Subject: Of giants and hospital food
From: bgingric@isis.cs.du.edu (Barry L. Gingrich)
Date: 1990-10-07, 18:34
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks
Reply-to: bgingric@isis.UUCP (Barry L. Gingrich)

Well, I think our newsfeed is back up, so now I can post
again.  Please excuse any duplication of other's
comments...we lost connection for about a week, I guess.

Note:  Possible *SPOILERS* on the first two episodes of
season two.  Consider yourselves warned. 



Anyway, dopey prologue out of the way, I guess I'll comment
on random items in the first two episodes of the second
season.  Without further ado:

- I was very very glad to see Lynch had directed all three
hours.  In my opinion,  the characters suffer at the hands of
others, including Mark Frost.

- Mark Frost's script for the season opener was chock-full of
info, just like  the episode(s?) he wrote for season one. 
Harley Peyton's script for episode 2 was significantly better
overall than the work he did on season one.  He seemed to
have a better hold on the TP characterizations.

- The first episode was a laugh riot!  For a while, at least.
 The old man delivering the milk was a beautiful "Lynchian"
(cf _SPY_ magazine, Nov. 1990) moment. Actually, a lot of
moments.  The way DL can linger on a scene is horribly
unsettling at times, but was horribly funny as well.  My
favorite bit in the show, though, had to be when Leland
(recently possessed by Frank Sinatra, who, oddly enough, is
not yet dead) and his singing inspired Ben and Jerry to dance
like goofballs.   Wonderful.  Albert, of course, is always
good for a laugh, even if they are often cruel ones.

- Speaking of Albert, is he really softening up?  He honestly
seemed concerned about Cooper's health in the second episode.

- After seeing the second episode, I'm positive that the Log
Lady *did* give Donna the "Look into meals on wheels" note. 
The log is obviously tuned in to the same place (outer space,
I suppose) that Coop gets his giants/dwarves/dreams.  I have
this suspicion that more than a few viewers are gonna get
turned off by the  supernatural references.  I know my sister
will be.  I guess some of the really off-the-wall speculation
on the first season in this newsgroup panned out, eh?

- I think Donna's acting so odd because she can sense that
James and Maddie are getting closer and she's trying to do
anything she can to keep him.  This is much more obvious in
the second episode in the living-room singing scene than it
was in the first episode, where I didn't know what the heck
she was up to.

- Hospital food jokes in both episodes.  They seem to be
supplanting the "good food" comments this season.  Also, note
the way Albert turns up his nose at the hospital's
coffee...does this change in TP food quality mirror the
change in many characters from "good" to "bad" and
vice-versa?  (<--- Satire alert.)

- Austin Jack Lynch as the magical little boy.  Spooky enough
to be a Lynch, I suppose...so, is he supernatural, too?  Hoo
boy.

- In Ronette's flashback scene, which I found to be the most
disturbing piece of tv  drama I've ever viewed, I really
think that Laura was enjoying the hell out of  whatever was
going on.  Those primal screams were screams of passion, not
fear or pain.  It is really hard to believe sometimes that
Sheryl Lee plays both Maddie and Laura.  She's good.  K-Bob
is *damn* spooky.  And now Maddie's seen him too...yow.

I could go on and on, but, overall, I'm going to do a lot
less analysis of Twin Peaks this season.  ("Who cares who
killed Laura Palmer?")  The biggest reason I like Twin Peaks
is the characterization.  Ben and Jerry's obsession with food
(the smoked cheese pig was great...), Big Ed's big
luggishness, Audrey's Nancy-Drew-in-a-teddy naivete, and all
the rest.
-- - Barry Gingrich bgingric@nyx.cs.du.edu