Subject: Re: The Euroversion as Intentional Object
From: bob@castle.ed.ac.uk (Bob Gray)
Date: 1991-09-10, 08:11
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

joe@zitt (Joe Zitt) writes:
> >film may have looked to its original viewers (many of whom are here, so
> >speak up!).

Oh, all right.

> >If you don't know that it is a crabbed together throwaway, the film looks
> >like a far different piece, with only slight similarities to the way the

Exactly.

It shows a large cast of characters, all interacting in
various ways with each other and setting up a whole series
of red herrings and false trails.

> >reasonable solution to the crime. In the end, someone we haven't seen
> >until then (except in a throwaway shot) reveals someone else we haven't
> >seen as the killer. Twentyfive years later, we see the FBI man, who

In practicaly all TV detective stories, the villan is one
of the main characters. We just don't (usualy) know who it
is at first, and the clues are piled up and with a final
twist the villan is revealed.

Pulling in a total stranger as whodunit put a very enjoyable
twist on the proceedings.

> >The whole thing seems to be a work of total nihilism. Nothing that anyone
> >learns turns out to have anything to do with the killing, which is
> >a random insane act by an irrelevant madman.

While you watch it and drive yourself half crazy trying to
follow all the apparent clues and plot twists you expect in 
this type of film. All the familiar knobs and handles are
there, but none of them do what you expect. And the actual
killer is insane because his actions were totaly
unpredictable.

> >If the released cassette is of the Euroversion, and is followed by the
> >rest of the series as if the ending hadn't happened, people who catch
> >on to and catch up with the series on tape will be terribly confused. 1001

Yes. You'll see the actions of the various characters in
terms of what those actions lead to later in the series,
rather than as a maze of plot threads.

Seeing the Euroversion first, then the series gives
you a very different perspective than doing it the other
way round.
Bob.