General Television Thread

[Josh]

RE: Twin Peaks Discussion (should this just have a separate thread? A catch-all Lynch thread?)

Speaking as someone who has only recently gotten into Twin Peaks (but also fully caught up), Skummy's first post about this last episode pretty much nailed my thoughts - and I hadn't made the connection to so much past Peaks lore. If you only know the basics - essentially just knowing who Bob and Laura are - you come away realizing that the episode was Lynch saying, "Let's back up and see how this all started."

It's the nuclear bomb creating Bob, and some opposite force for good sending something (related to Laura, perhaps Laura herself) to Earth to counteract Bob. Beyond that, I think we're actually going to have the rest spelled out for us later - as much as Lynch ever spells anything out.

The similarity to Eraserhead was definitely strong, but I still find that film far more disturbing and dark. This episode had shades of that, but was far more elegant. Even beautiful.

Does anyone have any insight into what the Woodsman was repeating? "This is the water," etc.

Side note: this series is reminding me of how much I both love David Lynch and get bothered by his sexism.

[Monkey D. Lars]

Just watched episode 2 of season 2 of Preacher, this season will be kick ass!

[tristy]

23 hours ago, Skummy said:

So how long has Bob been around, and what was he getting up to prior to Fire Walk With Me?

I think this part is safe to have out of spoilers.

Like you said in your later posts, BOB has been around since the 1940s. That nuclear blast in New Mexico is what brought him into our reality. But prior to Fire Walk With Me, he's been with Leland since he was a child/preteen. That's in the first season, Leland tells the cops what he knows about BOB and that he used to live next door to his grandfather. But then the show backtracks and says BOB has been lurking around the Great Northern Hotel for 40 years.

Apparently the "Secret History of Twin Peaks" reveals a lot of stuff about the origins and history of Twin Peaks, connects the previous seasons and the movie to the new season, etc. And it also prominently features a new character from S3. A new, final book is coming out in October, after this season ends. Presumably it will answer a bunch of questions (so the entire season) and it will explain events in further detail and whatnot. I suggest the Twin Peaks wiki on the book that's already out if you don't want to buy it. Super fucking interesting.

[Skummy]

I'm not a huge fan of the book - I've said it before, but I don't like how it tries to tie Twin Peaks lore into every American conspiracy theory imaginable, so it encompasses all these alien sightings, early colonial history, Bigfoot sightings, disappearances and so on, and only a small part of it really focuses on Twin Peaks. It expands the sort of "secret society" aspect of those defending against the Black Lodge to include people like Richard Nixon, which I really don't like - to me, I always felt like the only people with real knowledge of the Black Lodge, insofar as anyone has that, should be the Bookhouse Boys, while a small subsection of the FBI is investigating the supernatural, but not really grasping all the connections underpinning it.

The one thing I kind of like about it, though, is that it contradicts itself and the series in a few places, so it's never claiming to know all the facts, it's just a dossier of what might be going on. It's at its weakest, for me, when it's too authoritative. I don't think anyone, in-universe or out, should fully grasp what's going on in Twin Peaks.

The new character it introduces is Tammy, as far as I can remember.

[tristy]

Yeah, I didn't want to reveal who was making notes on the dossier, in case anyone wanted to actually read it , but yeah it was Tammy. Notable for being the woman who was told to "fuck off" by Diane

Should we just make a catch-all thread? I've got one going on at DVDVR and it's pretty successful, lots of theories being floated around and trying to deconstruct every episode when it happens. I didn't know a lot of people would be into Twin Peaks here, that's why I originally brought it up in this thread, but every week that's the show that gets the most posts seemingly, so it might warrant one. My friend that got me into the show a few years ago (and Lynch in general) doesn't have Showtime, so I have to discuss it with people here on on DVDVR, and I browse the subreddit when it's not filled with memes.

EDIT: I rewatched the episode, didn't realize the scene with the young couple occurred in 1956. This would put Sarah at 11, and Leland at 12. I guess it's entirely possible the couple was those two, right?

Edited June 28, 2017 by tristy

[GoGo Yubari]

I'd say it's definitely time for a Twin Peaks and/or David Lynch thread.

[RPS]

12 minutes ago, GoGo YuPoppy said:

I'd say it's definitely time for a Twin Peaks and/or David Lynch thread.

I have never watched a single episode of Twin Peaks and I know 100% it is completely up my alley. 

[apsham]

I've never seen Twin Peaks buy I've played Deadly Premonition so I hear I have the gist of it.

[Ruki]

34 minutes ago, Apsham said:

I've never seen Twin Peaks buy I've played Deadly Premonition so I hear I have the gist of it.

Do you hate yourself?

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

GLOW was fun. So easy to binge. 

Allison Brie was delightful.

[Benjamin]

41 minutes ago, Ms. Canadian Destroyer said:

GLOW was fun. So easy to binge. 

Allison Brie was delightful.

Netflix shows that are only 30 minutes each episode are my favorites.

iZombie's season finale didn't actually excite me the way they usually do. A lot, and I mean a lot, of things were rushed this season. Felt like I had missed a bunch of stuff, actually.

[MalaCloudy Black]

New season of Adam Ruins Everything starts July 11th.

[=BK=]

 

[Jimmy]

I've had a nice week of finishing off TV shows.

Totally echo everyone's sentiments on Silicon Valley - which felt like a slight dip in form compared to Season 3, a little too cyclical, but still incredibly entertaining and excellent at finding drama, Richard's characterisation was really well realised. 

I really got a lot out of the new season of Love, which probably benefited from my watching it very slowly, but I thought there was a lot of truth in the relationships depicted, and managed to balance a nice amount of humour with good drama.

And I just finished GLOW. It was nice to see something utilise the potential of wrestling to tell meaningful stories, and while I didn't think it was amazing, it was extremely watchable and was a totally fun ride. Great to see Alison Brie have the centre stage, too. 

[GoGo Yubari]

I am going to have a real hard time figuring out where GLOW lands on my top 15. I think it's probably in my top 5 because it's really good and an incredibly easy watch, but I hesitate to say it's an amazing show, nor would I say it's the funniest show to air this year. It is, though, probably the most purely fun watch I've had this year.

It's a weird year thusfar. A lot of the shows that should be rock-solid top 5 choices have major flaws; MST3K's pacing doesn't always work and I think in the home stretch of the season the host segments get pretty bad, Fargo has a not-great stretch of early episodes, we've already talked about Silicon Valley (which I'd probably make the argument for as the funniest show of the year but the formula to that show has become pretty obvious/predictable), Veep made a bold storytelling choice that didn't really pay off in a big way. Agents of SHIELD is still very solidly in my top 5, which is both a testament to how much I loved this season and how much other shows have just barely missed the mark.

I want to say off the top of my head my top 5 are Better Call Saul, American Gods, GLOW, Agents of SHIELD, and MST3K in some order, but MST3K/Silicon Valley/Fargo are all on just about even footing.

[Josh]

SHIELD and Gods are non-factors for me, so leaving those out makes for a good look at my list. Though I'd add in Twin Peaks and Veep. Actually, I'm definitely ranking both of those higher than Silicon Valley at least.

[Benjamin]

I have to disagree, this year has been a fucking stellar year of shows, that I can't fucking figure out how I want them ranked in my top five. The Handmaid's Tale is probably first, but then there's also Big Little Lies, FEUD which was excellent, the Goldbergs, F is for Family, Agents of SHIELD, Veep, plus a whole bunch of shows had really good second seasons for some reason, like The Last Kingdom, Supergirl, Master of None, Voltron: Legendary Defender. Also, the Good Place had like one or two episodes in 2017, including that stellar season finale, so I don't know if I should add that in because that's still the best comedy of the past two years.

Right now, after the Handmaid's Tale, I'll probably have some rotation of FEUD, Agents of SHIELD, Big Little Lies and then either the Goldbergs, Master of None or the Last Kingdom in my top five.

[Josh]

Good point about The Good Place. I should really check out both the new season of Master of None and Handmaid's Tale.

But the rest of those hold no interest for me.

[Benjamin]

I also forgot about iZombie, but that really dropped for me this year, biting more maybe a bit more than they could chew. It's still a super interesting premise, and I'm excited for season 4, though.

There's also a bunch I have yet to watch, like Little Blue Boy, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Love season 2, Bloodline season 3, Preacher season 2, the rest of Fargo season 3 as I stopped at episode 3, Iron Fist, Taboo, I'm Dying Up Here, The Keepers, Santa Clarita Diet.

Basically, as it is every year, just way too many shows I want to watch and not enough time. Going to try and get through a season of something every weekend, starting with A Series of Unfortunate Events this weekend.

[GoGo Yubari]

Oh whoops, yeah, The Good Place is still in my top 5 and I imagine season 2 will lock it in.

I'm not saying it's a bad year for TV, there hasn't been a year for TV that's been anything lower than real good in years. I'm just saying that a lot of the shows that I usually focus on have been having curious years.