A lot of our friends were really into Modern Family. We never got into it. Same with AHS.
Some things click with us, some don’t, and vice versa. Vive la difference 
Twin Peaks (season 1, 1990) created by David Lynch and Mark Frost
We lost a true original when David Lynch passed away last month. As you might expect, independent movie houses all over are screening his films in celebration of one of films true auteurs who also managed to be a pleasant, kind, and thoughtful person, a rarity in show business.
My local theater, in addition to some of his best known films, is screening the original 8 episode first season of Twin Peaks. Last night was the pilot, directed by Lynch.
I had forgotten just how strange and exciting it felt seeing this weird mix of gruesome murder mystery and oddball small town comedy was back then. I was already a Lynch fan, having seen Eraserhead as a teen and catching Blue Velvet in its theatrical run. And we were already primed for Kyle MacLachlan’s oddball detective, having seen him in Blue Velvet in ‘86 and the in ‘87 as an alien cop in the underseen and underrated The Hidden.
But this? On, like, regular ol’ TV? Not cable? It literally changed genre tv forever. Shows like The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer all can point to the space carved out here.
The dialogue is, in any other hands, hokey. The performances are huge, melodramatic, almost Douglas Sirk-ian. But it all works, as a pastiche of and love letter to small town oddball characters, while, as always, exploring Lynch’s fascination with the grubby decay beneath civilizations polished facade.
And a quick word about the score, by composer Angelo Badalamenti, who along with singer Julie Cruise, gives the whole PNW setting a ghostly, otherworldly feeling, like we’re just a little ways off from reality.
There’s a new box set that I’ve ordered that includes seasons 1-2, the prequel film Fire Walk With Me, (a harrowing tale of abuse that is much more serious in tone than the series) AND the brief 2017 Showtime revival, which I have yet to see.
We’ll be screening 2 episodes every tues til the last tues of the month, where it will be the final three. I’m excited to be seeing it again, with a crowd of enthusiastic fans.
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My sis had never seen Twin Peaks (IYCBI) and recently watched the first season with gusto, including following & participating in a subreddit about the show. She did think some of the plot lines were superfluous & isn’t sure whether she’ll watch the second season. But she also didn’t care for Blue Velvet 
BUT SPEAKING OF X-FILES (am I shouting?)… new season begins this weekend. I’m kinda psyched about it 
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The second season in particular was a very mixed bag. Lynch largely stepped back from the series, leaving most of the plotting to Frost. They had no story plotted out in advance for S2, and you can tell they were moving a lot of things around without going anywhere. There was also a lot of network pressure to extend things past their natural end. Note that s1 was 8 episodes. S2 was 22!!
X-FILES … new season
I’m of mixed feelings on this. I was not a fan of the most recent revival. Conspiracy theories in the 90’s were amusing. Post 2016, they’re not so funny. They lead to people shooting up pizza restaurants and electing nazis.
I didn’t even care much for the final season with Gillian Anderson. The whole preggers story line was just annoying AF, and I also never got into the one with Annabeth Gish and Robert Patrick. Meh. I also never cared much for the uberplot.
Here’s hoping the show goes back to its roots, with more self-contained episodes… and that it doesn’t suck 
Yeah. I’d love to see a few of the old Monster-of-the-week episodes, like Adrian Tooms.
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You’d enjoy this podcast episode, I bet.
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‘Wildheart’ on PBS’s Nature tonight.
I can’t find anything online to indicate this is imminent. Can you provide a link to news of it?
I was quoting @linguafood, but a quick google yielded this, which seems to indicate that it’s a reboot of the series, rather than a continuation.
I like this better than additional seasons of the original. Duchovny is looking pretty long in the tooth. Mulder would be a desk jockey at this stage, if he didn’t hit mandatory retirement already.
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Right, and I can’t find any news of it more recent than 11/2024.
Same here. Guess we fell for fake news.
Bummer.
I was curious because the only mention I read of it was yours.
Note to self: don’t believe what my PIC hears from his UFO “buddies.”
Laura (1944) - dir. Otto Preminger
Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is investigating the death of Laura Hunt (the lovely Gene Tierney), who was found murdered in her NYC apartment, the victim of a close range shotgun blast to the face. Among the suspects, Waldo Lydecker, an imperious and pompous dandy and society columnist, who considers himself the only worthwhile man for Laura. There’s also Laura’s financé, a formerly rich idle playboy Shelby Carpenter (an unexpectedly funny Vincent Price), who’s now broke and looking for a way out of his predicament.
This is a classic noir, with all the hallmarks of the genre: Gorgeous, Oscar-winning black and white cinematography, beautiful fashions of the day, and hilariously queer-coded, effete suspects, drawing a sharp contrast with the salt-of-the-earth working-man detective. It’s really illuminating just how restrictive the Hayes code was, and how creative the industry got in working around it.
The sexual politics of it frankly seem pretty modern. They never would have heard the concepts of being “friend-zoned” or “white knighting”, but here they are clear as day and immediately recognizable as giant red flags. The behavior is not at all modern, just the identification of it as a distinct pattern.
This is on most any list of the greatest films and it’s easy to see why. It dives right in to the story and the intrigue builds quickly, and the tight 90 minute runtime zips by like nothing. It’s absolutely deserving of its status as an all time classic.
4 of 5 swanky society parties with sassy domestic servants.
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- Good advice
- Sad that I have no UFO buddies of my own
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A couple more epis of That Dirty Black Bag, then my PIC suggested the aMAZing Swedish flick The Sound of Noise.
Plot summary as per IMDB: A tone-deaf cop works to track down a group of guerilla percussionists whose anarchic public performances are terrorizing the city.
@Lectroid something makes me think you would enjoy this in particular, but really — anyone who has an appreciation for the brilliance that is Scandinavian humor & weirdness should, too.
Fun.
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Agree! I saw this for the first time when I was a young adult. Definitive.
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One of my favorites.
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Mia Farrow. As ever the comments are the most interesting.
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