Bump - didn't think this warranted posting a new LTTP thread.
I'll get in semi early to say the episode 8 circle jerk is overblown. It's interesting from a cinematography angle or whatever, but it's incredibly boring to watch and there's just absolutely no value to me in "crazy things" happening for the sake of it. The last little part of the episode is fantastic though, and the pure atmosphere actually comes through there. It's one of my favorite parts of the season.
I just finished Season 3 and it's interesting to come in here and see the praise that episode 8 got. Episode 8 was by far my least favorite episode. I can appreciate those who can see/appreciate the beauty in it, but I just found so much of it to be tedious and slow. The last 10-15 minutes of it are interesting, but much of the rest of it was insufferable for me.
I only explored Twin Peaks S1-3 recently. I enjoyed season 1 and even much of season 2, despite finding the story a bit aimless, shiftless, and almost descending into full sitcom territory at times after the resolution of the Laura Palmer storyline. I really disliked episodes 1 and 2 of the new season, but I actually enjoyed much of this season overall. I think whoever said that it has some of the best and worst parts of TV is pretty accurate.
I normally don't care for fan edits, but I feel like I'd love a fan edit of S3 that excised much of the musical performances (did we really need to see Nine Inch Nails perform an entire song in episode 8?), much of the tedious shot-reaction shot aspects of it, and simply just made it a more efficient storytelling experience. I get that people who love this season may love the pacing and inclusion of these things, but I just found it to come across as bloated and vacuous at times.
I felt like Kyle McLachlan was mostly wasted between the affable, but largely uninteresting Dougie character, and the borderline comical badass nature of evil Cooper. Without him firing on all cylinders as regular Dale Cooper, it just feels like there's an emotional anchor missing in much of this season that is only ever filled by the original Twin Peaks characters, who often aren't what the story is focusing on. And I often found the supernatural plot elements to get in the way of the core emotional story in certain aspects.
I didn't hate this season as much as I expected to. I have two friends who are big David Lynch fans who excoriated this season when they told me about it. As someone who likes Lynch, but doesn't love him, I was surprised by how much I liked certain aspects of this story. But I think many of the aspects I liked pertained to the humor and affability of certain characters, plus the inclusion of some very moving story beats and arcs like with Bobby and Ed and Norma. All the black lodge moments and the black and white segments did very little for me.
