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 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

[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

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.

[Mr. Veech]

Quote Originally Posted by James

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.

I thought the main villian in True Detective was the overarching conspiracy behind the murders, not the Yellow King. If it were merely the latter, I would've been extremely disappointed with the series as a whole. Even though I loathe the ending, I thought it was appropriate that the detectives never really catch the "bad guy."

[Speaking Mute]

I watched Twin Peaks for the first time only about a year ago and couldn't get into it due to all the quirky characters. I know this aspect is a big part of the show's popularity, but to me it felt like Lynch was trying to incorporate a murder mystery into The Red Green Show.