I don't usually give a crap about self-congratulatory industry awards, but I hope Kyle MacLachlan gets an emmy for this.
Think about all the subtle nuances he performed. You have Agent Dale Cooper, and Bad Cooper. Then there was "Regular" Dougie, (only in a few scenes) and then "Dumb" Dougie, and then there was even one last one, Richard Cooper, which definitely had elements of Bad Cooper's speech and mannerisms in him.
That's pretty awesome. My favorite Bad Cooper scene was the arm wrestling scene. I loved how deadpan and matter of fact he was. "It hurt my arm when you put it like this...I like this better" etc. Of course the tragedy of this series is that we wanted 18 hours of awesome, competent, confident Special Agent Dale Cooper, and we only get him in an episode and a half at the very end. Sooooo much screen time spent with Dumb Dougie. I'm sure Kyle and Lynch had a great time filming it, but man was it a chore to sit through.
I haven't really read any reviews or people's theories or anything. I don't think they really matter, especially for episode 18. But that's what I hated about Lynch movies like Mulholland Dr and some of the others; he's out there insisting it makes "sense" but he won't tell us how and at the same time it's all "open to the viewer's interpretation." I despise that kind of thinking from an artist. It's lazy and it's a cheat. Either tell a story or don't. If there's a meaning behind episode 8, at least give us enough to figure it out. If there's no meaning then have the guts to admit it was just an hour of dicking around with scenes and landscapes and things.
I went back and read my comments for the last few months and they were mostly frustrated. I knew going in it was very unlikely that it would be what I wanted or hoped for. But reflecting on it now as a whole, it was actually really close. There were 2 or 3 perfect hours of Twin Peaks television in there, and several more hours that can be cobbled together from different episodes.
After all, the original series got its reputation based on about 6 brilliant hours, and even everyone involved will admit the other 20 or so hours were crap. But the good episodes were so damn GOOD that they overshadowed the bad. I don't think this series was quite at that level, but it was close. It started and finished really strongly.
Episodes 14 and 17 were magic from start to finish. Episode 8 was balls to the wall crazy and even if I didn't love every second, I respect it. (I DID love the Woodsmen and "Gotta light?" Nightmare fuel!)
Nothing is ever gonna be as good as seeing the Red Room the first time, or seeing the insane brilliance of the season two finale, but there were a lot of moments in this series that I think came damn close. Would have been even better if they hadn't waited so long and so many key cast members hadn't died. (Or got old, wrinkly, fat, etc.)
I think I can take a step back now...I'll enjoy the official soundtracks that are coming out in a few days and I'll look forward to reading the book in a few months. But I'm going to wait until the inevitable bluray box to rewatch it again. I'm such a sucker....I'm gonna buy it for sure. OK, I lied...I'll probably rewatch episode 17 in the next few days.