Subject: Re: Second Season Failings
From: erics@sco.COM (eric smith)
Date: 1991-07-22, 18:22
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

as215@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Alexander Aingworth) writes:

> >Allow me to begin by stating that the entire first season
> >was absolutely compelling and original.  I was instantly in love
> >with the music, the acting, the plot, and everything else about
> >it.  I was glued to the monitor without a doubt.

I am absolutely in agreement with this. My reactions exactly.

> >However, soon into the second season, Lynch and Frost
> >just disappeared into the shadows, and many an incompetent
> >writer and director played a part in ruining _Twin Peaks_.  I
> >have yet to figure out why David Lynch and Mark Frost allowed
> >this to happen, aside from lazy disdain regarding a then
> >successful show.

Again, I agree. However, is it really true that Lynch and Frost
waited until the end of the first year to step aside? I seem to
remember that Lynch at least had little to do with the actual
direction of the show after the first episode or two.

My guess (and it's only a guess) is that having set up the show and
gotten all the attention of having it be acclaimed as a departure
for network TV, Lynch was basically bored at the idea of having tp
crank out a new episode every week, and preferred to leave that to
others. It does seem though that Lynch had a lot of the basic plot
line already conceptualized at the start of the show. I just wish
that the ending would have revealed more of what of his vision
actually meant.

> > At this terrible turning point in the brief
> >life of _Twin Peaks_, the standard episode content became
> >outrageously bogged down with inane sub-plots, like Audrey
> >Horne's romance and Ben Horne's Civil War -- things any idiot
> >can create . . . things that only serve as an annoyance and
> >an insult to intelligent viewers.  In fact, at this sad
> >point in the career or _Twin Peaks_, the fascinating mystical
> >aspects of the show were reduced to a mere few minutes per
> >episode.

Yes, if that. And what about the Nadine amnesia/super-strength
subplot? I have yet to figure out any connection between that
and the rest of the show.

> >Even the two-part finale was bogged down with idiotic
> >and time-consuming acts, such as Mayor Milford's girlfriend
> >[who is not so appealing as the writers would have you
> >believe] and that insipid Miss _Twin Peaks_ contest.  Thank-
> >fully, the show went out with a bang in the last thirty
> >minutes, but that, in no way, makes up for the grave mistakes
> >made.

> >Please, I am interested in the feelings of others on
> >this net.  Let me know how you feel both publicly and 
> >privately [E-Mail].

> >--
> >Alexander Aingworth/as215 -- Cleveland FreeNet

All in all, I think you've summed it up very well. I'm so disappointed
that this show that started with so much promise declined so quickly
and left so many questions finally unanswered.

-----
Eric Smith
erics@sco.com
erics@infoserv.com
CI$: 70262,3610