full life

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1.  The one good thing about the Giants loss yesterday is that I finally have my weekends back.  The part of my brain that cares about football can go back to sleep.

2.  Kath and I have been catching up on some classic TV that we've never seen; in late December it was "Fawlty Towers", and right now it's Season 1 of "Twin Peaks".  As a first time viewer of Twin Peaks, I must say that I'm shocked and amazed that this show was on network television in 1990; if this were a brand-new show, it would still be ahead of its time.  It's dated, but wonderfully so, and all the performances are spot-on.  We are both infatuated with it, although we've heard from numerous sources that Season 2 is pretty terrible in comparison.  A couple quick observations: 
  • Detective Truman is a dead ringer for former Yankee OF Paul O'Neill
  • If they were to remake this show today, the dopey sherriff would be played by Owen Wilson
  • The funeral scene?  OMFG.
3.  We watched "Burn After Reading" yesterday, and I'm kinda surprised it bombed as hard as it did; we both loved it, and Kath generally doesn't like Coen Brothers movies. 


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    mgrasso
    Wow, Fawlty Towers and Twin Peaks? *shakes head*

    There are some good Lynchian bits in the second season but mostly it's a trainwreck. I wonder if it wouldn't have worked better as a British-style series, with two six-episode seasons.
    jervo
    I know, I know. But we're FIXING IT.

    Question: does one need to see Season 2 to better appreciate the movie? Is the movie even any good?
    mgrasso
    The movie is... um. Not horrible, but still... hmm. The best way to describe it is that it's basically Lynch at play. He doesn't really seek to answer anything or do anything other than explore the themes that dominate his other work: identity, innate evil, etc. David Foster Wallace said something like "Sheryl Lee isn't anywhere near up to the task of this material, but she should get an Oscar just for showing up."

    And yeah, you definitely need to see Season 2 to watch the movie. I won't say why (BIG-ASS SPOILERS).
    jervo
    I read something the other day about how Lynch never wanted to solve Laura's murder; it was just a convenient mcguffin to better explore the town and its inhabitants. This makes total sense to me, even though we've only seen the pilot and the first 4 episodes. Lynch has always been far less interested in story than he is in everything else.

    I can't necessarily explain why we're only getting around to watching it now, other than to say that it had been on our Netflix queue forever, and the movie accidentally showed up first. We couldn't get into the movie at all, but we were intrigued enough to move some things around and get Season 1 delivered. And now we are utterly fascinated by it. It feels very much like we're both reading the same book at the same time; we've been walking around with the show lingering on the edges of our thoughts for the last few days and it's been kinda neat, actually.
    moozeekfan
    You're right. The murderer was never intended to be revealed. In fact, ABC DEMANDED Lynch reveal who it was after ratings begin to slip. Then, after it was revealed, viewership went in the toilet and there was the end of the show, unfortunately. Season 2 up to the point of the revelation is pretty good, then everything after that is where the trainwreck begins. I think Lynch himself stopped being involved hands-on with TP after ABC did that to him, which would partially explain why the show went downhill.

    The movie is basically about the last week of Laura's life. There are some creepy 'WTF' moments in it that should interest TP fans, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who wasn't into the show.
    snow_design
    i love twin peaks, and agree with everything that has been said... but one thing that hasnt been mentioned is that while lynch kinda gave up for the middle of season 2, the last episode he returned and did a pretty fantastic job, i thought. the last episode is one of the best and most frightening things ive seen and to think it was on network tv is very strange to me.
    twin peaks season 2/giants
    (Anonymous)
    yeah, i was bummed about the Giants too, but sadly not surprised. they've been playing this way since the begining of december and really only showed any life when it counted against carolina.

    as for Twin Peaks. i found it to be amazing the whole way through. yes, the 2nd season does move off track a bit, but, at least for me, Lynch and co werent able to progress because the show was cancelled after season 2, on a huge cliffhanger.

    jay
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