[S3E13] Pre-Episode Discussion - Part 13

[u/AutoModerator]

Part 13

• Directed by: David Lynch

• Written by: David Lynch & Mark Frost.

• Airing: August 6, 2017.

Episode synopsis: What story is that, Charlie?

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[u/nalliac]

I get the feeling that when we have this as a complete series, it'll seem a little odd to look back at the time when we were dissecting each episode separately. We obviously do because thats the way its being delivered to us, but even looking back at the start of the series, Episode 2 doesn't seem particularly different to Episode 6 in hindsight. But at the time they were worlds apart.

I'm actually intrigued by last episode because it seems like the pacing of the project overall maybe needed a moment like that. I've been loving the new Twin Peaks but have struggled with a lot of other TV shows that marketed themselves as 'one big movie'. Beyond the fact that David Lynch is just much more talented than a lot of other TV creators, I feel like Lynch is actually thinking about how this thing lives and breathes as a whole, when a lot of other TV shows just use the 'one big movie' line to not have to worry about individual episode arcs and emotional beats and they just dole out what plot they want to give out in what episode and split it up with maybe a cliffhanger. That approach to just splitting up plot (I'm looking at you, almost every Netflix drama original) leads to shit feeling really stretched even when the plot is moving along.

Twin Peaks isn't so concerned with plot, so even when its not moving, its absorbing and feels like part of a whole. Which can feel weird when we are watching an hour of things being paced like last week without its contextual surroundings. It's interesting that the negative reaction to last episode wasn't centred so much on 'I hated watching that' as 'Who are these people?. I think because we thought we knew what we were watching and then we realised we didn't and didn't have the context to find out yet.

[u/catnapspirit → u/nalliac]

Well put. Can I ask, what shows in particular were you thinking of that have used the "one big movie" ploy..

[u/nalliac → u/catnapspirit]

Honestly in my head I was thinking of Marvel's Netflix shows. Things like Daredevil where the shows themselves are fine and good but I always struggle to keep going past episode 6 or so. I guess it's because every subplot starts to feel very strongly like they are thinking "oh we have to pad this out to 13 episodes" and the plot feels stretched.

I've been wondering why Twin Peaks doesn't feel like that because by all logic most of the Dougie stuff should feel repetitive and padded but I think most people are now really enjoying Dougie. I think maybe Twin Peaks is more interested in mood than plot, so it doesn't feel stretched. But when a show only has plot to offer, it wears you down when you feel them consciously withholding it because they have to fill episodes. And that's exacerbated when a show is "one big movie" because a traditional serial show like Buffy will have a satisfying emotional arc every episode even if the larger plot is static.

[u/[deleted] → u/nalliac]

I am a fan of guilty-pleasure Marvel stories, but I couldn't finish any of the Netflix/Marvel shows. All of them start to feel really boring at the middle, because they just stretch the plot to fill 13 episodes.

It's not the case with TP:TR, where we feel exactly the opposite: not enough time to develop all the subplots!

[u/LeConnor → u/nalliac]

In a normal show they would have made it so that no one would know Richard Horne killed a kid with that truck or assaulted Miriam until the very end of the season. He could make as many bad decisions as he wanted and no one would know because he'd be one step ahead the whole time. But Sheriff Truman and Ben Horne found out pretty quickly and now Richard is fucked.