Subject: Why I give up
From: burns@sparkle.uucp (John Burns)
Date: 1991-01-19, 11:41
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks
Reply-to: burns@das.harvard.edu (John Burns)

The more I watch Twin Peaks, the more I think that they really don't
know what they're doing.  Mark Frost's scripts have been the only
really coherent ones.  Every time Harley Peyton writes a script, the
intellectual level of the show drops another notch.
For example:  There was no indication of concrete supernatural activity
at the beginning of the show.  The theory that my cell of TP watchers
had developed at the end of the first season was that Leland had abused
Laura as a child, had descended into murder, and had finally killed
his own daughter.  One variant of this idea was that he had meant to kill
Ronette instead (T=Teresa, R=Ronette).  That version includes Leland's
descent into madness and Laura's redemption (by trading her life for
Ronette's).  BOB was just a name for the dark side of Leland (or it
could have been a name for his penis--maybe I should post this to alt.sex--
because Bobby calls his "pocket rocket" and Ben calls his "little Elvis".
I know that's not exactly what they said on the show, but I think they
were just trying to get those names by the censors).
Anyway.  Notice that until the second season, we had no reason to believe
that the one-armed man was really the Mike of the dream.  In fact, his Bob
wasn't the real BOB anyway, and why does Philip Gerard look like Mike, but
Leland not like BOB?  It just makes a lot more sense, fundamentally, to see
Cooper's dream as symbolism instead of reality.
   But that whole satisfying scenario fell apart.  Suddenly we were
   supposed to believe that inhabiting spirits are controlling Leland and
   Mike.  Why is this a better story?  Cooper asked at the end, "Is it
   easier to believe that a man could rape and murder his own daughter?"
   Yes.  That's a dark, disturbing, and REAL facet of humanity.  Now,
   instead, Cooper and the BB's are just ghostbusters.  Big whoop.

   The show keeps bouncing downhill.  The three episodes exposing Leland
   made an effort to convey the brutality of BOB, and did that well.  But
   where do we go from here?  Now supernatural hocus-pocus has distracted
   the show from real characterization.  Lucy and Andy were sweet, confused
   morons--now they're facing Damien IV, not to mention Dick.  (One friend
   of mine pointed out the appropriateness of his name--that's all he was,
   to Lucy.  Now he's a major character?!)  The sheriff's dept. is
   hypnotized by a witch.  Major Briggs is now the Phantom Stranger.  The
   circle of real human beings has contracted to Pete, Catherine, Ben,
   Norma, and Hank.  Cooper and Denise are interesting, but flaky.  James
   is trapped in a late-night movie.  (By the way, was the wrecked car at
   the end of the BOB Escapes episode Evelyn's Jag?  Maybe she's BOB, if
   Leo isn't.)  One major villain, Jean Renault, is a caricature;  the
   other, Windom Earle, is playing a supernatural role as the Dweller on
   the Threshold.

   I expect that when they bet bored with the chess deal, there will be a
   tawdry literalization of the chess pieces as specific characters.  BOB
   will rematerialize wherever it's convenient.  Since Harry's character is
   a real person, I look for him to virtually disappear from the show as a
   force unless they can wreck him the way they did Albert.  What I don't
   see is a way to phase out the specters enough to let the characters
   develop normally.  Ed used to be such a great guy until he got upstaged
   by his implausible wife.

   Sorry for all the grumbling.  At the beginning of the show, it was fun
   to take the show apart and figure out what was going on.  As the show
   declines, it becomes more and more clear that nothing's going on, that
   the creators don't understand the show either.  And so another attempt
   at quality television collapses collapses under the  weight of its own
   potential.

   John A. Burns    "It'll cool off on you."