True Detective vs Twin Peaks

[DoktorH]

There doesn't seem to be a TV show subforum, but this seems like the most appropriate place.

There's a 3rd season of Twin Peaks in the works. Whilst googling for more information on that, I learned that it's not airing until 2016 on Showtime (in keeping with a "see you in 25 years" remark from the 2nd season) and a companion/promotional book is coming out at some point in the meantime.

I also came across the sentiment that True Detective is effectively Twin Peaks season 3. I know a lot of Ligotti fans are also Lynch fans and that arguing about True Detective is one of the reasons we can't have nice things, so I figured i would ask all the fine folks here on TLO what they make of this idea.


to me, True Detective feels more like a Laird Barron story with a Ligotti-quoting protagonist on the Gulf Coast, while Twin peaks feels like a stephen king story in the pacific northwest with Fox Mulder's laid back FBI-school buddy as the protagonist. i think you could definitely drive from one to the other if you don't mind passing through bits of Stephen King and Joe Hill novels in between.

[miguel1984]

I will MURDER anyone who dares to compare Twin Peaks and/or David Lynch with True Detective. But definitely not you ;)

[Acutely decayed]

TP makes you think you have questions and encourages you to become ready for answers, TD gives you cookie-cutter answers when you don't understand the questions, and TL explains "you" are not.


to clarify TD is not TP but is miami-vice (or Magnum PI) with slightly better music....

[dr. locrian]

Quote Originally Posted by DoktorH

There doesn't seem to be a TV show subforum, but this seems like the most appropriate place. There's a 3rd season of Twin Peaks in the works. Whilst googling for more information on that, I learned that it's not airing until 2016 on Showtime (in keeping with a "see you in 25 years" remark from the 2nd season) and a companion/promotional book is coming out at some point in the meantime. I also came across the sentiment that True Detective is effectively Twin Peaks season 3. I know a lot of Ligotti fans are also Lynch fans and that arguing about True Detective is one of the reasons we can't have nice things, so I figured i would ask all the fine folks here on TLO what they make of this idea. to me, True Detective feels more like a Laird Barron story with a Ligotti-quoting protagonist on the Gulf Coast, while Twin peaks feels like a stephen king story in the pacific northwest with Fox Mulder's laid back FBI-school buddy as the protagonist. i think you could definitely drive from one to the other if you don't mind passing through bits of Stephen King and Joe Hill novels in between.

TRUE DETECTIVE and TWIN PEAKS share little, if anything, in common other than the detective investigating a murder trope. TP is heavily influenced by Absurdism and is filled with campy hilarity punctuated by moments of surreal horror. There's more Beckett/Ionesco than King/Hill in TP.

Your Laird Barron story TD correlation is dead on though. Gritty, tough-talking protagonists with drinking/drug problems, check. Hallucinating protagonist, check. Secret cults doing creepy things in backwoods locales, check.

[symbolique]

nil

[DoktorH]

Quote Originally Posted by Dr. Locrian

TRUE DETECTIVE and TWIN PEAKS share little, if anything, in common other than the detective investigating a murder trope. TP is heavily influenced by Absurdism and is filled with campy hilarity punctuated by moments of surreal horror. There's more Beckett/Ionesco than King/Hill in TP.

so that's why it often confuses the living daylights out of me. I am wholly ignorant of beckett, ionesco, and absurdism. i saw isolated small town full of kooks and was reminded of stephen king.

The reference was also a bit geographical. On a road trip from Twin Peaks to New Orleans, it is very possible to pass through the area of the Overlook hotel from The Shining or Christmasland from Nos4a2

[DoktorH]

Quote Originally Posted by symbolique

Quote Originally Posted by Dr. Locrian There's more Beckett/Ionesco than King/Hill in TP. That read to me unlike TP, TD has King of the Hill overtones

me too, and it kinda does, as the sort of places TD happened are situated a short drive from the kind of places King of the Hill happens. also, it had me picturing Twin Peaks recast with King of the Hill characters. Bobby and Dale were even named appropriately.
Bobby Briggs

Dale Cooper

Rust Cohle felt as immediately iconic as Dale Cooper did when Twin Peaks debuted, but if we were to compare the central murder mysteries of both (truncating the rest of TP S2 momentarily), I feel Twin Peaks had a vastly superior climax.

Having the killer turn out to be a crazed redneck from a stock 90s thriller was much less interesting than the BOB reveal.

[GirlyGirlMask]

I really enjoyed True Detective S1, especially Rust Cohle. But I obsess over Twin Peaks. I've seen that series at least seven or eight times. I've traveled to the Pacific NW to see the exterior shooting locations (yes, I've taken nerd-dom to that level). And while I'm cautiously optimistic about season three, I'm also a bit bummed that it's happening. To me, the final episode, where we see Dale Cooper's possessed face in the cracked mirror, is the pinnacle of television. It has haunted me for years. I don't really want any resolutions or answers there. It's a beautiful heartache for me. I like loose ends and threads un-tied. So I'm hoping for another gut-wrenching, mysterious finale to the new iteration.

[Gnosticangel]

GirlyGirlMask wrote,
"I really enjoyed True Detective S1, especially Rust Cohle. But I obsess over Twin Peaks. I've seen that series at least seven or eight times. ..."

Me, too, GGM, I have watched it probably more times than that, though I envy you your pilgrimage to the NWest! That sounds qite interesting!

Like you, I've pondered the mysteries of that show for years. Topics like: the intersection of incest and demonic possession states; parallels between UFO and Fairy lore, (including the twisted speech of otherworldly denizens); and of course the many references to Tibetan and Native American spiritual traditions, tied to the Spirit of Place.

I do look forward to seeing some update on Agent Cooper, especially if he remains possessed. But since Frank Silva, the actor who played the demonic "Bob," has died, I'm not sure how they would handle that. I was also disappointed to read that the actor who played "The Man From Another Place," Michael J. Anderson, had declined to participate in this new season.

So I am curious how Lynch will portray the Other Place / Red Lodge in this 3rd season.