I'm really glad Lynch left a lot of the first two
Twin Peaks series' stylistics behind - the series were something unique in its time (and good when it comes to the first 8 or so episodes), but by now they're really quite dated and if the S3 pursued the same direction it would very likely be dead on arrival, at least for me.
Lynch is one of my favourite filmmakers but it's not thanks to Twin Peaks - my top 3 would be The Straight Story, Eraserhead and Mulholland Dr. as number one, so I'm really glad the new Twin Peaks is much closer to the latter two films than the series; and one might say there are even some hints of The Straight Story (and The Elephant Man) in the "Dougie" storyline.
The episode 8 impressed me on many levels - from sound design/use of music, to cinematography and special effects, to editing and last but not least to sheer audacity to produce an hour of TV series this uncompromising - that I'm starting to think this may not just be he-still-got-it kind of production, but at-the-height-of-his-powers one, if the quality keeps up.
My favourite series from the last few years, Westworld, seems pedestrian in comparison, with all its twists, cliffhangers, ambient music and what not, and it's not just thanks to the above mentioned episode - the whole third season feels much more playful, not bothered with conventions, genuine.
Also, I'm really digging the brand(s) of humour TP3 is sporting - from Lynch's own sort of meta commentary through the character he plays, to Marlon Brando impression guy, to all of Naomi Watts' magnificient scenery chewing, there's been quite a lot of smiles on the way thus far.
Futhermore, I'm quite sure there's a good number of wink-winks when it comes to edit - like in the previous episode (7) which featured up to that point both the fastest paced (and unexpectedly linear) depiction of a story thread, as well as the longest single take where nothing happened.
Also, the "Dougie" storyline manages to be a great mix of funny, touching and social commentary, sometimes at once, and for that touching aspect Lynch could not pick a better character from the original series than he did - a clever way to make viewers more compassionate right away (with some of them likely not even realizing it
), while not being cheap at the same time (cheap would be retaining that character in status quo).
Anyway, here's me going helooOOOooo for the next 10 episodes.
