Shall we all (re)watch Twin Peaks together?

[cavorting with nudists]

OK.  For now I'll just note another fine, forgotten moment: Major Briggs knocking Bobby's cigarette into his mother's meat loaf.

[Wes]

* How much did Twin Peaks pave the way for The X-Files?

I think Agent Cooper and the show's supernatural FBI shenanigans were a big influence.  I also think it paved the way for David Chase to experiment as much as he did on The Sopranos, which I believe he's acknowledged.

It's kinda hard for me to be objective about season 1's flaws at this point.

Obviously, it owed a lot to where they were shooting and related budgetary needs, but so much of the early X-Files seeming to go down in woodsy, Pacific Northwest-type locations felt, at the time, like a direct debt owed to Twin Peaks. Early Mulder also seems like a character that couldn't have existed if Cooper hadn't set the table, as Chris says, and Scully might as well have been some TV executive's fiendish plot to find the only way to make the Albert character somehow more appealing to their target demo. And Duchovny himself bridges the Twin Peaks to X-Files gap.

I remember reading about the upcoming new TV shows the summer before the X-Files started, looking for something to fill the void left by Twin Peaks, and the X-Files stood out as one of two shows that sounded promising. I can't remember what the other show could have been, though, but even in pitch/preview form, that vibe was there.

Re: a concerted effort at watching/rewatching, I guess we should probably wait until the show hits Instant in April now, to get as many people involved as possible. I was telling Sarah, I'm genuinely excited to go back and watch. This was my favorite thing on TV by far when it came on, but I'm pretty sure I haven't seen some of those mid-to-late season 2 episodes in the almost 20 years since they've aired, so I have no idea how the whole thing will fit together.

I'm also curious to see how it'll play for anyone watching along for the first time. A lot of the steam of just how much of a phenom this thing was can never be recaptured, but there's at least one episode ("Missoula, MONTANA!")  that I think will still have the same impact.

Also, I'm going to predict ahead of time that Major Briggs will be the character who most rises in my estimation from watching this in the early '90s to now. There's another guy who helped bridge Twin Peaks and Season 1 of the X-Files, by the way. I think he played almost the same character in an episode about the evil power of the Face On Mars.

[Sarah]

I always loved said major's wonderfully ornate way of speaking and quiet heroism.  I look forward to seeing more of him; he was always a favorite character.  I have felt a residual fondness for the actor who plays him ever since meeting him.  Yea, even unto Stargate: SG1.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

I watched the entire series on VHS in 2003, after having only seen a couple of episodes from the David Lynch seasons when it was on ABC. The post-Lynch middle is a truly terrible slog -- it was like Dark Shadows or something, sub-daytime-soap-level writing and contrived plot turns that managed to be both preposterous and boring -- but it was all worth it for the brilliant and entertaining Lynch-directed finale, in which he [SPOILER ALERT] just cruised around fucking everything up. The two-and-a-minute shuffle of an old dude across the lobby of a huge bank followed up by the explosion-death of [REDACTED] is still one of my all-time favorite televisual moments.

[Chris L]

I don't know if anyone else here has read Mark Frost's original script for the last episode, but his and the writers' original conception of the Black Lodge was utterly ridiculous and it's no mystery why Lynch threw much of it out.

[buffcoat]

I always loved said major's wonderfully ornate way of speaking and quiet heroism.  I look forward to seeing more of him; he was always a favorite character.  I have felt a residual fondness for the actor who plays him ever since meeting him.  Yea, even unto Stargate: SG1.

Name dropper.

[Pidgeon]

Stargate is one of those franchises whose fandom has just completely disbanded, I think.

[Paul DeLouisiana]

I really want to rewatch this but I'm right in the middle of rewatching Larry Sanders. I notice I've been touching my face a lot more recently.

ps- Anyone notice the errors in Season 3 on Netflix Instant?

[Paul DeLouisiana]

pps- Trivia: Linda Doucett (Darlene) lived with Garry Shandling from 1987-94. When they broke up, she filed charges against him for sex discrimination and sexual harrassment.

[Sarah]

I really want to rewatch this but I'm right in the middle of rewatching Larry Sanders.

You don't have one more hour to spare a week?  Boy, do I pity you.

[Paul DeLouisiana]

I really want to rewatch this but I'm right in the middle of rewatching Larry Sanders.

You don't have one more hour to spare a week?  Boy, do I pity you.

Geez, you sound like my mom talking to me about church. Sarah, I like to watch shows episode after episode. I don't think Twin Peaks serves as a good companion piece to Larry Sanders. If you can't understand that: "Boy, do I pity you."

[Sarah]

Hey, I was expressing sincere sympathy, Mr. Defensivo.  Sheesh.

[fonpr]

Just listen to your Sarah, Paul.

Trust me on this.

[Paul DeLouisiana]

Hey, I was expressing sincere sympathy, Mr. Defensivo.  Sheesh.

Comment retracted. Sorry Sarah, I thought you were criticizing my tunnel-visioned ways. It can be better summed up as 'I can only handle one great show at a time.'

[Sarah]

Hey, the Twin Peaks party isn't getting started till April sometime.  If you're watching Larry Sanders back to back, who knows? maybe you'll have finished up by the time things get rolling.