# Twin Peaks: Is it worth the showtime subscription?



## Ebart (Jun 11, 2017)

Long time (read: early 90's when the first 2 seasons were on TV) fan of the show, however I've seen very little fanfare on social media praising it, or even mentioning the new season on Showtime. Has anyone been watching it? Is it worth the $10/mo showtime subscription to watch, or am I better off just pretending the new season never happened and saving my money?


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## KnightBrolaire (Jun 11, 2017)

there's free streaming options out there. try project-free-tv.ag or putlocker but make sure you have a good popup blocker/adblocker. Probably the best way to check out the show and save your money at the same time


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## wankerness (Jun 11, 2017)

Ebart said:


> Long time (read: early 90's when the first 2 seasons were on TV) fan of the show, however I've seen very little fanfare on social media praising it, or even mentioning the new season on Showtime. Has anyone been watching it? Is it worth the $10/mo showtime subscription to watch, or am I better off just pretending the new season never happened and saving my money?



You read "social media" for TV reactions??? And whose reactions are you looking for? The praise from all TV-related sites I read has been rapturous (AV Club, Birthmoviesdeath, Uproxx, etc), and from Lynch fans it's even moreso.

It depends what you're looking for from it. If you just want more wacky parody-of-soap-opera stuff that uses regular TV pacing like the original generally was, you will likely be confused and disappointed. If you got into the horrific Black Lodge stuff (ex, you thought the Bob reveal episode was the high point of the series and loved the finale), you might like it. If you love Fire Walk With Me (I like it more than the series by a large amount and think it's his best movie after Mulholland Dr), you'll probably really like it. If you like Inland Empire too, you'll probably think it's pretty great.

It's REALLY arty and weird, especially in the first few episodes, and the more straightforward plot stuff with Cooper and all the old characters and whatnot is paced quite differently from the regular. I loved the first two episodes and am getting a bit fed up with the stretched-out Cooper stuff right now, but there's really great stuff in all of the episodes. As a warning, it has heavy continuity with Fire Walk With Me, so if you haven't seen that and have just seen the show, you might be left even more confused than you would be otherwise without it. There's lots of Garmonbozia. I think that once


Spoiler



Cooper regains his memory


 it will be a lot less difficult.

DO NOT use that project-free-TV unless you want to risk lots of malware, it's as sketchy as you can get, plus there's no reason to use it for Twin Peaks right now. The first two episodes are available totally for free right now, and depending on what version of the service you sign up for, you can get free Showtime app time and at least see all the current episodes and either another week (or month) of the new episodes at no cost. IIRC the device-based versions (firestick, appletv, etc) are a month and ones like the xbox/ps4 app are a week. I just bought the subscription outright to support this endeavor.


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## Demiurge (Jun 12, 2017)

If it helps, consider that the $10/month also gets you on-demand access to Showtime's inventory of other shows and movies. They're also carrying the original Twin Peaks series and Fire Walk With Me so people can catch up.

It has been very good so far with pacing being the only real issue in places.


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## Mathemagician (Jun 12, 2017)

I'm 90% sure it's in Netflix. Wife and I sat through the first episode. Fucking weird and not for me. But I definitely didn't pay anything. Check that when you get home. US obviously.


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## wankerness (Jun 12, 2017)

Mathemagician said:


> I'm 90% sure it's in Netflix. Wife and I sat through the first episode. Fucking weird and not for me. But I definitely didn't pay anything. Check that when you get home. US obviously.


It's not.


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## MFB (Jun 13, 2017)

wankerness said:


> It's not.



They must have pulled it recently then because I know I watched all of S1 on Netflix maybe a year ago, just to see what it was all about


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## wankerness (Jun 13, 2017)

MFB said:


> They must have pulled it recently then because I know I watched all of S1 on Netflix maybe a year ago, just to see what it was all about


The OP's question was "is it worth paying for the new season [produced by Showtime, currently airing once a week, and called 'Twin Peaks the Return']," not "how do I see the old seasons that I already saw in the 90s." Yeah, the old show is on Netflix.


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## Mathemagician (Jun 13, 2017)

Oh ok cool. I didn't know it was back. I just thought guy wanted some nostalgia in his life.


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## MFB (Jun 13, 2017)

wankerness said:


> The OP's question was "is it worth paying for the new season [produced by Showtime, currently airing once a week, and called 'Twin Peaks the Return']," not "how do I see the old seasons that I already saw in the 90s." Yeah, the old show is on Netflix.



Oh man, I was thinking the post a few back where they said 'the first episode' was in relation to the entire SERIES, which - while far less weird than season 3's episode 1, is still weird on it's own; so thats why when I read it as a newcomer watching the series and saying it's on Netflix, then seeing, "No it's not," seemed very odd since it (the original run) has been on there for a while.


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## isispelican (Jun 13, 2017)

The new season is amazing, it starts off quite different from the way it was back then and with each episode it slowly gets back to the classic Twin Peaks which I think is genius!


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## wankerness (Jun 20, 2017)

The last episode was the first that felt similar to a classic Twin Peaks episode for anything close to the duration. I'm fine with the weirder stuff, but it was still kind of thrilling seeing so much with the old cast, plus some of the character reveals related to the old series are so damn satisfying (Diane's big scenes last episode in particular). I am not always happy with the content of each episode, but it's so damn exciting to see every episode and how the plot is slowly coming together. It's very rare that I'm so excited for each episode of a show, and so pissed about the week-long breaks due to holidays (July 2nd? CMON, who cares!!). Fargo S2 and Game of Thrones seasons 3 or 4 are the only other times I've been so hyped each week.


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## technomancer (Jun 23, 2017)

Waiting patiently for the whole run to air, then going to do a Showtime add-on through Amazon and binge the whole thing


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## Demiurge (Jun 25, 2017)

The end of the episode that just aired scared my wife so much that she needed to do shots to calm down. We're getting our dollar's worth of David Lynch here.


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## wankerness (Jun 26, 2017)

Ha, yeah. I knew last night's episode was going to cause a tremendous amount of people to declare it "the most artistic/amazing thing ever filmed" and plenty more declaring it the worst thing they'd ever seen. I really liked it, but still kind of have to roll my eyes at the first group since I'm sure a lot of them are like that Homer Simpson gif that was all over Twitter. It was great, but "BEST EVER" "AMAZING" etc? I don't know about that!



I really liked most of it, but the nuclear stuff did go on too long. That first shot of the nuke from far away, though, oh man. And I thought it was fairly coherent in rough concept from the nuke through the Laura Palmer orb, just obviously the details were completely obscure. I loved the horror movie that finished it up.


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## Guitarmiester (Aug 21, 2017)

Late to the party here but always happy to come across more Twin Peaks fans. This season has been great so far. I can't believe the season is nearing its end. The very few times I think I'm onto something Lynch throws a curveball and I'm right back to being completely lost in the best way possible.

I've been trying to do my best to finish up the book before the season ends. There's a lot of references to the Secret History of Twin Peaks and The Missing Pieces (deleted scenes). Pretty cool to see certain things come full circle given the massive gap.


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## wankerness (Aug 22, 2017)

Yeah, missing pieces and FWWM are all over the place.

The last episode had the most blatant fanservice of the whole revival with Ed and Norma. I think basically anyone who's ever been a Twin Peaks fan would have been overjoyed by that! I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I don't think it will. David Lynch might have a ton of darkness in his material, but deep down I think he's a sap. I love that he had James sing that infamous song again in its entirety.


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## Necris (Aug 27, 2017)

I had never seen Twin Peaks or FWWM before this summer. While I'd heard a new season was in production I didn't know when it was due to air and by pure coincidence I completed Season 2 and FWWM on the exact day the pilot aired. So I actually did buy a showtime subscription specifically for the Twin Peaks revival. I think it's been worth the money.

Showtime announced that there will be an 18 hour marathon beginning at 4am next Sunday, culminating in the two part finale, so if you want to binge watch it - and think you have the stamina - mark your calendars.


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## wankerness (Aug 27, 2017)

I would very strongly advise against bingeing the new season. It's VERY weird and intentionally full of long awkward pauses and meditative scenes. And almost every episode fades out with a long musical number to help you resituate yourself and decompress. Doing it all in one shot would be MURDEROUS. I almost think that it will be re edited into a cohesive unit at some point.

The new episode has a lot more stuff that is very exciting and pays off the season big. It's going way too FAST now. This one ends with pure fan service the way the last one began!!


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## wankerness (Sep 3, 2017)

Second to last episode was incredible and unexpectedly made me really emotional at the end. The alternate fate of Laura Palmer, skipping the hell cabin, was exactly what I wanted to see when I watched Fire Walk With Me. The last episode was a GIGANTIC frustration, probably by design!! I mean, she clearly got thrown into some kind of alternate timeline, but this was too much. And was this evil coop? I don't think it was supposed to be either. Who knows. I doubt we'll ever get a season 4, unfortunately.


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## Necris (Sep 3, 2017)

I am extremely happy with how that ended.


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## Demiurge (Sep 4, 2017)

I'm still trying to unpack the ending.

What seems to me is that


Spoiler



once Cooper reunited with real Diane/eyeless girl (?...!...?), Cooper's face faintly superimposed over the screen suggested some sort of divergence in reality- perhaps entering Cooper's dream- where he still believes that he can save Laura. He tries to take her from the lodge, but she disappears. He envisions that he could have prevented her murder or that she is someone someplace else (yet still in trouble) but it still won't work. Maybe it has something to do with that symbol that Jeffries showed Cooper- the ant-face thing that Evil Cooper was looking for and that Hawk seemed to regard as an unspeakable evil- it seemed to connote a deliberately-misleading path.


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## vilk (May 7, 2018)

I recently finished the first two seasons from the 90s just a week or two ago. I really loved the show! Definitely one of the best I've seen in a while. It appeals to me on a few levels:
-it's a detective/murder-mystery story, which is one of my preferred entertainment genres
-it has that_ Pretty Little Liars _method of continually tricking you into going after the "next" bad-guy without letting you notice it.
-it has that _Lost_ quality of having the audience question what's "really" happening the whole time without ever giving you the answer, but making you always feel like you're _just about _to get the answer

That's why, as I am about 3 episodes into the new season, I'm kinda disappointed that it's just trying to ride that cult-wave of over-the-top artsy strangeness and not attempting to do what the first/second season did.

My question is: Would I be better to put the new episodes on pause and go back and watch Fire Walk With Me? Because I haven't seen that yet. Do the new episodes digest better with a stomach full of backstory?


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## Necris (May 7, 2018)

Your question requires a two part answer, one: Yes, you should watch Fire Walk With Me before continuing onward, it's great and functions as a sort of prequel/sequel to the first two seasons. There are elements of the story in Season 3 that are introduced in FWWM so technically it's necessary for comprehension of some basic plot points.

To answer the second part of your question: No, not really. Season 3 is a very different beast from Seasons 1 and 2, it's absolutely not trying to recapture the feeling of the first two seasons (it's actually closer in feel to FWWM in tone, I think) and while I loved it overall I've seen some people who are fans of the first two and FWWM and were well versed in the lore of Twin Peaks who absolutely despised the third season.


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## wankerness (May 7, 2018)

vilk said:


> I recently finished the first two seasons from the 90s just a week or two ago. I really loved the show! Definitely one of the best I've seen in a while. It appeals to me on a few levels:
> -it's a detective/murder-mystery story, which is one of my preferred entertainment genres
> -it has that_ Pretty Little Liars _method of continually tricking you into going after the "next" bad-guy without letting you notice it.
> -it has that _Lost_ quality of having the audience question what's "really" happening the whole time without ever giving you the answer, but making you always feel like you're _just about _to get the answer



Yes, those shows would not exist without it and definitely were aping it in some regards. I personally felt some of it was so dated that I occasionally was taken out of it. I also didn't like the back half of season 2 at all, until that wonderful finale.



vilk said:


> That's why, as I am about 3 episodes into the new season, I'm kinda disappointed that it's just trying to ride that cult-wave of over-the-top artsy strangeness and not attempting to do what the first/second season did.



Huh? What do you think it's "riding the wave of?!" The third season is pure undistilled David Lynch and it's really hard to take at times, but due to the way it developed I ended up loving it. A couple of the episodes are just utterly great. GOT A LIGHT?!?!?!

The only thing I can figure is that you think it's copying things that are copies of Lynch, which is kind of funny. It's kind of like, say, someone listened to At the Gates for the first time in 2018 with their newest album and were like "man, this is really copying all those melodic death metal bands of the last 20 years."



> My question is: Would I be better to put the new episodes on pause and go back and watch Fire Walk With Me? Because I haven't seen that yet. Do the new episodes digest better with a stomach full of backstory?



YES, DEFINITELY do that. The new season is *vastly* more in the tone of Fire Walk With Me than the first two seasons, and there are many, MANY direct references to it. Make sure you watch the deleted scenes ("Missing Pieces") as well - they're another hour and a half or so. The new series has a ton of stuff that will not make sense AT ALL without having seen it, and they just drop it in there assuming that you know what happened.

I also connected with Fire Walk With Me utterly and think it is Lynch's masterpiece other than maybe Mulholland Drive. It's REALLY, REALLY raw and scorching in the back half. You can tell he loved the character of Laura Palmer and wanted to breathe life into her, and it really manages to do justice to the character and make that gigantic pile of contradictions from the series all tie together and make sense as a person. And holy shit, does it get horrific. I can't recommend it enough. A lot of people loathe it, both on its own merits and for not feeling at all like the series after the first few sections, but I think it's more than worth the risk. It's easily the best thing in the entire mythos. Only that episode where we finally see Bob compares - that ending with the two gorgeous Julee Cruise songs is really haunting and remains possibly the most disturbing thing I've ever seen on a TV show, despite being "mild" enough to play on network TV in 1990.


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## vilk (May 7, 2018)

wankerness said:


> Huh? What do you think it's "riding the wave of?!" The third season is pure undistilled David Lynch and it's really hard to take at times, but due to the way it developed I ended up loving it. A couple of the episodes are just utterly great. GOT A LIGHT?!?!?!
> 
> The only thing I can figure is that you think it's copying things that are copies of Lynch, which is kind of funny. It's kind of like, say, someone listened to At the Gates for the first time in 2018 with their newest album and were like "man, this is really copying all those melodic death metal bands of the last 20 years."



I think you misunderstood what I meant; I meant the show is _riding its own wave_ of cult following for the over-the-top artsy weirdness. I'm not trying to say it's jumping on any kind of fad/popularity band wagon. It's jumping on its _own niche_ band wagon 

The point I was trying to get at is that season 3 doesn't even attempt to recreate the more reality-based aspects of season 1/2, which is disappointing to me on account of that the over-the-top artsy strangeness sections of the first seasons were so good to me for the very reason that they so starkly contrast was _appeared to be_ such a "normal" show.

Makes me feel like one of the main draws and reasons why the show is popular for most other viewers is _only _because of the weirdness/art factor? But that's not the only reasons that I liked it.

I mean, I get that it's a continuation, so there's no necessity to go backwards and reestablish the settings and characters of Twin Peaks. But that setup in season one is one of the best parts about it, in my opinion. But like I said, I haven't finished this new season yet, I think I only watched the first 3 episodes. Maybe four.

But I know what I'm watching tonight! Fire, Walk With Me!! They got the whole thing on Youtube apparently


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## wankerness (May 7, 2018)

There was always a huge tension with Twin Peaks where the two showrunners were at odds - David Lynch wanted to go weirder, Mark Frost wanted to keep it coherent and kept it grounded enough to keep it on the air, but with the Showtime series Lynch was given free reign to go as weird as he wanted. Thus a lot of callbacks to the original series are the weirdest aspects. Garmonbozia (creamed corn that represents literal pain and sorrow) is a HUGE one. There's certainly stuff for the people who liked the characters on the original, but it's mainly a continuation of Fire Walk With Me tonally. What you're describing is a problem a lot of people had with both FWWM and the new series. Still, there are a few moments in it, particularly in the back half, which should pretty much make you stand up and cheer if you're a fan of the more normal stuff.

Again, I think you might have to watch the first three episodes over again after seeing the movie. Like, they introduce David Bowie's character from the movie with no explanation in the first episode of the Showtime series, IIRC. The ring from the movie and its symbol are referenced a great many times. The "jumping man" and where he lives is very important. Etc.


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