I believe Lynch has said that Fire Walk With Me is extremely important to the new series.

Also, my memory is that it's more around episode 15 when Season 2 starts to get shitty (before the crucial recovery).

Honestly trying to figure out how to cut episodes from Twin Peaks is way more effort than just watching the 4-7 bum episodes from season 2.

There are some references. I heard it explained on the Andy Greenwald, Chris Ryan podcast. I think it'll enhance your enjoyment, but I didn't find it necessary so far.



I think it starts to lag earlier. I was going to say 12, but I pulled up a ranking of episodes. Your opinion of episodes 10-14 depend on your opinion of the Nadine memory loss plot and the mayoral race plot.



I agree. Also, there are probably plot points to get you from A to B. I'm just saying if you're trying to catch up quickly, that's where you'd have to cut.

Lynch so rarely gives his viewers advice about how to watch his stuff that I would take his word over that of Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan.

They didn't say, "You don't need to watch the movie." They said, this moment in the show referenced the movie. I'm saying I didn't find my experience hurt by not watching the movie. When watching that moment live, it felt like a piece of information I didn't have, but I'm used to watching Twin Peaks without having all the information. Having heard the explanation, it might have been nice to know it at the moment. But it felt more like an Easter Egg, equivalent to reading the Mark Frost book and getting the explanation of two Sheriff Trumans. My feeling so far is you need to watch the movie to get a complete picture, but you don't need to watch to follow the plot.

I do plan to watch the movie. I own the DVD and never got around to it because I had initially planned on watching with others.

The imagery used in the return so far has been outstanding - particularly the opening act of episode 3 and the introduction to the box/camera room in NYC. But the entirety of the first four episodes have been beautifully shot, and may be peak Lynch in that regard, though it's been a while since I've seen much of his work.

That's the thing. It's not that important. It helps, but it isn't essential. I didn't know what it meant going in. I didn't understand the meaning of the ring. But it isn't a major barrier to entry.

That said, after watching Fire Walk With Me (right now), I 100% understand why Lynch said it was so important. I don't think it has to do with the plot, which it aids a bit, but isn't necessary. I think it's aesthetically closer to season three than season two and in many ways bridges it. The start of season three was jarring. But I was able to get into it. I think those who watched the show 25 years ago may have had a harder time adjusting.

Finally saw Fire Walk With Me. I get why it flopped for two reasons, neither of which are good. The first is that it doesn't resolve the ending of Season Two, which is probably why most people watched the movie. The second is that it isn't a complete movie without having watched the show. It's the annoying line movies that are connected to tv shows have to walk in that they need to satisfy the show audience and attract new people. Fire Walk With Me doesn't really try to do that and ends up satisfying neither. I'm a bit disappointed in Americans, though. Millions of Americans tuned in to watch Twin Peaks. They were hooked by the murder of Laura Palmer. They slowly gave up on the show because they weren't interested in all the things that made Twin Peaks fun. Well, Fire Walk With Me gives you a condensed version of the show, while providing horrifying, horrifying details.

That said, it's a fantastic movie. It's much more terrifying than anything in Twin Peaks up to that point. I recommend it to anyone who can find it (I had to order the DVD)

Do you have to have seen season 2 to watch it? I've only seen season 1.

It spoils things. I'd be interested to see how the movie works for someone who hasn't seen season 2, but I don't recommend it unless you have no intention of ever watching season 2.

It would be a waste of time to watch FWWM without having seen season 2.

People forget how much important shit is in season 2. I think the giant doesn't even show up until then.

Yup, season 1 feels like it should encompass the whole Laura Palmer murder storyline, when of course it only gets you halfway.

Btw, really loving the new episodes. To Drew's earlier point, I'm really glad it feels so weird, and doesn't just trot out the same quirkiness of the original series.

Is the giant in Fire Walk With Me? I don't remember actually seeing him.

The only thing, though, is Fire Walk With Me essentially condenses all the developments of Season 2 into two hours. I won't spoil what happens, but Laura Palmer's murder is revealed slowly. The mystery surrounding her killer is also not explicitly said until 2/3s of the way through the movie. In that way, you can probably watch Fire Walk With Me without knowing the details, but it would be a completely different experience. You wouldn't know why anything was happening. The movie rarely explains things. Half the characters seem pointless without knowledge of the show (why are there these FBI agents in a movie about a teenage girl?). It ties in near the end, but Twin Peaks fans already know who Dale Cooper is.

That said, I'd love someone who didn't finish Twin Peaks to watch it because I'd like to know what their impression of the world is. Season 2 of Twin Peaks is heavy on the world-building in many ways because it wasn't in Lynch's control. The owls are not what they seem is not Lynch. Lynch plays in this bigger world, but I don't think he's as interested in answering questions. Remember that he never wanted to show Laura Palmer's murderer. If you watch Fire Walk With Me without seeing Season 2, you'll probably end up in a different place than the rest of us. And I'd like someone to describe to me what that place looks like. But it would completely spoil Season 2 and I don't think that's a good thing. However, if someone is a fan of David Lynch, but has no intention of watching Twin Peaks, I'd like them to watch this movie and then explain to me what they saw.

I don't remember. But he is in the first scene of S3.

Yep. I think we're combining threads. Want to take this to the Twin Peaks thread?

That cross-forum merge of posts accidentally resulted in me combining and then having to post-by-post re-separate the Seinfeld and Twin Peaks threads.