Subject: Re: WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!
From: sbgardne@ucs.indiana.edu
Date: 1991-02-19, 12:50
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks
Reply-to: sbgardne@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu

In article <46013399@bfmny0.BFM.COM> tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) writes:
> >In article <20331@shlump.nac.dec.com> boyajian@ruby.dec.com (Cisco's Buddy)
writes:
>> >>I, for one, am *not* going to be writing ABC -- or anyone else -- about
>> >>saving TWIN PEAKS, as much as I enjoy the show. It had a good run, longer
>> >>than some other worthy shows, but I think it's unhealthy for any show to
>> >>go on at length. Plots get stale, characters get stale. Camelot must
>> >>eventually fall.
>> >>
>> >>I *would* like to see those last six episodes, but beyond that, let it rest.
> >
> >Oh, heavens, that's unexpectedly pessimistic.
> >
> >
> >However, the show today is far from stale!  It has great promise.  You
> >really have to sit back, disentangle yourself from year-old concerns and
> >expectations, and look at what they've built.  
> >
> > * The ensemble has quietly turned into one of the best in television --
> >each character's personality is sharply etched.
> >
> > * It's a showcase for directors and actors.  Ever notice, when you go
> >to the theatre, how many credits from SPENSER and ST:TNG there are?
> >Those shows virtually specialize(d) in developing young talent.  TWIN
> >PEAKS stands to do the same.  We'll be reaping the benefits for years to
> >come.
> >
> >----------
> >
> >The truth is, folks, that if they take it off, we're NOT going to see
> >anything half as good in its place.  There is no "conservation of
> >quality" rule in TV.  The principals will wander off to work in other
> >media or go back to retirement, and we can settle back to another season
> >of MACGYVER.  Is that really something to wish for?

Count me in the middle. I enjoyed the quirkiness of TP, the whacko distortion
of tv as a genre, and the quintessential Freak Show that was TP, hosted by Head
Freak (and moral center) Agent Cooper.

But the last six episodes have left me cold and wincing by their thinness. We
keep watching, hoping that the visual or writing spark that set TP apart from
the crowd will return. Instead, the dialogue has been rife with flatness,
uninteresting plotlines are given too much attention, and the characters seem
to be thinning. If you think that characters are well developed, think back on
Bobby, who has bounced back and forth from juvenile delinquency, to outright
thuggishness, to skirtchaser, to selfless (Dad comes home from the stars), to
mr. macho "I'm ready for Leo, Shelley" (followed by least two chances and two
successive wiltings in the face of Leostein), to wimpboy again: "from now on,
it's me you suck up to." A bit much, even for a hormaonal highschooler. The
writers/directors have really lost the center of Bobby, James, and even HST.
And I think it shows. Harry pounding the desk last week "Get him out of here.
Get him out of here!" was laughably un-dramatic.

Coop is an original and TP is fun. I like it. The teasers in the end of the
Keaton episode and at the end of the "dead man with chess board in the station"
episode were first rate. But as for the rest of this season, there has been not
much in between those 32 minutes of shining tv. I think the resolution of the
murders and the struggle between Coop and WE will be a lot of fun. I'll be
there. 8 -) But I don't think I want more. Robinson Crusoe was sequeled with
two more "further adventures" by Defoe, and they were flat. We can all think of
scores of sequels that fell well short of the originals, and I don't want to
see TP if it drifts any further into Batman-esque camp.

I'll probably be in line to buy a tape of the "lost episodes of TP" if they
never air (but they *will* in oddball times over the summer), but I feel like
Copper's time in TP should end soon. Boy! has it been a fun ride!

st