Subject: Re: Various points gleaned from reviewing the TP extant TP episodes
From: conrad@sun.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
Date: 1990-05-04, 09:06
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <2333@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> adamk@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Adam Kao) writes:

> >I think Lynch is too creative to use a random red herring (who cares
> >if Laura has a pet cat?)  If he's going to the trouble of writing old
> >diary entries, then he's doing it for a real reason, not just to
> >confuse us.  Lynch loves to drop bizarre hints that *become
> >significant later*, e.g. Leo slicing up the football.  (Did anyone
> >else notice that Leo's fancy car was visible (though under wraps) from
> >the 0th episode?  Good hint for drug-dealing.)

Yes, Lynch does to drop hints that pay off later.  He also loves to drop
in things that have no significance at all, just because he likes them.
And let's not leave Mark Frost out of this; he's had a little something
to do with steering the series too.

> >If Lynch bothered to put it on camera, then it's related to the
> >current story.  Have faith in Lynch; he's too smart to be random.

This seems naive.  This kind of "Lynch is God and will do everything
just the way I would like it to be, amen" attitude ignores Lynch's very
real and specific gifts.  He's wonderful at atmosphere, mystery,
undefined suspense, and that kind of thing.  He has never been a
wonderful storyteller in terms of getting a simple narrative across
clearly; that simply doesn't interest him as much, and why should it?--
he's right to stick to what he does best.  But this idea of him as a
supergenius who never makes a wrong move does him a disservice.  Yes,
he IS smart; but he is also random, when it suits him to be.  Can't we
all agree that a number of elements are in this series because they're
FUN?  (Cooper's narratives to Diane and gee-whiz reactions, Lucy, Andy,
the soap parallels.)  I guess not, everything has to be mined for clues.

This has been thoroughly publicized everywhere so it isn't a spoiler.
Lynch picked somebody out of the blue to be the killer in the European
print of TWIN PEAKS, just because he looked at somebody and got an idea.
If that isn't random, what is?

Jon