Subject: Re: Ben
From: tlynch@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Timothy W. Lynch)
Date: 1991-01-17, 16:54
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

ekushnir@math.lsa.umich.edu (Eugene Kushnirsky) writes:

> >Okay, let me try one last time to explain why I think Ben Horne's character is
> >being ruined. He was such a great villain, at first; scheming, ruthless, 
> >always
> >in control. He had half the town in his pocket and goons like Hank Jennings on
> >a short leash. Now he's walking around in his bathrobe, making wild eyes at 
> >Bobby Briggs and the camera. 

This is, within acceptable limits, true.

> >And I think the reason for this is the void left
> >by Leland's death and the disappearance of Jacoby and the Log Lady, a need for
> >a "wacky" character. I think that Ben's soldiers are meant to take the place 
> >of Leland's dancing and to save the writers some work. 

This, however, is very debatable.  I, for one, think that Ben's breakdown is
reasonably understandable given everything he's lost of late.  If you'd
suddenly lost most/all of your means to control *anybody*, you might well
hang around in your bathrobe 24 hours a day too.

> >You found Ben's transformation "draining"? This wasn't exactly a case study of
> >mental degeneration. 

True.

> >This was a once-great TV show trying for some laughs.

Debatable, and NOT true IMHO.  TP has definitely tried for laughs in places
(e.g. Nadine for certain)--but I don't think Ben is one of said places.

> >Look, I'm not a psychiatrist and I don't think that you are either (If I'm 
> >wrong, please correct me). 

You're quite right.

> >But I think that Ben is to mental breakdowns as 
> >Nadine is to comas. The principal difference being that what was happening to
> >Nadine used to be funny.

I'm not sure we've got much in the way of common ground here, since I see
very, very few similarities between the evolutions of the two characters.
Ben, whom you herald so much as a "great villain" who's now being ruined, is
having to deal with the collapse of everything he knows.  I have a hunch, 
though, that he'll be back in the saddle eventually, and cannier than
before.

Tim Lynch