Subject: Later Episodes? (was Debating Ratings)
From: barb@zurich.ai.mit.edu (Barb Miller)
Date: 1991-09-01, 07:42
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks
Reply-to: barb@zurich.ai.mit.edu

In article <1991Sep1.071723.13793@risky.ecs.umass.edu> giovin@risky.ecs.umass.edu (Rocky J Giovinazzo) writes:

   In article <1991Aug31.203653.1117@ulkyvx.bitnet> cksvih01@ulkyvx.bitnet writes:
   >They should have ended the
   >series after Leland's death, the quality of the late episodes wasn't up to
   >the earlier snuff.  
   That's your opinion and it's wrong! :)  You forgot to write "IMHO"-- 
   the idea that TP should have ended here is probably not the consensus
   of this group.

Just to see if I can get some talk going here, I would like to say
something about the White Lodge/Black Lodge story that built up after
the death of Leland.  While I would not make a statement that "they
should have ended the series after Leland's death", I do remember
thinking when it became clear that they were going to focus on the
Lodges that the show was in over its head, and for me that story never
had the epic sense that a story like that has in some of the
literature and mythology which has also treated it.

I realize I risk being flamed unmercifully, so I am trying to tread
carefully here.  I  don't really have time to carefully analyze just
why it might have fallen short for me, but a few possibilities
include:

1. That there was not a single writer or perhaps even a strong individual
creative vision by that time which could carry the theme through.  

2.  That Lynch's talent for showing quirky characters and bizarre everyday
details of life fit much better into showing how all the members of a
small town could be tied in with the death of its homecoming queen
than into an epic and rather abstract story like the Lodges.

3.  That it was never clear whether the Lodges were psychological (the
confrontation of the Dream Souls), spiritual (concentrating on the
Souls rather than the Dream), or moral (basic good/evil dichotomy), so
it never could completely treat any of these.

4. (Discussed earlier on the net) That showing so much of Windom Earle
to the audience in some way diminished his power, compared with BOB,
who remained a mystery all the way through.

5. That I almost never watch TV so I am not able to really evaluate
the medium realistically--there may have been things going on that I
missed because I have more of a literary and psychological approach to
things than is perhaps appropriate for TV.  

6. That the subplots didn't fit in as well with the main Lodge story
as the earlier subplots fit with the Laura Palmer story. (i.e. it was
easier to see Harold Smith or One-Eyed Jack's in the context of "there
is a dark and mysterious side to this seemingly idyllic small town"
than to accept Little Nicky or Evelyn Marsh or Audrey's love affair as
being intimately tied in with the Black Lodge or White Lodge)

Anyway, I would very much like to hear what other people think of
this.  What did people particularly like about the Lodge story?  I
should hasten to point out that I watched Twin Peaks with interest
through to the end, and I was very glad that they were even ATTEMPTING
such a theme.  But I'm trying to figure out why it is that I feel as
though it never quite managed to live up to the theme's possibilities
in the way that it brilliantly treated the murder.

Flame away..."Fire, walk with me."

Barb Miller