that the series takes on, this was necessary to bring it back to the town, and does so in nearly every episode. So the random characters that appear, as well as the infamous sweeping up scene (which features Twin Peaks alumni Jacques, who otherwise hardly appears) really did have significance to the story that Lynch was trying to tell, if only providing background information. I thought the Green Fist of Doom was pretty awesome. I got a real cathartic rush every time it raised and clenched and bopped Bob. I m ean, it had to wrap up somehow... and then obviously Lynch and Frost wanted to move onto other things.
Regarding the slow pace, the lingering shots and the plot threads that seem to go nowhere, I repeat this bit from Lynch that I posted a while back: "[Lynch] made the point that in a day, a person might have an argument, share a stupid joke with some friends, see some horrible murders on TV, sit in an office doing boring stuff, sit in an empty bar where pretty much nothing was happening listening to music, play with their kids, go to a supermarket, go fishing for an hour in the evening, drive for half an hour in a car, have sex.... So, he said ( this was in an interview a couple of years ago at around the time he must have been filming this, or preparing to ) - if all these things can co-exist in our daily lives without it being a trauma, or hard to digest, why not make a film that reflects that, that has goofy bits and horrible bits and thoughtful bits and empty bits and cynical bits and emo bits, that covers all the different kinds of moods people can go through in a day, rather than, as most dramas do, retaining some kind of consistent mood or tone or attitude all the way through?" I keep thinking about 24, the Kiefer Sutherland series, and how unrealistic it is because the characters are never seen doing these mundane, everyday things-- like sleeping. going to the bathroom, eating, and, yes, sweeping a floor. With that in mind, I can accept a lot of the indulgences that Lynch takes, like the conversations among all the different Roadhouse patrons. Not everything in Twin Peaks is caught up with the Laura Palmer/Dale Cooper orbit. Many people in the town are just not involved and have their own lives and their own issues to deal with.
Speaking of the sweeping scene, the Renault conversation that followed led me to believe that there would be a storyline that dealt with Shelly's daughter involved in prostitution, following in Laura's footsteps. And when Steven was shown yelling at her and saying "I know what you did!" I thought this was going somehwere. So I'm really perplexed why we didn't head down that road and explore this more. And then Steven kills himself and says stuff about the Rhinoceros or something. Was the goal to simply touch upon the various townsfolk, show us a glimpse, show us where they are at in their lives, and then give us nothing more to allow us, the viewer, to consider where their lives go from here? Like Opie Cunningham, I don't know whether to thank Lynch or punch him in the mouth.
Twin Peaks is about what David Lynch wants it to be about. If another writer/filmmaker took over for this season (which ISN'T being billed as season 3, btw) I might agree with you. Just because it's not what you expect it to be doesn't mean it's not Twin Peaks. Whether you, or anyone, likes it or not is irrelevant.
