Part 18

One word to begin about Mark Frost: in the 5 hours of bonus, he is never mentioned. It's always about David. Like in the 1st season, he does however a cameo in the return (the walker in the wood in EP#15) but beyond i wonder what he really did and what was his ideas to the story as he is never shown on sets. Oh yes, he wrote 2 books before and after the show. Honestly, the 1st one is unreadable as it's so stupid (Roswell, Nixon, JFK in TP ???)

So i waited the DVD release to go back to TP. Sincerely, it's the only show i watched recently that i was impatient to see the next episode. And after the final one, for sure, i was very sad. So it's like the original show. To try to organize my feelings, i would pick a bit of my disappointments and a bit of my fun:

1) the big black hole of this return is the lack of Badalamenti score: he did a piano fugue at the end of EP#11, 2 classic TP songs are played in the bang bang bar closing moment but it's pretty much all. The new music isn't very gripping and at the end, there is no really gripping moments as in the old one.

2) it's called TP but now the ground is all over America: for the town only stuff, the stories are not really interesting but i keep 2 things: the beautiful locations and the rare opportunity to meet again a cast 25 years after: it's about seasons passing, getting old and for a show so focused on time, there is really a great emotional source here albeit their anecdotal events and fate.

3) Some new mysteries keys are a bit too rational or expected: the impulse is too strong to develop every bit of FWWM cryptic scene with David Bowie: the convenience store, the woodmen, Judy. Now Diane is Cooper true love while i thought it was Caroline or Annie whose fate is still missing. The zone, the orbs, the tea Jeffrie lack the mystical touch of the lodges... And the new map seems a remix of the forgotten Owl cave...

Now for the good part:

1) it's like having a 18 hours Lynch movie: between his focus of the daily life (neighbors, coffee, pie), his dark nightmares and his love for nature, the season is indeed an epic, breathtaking journey trough today America. That's why this new TP doesn't feel like the old one because America has deeply changed since the 90s and it's just impossible now to find this one again. It's a bit like Lynch magnus opus because it looks like he revisited again all his past movies and tied them all in the fabric of a dream!

2) the new characters are interesting and above all, extremely well cast and played! The bonus are really interesting because it really shows the talent of Lynch to have a vision and have everyone involved to get it: he is kind to anyone, really hard working for everything so if he doesn't get an Emmy for his dedication and his huge work, it would be rather unfair and incomprehensible!

3) The quality of the picture is stunning: sets, light, special effects. We are faraway of the yellow/blue palette: no show is more deep and it beats almost any new movies!

At the end, it was an extraordinary trip for me: maybe some things are bothering but overall, it's a damn good show and i'm in need of a 4th season definitely!

Cooper crossed over, and as he told Diane -- everything may be different. The Diane he found was not Diane, the Laura he found could not be Laura, and the optimistic can-do Agent Cooper that we were (OK, I certainly was) so happy to see re- emerge was lost in the wreckage of his dreams.

I have never been as fascinated by the tortuous dark wraiths of Lynch as by his skewed portrayal of 'normal' American life, and that was certainly true of the finale episodes. To see Sheryl Lee and Sherilyn Finn today, after seeing so much of their entrancing characters in the inital TP was ... what? Riveting, certainly, and sad, and puzzling -- they have aged, and so have I, and so has everyone who was so fascinated by the original series. Incredibly brave of both these women to go all in for these portrayals. The overarching theme of life as a lonely highway was chilling & lovely.

As for Lynch -- all criticisms are valid, but his work is beyond regular TV criteria. The Showtime placement was genius --he got to make what he wanted, w/no commercial interruption, and no time limits -- and we were free to watch or not. He stands apart, and thank God he has given us so much to puzzle over, and argue about, and remember. So -- do we live in a dream?

My first viewing of this episode was without a doubt the single most uncomfortable hour of my life. Every scene is drawn out to a ridiculous degree, and none of it seems even remotely relevant to the seventeen hours that came before. I never expected every question to be answered or every subplot to be addressed, but I at least hoped for something. This episode gave me nothing. It picks up a completely different narrative from the first seventeen parts, and then moves that one along at a snail's pace until it too comes out unresolved. Much like Part 16 gave new meaning to the word satisfying, this episode gives new meaning to the word frustrating.

All of this is, of course, by design. David Lynch knows how to make a film, and The Return may be his greatest work yet. From a technical standpoint, this is insanely good. It's just a shame that his immense talent was used in service of this rather than an ending I could have found some enjoyment in. For my own sanity, I might start viewing Part 17 as the end of the Twin Peaks story, because then it at least has some sort of ending.

I would have been more okay with such an abstract ending if the whole thing had been abstract, because I would have been prepared for it from the start. I disliked the end of this series for the same reason I disliked the end of Mulholland Drive; the coherent narrative of the first 90% made me expect a coherent ending, meaning that I felt cheated when the whole thing suddenly derailed into fantasy and dream.

In short, viewers who go into this without expecting any conclusion or even continuation of the Twin Peaks narrative but rather view it as a standalone slow-paced experimental film will probably love it. However, the majority of the fan base, myself included, will probably hate it.

A finale that will anger and frustrate you, at the same time you realise this story will never have a "proper" end. Now I know how people felt at the end of Season Two.

If you were expecting a cheerful resolution or any resolution at all, you are missing the point of Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks' greatest power is its mystery. Do I fully understand what happened? Nope. I don't want to. I want to be able to watch this series over and over and over again, trying to decipher the mystery, knowing that I never completely will. We have seen a thousand revivals and reboots, all geared toward fan service. And every last one of them was mediocre at best. Lynch new that giving us more of the same, giving us what we thought we wanted, would have been the death of this revival. Instead, he took a risk, and told a bold new story, greatly expanding upon the mystery of the original. The ending is not meant to be satisfying. Did you really go into these 18 episodes thinking that everything would be alright in the end? This is Twin Peaks. Lynch took a risk and it paid off in a big way. This revival is just as groundbreaking is the original, and it will change revivals forever.