Will Laura Palmer's Killer Please Rise?

So, we only watched one "Twin Peaks" episode to start with. It's the two hour (or ninety minute, as we saw it) pilot movie.So, as I said in my previous post, I saw "Twin Peaks" when it was still new (though the first season I saw in reruns leading up to the second season premiere), and considered myself a fan. But I was reintroduced to the show a few years ago at college, when an acquaintance of mine (I don't know if I dare call him "friend," since we don't keep in touch, but he came pretty close to being a friend) made a suggestion that anyone who was interested come to his apartment every Monday night and watch "Twin Peaks" as a group. I remembered the show with fondness, so I came every week, even dragging my would-be girlfriend a couple of times.

Matt, our weekly host, had something better than the VHS tapes of the show (or even the non-existent DVDs, at that time). No, he had the ORIGINAL AIRINGS of the show, taped off of ABC television, with, get this, the original commercials still intact. And week after week, we'd watch the show, and delight in the dated car and beer commercials, the previews for long-forgotten movies, soft drinks that have gone away, and ad for other ABC shows, including the promos for "Cop Rock," which had us all laughing.

I got more pleasure than should be possible from watching these commercials that were vaguely--or vividly--familiar. And nearly every week we'd see one of those classic ABC anti-drug commercials (the most famous being "this is your brain on drugs" and "parents who use drugs have children who use drugs"), and we'd chant in unison, "You, alright! I learned it by watching you!"

Matt had a written-out schedule of how we'd get through them all before graduation, including watching the "Saturday Night Live" parody when it was appropriate. We tried to stick to the schedule, but due to holidays and conflicts, we never did get through the series. Unless I stopped coming, and they continued without me.

Now there's an upsetting thought.

Tyranist and I watched the pilot, shot on location, and with a slightly different look than the regular series. The body of beauty queen and town's favourite daughter, Laura Palmer, is found wrapped in plastic on the shore, and we meet a cavalcade of colourful Twin Peaks residents. Special Agent Dale Cooper arrives to investigate, and the weirdness commences. But it's a very welcoming weirdness, at least to me.Oh, I do have to mention one complaint tyranist had. The sign at the outskirts of town says Twin Peaks has a population of over fifty thousand, yet it seems like a town the size he grew up in, which had WAAAAY less people than that. I told him there was a large indigenous population that we never see, but he was right: Twin Peaks seems to be one of those towns where everybody knows everybody else (and is sleeping with them), with only three or four streets.

But to be fair, Sunnydale, California, has an airport, a dock, a train station, a college, a beach, a mall, and a makeout spot with a Satanic temple underneath it. But with only one main street with, say, seven businesses on it. So ah well.

Tyranist and I plan on watching at least one episode a week until death separates us. We'll see how things actually work out soon.

Rish "Wrapped-In-Plastic" Outfield

"Veronica Peaks" post

We've got another "Buffy"-free week here on Rish's Rather Retarded Ruminations, but that's not really for lack of trying. When I went up to tyranist's the other night, I fully intended for us to watch the 1992 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER movie, which he owns. I thought, having not seen it since the theatre (in '92), that it would be pretty fresh to me, and something I could blog about.

But tyranist had no desire to watch it because he, get this, watched it just a couple of weeks ago, during a lull in our regular "Buffy" viewings. So he lent it to me, and I watched it at my place.

Or rather, I tried to watch it. Really, words fail me in describing my experience, and I don't think I can manage an entire post about it.

Frankly, the movie was awful, much much worse than I remember it being, and pretty much the shameful trainwreck Joss Whedon seemed to think it was back in 2001 when we had our conversation about it. I remembered enjoying it (at least enough to see it twice), but also recalled it being mostly a comedy, so when the WB Network started airing a TV version of the movie, I assumed it would be lite, funny teen fare.

But man, I had no idea how simply STUPID the movie was
with scenes such as the vampire basketball player flying around with pointed ears and bright red teeth, or Hilary Swank being interviewed about the bloodbath and thanking the Academy for her award, or the principal dropping detention slips on the bodies of the slain vampires at the dance. And the scene I remembered the most over the years, where Paul Reubens dies painfully for ten or fifteen minutes, was just embarrassing.

Really, the only highpoint of the movie was Buffy herself, playing by Kristy Swanson. She really was exquisitely beautiful, and she and her breasts delivered an enjoyable performance. But Donald Sutherland, with his silly mid-Atlantic accent, and the great Rutger Hauer, with his Dracula cape and Seventies porn moustache, were way below their normal levels here.

I know a lot of people kinda like the movie, but I honestly don't know how Gail Berman thought it would've made a good TV show. But God bless her for it. I'll say no more on the matter, and promise to soon be back in Joss Whedon's television universe.

In the meantime, I wanted to set aside a night to watch "Twin Peaks," preferably a Tuesday or Thursday, since it sounded nice to say "Twin Peaks Tuesdays." Not that "Buffy Wednesdays" had any kind of alliterative qualities.

Because I actually showed interest, and had the requisite "Veronica Mars" dream, tyranist allowed me to come over for a second night and finish that show's Season Two. While not enthralled in the way I have been with "Buffy,"* I have become interested in its characters, and was moved to tears that Enrico Colantoni did not kick the bucket as we were led to believe.

And while I believe I mentioned it before, the reason I ended up seeing "Veronica Mars" in the first place was because tyranist truly loved the show (in fact, he may have been one of those pesky fans who sent Mars Bars to the CW last year) and consistently tried to get me to watch it. Eventually I gave in, and I don't regret it at all.

In fact, had I been as persistent in hitting on Denise at my last steady job, she would have certainly slept with me.

So, I brought over my still-unwatched "Twin Peaks" boxed set and proceeded to fire 'er up.

"Twin Peaks," for you youngins, was a mid-season replacement in the 1989-1990 television season, that aired on ABC as a two hour movie and seven episodes, after which it went on summer hiatus (which is when I discovered it). It was created by David Lynch and Mark Frost and tells of a quaint Northwestern community that is shaken up by the brutal murder of the prom queen, and the mystery that surrounds her death. Also, it follows FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) as he works with the local authorities to get to the bottom of it, and falls in love with the unusual little town. And really, according to David Lynch, that's what the show is about, the townspeople and their secrets, the weirdness and humour and evil that takes place behind closed doors.
When it first aired, people didn't know what to make of it. It was so strange, and so surreal, that it sort of defied easy description. And it was in serialised format, which was also atypical (though certainly isn't now), told in long form, in a cinematic, stylised way that still seems a little unusual.

It was one of those "water cooler shows" that people talked about the next day at work (or school, in my case), and I just ate it up, watching it long after everyone else stopped watching (which, also strange, happened with lightning-fast rapidity in the second season). Partly I watched for the mystery, partly I watched for the style, and partly, it was for the girls.

"Twin Peaks" had just about the hottest female cast of any show I can recollect, and I was just at that age where I was concerned with such things. That, and absolutely no social life, contributed to my being a fan of the show all the way to the end.

I don't know if tonight was the best time to start watching "Twin Peaks." We still have a season to go of "Buffy" and "Veronica Mars," and I'll admit now that there's a slim--but enfattening--chance that I will resume "Angel," but what's done is done. Now that summer's started, perhaps The Captain will be willing to stay up a little later before shoving me bodily out the door, or give up a couple more nights so we can get together and explore the Laura Palmer mystery.

I'd like to have waited until other shows were done, so that I could blog about them, and talk about how I was reintroduced to the show, and go into detail as to what I like, what I used to like, and what (if anything) I don't like about the show.

And maybe I will. Sometime.

Rish "BOB" Outfield

*Yes, and "Angel" too. I'll not gainsay it, spirit.