MovieChat Forums > Twin Peaks (1990) Discussion > So I finally gave it a shot. My reaction...

So I finally gave it a shot. My reaction? Instant regret

posted 7 years ago by mersk (8)
35 replies | jump to latest

I've heard of Twin Peaks since I was a kid, but I never got around to actually watching it. Until now. And it was awful.

First things first: I watched the first 2 episodes, and I'm not gonna watch any more. Before you turn to the old "you gotta watch it ALL lol", these are some examples of what fans of the show say:

If you didn't get hooked in season 1, forget it.

I fell in love with twin peaks in the first 5 min of watching it. To the true fans i believe twin peaks is much more than just some tv show. If you have to force yourself to watch it, i doubt you'll really understand it. (I don't mean i think you're too dumb to understand, it's just not for everyone)

The magic is there from the first second. If you don't like it after the first episode, don't bother. It's not a show you're gonna grow to love. Either you love the package from the start, or you'll never get it.

The list goes on, but you get the picture. That's why I already gave up.

As for why I gave up, it would be easier to list reasons of not giving up. The acting, the music, the dialogues, the characters... I guess it's true, this show really isn't for everybody. And it doesn't seem to have aged well at all. One of my favorite shows of all time is X-Files, which I've seen in its entirety more than 5 times. It is still a great show. Great characters, proper suspense and thrills, good acting, good music, the whole package. But Twin Peaks? I wanted to like it, but I just couldn't. Not even close.

Come to think of it, I probably should've expected it considering I've never been a fan of Lynch. But I thought maybe, just maybe, Twin Peaks is what'll convince me. NOPE.

[–] keybored (2654) 7 years ago

Each to his own, but there wouldn't have been shows like the X-Files if it hadn't been for Twin Peaks.

Shame you couldn't have stuck with it... you would have seen 'Mulder' in a dress lol.

[–] mersk (8) 7 years ago

I know, that's why I gave it a shot, because I'm aware of the influence it's had on later TV series.

And yeah, I'm aware Duchovny has a role in it (pretty sure I've seen a picture), but I never got that far...

But like you say, to each their own. Lynch just isn't my cup of tea and I should stop trying.

[–] keybored (2654) 7 years ago

Not your cup of damn fine coffee either...

[–] keybored (2654) 7 years ago

Plus Mark Frost, (the co-creator), went on to make the X-Files. TP wasn't ALL Lynch's creation.

[–] SammiWin (1112) 6 years ago

I know this a year old, but what do you mean Mark Frost went on to make the x files..?

[–] keybored (2654) 6 years ago

Wow - I think I must have slipped into another universe for a while there. I could have sworn Mark Frost was behind the X Files. It was of course, Chris Carter's baby.

[–] peter_t_2k3 (957) 5 years ago

Could be getting confused with mark snow the composer for the x files

[–] keybored (2654) 5 years ago

Probably.

[–] snepts (11123) 5 years ago

Got confused with Craig Frost, who played keys for Grand Funk Railroad and the spin-off band Flint. They're An American Band.

[–] AngularTurnip (3333) 7 years ago

"The X Files," "Twin Peaks," and "The Twilight Zone" are among my favorite shows ever.

"The X Files" is probably my least favorite of the three primarily because it went on far too long and Scully's one-note skeptic routine become insufferable. And the music in "The X Files" I find every bit as irritating as the music in "Twin Peaks. This isn't because it's bad necessarily (though sometimes it is) but the fact that it's used constantly. Like every second of the show!

The only reason I could think of to dissuade you from giving up on "Twin Peaks" is the writing. Hunt down the scripts online and just read them. They really represent, along with stuff like "X Files" and "TZ," some of the best writing the medium will ever know.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Couldn't agree more with you about The X Files. I think it'd be thought of as a far more legendary series if it ended at season 3, or at worst, season 5, but obviously that wasn't going to happen. I actually enjoyed the last couple seasons of it's original run (with Robert Patrick) but the recent revisit was beyond terrible and money grabbing.

[–] bohemianroxie (2471) 7 years ago

Well, I don't fault you for your opinion. I saw it when it first came out...or at least the 1st season, I think.
I loved it at first..at that time. It was different. It was weird and strange and deliberately campy and I took to all of that at that time. I think you have to appreciate the campy factor...it's not accidental.
And if you keep that in mind it doesn't age as badly as you might think. I can accept the lack of cell phones and computers..That stuff can just get in the way anyway. But I can understand anyone not being able to get through the obvious melodramatic soapiness. It's not for everyone.

I was young the first time around and not so dedicated to tv and I never kept it up to the 2nd season or the movie (Fire walk with me)..So I'm as lost as anyone.
Over the years I've tried a few times for a rewatch but found my different older self not nearly as into the campy surrealistic Lynch incoherence and some of the over the top mannerisms as I once might have been..

But I am trying it again now because I want to try the reboot...if I can get through 1 1/2 seasons of the original.
I'm working on it now.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

I know the melodrama of the soapiness was basically a parody, but at times it wasn't really discernible from a crappy soap. That was one of my issues with TP S1/S2. I get that it's a send up to some degree, but I'm still having to sit through it...

[–] bohemianroxie (2471) 5 years ago

If it makes you feel any better than I'll say that I was unable to make it through a rewatch of the old and an interest in the new.
There's better things these days.
But in the 90's when it began it was an original and has had it's influence on other things that have evolved since. I appreciate that fact and that's enough for me now.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Yeah, I definitely appreciate that one has to view it in context with 1990s glasses so to speak. Did you see season 3/the return yet? I'm about to start it- that was my reason for re-watching season 1 and struggling through season 2!

[–] bobbynynex (1505) 7 years ago

you have to be there when it started in the 90s. u missed the boat pal.

[–] modica (4169) 7 years ago

It is a good thing that many people can't get into this show. It makes it so much more special for the rest of us. I mean, I hate things like The Fast And The Furious, Stranger Things and Full House and no one will ever talk me into liking them, so I know how the OP feels. Still it is good you tried it out. I did manage to watch an entire season of Stranger Things, because so many people love it and I was just waiting for it to hit me, but I never got into it. I did at least give that one a chance, but season 2 will not be seen with my eyes.

[–] gregg325 (215) 6 years ago

Yeah I just watched the pilot. I don't get what's so special about this show at all. It feels like your typical murder/mystery show from the 90s. Nothing really unique about it. I could see how it was good back then but in 2017 it seems so dull. Someone's gotta fill me in here because I see nothing impressive about this show.

[–] AngularTurnip (3333) 6 years ago

I think what separates this from your garden variety soap opera are the Lynchian touches like the kid busting out some dance moves en route to first period or a traffic light swaying in the wind. These touches make "Twin Peaks" distinctive. Without them you have only the murder plotline, and all the sudsy peripheral hook-ups, and they wouldn't be too out of place on "Twin Peaks"' contemporaries like "Santa Barbara" and "All My Children." It's in the second season though that all these quirky little details take center stage and the show goes in some seriously surreal directions -- some of them inspired, some of them not, all of them, once Laura Palmer's murderer is revealed, unwatchable.

[–] gregg325 (215) 6 years ago

I just had trouble getting through the pilot. I found myself bored and waiting for something exciting to happen. Is the entire show just figuring out how this girl was killed? There has to be more to it right? I wanna keep going but the pilot really turned me off.

[–] AngularTurnip (3333) 6 years ago

The tone of the pilot is pretty much the tone of season one. Things start to pick up -- in the sense that they become more Lynchian -- in the season two premiere. Maybe you should just skip ahead to "May the Giant be with You" -- the season two premiere -- and see if that is more to your liking. Granted, you won't understand everything that's going on -- you missed a lot of season one -- but you can probably figure things out as you go along ... If that doesn't work you might have to conclude that "Twin Peaks" isn't for you. You wouldn't be the first. I've often maintained the show, like most TV shows, would have made a better movie, because that way you could trim all the fat, rendering it tighter, less tedious. I too have found stretches of "Peaks" dull. But I weather these stretches because the show's highs, of which there are a few, represent TV at its best.

[–] gregg325 (215) 6 years ago

I may just check out the newer one that just came out. Do I gotta watch the original to watch that one or can I just jump right in?

[–] AngularTurnip (3333) 6 years ago

I don't think the newer one makes much sense whether you watch the original series or not.

[–] gregg325 (215) 6 years ago

Its that bad?

[–] AngularTurnip (3333) 6 years ago

I haven't seen it yet. This is just what I've heard.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Don't worry about it. You can still rewatch all Transformers movies to get you fix.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

After watching through season 1, season 2 and FWWM this week (after previously just watching season 1 about 5 years ago) I kind of agree with you. It's ok to me, but I don't get why it's so beloved. Maybe one you had to watch when it was new. I'm still gonna check out 'the return' tho. I'm in too deep now not to!

Personally I really enjoyed season 1, but most of season 2 bar a couple of episodes and FWWM were quite bad.