Subject: We Wuz [RB]obbed!
From: fehr@ms.uky.edu (Jeffrey Davis)
Date: 1990-12-04, 08:58
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

The episode of Dec 1 seemed to me to be the equivalent of Sidney
Carlton's speech at the end of _A Tale of Two Cities_: someone
itching to get things over with was standing nearby. A beadle at
ABC must have come to the conclusion that the tale of Laura Palmer's
murder was a millstone to be discarded rather than the anchor
to the show. From my perspective, they need NEVER have solved the
mystery. The structure to the episode was non-existent: the 
scene between Donna and Leland added nothing. I just watched
and wondered if the blackness of the sunglasses had been optically
enhanced. Someone else has already commented on how the scene
at the roadhouse was needlessly deus-ex-machina : that Cooper had
enough conventional evidence to name Leland. On top of that,
Lynch/Frost threw in a "dark and stormy night." What's a matter,
don't you like us anymore?

My gut feeling is that the numinous elements of the show got away from
them, rather than vice-versa. Stories like the rape of Persephone
have a life of their own, and fumble fingered artists who try
to latch on to them had best be careful. I'm thinking here of the
beautiful poem of Robert Graves "To Juan at Winter Solstice." (I'm
quoting from memory, forgive me.) "There is one story and one
story only/ That will repay your telling/Whether as gifted child or
learned bard...lines that startle with their shining such common tales/
As they wander into" (I'm real unclear here...but it concludes:) "But
nothing promised that is not performed." Lynch/Frost thought they
could come through, but either commerce or their own limitations
thumped 'em up.

Someone else has already pointed out that a Holmes/Moriarty tale
is coming up. Here's hoping they have enough juice for that opera!
 


-- Jeff Davis davis@keats.ca.uky.edu Lots Available