What?!? Anyone else and that would be an unsub, but you get a temporary pass Jessie. Twin Peaks is amazing on multiple levels, revolutionized what episodic storytelling in a series could achieve, and so radically different than anything that came before or since while maintaining a near ghostly presence of nostalgia at the same time. If you dig any of Lynch's work Twin Peaks is worth the time investment because it is not only fantastic, but after viewing it you are left with an imprint from the experience unlike so much of the current media zeitgeist that is instantly forgettable after immediately after viewing. Take the time to watch Twin Peaks. You won't regret it, but we still aren't going to talk about Judy. We're going to keep her out of this.
One of my favorite things about Twin Peaks was the relationship between Cooper and Truman. Most stories about slick out of town FBI agents working with small town cops are rife with conflicting egos, but from minute one Cooper and Truman make it clear to each other that they have mutual respect and know the most important thing is that they work together effectively to solve the case. It’s so refreshing to see such an amicable professional relationship between men in a crime drama, and so heartwarming to see it blossom into a real friendship. Truly, the real owls were the friends we made along the way
I completely agree. There’s a lot of talks about the relationships in Twin Peaks, but some of the best are the platonic ones: Coop and Harry, Shelley and Norma, Briggs and The Log Lady. Coop comforting Harry after losing Josie, and the little nose boop Coop does to Harry in the interrogation room are just priceless. The first and best true bromance…
That's dream logic for you. In a dream the most incongruous things could happen, from a fish in a percolator, to a one armed traveling shoe salesman screaming about stealing all the creamed corn, and the inhabitants accept it and react to it.
Oh man that’s the best - I also love the fake cliff hangers. Who shot Dale Cooper. Kinda just some guy… Cooper has the name of the killer? Nah, he forgot mate…
One of the big reasons Fire Walk With Me was neglected for so long is because of how difficult it is to watch. Crime-thrillers like Silence of the Lambs present grim horror in carefully-considered pulpy vignettes. It is dark, but it is sanitized, usually without emotional weight so we can still 'enjoy' the carnage. Fire Walk With Me is similar to Funny Games in how it takes all the 'fun' away by portraying real humanity in its brutal events. Even as a fan, I have a hard time revisiting it because of how withering the experience is. As it should feel.
Oof, exactly. Great comparison with Funny Games. I love both films for how truthfully they convey emotions, but they are both very hard to revisit. FWWM feels to me like an emotional stream from Laura's perspective and as that it hits so hard.
The film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me meant a lot to me, as someone who was sexually abused by my mother's boyfriend, but also the series came out when my sister and I were still living with our abusive stepfather. We understood all too well where the real danger was and that was why it meant so much to us. I always felt that the way that everything was so surreal really got to how it felt to be in those situations of being abused by someone who was supposed to be protecting us. It feels surreal, and you experience the world as surreal like it was in Twin Peaks.
I went through that too - a mom that knew but pretended not to notice. (She admitted she knew when I was in grad school and out of the house for several years. How sick is that?) She was always chain smoking, drinking and wearing a big happy smile. I was also always out of the house, straight As goody two shoes, but also interested in drugs, in trouble with boys and skipping class. Just like Laura. She’s such a realistic character. Just a kid in a world that doesn’t make any sense. I knew right away what was going on with Laura when I first watched twin peaks in 2018. I said “that girl doesn’t want to be at home.” It felt good to see Laura’s mom in the return. I know that’s how my estranged mom spends her days. Smoking, watching Fox, and feeling rotten.
@@mattiethemongoose3rd I am doing remarkably well! My adult life is so much better than the hand I was dealt foretold. I hope you and your sister are doing well too. But if you aren’t, that’s ok, and you can talk to this internet confidante about it if you want to.
I never put 2 and 2 together before that Twin Peaks is a crime drama rooted in empathy for the victims of senseless violence and not fascination for the perpetrators of senseless violence.
I am not american, but I grew up in a small town and I can tell you Twin Peaks hits very close to home when it comes to my experience growing up. Apart from the americana that permeates Twin Peaks, the themes of a small community hiding secrets and presenting a friendly façade to the outside is a reality I know only too well. To this day Twin Peaks is one of my favourite works of art. Thank you for the amazing video
I just watched Fire Walk With Me recently and I'm high right now and I just have to say that when Laura screamed "I love you, James" and then kissed him on the forehead and ran away it just hit like a truck. We know from early in the series that Laura thought James was sweet but dumb, that she was distant from her boyfriend Bobby, and that she was keeping secrets from her best friend and her parents and basically self-destructing. But part of what the film added to her character was the sense that Laura actually did care incredibly deeply about the people around her, and was just so scared and in so much pain that she lost the ability to really express that. James was dumb, but Laura did care about him and love him, and she regretted that she was hurting him. That line of dialogue feels like it's the culmination of all her agony and frustration and grief not only at her situation but at her inability to genuinely connect with other people and show clearly that she loves them.
Laura I think David lynch truly loved a lot as a character. She was so full of love for everyone around her yet everyone around her exploited her, hurt her and did not try to save her or even know how. The true tragedy was her being stuck in this cycle of abuse and all the end of that abuse do was hurt more people. Fire walk with me actually gives Laura as a victim agency rather than being a woman fridged
A thing I love about David Lynch's work is how he uses surrealism to depict the horrors of the mundane. Both Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks show the horrors hiding in small towns. I especially like how he depicts these horrible crimes with care and empathy towards the victim.
I spent 3 months at the start of the pandemic listening to nothing but the Twin Peaks soundtrack on an infinite loop, drinking energy drinks out of thrifted fine crystal with my dog. I feel like that sums up the experience of Twin Peaks pretty much.
If she was really doing a perfect hasan she would have left the video playing while he leaves the room and then throw a tantrum when someone tells him to maybe not do that
I think the bit where Cooper berates his coworker from out of town really sums up the difference between twin peaks reaction to death and shows like dynasty. The idea that people's emotional response to death can and sometimes should take precedence over using all available evidence to solve the case as quickly as possible raises a complex argument and disrupts the viewers expectations of a typical serialised crime show where the characters are used a vehicle to solve the mystery and anyone getting in the way of that would be framed very negatively.
The thing that's always appealed most to me about Twin Peaks is that emotional truthfulness. It may play around with archetypes and surrealism, but the characters are real. They experience the many fragments of beauty, horror, delights, and sadness that we all do in our lives, and act in ways that actually feel like people would. p.s. Talking of accurate....that react streamer. Love the creativity in the video, as ever.
wait what Lynch characters act like real people? i vehemently disagree. they talk like out of context quotes from books and move about like robots inhabiting human skin.
The Fire Walk With Me/Silence of the Lambs connection is very neat. This video is a nice antidote to that other one you mentioned. Can’t wait for part two!
While I agree that the other video has a ton of things right, I'm also kind of disgusted by it. I also wouldn't trust what both Lynch and Frost say on certain topics and emblems of this story. The way occult symbols and symbolism in general is being used is deeply intentional. It's another layer which adds and explains other layers. The Return in my opinion is the best thing on TV ever, and I don't think it will ever be topped, just like Kubrick will forever be the best director (best artist of the whole of humanity in my opinion).
@Tube Surfer I haven't watched the Twin Perfect video since it came out, but I've been steeped in Twin Peaks fandom for a while now, and reducing the whole show to "TV ruins your brain" brought precious little to the table. "Explaining" Twin Peaks misses the point anyway. Even John Thorne doesn't claim to "explain" Twin Peaks. He's been theorizing for decades, but it's still an open discussion. Maggie's title is cheeky. She's not explaining the *meaning* of Twin Peaks, but providing context for aspects of the show (and the film) that'll seem foreign to new viewers but wouldn't have in 1989. The idea is to encourage them to take this wonderful journey and not be intimidated by it. I came to it late myself, and hadn't watched a second of Dynasty. The Silence of the Lambs connection really did fascinate me, and I can't wait to hear her analysis of how The Return was an answer to modern prestige TV. And if you don't understand the Dynasty and Lambs connections, it's no surprise the whole streamer bit was lost on too. It's okay, you don't need to take it personally (unless you are Twin Pefect, in which case, sure).
@Tube Surfer you misread my statement. I watched the video WHEN IT CAME OUT and not since. And no, I haven't encountered a single person who considers it the pinnacle of anything. I'm sorry it apparently hurt your feelings, but it sounds like you just have a problem with women? Anyway, your video isn't as good as you're hyping it to be and Maggie's is better, sorry.
@@ContentWithJeremiah I geuss one thing I'm personally missing from you guys is a specific piece of evidence or reasoning you guys disagree with in the Twin Perfect video. It takes him hours to get to the "Tv rots your brain" line and even comments that that's why Lynch doesn't like using mere words. In both his original video and his video responding to criticisms, it's like quote after quote from Lynch is being presented as evidence for a logically coherent reading and you guys seem to say, quite baselessly, that it's not meant to be explained. I don't understand why you guys say this.
Laura's scream from the end of The Return still haunts my dreams... This is one of the most intriguing and clearly presented Twin Peaks videos I've seen, showing all the explicit examples from Dynasty and Silence of the Lambs is incredible and I'm so glad you took the time to edit them together visually. I feel like I'm getting close to understanding Twin Peaks, which is funny because I find myself going back to what were my original thoughts on it- not overthinking the mystery and metaphors and just feeling the atmosphere and emotion. I cannot wait for part 2!!
I love Lynch, one of the few men to truly critique how women are treated in media in a nuanced way. The connections between Fire Walk With Me and The Silence of the Lambs were particularly interesting. Its fascinating how Silence demonstrates the way that sexist men also produce transphobia, especially considering the later context of Lynch's own self reflecting on how he represents trans woman with the character of Denise Richards. Unlike many other artists; David genuinely tries to grow his understanding of experiences he doesnt have.
Agreed ... which is why it's been so hard for me to resolve what I've read about his callous breakup from Isabella Rossellini which kind of destroyed her emotionally & last I read, she never got any closure from him. I know you can't believe every gossip rag you read so yeah there's that but it doesn't sit well with me.
I've just finished s1 of Twin Peaks, and I was interested in watching this specifically because I felt the emotional honesty in it was so touching. The intensity of Laura's parents' reactions was so realistic, it really resonated with me. Grief completely scrambles your ability to make sense of your impulses, your emotions, basically any action that isn't involuntary like breathing. It's hard to put into words the way that grief disrupts your life; it's genuinely a trial you face. I always hate the stoic, single tear depiction of grief in media, because it makes people feel like their expression of grief isn't "normal" if they don't repress it to hell and back. It's a huge disservice to everyone and it alienates people who've burst that illusion bubble and has experienced grief for themselves. So I always really appreciate anything that shows grief for how visceral and ugly it can be. It's tough and not what anyone wants to experience, but we can't pick ourselves back up without actually facing down something we'd rather repress.
I once watched Twin Peaks with someone who had already seen it. They got really mad at me because I kept correctly guessing aspects of the story, and were sure that I must have looked up answers online. But the reality is that Lynch is just really good at conveying emotion and if you pay attention to it you can feel out the story!
Oh for sure. I guessed that Leland was the killer pretty early into S1 the first time I saw it (although technically it wasn't REALLY him, but the point still stands)
Every time someone tries to explain Twin Peaks to me I somehow end the conversation with less information than I started, including the first time someone told me it exists.
Nicely done. Lynch's works making "emotional sense" is exactly how I put it while trying to explain why I love them so much and what's even there to love (to various degrees of success). You need to just let it wash over you, and you'll get it, in a way that you're really supposed to get it. Of course, that requires a generous benefit of a doubt to be given to the artist, and I don't even remember what compelled to do it the first time, but I'm glad I did it, and Lynch never disappointed me ever since.
That's why I like Mulholland Drive the most. It's built almost like a trap for anyone coming in with the intent to viewing it as literal series of events, or trying to come up with a simplistic 'It's about X' story - whatever you try to flatten it into, it has actively spiked that idea in advance, somewhere. It's all tone and all emotion, and if you can't let go of trying to analyse it you can barely tolerate it. Normally to get into that kind of watching-through-feeling mental state I need to see a film that is a direct emotional attack, like Come and See or Waltz With Bashir. It also makes watching David Lynch explainers more fun, since they fight back against attempts to literalise them. I still resent the time I watched Annihilation and ran over to see what people thought, only to find that in a film so obviously full of metaphors that a character at one point openly explains what the film is about and what her metaphor is the overwhelming majority of conversation on RUclips about it was about the very literal aliens and the very literal invasion.
I wonder if this is why certain David Lynch films "work better" for me than others? That I'm just not in the head space to deal with the emotional aspects of them. Might have to give Inland Empire another go. Probably never going to watch Eraser Head again though. That one connected a little too well for me...
@@TehBurek Yep. Got me onto that channel; it was reassuring to see someone as mad as I was after seeing what felt like dozens of videos claiming to show the 'meaning' of the movie by explaining the literal events in sequence, even though the only way Annihilation could be more obviously metaphorical would be if at one point they stopped the film for the director to show up in a suit and say "Hello I am Alex Garland the director of annihilation, and these are all metaphors for grief, pain and loss." @James Rule Definitely. I didn't like most Lynch films I watched since they felt weird, but Mulholland Drive hit perfectly. I don't know why, and it didn't make the other ones suddenly snap into focus. I guess since it's so reliant on hitting emotional resonance it has to either work or not work on any given person in the audience.
1,000% the understanding is the feeling, the questions and even the analysis. Some things don’t make sense on a literal level but you can feel it and the symbolism of it and that’s what’s important. Lynch has gotten me into more abstract cinema in general. I don’t think I could understand or appreciate something like The Holy Mountain, The Color of Pomegranates, Kenneth Anger stuff or even stuff like the Matrix etc nearly as much if I didn’t have my foundations in stuff like Lynch. I think one of the best parts about more abstract cinema is that it can explore ideas or emotions that you cannot portray otherwise. It’s a more fundamental exploration of the raw psyche and it can explore things considered too taboo to portray literally. It’s kind of like how instrumental music can express things that lyrics can’t. I wish people were more open to that kind of stuff rather than being like “uh i don’t get it.” Not saying everything needs to be weird and non literal but just more variety in modern filmmaking would be very nice
Dude- the movie was amazing. I loved FINALLY seeing Laura in her life , all the moments we heard described, coming to life.. when she's in the car with Leland and they're behind the one armed man.. and he screams over the engine revs , "IT'S HIMMMMM!!!!! " It's just chilling
I once said Twin Peaks was a show which compared the horrors of domestic abuse that women go through with the horrors of nuclear devistation, and their face was one of “what the fuck?”
I think it's about how any kind of trauma has that effect, not just on women, but on everyone. One of the ways I read Dale is as someone who is unwilling to really deal with his or others trauma emotionally. For him it's a intellectual thing to be dispatched with reason alone. Really all the characters in TP are in some state of dealing with or failing to deal with their trauma.
@@mainstreetchumsclub2405 😆 It would only be a fractal if it was made from all the same burritos. But for the joke’s sake, you’re 100% right. Fractarrito. Burractal.
So cool how Twin Peaks is a critique/reconstruction of its era of soap operas/ crime thriller movies, and this video manages to be a critique/reconstruction of the video essay and the streamers reaction of said video essay
Commenting again because, on a rewatch,; "I know that sounds a little daunting, but trust me, you already get it a lot more than you think" Is the 'Big Sisterly' reassurance that I didn't know I needed in my life. Thanks MMF!
I watched the Twin Perfect videos, and I think some of his theories were interesting even if Lynch and Frost had other intentions. He focuses on what Lynch's interests are and shows how that could apply to the series and film. His idea that Cooper is a stand-in for the "Twin Peaks" audience seems to stand up, especially with the multiple Coops in Season 3. I'm willing to listen to various takes on the "Twin Peaks" saga and draw from them what resonates most with me. Your own video with quotes from "Difficult Men" certainly expanded my appreciation for the show.
@@MaggieMaeFish I wanted to reply to you directly to let you know that the structure of this video is genius, I really loved the Hasan parody framing device. You executed it perfectly. I also learned a lot about why I like Twin Peaks from the video. I think your video on this topic is going to be the go-to for years to come. Millions of views incoming.
Fun fact: Owls are a bad omen in my culture, so the owl stuff actually made those parts way more eery to me I think Edit: Actually, that could be the reasoning for the owls maybe? The culture I'm referring to is Native American, so that would tie in with those themes in the show.
That's really interesting. I like that the owls in Twin Peaks are ambiguous, since different cultures see them different ways. Greek mythology they are associated with Athena, as representing wisdom. They are also associated with Lilith in paganism and Judaism. Lilith rather being like Laura, who is good or bad depending on who sees her and how.
I think you're right about that -- if I recall correctly, Native American lore is referenced frequently in the book Mark Frost wrote, "The Secret History Of Twin Peaks", so it makes sense the owls originated with Frost. I've also always kind of thought that they referenced aliens since owls are often used as screen memories in abductees to hide the memory of the grey aliens in ufology, which would tie into the fact that the Blue Rose Mysteries were an offshoot of Project Blue Book.
@Parker the owls were first referenced as screen memories in the books written by alien abduction researcher Budd Hopkins back in the 80s. author Mike Clelland has also written a series of books in recent years you may like regarding owls factoring into paranormal experiences, particular UFO encounters. owls were also featured as abduction screen memories in the 2009 film The Fourth Kind, and I suspect that was as a result of Hopkins' research. the Gormenghast stories have always seemed interesting to me, and I have my sights set on reading them some day.
I'm curious, what tribe are you? I'm Blackfoot, and I've also known a lot of Inuit individuals and never heard of this. Actually, at a lot of pow wows I've seen lots of talisman, fetish objects, and items with owls imbedded into them. (These are made by official elders and/or tribal craftsmen btw - not some random person with a "how to Native Crafting" kit). So I'm genuinely curious. It always fascinates me on the many ways each is similar and overlaps but then these unexpected stark contrasts.
I'm old enough to have watched when it aired, have been a fan since, and have watched MANY analysis and "explained" videos. This is hands down the best, and to me the only one that actually matters. Thank you Maggie. I don't think anyone else I've seen even really mentioned the soap opera connections more than briefly, usually either casually brushing it off or using it as a segue to talk about something else.
This video is SO GOOD. The way you contrasted the 80s fantasies of perfect male power and protection with the reality that those are the most dangerous people to women and children was shocking and revealing. I never knew that's what Twin Peaks was doing since I grew up long after the 80s were over... but we still see echoes of that attitude to this day, and so many people want to believe it's true even when it never was and never will be 18:00
The general thesis of the video hits so hard right now. I often see or participate in discussions of media that basically always come down to analysis plot points and the facts of the story, occasionally symbolism, and always so much emphasis on simply understanding a bullet pointed list of what happened. Several years back when Alex Garland's Annihilation came out, I went to see it and I was instantly in love because of how emotionally true it rang to me. Like...just, how this film walks the viewer through really complicated emotions that all humans feel and how those feelings are given form and aaah, I just love it. But then almost every conversation I've seen or had about it since then is all "But is X Character infected by the aliens? Why did X Character die? What happened with X thing?" Like, it doesn't fucking matter. If plot points and concrete interpretation are what you love, fine. But some times art is not going to jive with those kinds of interpretations. Sometimes, you watch a movie or listen to a song or see a painting, and you just...feel things. You feel things and you meditate on those feelings or how other people also have them or what they mean for you or all of the above or none of the above. But you just feel things and that's the entire point.
That’s all fine and good, but we’re still talking about a story-telling medium here. Annihilation wasn’t a painting with sound, or an instrumental with visuals. It’s a movie that sets out to tell a story. Twin Peaks m, at the end of the day, is a show that sets out to tell a story. Make your production as layered and complex and as strange as you’d like, but all things must service the story. The story, if told right, will illicit those emotions. Otherwise, you’re just making a music video
@@eyespy3001 Annihilation did tell a story. A pretty compelling one, to me at least. I think a point, out of many points, it was trying to make, through the medium of film, is that we can't understand the alien's intentions because... THEY'RE ALIEN! They're not humans, they don't operate like us. Their intentions and motivations are not OUR intentions and motivations. What are they doing here? We can't understand that. Why are they making weird amalgamations and simulacra of Earth life? We can't understand that. What do they want, if anything, from us? We can't understand that. Just because there isn't a concrete point to a story, or one that may be hard to pull out as a concrete narrative, doesn't mean that story is worthless or shouldn't be told. Art should be expansive, otherwise it's just corporate propaganda and only concerned with chasing easy money. We already have a fire house of superhero movies constantly being shit out; I want to see not that.
Those things matter to a hyper fixated, nerd audience because they don’t actually want culture or entertainment they want wikis. They need endless wikis
@@GrimReader Or maybe people just enjoy solving puzzles when presented with one. Twin Peaks is just as much a puzzle as it is an audio-visual tone poem.
I wish each video analysis of Twin Peaks had to be longer than the previous released analysis of Twin Peaks so that one day we'd get an analysis of Twin Peaks with a longer run time than the entirety of Twin Peaks. "Welcome to Twin Peaks analysis part VCDXXXVI: The tour of the long closed and abandoned factory that produced the coffee cups used at the Double R Diner and how it was similar to the Hollywood Studio system and the existential dread triggered by loss. Run time:3 days."
@@criminalsaint9611 We can hope so, if not I may never get to see the episode of how Windom Earl's lactose intolerance affected his marriage and subsequent turn towards darkness after her death. What about an exciting livestream as we try to count the rings of "the log?" The possibilities are somehow as interesting as they are endless.
@@jeremysmith4620 If you get what you want, you know it will be a matter of two years at most before the explainer videos start being explainer videos of other explainer videos and three separate former film students have been institutionalised for attempting to make the first explainer video that explains itself as an explainer video as it explains. He who makes meta-content might take care lest he thereby become meta-content. And if you gaze for long into an algorithm, the algorithm gazes also into you.
You may already have seen them, but if not, I highly recommend the Twin Peaks videos by a smaller channel called Malmrose Projects. They come at it from a similar perspective as this one, looking at it through a thematic lens, but also delves into many of the secondary themes that come and go throughout the series, as well as looking at it from an auteurish perspective in the context of Lynch's other movies. ruclips.net/user/MalmroseProjects
I'm really convinced by the Twin Perfect video. What shocked me was the amount of evidence he gave from Lynch's interviews, Lynch's Log Lady intros, and things characters literally say in the show. Also, in order for Twin Perfect's symbology to concretely work, the emotional aspect of the show and the impact Laura's death has on other characters both have to be there. I don't see how Twin Perfect doesn't do justice to that side of things. After reading many of Lynch's interviews for myself, I'm pretty convinced that there is in fact an encompassing logic to Twin Peaks. He always says with respect to many works that his fragmentary ideas become connected by a guiding thread. Ideas that can't be nested into the guiding idea are jettisoned. And yes, this is the case with Eraserhead as well. I'm uncertain as to why there's such a strong reaction when people say what Lynch himself says about his own work. Lastly, some of the thoughts presented in this video seem kind of lazy. For instance, 5:40 where you claim that Bob's possession isn't logical. I would assume you're not conflating physical and merely logical possibility, otherwise that speaks past folks like Twin Perfect. Bob inhabiting people in fact makes perfect logical sense. Mike tells us point-blank that Bob is "the evil that men do." Leland is possessed by Bob because he has let evil into him. And the film was about Laura's struggle with Bob since her lifestyle was allowing evil inside her. Only the formica ring, somehow insulating Bob, stopped her from being possesed. The question is then, What is the formica ring such that this can happen? But any attempt to logically explain this would perhaps seem to you too much of a logic-bro move, so we are cut off from investigating. It's how relativists, in attempting to keep things open, in fact close off any meaningful conversation by denying the very objective standards of validity which underlie and make possible such discourse. Perhaps I have misunderstood. So if I have, someone let me know.
This really encapsulates the disconnect I have long felt with certain (largely male) Twin Peaks fans. Their's a stupid tilt to how we are told to think and obsess over art- where for some reason we're told to look past the emotional thematic elements that are why we engage with art in the first place. Treating everything like a maze on a Long John Silver's kids menu, rather than what it forces us to feel. It's especially dismissive of the value of surrealism itself to think of it as something you are meant to 'solve' rather than experience.
I feel like this type of "Logic-Bro" mentality of seeing plots as puzzles to be definitively solved, along with the rise of CinemaSins and their nitpicking and surface-level critiques of film, has kinda warped media criticism into a game of "if this logical then it is objectively bad". Instead of looking at thematic elements of media, they just focus on plot details, i.e. "why is character x going down into the basement when a serial killer is on the loose, or why didn't Frodo just take the eagles to Mordor instead of walking, or why didn't Harry Potter use time turners after the third book/film". All criticism gets reduced to if the character's are anything but automatons operating on pure 100% R A T I O N A L I T Y, then film/show/game is bad.
Omg on IMDB for Pixars Turning Red ‘she was told she only had one chance… Plot Hole!!’ and I want to scream in the face of everyone who likes that comment as if a coming of age story is a logic puzzle to be solved.
Those type of guys should have listened to David Lynch when he said that his original vision of the show was to draw out the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer forever. Even the first time I watched the show, I didn't particularly care about the mystery, but was more intrigued by the _feeling_ of the show. It's been almost 15 years since the first time I watched season 1, and I still can't really articulate what it is about it I like so much. Every single element of the show just works together in perfect harmony. The weird people, the corny score that seems to swell at inappropriate moments, the slightly comedic yet extremely dark tone. It's one of those shows that makes me feel smart for "getting it," which I'm not embarrassed to admit adds to my enjoyment. Flattery will get you everywhere with me, Twin Peaks.
I think the emotional experience is definitely the most important but it is also fun to breakdown WHY the show has such an emotional impact. David Lynch is an artist and understanding the themes, motifs and symbolism behind the show only deepened my appreciation for it.
Excellent video! Thank you for making this. "You already get it a lot more than you think" is probably the best summation of how viewers experience the works of David Lynch I've ever heard. Looking forward to Part 2
Yesterday I was watching a Sarah Z video that you did some voice work on and then I was all like, man, Maggie hasn't posted in a while. AND HERE YOU ARE!!
The first season was definitely "event television." We'd eagerly await each new episode. So wild and inventive. The show was shocking for it's time, even if one was familiar with Lynch's work. Surreal, emotional, and sometimes hysterically funny.
I remember you asking followers about Twin Peaks on your twitter some months ago and since then I have been eagerly awaiting this video and now I cannot wait for part 2. Without a doubt one of my favorite video essayists!
I tought The Return was a meta commentary on revivals (specially how they end up ruining the canon and destroying the original ideas), not about specific shows of the time. Really looking forward to the second part. Great as usual!!! Thanx, Maggie!!!
I'm glad I was able to enjoy Twin Peaks just for the ~vibes~ and themes and connect and ressonante with it emotionally and went completely blind. You totally killed it again Maggie! Thank you for putting into words how I felt about it and most of Lynch work too. And Laura's portrayal in Fire Walk with Me is just genius. I absolute love her. I feel the same way with Evangelion, I can't stand people who try to decipher the mechanics behind it while ignoring the clear themes literally screaming in the screen to you. But I haven't built courage to watch the Return yet, but now knowing you're going to cover it, I'll have to!
Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about why there's no good twin peaks explained videos and of course you come out with this! I love your stuff
I'm fairly new to Lynch having only watched all of Twin Peaks, but I cringed hard when you showed a video of someone doing detailed analysis of the show. Lynch has talked many times about how trying to put visual art into words only diminishes it. I'll never forget finishing Fire Walk With Me and trying to understand what I had just seen. I came to the realization that Lynch was telling me a story through feelings, and I had no desire to break down every symbol. I intuitively felt what was going on throughout it, even though I couldn't rationalize it into words. Lynch's true art is the unique painting of emotions he creates for each individual who experiences his work.
I know this is gunna be a controversial take, but that four hour long video is an excellent breakdown of all the themes, symbols and recurring messages that Lynch put in the show. I know people avoid trying to understand Twin Peaks because they want to keep the feeling of mystery behind it, but Lynch is an absolutely brilliant artist and watching that explained video actually made me love and appreciate Twin Peaks even more. It's a similar feeling to looking at a Picasso painting and thinking "huh, weird. " You can recognize the artistic talent but aren't sure WHY it's good. Then once you learn more of the context about WHY Picasso made certain choices and see his artistic progression, you can fully appreciate that every little detail is thought out and not just a "weird" painting. Lynch is a goddamn genius and isn't just putting random images on the screen. Every single detail fits into the overall meaning and significance of the show. I personally think it's worth breaking down all those little details because it helps you better understand WHY Twin Peaks is so emotionally powerful.
@@hollyrrunsThe problem with it is that his explanation is only one of them. You can make his interpretation (who at some points is working very well and at other is pretty flimsy, but it's cool, more on it latter), but the problem is when he is saying it's the best explanation. The beauty of Lynch work is that at some point there is no complete understanding, (in Mullholland Drive it's particularly well done), if you try to "crack the code", you end up with stuff that don't match your neat decoding and force you to reaching, like dealing with pieces of a totally different puzzle, because it's more interesting to have competing interpretations: Lynch is really doing something (the scenes have an emotional truth, they work on a pure cinematic level), but he offer the freedom to think of the same arrangement with (sometimes wildly) different outlooks and understandings, or even no understandings at all. The Twin Perfect video explore some aspects of Twin Peaks that are definitely there and can be analyzed for a better experience with the show, but saying that it's all about that closes a lot more doors that are also thought provoking, and miss the point of making the show that way in the first place. I'm all for saying that you should explore why art is effective, but in this case, it's not by saying "well, everything was in fact about violence in media".
@@al9355 you know you can hear someone else's interpretation of the work and still have your own subjective experience of it, right? He isn't "closing doors" by providing his interpretation. You can choose to agree or disagree with his opinions. I just happen to think his interpretation is really interesting and well researched. I just don't get why this video drags this poor dude saying he sucked all the fun out of twin peaks by trying to analyze the themes of it. She then proceeds to do the exact same thing: analyze the themes of Twin Peaks and provide an interpretation of it.
@@hollyrruns I said I don't have any problem with him making an interpretation. The problem is that it's not an analysis of the themes of Twin Peaks, it's an attempt at an exhaustive and authoritative explanation of the sense and message of Twin Peaks, the intent that translates into the skeleton key for decrypting everything in the show. While there is showmanship in his assertions (it's better for the visibility), he also seriously attempts to explain that the whole point of Twin Peaks, the man behind the curtain of it all, is the effects of violence in general and the violence in media in particular. I happen to think that it is, in fact, a salient theme in Twin Peaks, and I share some of his analysis on this theme. But it is absolutely preposterous to not see that Twin Peaks is wildly multi interpretative, and that the examples he shows in his video as a proof of his wider claim can (and will) be used for totally different interpretations, that the video dismisses as missing the forest for the tree, while those trees (hang on for the metaphor) can in fact be a whole different and simultaneous forest. You said "that four hour long video is an excellent breakdown of all the themes, symbols and recurring messages that Lynch put in the show". But it is absolutely not all there is to it, and the fact that you seem to think it is seem to me like an excellent proof of what I was saying about the lessening of the interpretative field that this video is inflicting, and that Maggie deplores, along with the fact that this interpretative task, what you rightly identifies as the analysis of the talent of Lynch, is lessened by the reduction of it to a secret theme declined ad absurdam. I approve of your initial comparison with a Picasso painting and the pleasure of understanding more about artistry, but similarly, I would be critical is someone made a 4 hours video that, while being deep and intricate about his paintings craft, tried to say the whole point of his oeuvre was just "insert a theme here" and that's it, case closed. While great art provoke inexhaustible resonances (like the literature on Shakespeare evolving since centuries), this explanaition tries to contain them into a pre-digested one-size-fits-all great anwser. I will finish on another, gentler note: I understand the need to defend a learning experience (which the video seem to have been for you) and don't intend to be disrespectful to anyone, but the merits of the video can be weighted against the consequences that it can have on the discourse, and I think criticising it, not for "sucking all the fun out of twin peaks by trying to analyze the themes of it", but for the overarching limitations of his process, is fair game.
@@hollyrruns I mean, there is a stark difference in the presentation of said interpretations. While both are subjective, Twin Perfect's presentation of *his own subjective experience* puts it off to his viewers as "this is it, this is *the* interpretation" while Maggie actively shows that hers is *but one* interpretation.
Knowing all this only makes it weirder that I loved this show so much as an 8 year old. I had no frame of reference for what the show was reacting to as I didn't watch soap operas. I watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and ALF, and Star Trek The Next Generation. But I remember fondly those Monday nights when my parents would turn on ABC while they sat on the couch and I sat on the floor, and they let me have donuts while they drank coffee and we watched it as a family.
Twin Peaks is my #1 favorite show. I love watching everyone's take on it and their perspective. Awesome video! Also, I was going to be so freakin mad if there wasn't going to be a part two. lol
Twin Peaks is like a warm blanket of kitsch that insulates you from the horror of its world. Fire Walk With Me is like being wrapped in plastic and thrown in a river.
Loved this. I got into the series about six episodes before it was cancelled (that’s the effect I usually have on shows I come to late), and was only able to see the whole thing a few years later, as the episodes were SLOWLY released on laserdisc. I *did* see the movie in a (lousy, tiny, nearly empty) theatre though. It was my first night back in Toronto for my second year of university. I remember that first time seeing the movie so vividly. While I didn’t connect it with Silence of the Lambs as you do, I sure was aware of the many ways it subverted the usual male gaze-y thriller tropes-especially the Pink Room sequence that does everything in its power to be hot and sexy while simultaneously doing everything it can to make you feel really scuzzy about it. There was only one other couple in the cinema with me, and when the movie ended the guy hollers out “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT???” and I was right there with him! And yet: the thing stuck in my head. It inspired dreams. It had me puzzling things out. And by the time I went home for the Thanksgiving weekend maybe six weeks later I was convinced it was the best movie I’d ever seen. To this day it’s in my top three, because for all its surrealism the depiction of trauma just feels *real* in a way that digs a lot deeper into my head than a more realistic story ever could. I also remember my mom’s reaction the first time she watched it: she said it was the most believable movie she’d ever seen. Which I mean, yikes, I guess? Of course I know that she was referring to the *emotional* reality, much like my own response. My family didn’t get into the old 80s soaps like Dynasty so it was neat to see all the parallels you unearthed. To me the series has always been about the overall *feeling* it gives. Even the weakest episodes in the depths of season two all seem to have elements that serve the vibe pretty well; a recent re-viewing surprised me with how short the actual “off the rails” stretch is. And the final episode is still one of the most amazing pieces of TV ever. Seeing that for the first time back in 1991 really was something special. It’s always so tempting to try to explain the precise meaning of every little oddity in a Lynch production, but that always seems so pointless. He doesn’t care about that stuff at all, and if anything he seems to revel in making any straightforward reading impossible. I’ve also seen so many people get angry at his use of dream logic: as if “it’s only a dream” is somehow a bad thing, whereas Lynch seems to think dreams are actually pretty damn important. For me, Twin Peaks has always been a state of mind: one that’s as satisfying now as it was the first time. I could keep geeking out and go on about recent realizations about why it hit me so hard in the first place, but must stop. Looking forward to part two!
On my most recent rewatch I couldn't stop thinking about how all the men in charge seem to love playing cowboys while the women around them suffer. I think that's sort of what makes Maddie Ferguson so tragic, it's affirming that nothing is being done to prevent it from happening again, they're too busy spelunking in Owl Cave.
Even Dale doesn't listen to Laura in the dream, or the Log Lady ever really. And even in the Return he's so willfully blind to trauma, that he tries to bring Laura back home, where her trauma happened.
The fan worship and Cooper's idealism of Harry really irks me sometimes because, sure, he got tricked by femme fatale, Josie, but the way he was so aggressively possessive over her and his idealized mental image of who he thought her to be really showed that he wasn't really as good a guy as people think. The fandom is pretty great and spot on about Cooper's flaws, but too many have a blind spot about Harry.
when I recently re-watched Twin Peaks, my strong impression was that by far the greatest performance was given by Ray Wise as Leland Palmer. And Ray Wise had a background in soap operas, being on Love of Life for years.
"Your emotionally fueled motives? Petty, weak, lacking restraint, shortsighted. My emotionally fueled motives? Powerful. Super cool. Inarguable." "...And it goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on-"
Okay, I’m only ten minutes into the video but Thaaaaank you so much for this. Twin Peaks has been primarily an emotional experience for me (a deeply emotional one at that) and turning the dang thing into a puzzle just sucks the life right out of it.
I grew up watching the 80’s dramas and Twin Peaks in 1990. Your commentary comparing the 80’s TV dramas, movies and soaps to Twin Peaks is so accurate. This is the first analysis that points this out AND doesn’t make my 50 year old head spin. I loved the original and the Return series. Fire Walk with Me has grown on me rewatching it after the Return series. The Lynch Universe of movies and shows are all linked and that’s kinda awesome!!
In fairness, I spent an afternoon on the Twin Perfect video, and I'm not ashamed to admit it, because, speaking for myself, I found it oddly relaxing. Long-winded? Yes. Leaps in logic? Perhaps. But I find analysis of things I enjoy by people who aren't me validating of those things I enjoy. A lot of that 4 hours was spent contemplating the nuances of the overarching story, which I found meditative. This video, though? Funny AF, thorough, and to the point. Thank you so much!
Twin Perfect's analysis has a lot of great ideas in it but it is presented so inflexibly and pompously that it makes the points that don't work really stand out. He definitely overlooks a lot of the core emotional, more literary analysis of some moments in favor of re-iterating the television meta-commentary thesis. This is especially glaring when he talks about Laura, who is treated as more of a concept made of "good" and "bad" traits to reflect other characters, and not as a person, and definitely not a person who was abused and murdered by her own father.
Twin Perfect is more reductive, and is more involved with the meta commentary of the original series, but he didn't go into the analysis of the state of media with either Fire Walk With Me or The Return. I could suppose that that could be because the run time of the video was already over four hours, but I didn't pick it up from Corn Pone Flicks videos either.
I love that quote from Lynch about not knowing what the owl meant because Mark Frost came up with. I feel that audiences forget that Twin Peaks really was a collaboration.
Secretly hoping for less an analysis of Twin Peaks and more an analysis of the analysis of Twin Peaks. Either way, I am sure there’s going to be some excellent insight into my favourite series.
3:21 if you actually watched the video he says multiple time that he thinks he found the root idea basically like a Rosetta Stone for Lynch’s symbology and ALL INTERPRETAIONS ARE VALID !!!!!
That Twin Perfect epic was very thoroughly researched and pretty interesting to me, even if I didn't always agree. It perplexes me that people seem to have strong reactions to it. I like Twin Peaks, I like hearing people talk about it
The fact that she goes out of her way so much to insult him is kinda alienating. I put off watching these videos by her because I knew exactly what it was going to be. Don’t get me wrong, I love Maggie, but the need to tear down another persons work is so crass and trashy.
I just watched FWWM the other week after years of putting it off, because the subject matter hits so close to home. It's astounding that Lynch nailed the feeling of living an abusive childhood - it's like being at a dreamlike themepark where everyone else gets to ride roller-coasters and have fun while your abuser forces you to just stand there and watch. Life feels like it wasn't build for you and you have to watch it pass by.
I don't really get the hate for Twin Perfect's video. I watched the video a while back and I found it to be super insightful. Does some stuff seem like it's reaching? Yeah (Quite a bit actually). Do most people who watched the video agree with every point he makes? Not really. Does he seem pretty full of himself? A bit. But you know what he isn't doing? He isn't going around to other people's videos and mocking them. That's what I've noticed a ton of channels doing when they disagree with his video, just snidely deriding the dude. We're all here because we love Twin Peaks. Shitting on Twin Perfect because you disagree with him isn't making this a very fun and welcoming community.
shitting? he is very condeseing on the way he speaks of his interpretation, and really downplaus other intepretations. a critic to a guy you dont know is only that, the issue is that you proyect yourself into him.
i feel like this video, while good, isn't very honestly engaging with twin perfect's video? not that the show doesn't use emotional logic or anything like that, because the show runs on emotion - but that logic and emotion aren't at odds with each other. twin perfect's video comes to the same conclusion about the core theme of twin peaks, being that turning the killers into abstractions and refusing to disengage with mystery forces the audience to engage with the subjects as actual people rather than pawns in a game or problems to be solved. like there's very little this video says against twin perfect's doesn't get acknowledged by twin perfect. he goes really far out of his way to state that making a video like his is the opposite of what david lynch wants you to do. he also elaborates and goes into exactly WHY david lynch holds this stance. also, his approach is much less diagetic than this makes it out to be. he's largely discussing film language and artistic intent. it's not "the wrong way" to watch twin peaks, because logic and emotion are not at odds with each other. a part of twin perfect's video series is there to make this case, that in some ways, for some people, understanding and breaking down abstract symbolism can enhance the emotional meaning of them. but the core theme of twin peaks being that television reduces people to mysteries to be solved rather than complex people who deserve love and how these kinds of stories often have real consequences that go unexplored because of the audience's fixation on solving the crime itself rather than engaging with the people affected as actual people? that's the whole point of twin perfect's entire video series. everything serves that purpose. he just explains how some of the more abstract imagery also serves this purpose, with both the extensive acknowledgement of the fact that david lynch hates people approaching his art this way, and also extensively getting into why david lynch feels that way and how it impacts the way you watch the show. i don't remember how much more of this comes from the follow up videos, which, if you could manage sitting through the original video, definitely are essential expansions upon the original that you should watch. however, i like that this video is looking more extensively at twin peaks' influences, because its true that people dismiss soap opera as an artform presumably because of like, idk, weird misogyny shit (the whole "it's trash tv for bored housewives therefor it can't possibly have merit of its own!" kinda attitude people have towards them), and hold up twin peaks for doing exactly what soap operas had already done long before it without realizing it, but again, none of this is in contradiction to twin perfect's video. great video, don't get me wrong. I also never really thought of the connection to silence of the lambs, and now i can't believe i never noticed it. also that's a pretty spot on hasan piker impression lol
Twin Perfect put a lot of work and love into their videos... I don't understand why you're the second creator I love who has lambasted them and I don't really know why people feel the need lol I can't remember the whole four hours but I remember there's a lot of great stuff in there !
I've seen a few people now mock Twin Perfect's video, which I think is weird because I found it really intriguing to watch while also understanding it doesn't really "solve" Twin Peaks as he's not the creator of the show. It's a really interesting video in that he tries to analyze why certain things were chosen to symbolize emotions or abstract concepts, based off Lynch interviews and other media created by Lynch. Perhaps he simplifies things too much, but I never felt like he was saying his analysis was THE way to watch Twin Peaks or that he was "mansplaining" Twin Peaks, even if the title of the video seems to indicate that. In this video, Maggie is very dismissive of Twin Perfect's video but then goes on to pretty much make the same overarching analysis as him, being that Twin Peaks is a critique on media of the time it was created.
Because of the absolute certainty with which he makes his points, as if he's a fount of unassailable facts rather than a dude who made a pretty in depth theory with a bunch of evidence (some convincing, some unconvincing, and some hilariously unconvincing)
@@clanofclams2720 I could understand that... When people talk about other things in that way, like especially men talking about women, or the more ignorant of white people talking about racism... It's very easy to get angry at their confidence... I guess I'm just puzzled because Twin Perfect seems like a nice fella to me so I'm biased. I also had an extremely adversarial relationship with his Snyder/BVS videos, and Prometheus... but they all offered SUPER interesting takes that humbled me! Like his Lex Luthor video- I had no idea Snyder actually based it on a precedented version of Lex from a comic book I haven't read, but I was SO quick to talk shit about how much Jesse Eisenberg -iSN't my Lex- and sucks for being- well- everything he was. I really don't prefer him but I really appreciate knowing a lot more thought and care was put into some movies than I thought- even Prometheus, which has some MAJOR flaws that apparently were explored in the script- blah blah blah. Now I've got a 4 hour long comment!!! I just some funky medicine lol sorry have a nice day
Great video, I appreciated the deep dives and debunking of common thoughts along the way! Also, damn that ending teaser! I never considered how Twin Peaks: The Return could be a commentary for so many modern dramas it inherently inspired. Looking forward to it!
Wonderful analysis of a show I have never even seen. Weird how you have the ability to make such things interesting. 😁 Also Totally taken aback how you got Hasan to do a little guest spot. That's super cool.
Hey! I've been binging a lot of your videos and just wanted to let you know that I absolutely love your channel! The way you break down and critically analyze every piece of media without sounding cynical or pretentious is such an admirable quality you have! Not to mention how charismatic you are. There's a lot to learn from you as a person and a content creator, and as a fan I'd like to thank you for being amazing in both those regards! Much love, keep up the great work!
Someone once told me Twin Peaks was too melodramatic but I was too busy still crying at the scene in the diner where where Major Briggs tells Bobby his dream AND ALSO MANY OTHERS.
Come to think of it, I'd rather not know what Twin Peaks is about. I love twin peaks, it is mesmerizing, pulls you in and leaves you with a stupid look on your face. A big "what the hell?". I think that was the point all along, and it worked it's magic on me. I am content with being unsatisfied.
Loved the analysis, but I feel it would be heightened if you didn't dismiss so insistently the Twin Perfect analysis, which is also valid and interesting, and at least deserves respect for the work put into it (even if you don't agree with everything it says). I don't understand why you found that necessary: you said yourself we need both the emotional and logical approach.
Absolutely agree. She comes off as authoritative and toxic as people accuse Twin Perfect to be. And honestly, most of his theories make more sense than her entire video lol
I was about to say that. 4 minutes into the video I was already bothered on how salty it was towards Twin Perfect's video. Maggie says "I'm not gonna draw a map that sucks all the fun of watching the show by yourself" referring to the map that Twin Perfect did. BUT DUDE, his video is for people who ALREADY watched everything, and not a guide to someone who's gonna start it, people already had the fun of watching it. And the she porcceeds to says she is gonna explain the show, telling her theories, which is exactly the same thing Twin Perfect did, using his map as part of it. AND GUESS WHAT? MOST of the stuff he said made perfect sense and had a lot of evidence to enforce his opinions.
OH MY GOD. You have no idea how happy you've made me with this video. My Twin Peaks story: I was 5-6 yrs old when I saw it first, it was early 90s in a recently post communist regime country (Romania) and a ratings system for TV didn't exist so that is how I explain the fact that my parents let me watch with them. Everyone freaking loved this show, it was one of those shows that was watched by an entire country (not many tv stations back then). Twin Peaks changed me forever. I don't know if it tapped into something dark in a 6 yr old or it whet my appetite for dark, strange, eerie things, but I loved it so much. I honestly had nightmares at night with bits from the show for years and was afraid to look in mirrors in the dark (my hair is very like Bob's haha). Dale Cooper was my first crush ever and I still love the joy and gentleness in that character even if he is a cop. I remember as a kid seeing the final shot of the second season, it haunted me for years, this sort of emptiness and despair because of what happened to Dale. Needless to say, I was so happy about season 3. I think it was a season of television which really made me confrunt my need for fucking explainers that are logical and last 4 hours, but it is a piece of ART that TAUGHT me as I was watching it, it taught me how to watch it, I learned stuff about myself in the process and I swear, by the end of the last episode, I was able to let go of a big part of myself that needed things to be explained. Lynch literally made me understand that some things should just be FELT. Of course The Return ends in an even more existentially uncertain and unmoored place, but this time I think I was ready for it. Weirdly, even if I love the old characters, I remember the moment when we had a couple of the new characters in the forest, just crying and living out moments of being desperate, unconsoled. I think that's when the emotion clicked for me. In Lynch's cinematic language feelings are real and raw and big and unsanitized. His work is not afraid to wound you, to strike at your very core and I so appreciate that about him. I am now a person who loves mystery. I am a person who can sit with her bigger than life feelings and accept them and I honestly think Twin Peaks has its part in me being more myself somehow. As for betting on part 2 and the connection to the very famous antiheroes of 'The Golden Age of Television' yadda yadda, I would say it is very much about how Dale Cooper took center stage in the show in a way and how his 3 aspects totally broke the duality binary. The antihero shows are all about family life vs 'work' life or dark side, while they cannot show their 'real' self, they are stuck in performing their selves. And in Twin Peaks we have Dark Cooper, the shadow self, doing misdeeds, we have Dougie, the innocent family man, who is beloved by everyone even if he is a sort of empty shell (perhaps the way viewers of those shows loved Don Draper, Heisenberg, Tony Soprano etc) or representing the memeified aspects of Dale, loving coffee, having some sort of innocence about life, doing a thumbs up, or even representing the way nostalgia transforms characters into much simpler things just because they are beloved, and then we have the REAL Dale stuck in a liminal space, trying to find his way back to himself. It's amazing, I had never thought about these things, but now that I've just asked the question you posed, it is just flowing out of me. Anyway, thanks so much for doing a video on Twin Peaks, your videos always make my brain purr and activate somehow, and this is no different.
This was absolutely great and I'm definitely looking forward to part 2, Maggie. How long did this video take for you to make all together and did you lose any of your sanity watching that much Dynasty? Speaking of Lynch, I would be totally down for a video on Dune haha.
I love Twin Peaks so much but it frustrates me endlessly when people try to "logic" it. Like you say, a lot of Lynch's work is about emotional response and I never once felt the need to "make sense" of it because it kinda...already did? I felt and understood the feelings of all the characters and how they would react to things (especially Laura in Fire Walk With Me which, you're right, is underrated) so I did not think there was any need to "solve the mystery". Love this video, Maggie. Fucking hype for the next one! Keep up the good work!
I fell into this trap after finishing the whole series in a month, instead of listening to my heart which deep down already knew what Twin Peaks "meant", I got thrown off course by binging the hours of analysis by dudes who just desperately need to know what every single thing meant. That Lynch quote in this video where he said he didn't know wtf the owls were made me wake up to my fallacy of overthinking TP. Lynchs filmmaking is like trying to concretely explain an abstract painting. You can analyse the medium, the tools, the colours, the technique... but in the end its just about emotion. And that is hard to grapple with in the medium of film where we want a story told from beginning to end.
i just think his smug declaration that he and only he has the true meaning of twin peaks on lockdown to the point that it would ruin any other interpretation if you heard it is just so goddamn irritating, and totally at odds with how lynch would want you to approach any of his art.
@@sawdustanddiamonds99 So what you're saying is you just don't like his attitude or whatever and refuse to engage with the actual ideas? Great attitude you have there yourself.
I get the issue with Twin Perfect's tone but to dismiss their interpretation outright is throwing away many babies with a bit of bathwater. It's just way too simple and demonstrably effective at answering MANY questions. I've found stuff he missed, using his own lens. I think Prof Fish needs to percolate a little longer. Incidentally logic and emotion are no more opposite than darkness and red are - you can occasionally get one without the other, but the presence of one doesn't imply a deficit in the other (unless you're a Trekkie)
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
I feel like Lynch would approve of the fact that I'm watching this having never seen Twin Peaks.
Same tho
Jessie, plz watch Twin Peaks. Add that to the Star Trek content and I will personally see to it you make an extravagant living off of videos forever
Nothing wrong with doing this, but Lynch would be mortified I think
What?!? Anyone else and that would be an unsub, but you get a temporary pass Jessie.
Twin Peaks is amazing on multiple levels, revolutionized what episodic storytelling in a series could achieve, and so radically different than anything that came before or since while maintaining a near ghostly presence of nostalgia at the same time. If you dig any of Lynch's work Twin Peaks is worth the time investment because it is not only fantastic, but after viewing it you are left with an imprint from the experience unlike so much of the current media zeitgeist that is instantly forgettable after immediately after viewing.
Take the time to watch Twin Peaks. You won't regret it, but we still aren't going to talk about Judy. We're going to keep her out of this.
Twin Peaks is a serial, not episodic.
One of my favorite things about Twin Peaks was the relationship between Cooper and Truman. Most stories about slick out of town FBI agents working with small town cops are rife with conflicting egos, but from minute one Cooper and Truman make it clear to each other that they have mutual respect and know the most important thing is that they work together effectively to solve the case. It’s so refreshing to see such an amicable professional relationship between men in a crime drama, and so heartwarming to see it blossom into a real friendship. Truly, the real owls were the friends we made along the way
lol that’s how you know it’s fiction
I completely agree.
There’s a lot of talks about the relationships in Twin Peaks, but some of the best are the platonic ones: Coop and Harry, Shelley and Norma, Briggs and The Log Lady.
Coop comforting Harry after losing Josie, and the little nose boop Coop does to Harry in the interrogation room are just priceless.
The first and best true bromance…
and when albert comes in and starts that dynamic cooper immediatly shuts it down
@@Grimmlocked "Albert's path is a strange and difficult one." ruclips.net/video/B8_8PLVbPXY/видео.html&ab_channel=SucdeTaronja
@@Liboo52 Yeah I like alberts small arc in the show
I adore the scenes where Cooper starts telling other police officers about his dream leads and everyone takes it 100% seriously
That's dream logic for you. In a dream the most incongruous things could happen, from a fish in a percolator, to a one armed traveling shoe salesman screaming about stealing all the creamed corn, and the inhabitants accept it and react to it.
Oh man that’s the best - I also love the fake cliff hangers.
Who shot Dale Cooper.
Kinda just some guy…
Cooper has the name of the killer?
Nah, he forgot mate…
Reminds me of real cops lol. Many of them even still use psychics 😂
Ya I watched through twin peaks recently and I was weirded out lol
@@danielthompson2561 You have to pay attention, Jossie shot Coop.
One of the big reasons Fire Walk With Me was neglected for so long is because of how difficult it is to watch. Crime-thrillers like Silence of the Lambs present grim horror in carefully-considered pulpy vignettes. It is dark, but it is sanitized, usually without emotional weight so we can still 'enjoy' the carnage. Fire Walk With Me is similar to Funny Games in how it takes all the 'fun' away by portraying real humanity in its brutal events. Even as a fan, I have a hard time revisiting it because of how withering the experience is. As it should feel.
Oof, exactly. Great comparison with Funny Games. I love both films for how truthfully they convey emotions, but they are both very hard to revisit.
FWWM feels to me like an emotional stream from Laura's perspective and as that it hits so hard.
The film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me meant a lot to me, as someone who was sexually abused by my mother's boyfriend, but also the series came out when my sister and I were still living with our abusive stepfather. We understood all too well where the real danger was and that was why it meant so much to us. I always felt that the way that everything was so surreal really got to how it felt to be in those situations of being abused by someone who was supposed to be protecting us. It feels surreal, and you experience the world as surreal like it was in Twin Peaks.
So Sorry!!!!! :( D:
I’m sorry that happened to you. I recently binged through twin peaks and man that movie fucked with my mind since it was unrelenting and bleak.
I went through that too - a mom that knew but pretended not to notice. (She admitted she knew when I was in grad school and out of the house for several years. How sick is that?) She was always chain smoking, drinking and wearing a big happy smile.
I was also always out of the house, straight As goody two shoes, but also interested in drugs, in trouble with boys and skipping class.
Just like Laura. She’s such a realistic character.
Just a kid in a world that doesn’t make any sense. I knew right away what was going on with Laura when I first watched twin peaks in 2018. I said “that girl doesn’t want to be at home.”
It felt good to see Laura’s mom in the return. I know that’s how my estranged mom spends her days. Smoking, watching Fox, and feeling rotten.
@@youtubename7819 I'm so sorry for what happened to you. I hope you're managing to live OK with your trauma.
@@mattiethemongoose3rd I am doing remarkably well! My adult life is so much better than the hand I was dealt foretold.
I hope you and your sister are doing well too. But if you aren’t, that’s ok, and you can talk to this internet confidante about it if you want to.
The face I made when that dog ran off with that heart
Ôo
I never put 2 and 2 together before that Twin Peaks is a crime drama rooted in empathy for the victims of senseless violence and not fascination for the perpetrators of senseless violence.
I am not american, but I grew up in a small town and I can tell you Twin Peaks hits very close to home when it comes to my experience growing up. Apart from the americana that permeates Twin Peaks, the themes of a small community hiding secrets and presenting a friendly façade to the outside is a reality I know only too well. To this day Twin Peaks is one of my favourite works of art. Thank you for the amazing video
If this isn't 4 1/2 hours long and doesn't include any David Lynch impersonations I am not gonna know what to do with myself.
You nailed it!!!! 😂
Lmao
The impersonations were too much. Just too much
@@randiwatchesthey're so haunting you'd think Lynch directed the video himself.
The impersonations were so bad
I just watched Fire Walk With Me recently and I'm high right now and I just have to say that when Laura screamed "I love you, James" and then kissed him on the forehead and ran away it just hit like a truck. We know from early in the series that Laura thought James was sweet but dumb, that she was distant from her boyfriend Bobby, and that she was keeping secrets from her best friend and her parents and basically self-destructing. But part of what the film added to her character was the sense that Laura actually did care incredibly deeply about the people around her, and was just so scared and in so much pain that she lost the ability to really express that. James was dumb, but Laura did care about him and love him, and she regretted that she was hurting him. That line of dialogue feels like it's the culmination of all her agony and frustration and grief not only at her situation but at her inability to genuinely connect with other people and show clearly that she loves them.
Laura I think David lynch truly loved a lot as a character. She was so full of love for everyone around her yet everyone around her exploited her, hurt her and did not try to save her or even know how. The true tragedy was her being stuck in this cycle of abuse and all the end of that abuse do was hurt more people.
Fire walk with me actually gives Laura as a victim agency rather than being a woman fridged
A thing I love about David Lynch's work is how he uses surrealism to depict the horrors of the mundane. Both Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks show the horrors hiding in small towns. I especially like how he depicts these horrible crimes with care and empathy towards the victim.
I spent 3 months at the start of the pandemic listening to nothing but the Twin Peaks soundtrack on an infinite loop, drinking energy drinks out of thrifted fine crystal with my dog. I feel like that sums up the experience of Twin Peaks pretty much.
Yall should ask Hasan to watch this, but without spoiling that he's literally in it beforehand
Maggie Mae has Hasan down to an art! I'm impressed!
If she was really doing a perfect hasan she would have left the video playing while he leaves the room and then throw a tantrum when someone tells him to maybe not do that
Haha I thought she was doing a Hasan bit. Very well done!
@@kat8559 cry harder
@@goochgoochtheclown the only person crying is hasan when people tell him not to do that
I think the bit where Cooper berates his coworker from out of town really sums up the difference between twin peaks reaction to death and shows like dynasty. The idea that people's emotional response to death can and sometimes should take precedence over using all available evidence to solve the case as quickly as possible raises a complex argument and disrupts the viewers expectations of a typical serialised crime show where the characters are used a vehicle to solve the mystery and anyone getting in the way of that would be framed very negatively.
I also like when the coworker declares himself to be a pacifist when threatened by the sherrif
people contain multitudes
@@Feasco Yeah, Albert's personality is very nuanced. Great character
The thing that's always appealed most to me about Twin Peaks is that emotional truthfulness. It may play around with archetypes and surrealism, but the characters are real. They experience the many fragments of beauty, horror, delights, and sadness that we all do in our lives, and act in ways that actually feel like people would. p.s. Talking of accurate....that react streamer. Love the creativity in the video, as ever.
wait what Lynch characters act like real people? i vehemently disagree. they talk like out of context quotes from books and move about like robots inhabiting human skin.
@@transsexual_computer_faery and you dont, ok, weirdo. I bet you dont love rain for falling either
@@Scp716creativecommons i don't know what you mean but i love your comment nonetheless
The Fire Walk With Me/Silence of the Lambs connection is very neat. This video is a nice antidote to that other one you mentioned. Can’t wait for part two!
While I agree that the other video has a ton of things right, I'm also kind of disgusted by it. I also wouldn't trust what both Lynch and Frost say on certain topics and emblems of this story. The way occult symbols and symbolism in general is being used is deeply intentional. It's another layer which adds and explains other layers.
The Return in my opinion is the best thing on TV ever, and I don't think it will ever be topped, just like Kubrick will forever be the best director (best artist of the whole of humanity in my opinion).
ok twin perfect
@Tube Surfer I haven't watched the Twin Perfect video since it came out, but I've been steeped in Twin Peaks fandom for a while now, and reducing the whole show to "TV ruins your brain" brought precious little to the table. "Explaining" Twin Peaks misses the point anyway. Even John Thorne doesn't claim to "explain" Twin Peaks. He's been theorizing for decades, but it's still an open discussion. Maggie's title is cheeky. She's not explaining the *meaning* of Twin Peaks, but providing context for aspects of the show (and the film) that'll seem foreign to new viewers but wouldn't have in 1989. The idea is to encourage them to take this wonderful journey and not be intimidated by it. I came to it late myself, and hadn't watched a second of Dynasty. The Silence of the Lambs connection really did fascinate me, and I can't wait to hear her analysis of how The Return was an answer to modern prestige TV. And if you don't understand the Dynasty and Lambs connections, it's no surprise the whole streamer bit was lost on too. It's okay, you don't need to take it personally (unless you are Twin Pefect, in which case, sure).
@Tube Surfer you misread my statement. I watched the video WHEN IT CAME OUT and not since. And no, I haven't encountered a single person who considers it the pinnacle of anything. I'm sorry it apparently hurt your feelings, but it sounds like you just have a problem with women? Anyway, your video isn't as good as you're hyping it to be and Maggie's is better, sorry.
@@ContentWithJeremiah I geuss one thing I'm personally missing from you guys is a specific piece of evidence or reasoning you guys disagree with in the Twin Perfect video. It takes him hours to get to the "Tv rots your brain" line and even comments that that's why Lynch doesn't like using mere words. In both his original video and his video responding to criticisms, it's like quote after quote from Lynch is being presented as evidence for a logically coherent reading and you guys seem to say, quite baselessly, that it's not meant to be explained. I don't understand why you guys say this.
Laura's scream from the end of The Return still haunts my dreams... This is one of the most intriguing and clearly presented Twin Peaks videos I've seen, showing all the explicit examples from Dynasty and Silence of the Lambs is incredible and I'm so glad you took the time to edit them together visually. I feel like I'm getting close to understanding Twin Peaks, which is funny because I find myself going back to what were my original thoughts on it- not overthinking the mystery and metaphors and just feeling the atmosphere and emotion.
I cannot wait for part 2!!
That scream haunts my dreams too.
Her scream is one of the most unsettling sounds I've ever heard.
we live inside a dream.
i have that on my wall.
@@scottyPsychotty makes me think of this great little video: Laura Palmer Screaming Through 25 Years: ruclips.net/video/Gl2DV5YW8nw/видео.html
The 4 hour video is amazing! It's really good don't dismiss it so quickly! He makes really well supported points. Its a valid theory at the least.
I love Lynch, one of the few men to truly critique how women are treated in media in a nuanced way. The connections between Fire Walk With Me and The Silence of the Lambs were particularly interesting. Its fascinating how Silence demonstrates the way that sexist men also produce transphobia, especially considering the later context of Lynch's own self reflecting on how he represents trans woman with the character of Denise Richards. Unlike many other artists; David genuinely tries to grow his understanding of experiences he doesnt have.
finding Aranock in the wild
Leading to one of the greatest lines ever: “Fix your heart or die!l
This Ted talk reminded me of Kentaro Miura
Agreed ... which is why it's been so hard for me to resolve what I've read about his callous breakup from Isabella Rossellini which kind of destroyed her emotionally & last I read, she never got any closure from him.
I know you can't believe every gossip rag you read so yeah there's that but it doesn't sit well with me.
@@scaredyfish
it's the best line from tv ever.
I've just finished s1 of Twin Peaks, and I was interested in watching this specifically because I felt the emotional honesty in it was so touching. The intensity of Laura's parents' reactions was so realistic, it really resonated with me. Grief completely scrambles your ability to make sense of your impulses, your emotions, basically any action that isn't involuntary like breathing. It's hard to put into words the way that grief disrupts your life; it's genuinely a trial you face. I always hate the stoic, single tear depiction of grief in media, because it makes people feel like their expression of grief isn't "normal" if they don't repress it to hell and back. It's a huge disservice to everyone and it alienates people who've burst that illusion bubble and has experienced grief for themselves. So I always really appreciate anything that shows grief for how visceral and ugly it can be. It's tough and not what anyone wants to experience, but we can't pick ourselves back up without actually facing down something we'd rather repress.
it is happening... again
This show was the reason I started drinking black coffee. Now milky coffee makes me feel sick. Thanks for that, man with the grey elevated hair.
Somewhere... Sheryl Lee screams.
Does this also spoil Twin Peaks The Return?
Its always happening.
It's a shame they didn't have Beach House on the new season:(
I once watched Twin Peaks with someone who had already seen it. They got really mad at me because I kept correctly guessing aspects of the story, and were sure that I must have looked up answers online. But the reality is that Lynch is just really good at conveying emotion and if you pay attention to it you can feel out the story!
Oh for sure. I guessed that Leland was the killer pretty early into S1 the first time I saw it (although technically it wasn't REALLY him, but the point still stands)
I guessed it was Leland since that is usually the case in real life.
Every time someone tries to explain Twin Peaks to me I somehow end the conversation with less information than I started, including the first time someone told me it exists.
Whenever anyone asks me to explain Twin Peaks to them...I don't.
@@Briansgate yeah
It's really simple: the log is behind it all. I just need a 4 hour video to explain why.
Honestly have a hard time explaining to people why twin peaks is my comfort show and this does a really good job of explaining why.
Nicely done. Lynch's works making "emotional sense" is exactly how I put it while trying to explain why I love them so much and what's even there to love (to various degrees of success). You need to just let it wash over you, and you'll get it, in a way that you're really supposed to get it. Of course, that requires a generous benefit of a doubt to be given to the artist, and I don't even remember what compelled to do it the first time, but I'm glad I did it, and Lynch never disappointed me ever since.
That's why I like Mulholland Drive the most. It's built almost like a trap for anyone coming in with the intent to viewing it as literal series of events, or trying to come up with a simplistic 'It's about X' story - whatever you try to flatten it into, it has actively spiked that idea in advance, somewhere. It's all tone and all emotion, and if you can't let go of trying to analyse it you can barely tolerate it. Normally to get into that kind of watching-through-feeling mental state I need to see a film that is a direct emotional attack, like Come and See or Waltz With Bashir.
It also makes watching David Lynch explainers more fun, since they fight back against attempts to literalise them. I still resent the time I watched Annihilation and ran over to see what people thought, only to find that in a film so obviously full of metaphors that a character at one point openly explains what the film is about and what her metaphor is the overwhelming majority of conversation on RUclips about it was about the very literal aliens and the very literal invasion.
@@UnreasonableOpinions Did you watch Dan Olson's video about Annihilation? If you haven't, you'll love it.
I wonder if this is why certain David Lynch films "work better" for me than others? That I'm just not in the head space to deal with the emotional aspects of them. Might have to give Inland Empire another go.
Probably never going to watch Eraser Head again though. That one connected a little too well for me...
@@TehBurek Yep. Got me onto that channel; it was reassuring to see someone as mad as I was after seeing what felt like dozens of videos claiming to show the 'meaning' of the movie by explaining the literal events in sequence, even though the only way Annihilation could be more obviously metaphorical would be if at one point they stopped the film for the director to show up in a suit and say "Hello I am Alex Garland the director of annihilation, and these are all metaphors for grief, pain and loss."
@James Rule
Definitely. I didn't like most Lynch films I watched since they felt weird, but Mulholland Drive hit perfectly. I don't know why, and it didn't make the other ones suddenly snap into focus. I guess since it's so reliant on hitting emotional resonance it has to either work or not work on any given person in the audience.
1,000% the understanding is the feeling, the questions and even the analysis. Some things don’t make sense on a literal level but you can feel it and the symbolism of it and that’s what’s important. Lynch has gotten me into more abstract cinema in general. I don’t think I could understand or appreciate something like The Holy Mountain, The Color of Pomegranates, Kenneth Anger stuff or even stuff like the Matrix etc nearly as much if I didn’t have my foundations in stuff like Lynch. I think one of the best parts about more abstract cinema is that it can explore ideas or emotions that you cannot portray otherwise. It’s a more fundamental exploration of the raw psyche and it can explore things considered too taboo to portray literally. It’s kind of like how instrumental music can express things that lyrics can’t. I wish people were more open to that kind of stuff rather than being like “uh i don’t get it.” Not saying everything needs to be weird and non literal but just more variety in modern filmmaking would be very nice
Dude- the movie was amazing. I loved FINALLY seeing Laura in her life , all the moments we heard described, coming to life.. when she's in the car with Leland and they're behind the one armed man.. and he screams over the engine revs , "IT'S HIMMMMM!!!!! " It's just chilling
I once said Twin Peaks was a show which compared the horrors of domestic abuse that women go through with the horrors of nuclear devistation, and their face was one of “what the fuck?”
I mean… you pretty much nailed it, really.
That’s one take, sure. Twin Peaks is so complex that it’s like a seven layer burrito built from 350 different seven layer burritos.
@@eyespy3001 I think you might have just described a fractal but in burritos
I think it's about how any kind of trauma has that effect, not just on women, but on everyone. One of the ways I read Dale is as someone who is unwilling to really deal with his or others trauma emotionally. For him it's a intellectual thing to be dispatched with reason alone. Really all the characters in TP are in some state of dealing with or failing to deal with their trauma.
@@mainstreetchumsclub2405 😆 It would only be a fractal if it was made from all the same burritos. But for the joke’s sake, you’re 100% right. Fractarrito. Burractal.
So cool how Twin Peaks is a critique/reconstruction of its era of soap operas/ crime thriller movies, and this video manages to be a critique/reconstruction of the video essay and the streamers reaction of said video essay
Commenting again because, on a rewatch,;
"I know that sounds a little daunting, but trust me, you already get it a lot more than you think"
Is the 'Big Sisterly' reassurance that I didn't know I needed in my life. Thanks MMF!
I watched the Twin Perfect videos, and I think some of his theories were interesting even if Lynch and Frost had other intentions. He focuses on what Lynch's interests are and shows how that could apply to the series and film. His idea that Cooper is a stand-in for the "Twin Peaks" audience seems to stand up, especially with the multiple Coops in Season 3. I'm willing to listen to various takes on the "Twin Peaks" saga and draw from them what resonates most with me. Your own video with quotes from "Difficult Men" certainly expanded my appreciation for the show.
Absolutely incredible!
🥰❤
@@MaggieMaeFish I wanted to reply to you directly to let you know that the structure of this video is genius, I really loved the Hasan parody framing device. You executed it perfectly. I also learned a lot about why I like Twin Peaks from the video. I think your video on this topic is going to be the go-to for years to come. Millions of views incoming.
Fun fact: Owls are a bad omen in my culture, so the owl stuff actually made those parts way more eery to me I think
Edit: Actually, that could be the reasoning for the owls maybe? The culture I'm referring to is Native American, so that would tie in with those themes in the show.
That's really interesting. I like that the owls in Twin Peaks are ambiguous, since different cultures see them different ways. Greek mythology they are associated with Athena, as representing wisdom. They are also associated with Lilith in paganism and Judaism. Lilith rather being like Laura, who is good or bad depending on who sees her and how.
I think you're right about that -- if I recall correctly, Native American lore is referenced frequently in the book Mark Frost wrote, "The Secret History Of Twin Peaks", so it makes sense the owls originated with Frost. I've also always kind of thought that they referenced aliens since owls are often used as screen memories in abductees to hide the memory of the grey aliens in ufology, which would tie into the fact that the Blue Rose Mysteries were an offshoot of Project Blue Book.
@Parker the owls were first referenced as screen memories in the books written by alien abduction researcher Budd Hopkins back in the 80s. author Mike Clelland has also written a series of books in recent years you may like regarding owls factoring into paranormal experiences, particular UFO encounters. owls were also featured as abduction screen memories in the 2009 film The Fourth Kind, and I suspect that was as a result of Hopkins' research. the Gormenghast stories have always seemed interesting to me, and I have my sights set on reading them some day.
I'm curious, what tribe are you? I'm Blackfoot, and I've also known a lot of Inuit individuals and never heard of this. Actually, at a lot of pow wows I've seen lots of talisman, fetish objects, and items with owls imbedded into them. (These are made by official elders and/or tribal craftsmen btw - not some random person with a "how to Native Crafting" kit).
So I'm genuinely curious. It always fascinates me on the many ways each is similar and overlaps but then these unexpected stark contrasts.
@@searchingfororion I am Mescalero Apache !
I'm old enough to have watched when it aired, have been a fan since, and have watched MANY analysis and "explained" videos. This is hands down the best, and to me the only one that actually matters. Thank you Maggie. I don't think anyone else I've seen even really mentioned the soap opera connections more than briefly, usually either casually brushing it off or using it as a segue to talk about something else.
Twin Perfect
This video is SO GOOD. The way you contrasted the 80s fantasies of perfect male power and protection with the reality that those are the most dangerous people to women and children was shocking and revealing. I never knew that's what Twin Peaks was doing since I grew up long after the 80s were over... but we still see echoes of that attitude to this day, and so many people want to believe it's true even when it never was and never will be 18:00
A Lynchian Breakdown? There goes my afternoon 😮💨
The general thesis of the video hits so hard right now. I often see or participate in discussions of media that basically always come down to analysis plot points and the facts of the story, occasionally symbolism, and always so much emphasis on simply understanding a bullet pointed list of what happened.
Several years back when Alex Garland's Annihilation came out, I went to see it and I was instantly in love because of how emotionally true it rang to me. Like...just, how this film walks the viewer through really complicated emotions that all humans feel and how those feelings are given form and aaah, I just love it. But then almost every conversation I've seen or had about it since then is all "But is X Character infected by the aliens? Why did X Character die? What happened with X thing?" Like, it doesn't fucking matter. If plot points and concrete interpretation are what you love, fine. But some times art is not going to jive with those kinds of interpretations. Sometimes, you watch a movie or listen to a song or see a painting, and you just...feel things. You feel things and you meditate on those feelings or how other people also have them or what they mean for you or all of the above or none of the above. But you just feel things and that's the entire point.
That’s all fine and good, but we’re still talking about a story-telling medium here. Annihilation wasn’t a painting with sound, or an instrumental with visuals. It’s a movie that sets out to tell a story. Twin Peaks m, at the end of the day, is a show that sets out to tell a story. Make your production as layered and complex and as strange as you’d like, but all things must service the story. The story, if told right, will illicit those emotions. Otherwise, you’re just making a music video
@@eyespy3001 Annihilation did tell a story. A pretty compelling one, to me at least. I think a point, out of many points, it was trying to make, through the medium of film, is that we can't understand the alien's intentions because... THEY'RE ALIEN! They're not humans, they don't operate like us. Their intentions and motivations are not OUR intentions and motivations. What are they doing here? We can't understand that. Why are they making weird amalgamations and simulacra of Earth life? We can't understand that. What do they want, if anything, from us? We can't understand that. Just because there isn't a concrete point to a story, or one that may be hard to pull out as a concrete narrative, doesn't mean that story is worthless or shouldn't be told. Art should be expansive, otherwise it's just corporate propaganda and only concerned with chasing easy money. We already have a fire house of superhero movies constantly being shit out; I want to see not that.
@@ChristopherSadlowski ok, but I never said Annihilation wasn’t good. I quite like that movie.
Those things matter to a hyper fixated, nerd audience because they don’t actually want culture or entertainment they want wikis. They need endless wikis
@@GrimReader Or maybe people just enjoy solving puzzles when presented with one. Twin Peaks is just as much a puzzle as it is an audio-visual tone poem.
I wish each video analysis of Twin Peaks had to be longer than the previous released analysis of Twin Peaks so that one day we'd get an analysis of Twin Peaks with a longer run time than the entirety of Twin Peaks.
"Welcome to Twin Peaks analysis part VCDXXXVI: The tour of the long closed and abandoned factory that produced the coffee cups used at the Double R Diner and how it was similar to the Hollywood Studio system and the existential dread triggered by loss. Run time:3 days."
@@criminalsaint9611 We can hope so, if not I may never get to see the episode of how Windom Earl's lactose intolerance affected his marriage and subsequent turn towards darkness after her death.
What about an exciting livestream as we try to count the rings of "the log?"
The possibilities are somehow as interesting as they are endless.
Quinton Reviews has done this with certain Nickelodeon shows. They’re…interesting especially if you grew up watching them.
@@jeremysmith4620 If you get what you want, you know it will be a matter of two years at most before the explainer videos start being explainer videos of other explainer videos and three separate former film students have been institutionalised for attempting to make the first explainer video that explains itself as an explainer video as it explains.
He who makes meta-content might take care lest he thereby become meta-content. And if you gaze for long into an algorithm, the algorithm gazes also into you.
So, The Shinning treatment?..
You may already have seen them, but if not, I highly recommend the Twin Peaks videos by a smaller channel called Malmrose Projects. They come at it from a similar perspective as this one, looking at it through a thematic lens, but also delves into many of the secondary themes that come and go throughout the series, as well as looking at it from an auteurish perspective in the context of Lynch's other movies.
ruclips.net/user/MalmroseProjects
I'm really convinced by the Twin Perfect video. What shocked me was the amount of evidence he gave from Lynch's interviews, Lynch's Log Lady intros, and things characters literally say in the show. Also, in order for Twin Perfect's symbology to concretely work, the emotional aspect of the show and the impact Laura's death has on other characters both have to be there. I don't see how Twin Perfect doesn't do justice to that side of things.
After reading many of Lynch's interviews for myself, I'm pretty convinced that there is in fact an encompassing logic to Twin Peaks. He always says with respect to many works that his fragmentary ideas become connected by a guiding thread. Ideas that can't be nested into the guiding idea are jettisoned. And yes, this is the case with Eraserhead as well. I'm uncertain as to why there's such a strong reaction when people say what Lynch himself says about his own work.
Lastly, some of the thoughts presented in this video seem kind of lazy. For instance, 5:40 where you claim that Bob's possession isn't logical. I would assume you're not conflating physical and merely logical possibility, otherwise that speaks past folks like Twin Perfect. Bob inhabiting people in fact makes perfect logical sense. Mike tells us point-blank that Bob is "the evil that men do." Leland is possessed by Bob because he has let evil into him. And the film was about Laura's struggle with Bob since her lifestyle was allowing evil inside her. Only the formica ring, somehow insulating Bob, stopped her from being possesed. The question is then, What is the formica ring such that this can happen? But any attempt to logically explain this would perhaps seem to you too much of a logic-bro move, so we are cut off from investigating. It's how relativists, in attempting to keep things open, in fact close off any meaningful conversation by denying the very objective standards of validity which underlie and make possible such discourse.
Perhaps I have misunderstood. So if I have, someone let me know.
It's a mad man hating lady with fee-fees. Of course her rambling is inane.
This really encapsulates the disconnect I have long felt with certain (largely male) Twin Peaks fans. Their's a stupid tilt to how we are told to think and obsess over art- where for some reason we're told to look past the emotional thematic elements that are why we engage with art in the first place.
Treating everything like a maze on a Long John Silver's kids menu, rather than what it forces us to feel. It's especially dismissive of the value of surrealism itself to think of it as something you are meant to 'solve' rather than experience.
I feel like this type of "Logic-Bro" mentality of seeing plots as puzzles to be definitively solved, along with the rise of CinemaSins and their nitpicking and surface-level critiques of film, has kinda warped media criticism into a game of "if this logical then it is objectively bad". Instead of looking at thematic elements of media, they just focus on plot details, i.e. "why is character x going down into the basement when a serial killer is on the loose, or why didn't Frodo just take the eagles to Mordor instead of walking, or why didn't Harry Potter use time turners after the third book/film". All criticism gets reduced to if the character's are anything but automatons operating on pure 100% R A T I O N A L I T Y, then film/show/game is bad.
Absolutely.
Omg on IMDB for Pixars Turning Red ‘she was told she only had one chance… Plot Hole!!’ and I want to scream in the face of everyone who likes that comment as if a coming of age story is a logic puzzle to be solved.
Those type of guys should have listened to David Lynch when he said that his original vision of the show was to draw out the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer forever. Even the first time I watched the show, I didn't particularly care about the mystery, but was more intrigued by the _feeling_ of the show. It's been almost 15 years since the first time I watched season 1, and I still can't really articulate what it is about it I like so much. Every single element of the show just works together in perfect harmony. The weird people, the corny score that seems to swell at inappropriate moments, the slightly comedic yet extremely dark tone. It's one of those shows that makes me feel smart for "getting it," which I'm not embarrassed to admit adds to my enjoyment. Flattery will get you everywhere with me, Twin Peaks.
I think the emotional experience is definitely the most important but it is also fun to breakdown WHY the show has such an emotional impact. David Lynch is an artist and understanding the themes, motifs and symbolism behind the show only deepened my appreciation for it.
Excellent video! Thank you for making this. "You already get it a lot more than you think" is probably the best summation of how viewers experience the works of David Lynch I've ever heard. Looking forward to Part 2
The Hasan framing is absolutely perfect, no notes
It's so nice that there is no way you could do that detailed of a Hasan spoof without being extremely familiar with his stream. Hi chatter.
Lib cringe
Lmao!!!
Yesterday I was watching a Sarah Z video that you did some voice work on and then I was all like, man, Maggie hasn't posted in a while. AND HERE YOU ARE!!
These videos never cease to blow my mind. Just top quality content.
Yeaaaaaahhhhhhh one of my favourite youtubers talking about my favourite show, very interested to see your take on it.
The first season was definitely "event television." We'd eagerly await each new episode. So wild and inventive. The show was shocking for it's time, even if one was familiar with Lynch's work. Surreal, emotional, and sometimes hysterically funny.
The way id watch an entire stream of maggie as a streamer doing this bit lmfao
I remember you asking followers about Twin Peaks on your twitter some months ago and since then I have been eagerly awaiting this video and now I cannot wait for part 2. Without a doubt one of my favorite video essayists!
I tought The Return was a meta commentary on revivals (specially how they end up ruining the canon and destroying the original ideas), not about specific shows of the time. Really looking forward to the second part. Great as usual!!! Thanx, Maggie!!!
Saying it's a deliberate commentary on bad TV revivals seems like a convenient excuse for its flaws.
Maybe not about specific shows of the time but "prestige television" in general.
@@noneofyourbusiness4616 but are they really flaws is they are on purpose?
That's what Twin Perfect's video is about basically.
@@noneofyourbusiness4616 no
I'm glad I was able to enjoy Twin Peaks just for the ~vibes~ and themes and connect and ressonante with it emotionally and went completely blind. You totally killed it again Maggie! Thank you for putting into words how I felt about it and most of Lynch work too.
And Laura's portrayal in Fire Walk with Me is just genius. I absolute love her.
I feel the same way with Evangelion, I can't stand people who try to decipher the mechanics behind it while ignoring the clear themes literally screaming in the screen to you.
But I haven't built courage to watch the Return yet, but now knowing you're going to cover it, I'll have to!
Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about why there's no good twin peaks explained videos and of course you come out with this! I love your stuff
I'm fairly new to Lynch having only watched all of Twin Peaks, but I cringed hard when you showed a video of someone doing detailed analysis of the show. Lynch has talked many times about how trying to put visual art into words only diminishes it. I'll never forget finishing Fire Walk With Me and trying to understand what I had just seen. I came to the realization that Lynch was telling me a story through feelings, and I had no desire to break down every symbol. I intuitively felt what was going on throughout it, even though I couldn't rationalize it into words. Lynch's true art is the unique painting of emotions he creates for each individual who experiences his work.
I know this is gunna be a controversial take, but that four hour long video is an excellent breakdown of all the themes, symbols and recurring messages that Lynch put in the show. I know people avoid trying to understand Twin Peaks because they want to keep the feeling of mystery behind it, but Lynch is an absolutely brilliant artist and watching that explained video actually made me love and appreciate Twin Peaks even more. It's a similar feeling to looking at a Picasso painting and thinking "huh, weird. " You can recognize the artistic talent but aren't sure WHY it's good. Then once you learn more of the context about WHY Picasso made certain choices and see his artistic progression, you can fully appreciate that every little detail is thought out and not just a "weird" painting. Lynch is a goddamn genius and isn't just putting random images on the screen. Every single detail fits into the overall meaning and significance of the show. I personally think it's worth breaking down all those little details because it helps you better understand WHY Twin Peaks is so emotionally powerful.
@@hollyrrunsThe problem with it is that his explanation is only one of them. You can make his interpretation (who at some points is working very well and at other is pretty flimsy, but it's cool, more on it latter), but the problem is when he is saying it's the best explanation. The beauty of Lynch work is that at some point there is no complete understanding, (in Mullholland Drive it's particularly well done), if you try to "crack the code", you end up with stuff that don't match your neat decoding and force you to reaching, like dealing with pieces of a totally different puzzle, because it's more interesting to have competing interpretations: Lynch is really doing something (the scenes have an emotional truth, they work on a pure cinematic level), but he offer the freedom to think of the same arrangement with (sometimes wildly) different outlooks and understandings, or even no understandings at all. The Twin Perfect video explore some aspects of Twin Peaks that are definitely there and can be analyzed for a better experience with the show, but saying that it's all about that closes a lot more doors that are also thought provoking, and miss the point of making the show that way in the first place. I'm all for saying that you should explore why art is effective, but in this case, it's not by saying "well, everything was in fact about violence in media".
@@al9355 you know you can hear someone else's interpretation of the work and still have your own subjective experience of it, right? He isn't "closing doors" by providing his interpretation. You can choose to agree or disagree with his opinions. I just happen to think his interpretation is really interesting and well researched. I just don't get why this video drags this poor dude saying he sucked all the fun out of twin peaks by trying to analyze the themes of it. She then proceeds to do the exact same thing: analyze the themes of Twin Peaks and provide an interpretation of it.
@@hollyrruns I said I don't have any problem with him making an interpretation. The problem is that it's not an analysis of the themes of Twin Peaks, it's an attempt at an exhaustive and authoritative explanation of the sense and message of Twin Peaks, the intent that translates into the skeleton key for decrypting everything in the show. While there is showmanship in his assertions (it's better for the visibility), he also seriously attempts to explain that the whole point of Twin Peaks, the man behind the curtain of it all, is the effects of violence in general and the violence in media in particular. I happen to think that it is, in fact, a salient theme in Twin Peaks, and I share some of his analysis on this theme. But it is absolutely preposterous to not see that Twin Peaks is wildly multi interpretative, and that the examples he shows in his video as a proof of his wider claim can (and will) be used for totally different interpretations, that the video dismisses as missing the forest for the tree, while those trees (hang on for the metaphor) can in fact be a whole different and simultaneous forest. You said "that four hour long video is an excellent breakdown of all the themes, symbols and recurring messages that Lynch put in the show". But it is absolutely not all there is to it, and the fact that you seem to think it is seem to me like an excellent proof of what I was saying about the lessening of the interpretative field that this video is inflicting, and that Maggie deplores, along with the fact that this interpretative task, what you rightly identifies as the analysis of the talent of Lynch, is lessened by the reduction of it to a secret theme declined ad absurdam. I approve of your initial comparison with a Picasso painting and the pleasure of understanding more about artistry, but similarly, I would be critical is someone made a 4 hours video that, while being deep and intricate about his paintings craft, tried to say the whole point of his oeuvre was just "insert a theme here" and that's it, case closed. While great art provoke inexhaustible resonances (like the literature on Shakespeare evolving since centuries), this explanaition tries to contain them into a pre-digested one-size-fits-all great anwser. I will finish on another, gentler note: I understand the need to defend a learning experience (which the video seem to have been for you) and don't intend to be disrespectful to anyone, but the merits of the video can be weighted against the consequences that it can have on the discourse, and I think criticising it, not for "sucking all the fun out of twin peaks by trying to analyze the themes of it", but for the overarching limitations of his process, is fair game.
@@hollyrruns I mean, there is a stark difference in the presentation of said interpretations. While both are subjective, Twin Perfect's presentation of *his own subjective experience* puts it off to his viewers as "this is it, this is *the* interpretation" while Maggie actively shows that hers is *but one* interpretation.
Knowing all this only makes it weirder that I loved this show so much as an 8 year old. I had no frame of reference for what the show was reacting to as I didn't watch soap operas. I watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and ALF, and Star Trek The Next Generation. But I remember fondly those Monday nights when my parents would turn on ABC while they sat on the couch and I sat on the floor, and they let me have donuts while they drank coffee and we watched it as a family.
Twin Peaks is my #1 favorite show. I love watching everyone's take on it and their perspective. Awesome video! Also, I was going to be so freakin mad if there wasn't going to be a part two. lol
I love the resurgence this series has every few years
I am interested in hearing your take on the scene where Cooper immediately starts being "nice" to Annie after noticing the scar on her wrist.
Twin Peaks is like a warm blanket of kitsch that insulates you from the horror of its world. Fire Walk With Me is like being wrapped in plastic and thrown in a river.
Fire Walk with Me is probably my favorite movie of all time. I've always considered it to be one of the all time greatest films of the horror genre.
Loved this. I got into the series about six episodes before it was cancelled (that’s the effect I usually have on shows I come to late), and was only able to see the whole thing a few years later, as the episodes were SLOWLY released on laserdisc. I *did* see the movie in a (lousy, tiny, nearly empty) theatre though. It was my first night back in Toronto for my second year of university.
I remember that first time seeing the movie so vividly. While I didn’t connect it with Silence of the Lambs as you do, I sure was aware of the many ways it subverted the usual male gaze-y thriller tropes-especially the Pink Room sequence that does everything in its power to be hot and sexy while simultaneously doing everything it can to make you feel really scuzzy about it.
There was only one other couple in the cinema with me, and when the movie ended the guy hollers out “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT???” and I was right there with him!
And yet: the thing stuck in my head. It inspired dreams. It had me puzzling things out. And by the time I went home for the Thanksgiving weekend maybe six weeks later I was convinced it was the best movie I’d ever seen. To this day it’s in my top three, because for all its surrealism the depiction of trauma just feels *real* in a way that digs a lot deeper into my head than a more realistic story ever could. I also remember my mom’s reaction the first time she watched it: she said it was the most believable movie she’d ever seen. Which I mean, yikes, I guess? Of course I know that she was referring to the *emotional* reality, much like my own response.
My family didn’t get into the old 80s soaps like Dynasty so it was neat to see all the parallels you unearthed. To me the series has always been about the overall *feeling* it gives. Even the weakest episodes in the depths of season two all seem to have elements that serve the vibe pretty well; a recent re-viewing surprised me with how short the actual “off the rails” stretch is. And the final episode is still one of the most amazing pieces of TV ever. Seeing that for the first time back in 1991 really was something special.
It’s always so tempting to try to explain the precise meaning of every little oddity in a Lynch production, but that always seems so pointless. He doesn’t care about that stuff at all, and if anything he seems to revel in making any straightforward reading impossible. I’ve also seen so many people get angry at his use of dream logic: as if “it’s only a dream” is somehow a bad thing, whereas Lynch seems to think dreams are actually pretty damn important.
For me, Twin Peaks has always been a state of mind: one that’s as satisfying now as it was the first time. I could keep geeking out and go on about recent realizations about why it hit me so hard in the first place, but must stop.
Looking forward to part two!
On my most recent rewatch I couldn't stop thinking about how all the men in charge seem to love playing cowboys while the women around them suffer. I think that's sort of what makes Maddie Ferguson so tragic, it's affirming that nothing is being done to prevent it from happening again, they're too busy spelunking in Owl Cave.
Even Dale doesn't listen to Laura in the dream, or the Log Lady ever really. And even in the Return he's so willfully blind to trauma, that he tries to bring Laura back home, where her trauma happened.
The fan worship and Cooper's idealism of Harry really irks me sometimes because, sure, he got tricked by femme fatale, Josie, but the way he was so aggressively possessive over her and his idealized mental image of who he thought her to be really showed that he wasn't really as good a guy as people think. The fandom is pretty great and spot on about Cooper's flaws, but too many have a blind spot about Harry.
@@claudiadarling9441...Of course that's the point of the ending, I'm a dunce lmao
when I recently re-watched Twin Peaks, my strong impression was that by far the greatest performance was given by Ray Wise as Leland Palmer. And Ray Wise had a background in soap operas, being on Love of Life for years.
fun fact, my photography teacher went to the same college as david lynch! they were actually quite close, and ive seen pictures of them together.
"Your emotionally fueled motives? Petty, weak, lacking restraint, shortsighted. My emotionally fueled motives? Powerful. Super cool. Inarguable." "...And it goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on-"
"Brilliant hahaha ... I have absolutely no idea what's going on" - Homer Simpson, watching Twin Peaks
Okay, I’m only ten minutes into the video but Thaaaaank you so much for this. Twin Peaks has been primarily an emotional experience for me (a deeply emotional one at that) and turning the dang thing into a puzzle just sucks the life right out of it.
I grew up watching the 80’s dramas and Twin Peaks in 1990. Your commentary comparing the 80’s TV dramas, movies and soaps to Twin Peaks is so accurate. This is the first analysis that points this out AND doesn’t make my 50 year old head spin. I loved the original and the Return series. Fire Walk with Me has grown on me rewatching it after the Return series. The Lynch Universe of movies and shows are all linked and that’s kinda awesome!!
Comparing the Return to modern TV classics…. Yes Bitch Yes! OMG!
In fairness, I spent an afternoon on the Twin Perfect video, and I'm not ashamed to admit it, because, speaking for myself, I found it oddly relaxing. Long-winded? Yes. Leaps in logic? Perhaps. But I find analysis of things I enjoy by people who aren't me validating of those things I enjoy. A lot of that 4 hours was spent contemplating the nuances of the overarching story, which I found meditative. This video, though? Funny AF, thorough, and to the point. Thank you so much!
Twin Perfect's analysis has a lot of great ideas in it but it is presented so inflexibly and pompously that it makes the points that don't work really stand out.
He definitely overlooks a lot of the core emotional, more literary analysis of some moments in favor of re-iterating the television meta-commentary thesis. This is especially glaring when he talks about Laura, who is treated as more of a concept made of "good" and "bad" traits to reflect other characters, and not as a person, and definitely not a person who was abused and murdered by her own father.
This was fantastic and will serve as a highlight of my week~
oh wow. so glad you're gonna go deeper into season 3. This was great! Such a great packaging of such a big topic!!
i like your analysis of Twin Peaks, and i like Twin Perfect's analysis
they argue similar things tbh
Twin Perfect is more reductive, and is more involved with the meta commentary of the original series, but he didn't go into the analysis of the state of media with either Fire Walk With Me or The Return. I could suppose that that could be because the run time of the video was already over four hours, but I didn't pick it up from Corn Pone Flicks videos either.
I love that quote from Lynch about not knowing what the owl meant because Mark Frost came up with. I feel that audiences forget that Twin Peaks really was a collaboration.
Secretly hoping for less an analysis of Twin Peaks and more an analysis of the analysis of Twin Peaks. Either way, I am sure there’s going to be some excellent insight into my favourite series.
3:21 if you actually watched the video he says multiple time that he thinks he found the root idea basically like a Rosetta Stone for Lynch’s symbology and ALL INTERPRETAIONS ARE VALID !!!!!
That Twin Perfect epic was very thoroughly researched and pretty interesting to me, even if I didn't always agree. It perplexes me that people seem to have strong reactions to it. I like Twin Peaks, I like hearing people talk about it
The fact that she goes out of her way so much to insult him is kinda alienating. I put off watching these videos by her because I knew exactly what it was going to be.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Maggie, but the need to tear down another persons work is so crass and trashy.
I just watched FWWM the other week after years of putting it off, because the subject matter hits so close to home. It's astounding that Lynch nailed the feeling of living an abusive childhood - it's like being at a dreamlike themepark where everyone else gets to ride roller-coasters and have fun while your abuser forces you to just stand there and watch. Life feels like it wasn't build for you and you have to watch it pass by.
I don't really get the hate for Twin Perfect's video. I watched the video a while back and I found it to be super insightful. Does some stuff seem like it's reaching? Yeah (Quite a bit actually). Do most people who watched the video agree with every point he makes? Not really. Does he seem pretty full of himself? A bit. But you know what he isn't doing? He isn't going around to other people's videos and mocking them. That's what I've noticed a ton of channels doing when they disagree with his video, just snidely deriding the dude.
We're all here because we love Twin Peaks. Shitting on Twin Perfect because you disagree with him isn't making this a very fun and welcoming community.
shitting? he is very condeseing on the way he speaks of his interpretation, and really downplaus other intepretations. a critic to a guy you dont know is only that, the issue is that you proyect yourself into him.
i feel like this video, while good, isn't very honestly engaging with twin perfect's video?
not that the show doesn't use emotional logic or anything like that, because the show runs on emotion - but that logic and emotion aren't at odds with each other. twin perfect's video comes to the same conclusion about the core theme of twin peaks, being that turning the killers into abstractions and refusing to disengage with mystery forces the audience to engage with the subjects as actual people rather than pawns in a game or problems to be solved.
like there's very little this video says against twin perfect's doesn't get acknowledged by twin perfect. he goes really far out of his way to state that making a video like his is the opposite of what david lynch wants you to do. he also elaborates and goes into exactly WHY david lynch holds this stance. also, his approach is much less diagetic than this makes it out to be. he's largely discussing film language and artistic intent. it's not "the wrong way" to watch twin peaks, because logic and emotion are not at odds with each other. a part of twin perfect's video series is there to make this case, that in some ways, for some people, understanding and breaking down abstract symbolism can enhance the emotional meaning of them.
but the core theme of twin peaks being that television reduces people to mysteries to be solved rather than complex people who deserve love and how these kinds of stories often have real consequences that go unexplored because of the audience's fixation on solving the crime itself rather than engaging with the people affected as actual people? that's the whole point of twin perfect's entire video series. everything serves that purpose. he just explains how some of the more abstract imagery also serves this purpose, with both the extensive acknowledgement of the fact that david lynch hates people approaching his art this way, and also extensively getting into why david lynch feels that way and how it impacts the way you watch the show. i don't remember how much more of this comes from the follow up videos, which, if you could manage sitting through the original video, definitely are essential expansions upon the original that you should watch.
however, i like that this video is looking more extensively at twin peaks' influences, because its true that people dismiss soap opera as an artform presumably because of like, idk, weird misogyny shit (the whole "it's trash tv for bored housewives therefor it can't possibly have merit of its own!" kinda attitude people have towards them), and hold up twin peaks for doing exactly what soap operas had already done long before it without realizing it, but again, none of this is in contradiction to twin perfect's video.
great video, don't get me wrong. I also never really thought of the connection to silence of the lambs, and now i can't believe i never noticed it.
also that's a pretty spot on hasan piker impression lol
Twin Perfect put a lot of work and love into their videos... I don't understand why you're the second creator I love who has lambasted them and I don't really know why people feel the need lol I can't remember the whole four hours but I remember there's a lot of great stuff in there !
I've seen a few people now mock Twin Perfect's video, which I think is weird because I found it really intriguing to watch while also understanding it doesn't really "solve" Twin Peaks as he's not the creator of the show.
It's a really interesting video in that he tries to analyze why certain things were chosen to symbolize emotions or abstract concepts, based off Lynch interviews and other media created by Lynch. Perhaps he simplifies things too much, but I never felt like he was saying his analysis was THE way to watch Twin Peaks or that he was "mansplaining" Twin Peaks, even if the title of the video seems to indicate that.
In this video, Maggie is very dismissive of Twin Perfect's video but then goes on to pretty much make the same overarching analysis as him, being that Twin Peaks is a critique on media of the time it was created.
I’m also curious about this
@@Michael-gk4io Thank you for the validation lol I thought I was crazy
Because of the absolute certainty with which he makes his points, as if he's a fount of unassailable facts rather than a dude who made a pretty in depth theory with a bunch of evidence (some convincing, some unconvincing, and some hilariously unconvincing)
@@clanofclams2720 I could understand that...
When people talk about other things in that way, like especially men talking about women, or the more ignorant of white people talking about racism... It's very easy to get angry at their confidence... I guess I'm just puzzled because Twin Perfect seems like a nice fella to me so I'm biased. I also had an extremely adversarial relationship with his Snyder/BVS videos, and Prometheus... but they all offered SUPER interesting takes that humbled me! Like his Lex Luthor video- I had no idea Snyder actually based it on a precedented version of Lex from a comic book I haven't read, but I was SO quick to talk shit about how much Jesse Eisenberg -iSN't my Lex- and sucks for being- well- everything he was. I really don't prefer him but I really appreciate knowing a lot more thought and care was put into some movies than I thought- even Prometheus, which has some MAJOR flaws that apparently were explored in the script- blah blah blah. Now I've got a 4 hour long comment!!! I just some funky medicine lol sorry have a nice day
Great video, I appreciated the deep dives and debunking of common thoughts along the way! Also, damn that ending teaser! I never considered how Twin Peaks: The Return could be a commentary for so many modern dramas it inherently inspired. Looking forward to it!
Wonderful analysis of a show I have never even seen. Weird how you have the ability to make such things interesting. 😁
Also
Totally taken aback how you got Hasan to do a little guest spot. That's super cool.
I saw this video essay, then watched all of twin peaks and now I am back. I sure hope I will understand the plot
This was great but the livestream sections were jarring and bordering on cringe.
Hey! I've been binging a lot of your videos and just wanted to let you know that I absolutely love your channel! The way you break down and critically analyze every piece of media without sounding cynical or pretentious is such an admirable quality you have! Not to mention how charismatic you are. There's a lot to learn from you as a person and a content creator, and as a fan I'd like to thank you for being amazing in both those regards! Much love, keep up the great work!
Thank you for this as someone that's tried to get into Twin Peaks and bounced off multiple times.
I didn't know I needed this but now that I know that it exists I NEED it. And there's a part 2? I'm so happy.
Someone once told me Twin Peaks was too melodramatic but I was too busy still crying at the scene in the diner where where Major Briggs tells Bobby his dream AND ALSO MANY OTHERS.
Come to think of it, I'd rather not know what Twin Peaks is about.
I love twin peaks, it is mesmerizing, pulls you in and leaves you with a stupid look on your face. A big "what the hell?".
I think that was the point all along, and it worked it's magic on me. I am content with being unsatisfied.
Loved the analysis, but I feel it would be heightened if you didn't dismiss so insistently the Twin Perfect analysis, which is also valid and interesting, and at least deserves respect for the work put into it (even if you don't agree with everything it says). I don't understand why you found that necessary: you said yourself we need both the emotional and logical approach.
Absolutely agree. She comes off as authoritative and toxic as people accuse Twin Perfect to be. And honestly, most of his theories make more sense than her entire video lol
I was about to say that. 4 minutes into the video I was already bothered on how salty it was towards Twin Perfect's video. Maggie says "I'm not gonna draw a map that sucks all the fun of watching the show by yourself" referring to the map that Twin Perfect did. BUT DUDE, his video is for people who ALREADY watched everything, and not a guide to someone who's gonna start it, people already had the fun of watching it. And the she porcceeds to says she is gonna explain the show, telling her theories, which is exactly the same thing Twin Perfect did, using his map as part of it. AND GUESS WHAT? MOST of the stuff he said made perfect sense and had a lot of evidence to enforce his opinions.
OH MY GOD. You have no idea how happy you've made me with this video. My Twin Peaks story: I was 5-6 yrs old when I saw it first, it was early 90s in a recently post communist regime country (Romania) and a ratings system for TV didn't exist so that is how I explain the fact that my parents let me watch with them. Everyone freaking loved this show, it was one of those shows that was watched by an entire country (not many tv stations back then). Twin Peaks changed me forever. I don't know if it tapped into something dark in a 6 yr old or it whet my appetite for dark, strange, eerie things, but I loved it so much. I honestly had nightmares at night with bits from the show for years and was afraid to look in mirrors in the dark (my hair is very like Bob's haha). Dale Cooper was my first crush ever and I still love the joy and gentleness in that character even if he is a cop. I remember as a kid seeing the final shot of the second season, it haunted me for years, this sort of emptiness and despair because of what happened to Dale.
Needless to say, I was so happy about season 3. I think it was a season of television which really made me confrunt my need for fucking explainers that are logical and last 4 hours, but it is a piece of ART that TAUGHT me as I was watching it, it taught me how to watch it, I learned stuff about myself in the process and I swear, by the end of the last episode, I was able to let go of a big part of myself that needed things to be explained. Lynch literally made me understand that some things should just be FELT. Of course The Return ends in an even more existentially uncertain and unmoored place, but this time I think I was ready for it. Weirdly, even if I love the old characters, I remember the moment when we had a couple of the new characters in the forest, just crying and living out moments of being desperate, unconsoled. I think that's when the emotion clicked for me. In Lynch's cinematic language feelings are real and raw and big and unsanitized. His work is not afraid to wound you, to strike at your very core and I so appreciate that about him.
I am now a person who loves mystery. I am a person who can sit with her bigger than life feelings and accept them and I honestly think Twin Peaks has its part in me being more myself somehow.
As for betting on part 2 and the connection to the very famous antiheroes of 'The Golden Age of Television' yadda yadda, I would say it is very much about how Dale Cooper took center stage in the show in a way and how his 3 aspects totally broke the duality binary. The antihero shows are all about family life vs 'work' life or dark side, while they cannot show their 'real' self, they are stuck in performing their selves. And in Twin Peaks we have Dark Cooper, the shadow self, doing misdeeds, we have Dougie, the innocent family man, who is beloved by everyone even if he is a sort of empty shell (perhaps the way viewers of those shows loved Don Draper, Heisenberg, Tony Soprano etc) or representing the memeified aspects of Dale, loving coffee, having some sort of innocence about life, doing a thumbs up, or even representing the way nostalgia transforms characters into much simpler things just because they are beloved, and then we have the REAL Dale stuck in a liminal space, trying to find his way back to himself. It's amazing, I had never thought about these things, but now that I've just asked the question you posed, it is just flowing out of me.
Anyway, thanks so much for doing a video on Twin Peaks, your videos always make my brain purr and activate somehow, and this is no different.
Also, also, FIX YOUR HEARTS OR DIE! I scream into the void of the internet!
This was absolutely great and I'm definitely looking forward to part 2, Maggie. How long did this video take for you to make all together and did you lose any of your sanity watching that much Dynasty? Speaking of Lynch, I would be totally down for a video on Dune haha.
That dude's 4 hr. video was actually incredible. I don't get the monkey thing either, but the gist of it all was spectacular.
He did a great job
It was revelatory but he got a bit weird with it a few times and the monkey was one of them.
I love Twin Peaks so much but it frustrates me endlessly when people try to "logic" it. Like you say, a lot of Lynch's work is about emotional response and I never once felt the need to "make sense" of it because it kinda...already did? I felt and understood the feelings of all the characters and how they would react to things (especially Laura in Fire Walk With Me which, you're right, is underrated) so I did not think there was any need to "solve the mystery".
Love this video, Maggie. Fucking hype for the next one! Keep up the good work!
I fell into this trap after finishing the whole series in a month, instead of listening to my heart which deep down already knew what Twin Peaks "meant", I got thrown off course by binging the hours of analysis by dudes who just desperately need to know what every single thing meant. That Lynch quote in this video where he said he didn't know wtf the owls were made me wake up to my fallacy of overthinking TP.
Lynchs filmmaking is like trying to concretely explain an abstract painting. You can analyse the medium, the tools, the colours, the technique... but in the end its just about emotion. And that is hard to grapple with in the medium of film where we want a story told from beginning to end.
yeah like go watch Rabbits again and explain the plot to me
help
It's march 18, 2022, and if YOU can BELIEVE it, it's a friday once again!
People give the 4 hour video guy a lot of crap but, like you, he did the work and put it out there. And nobody is under any obligation to accept it.
Some deep insights there bro, just heading out to toke on a fat joint in the garden if you're interested?
i just think his smug declaration that he and only he has the true meaning of twin peaks on lockdown to the point that it would ruin any other interpretation if you heard it is just so goddamn irritating, and totally at odds with how lynch would want you to approach any of his art.
@@sawdustanddiamonds99 he explained in a follow up video responding to critics and answering your question
@@sawdustanddiamonds99 Ouf...
@@sawdustanddiamonds99 So what you're saying is you just don't like his attitude or whatever and refuse to engage with the actual ideas? Great attitude you have there yourself.
That BOB/owl face mash-up will haunt my nightmares
Thanks for making this!
Detective Dale Cooper is the Kwisatz Haderach!
I get the issue with Twin Perfect's tone but to dismiss their interpretation outright is throwing away many babies with a bit of bathwater. It's just way too simple and demonstrably effective at answering MANY questions. I've found stuff he missed, using his own lens. I think Prof Fish needs to percolate a little longer.
Incidentally logic and emotion are no more opposite than darkness and red are - you can occasionally get one without the other, but the presence of one doesn't imply a deficit in the other (unless you're a Trekkie)
That Hasan cameo was great I can’t believe he was in this
Loved this. Brilliant work. Can Not wait for part 2.