1UP Booth for all the fantastic M*A*S*H references...that ep was just on the other day, in fact. :)

I must be one of the only people on the planet who loves TP warts and all. No, I don't think Little Nicky or Evelyn are fantastic plotlines and sometimes it's not easy to sit through those scenes without jumping fwd to more interesting stuff. But the fact of the matter is that it's all a part of TP and there's only 29 stinkin' episodes...why pick them apart and be left with even less TP to enjoy? Suck it up, drive on. I don't think TP ever jumped the shark because that would mean that after the point of jumping, the series was just crap and it's not worth going back for now. But I think we can all agree that the last few eps of S2 were actually getting better and better, and I believe that season 3 would have been really interesting and back to that pre-Leland's death darkness. If a show can do that, then it hasn't jumped the shark.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

 Yes there is some stuff in the second season with james and nicky that doesn't exactly blow your mind. but at the same time in those episodes there is the other cool stuff we all love about twin peaks going on. 

there's only a few of those episodes, and then you have the last one, which imo is the best (well, torn between that and the pilot). i saw an interview on youtube with jacoby & loglady.  the last episode was to air the following week and the interviewer asked her what it would be like.  she told him that david lynch had said "it will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up", which it does for me.  every time. 

"It's not so bad as long as you can keep the fear from your mind." - D. Cooper

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer." - P. Atreides

"Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe" - L. tzu

For me, the show was never so bad that I would stop watching it.

 It´s clear that no show could survive such a punch in the face. Imagine if after the first LOST season they would´ve shown you what they actually showed in season 6. A lot of central mysteries were revealed and the show felt "done".

Or if they would present the mother in "How i met your mother" right after the first season. Ratings would drop very fast.

When I look at the episodes after the LP-case then I feel like I´m watching the aftermath of a great story which should´ve already ended.  It´s like watching a great movie, then you get to the climax and instead of ending it on a high point they drag out the ending forever.

But I must say that things look more promising when I´m reaching episode 25. Most of the annoying characters are gone and they focus again on the great characters that we all love. There´s also a compelling storyline (Black Lodge) coming to an end and I´m always surprised how great episode 29 is and how it makes up for all the crap before.

The show was doomed as soon as Laura Palmer's killer was revealed. Epic mistake. They could have done everything else that they did without showing who Bob was inhabiting at the time of her death. More people could have died, the less inspired sub-plots would be unnecessary, and the whole thing could have gone on a lot longer. The final episode is in my opinion the saving grace of the second half of season 2. Thank God David Lynch got involved again and did something interesting again.

The show never jumped the shark, but it did commit suicide slowly by making Leland Palmer the killer.

The series was running on all cylinders until the Laura Palmer storyline wrapped up (and Leland met his end), then it certainly had a pretty severe slump in the middle of that second season. I'm glad the Evelyn Marsh & "Little Nicky" storylines have been sinlged out more than once in this thread. They were, indeed, dreadful.

If Windom Earle had been introduced earlier, it may have made things a little more bearable. That said, there were other stroylines that remained engaging and wonderful during this time and, of course, once the Windom Earle story kicked into high gear, I felt that the series had really found its footing again.

Still, there is one scene in the entire series that I find to be excruciatingly unbearable and threatened to derail the entire series as hokey and contrived, and that is the demise of Josie Packard. It seemed like it tried too hard to be esoteric and "Lynchian" (with Josie turning into -- or being trapped in -- the knob and the brief re-appearance of BOB & the Man From Another Place). I cringe every time I see it and I wish I could erase it from my brain.

I will forever cast a scornful eye at Tricia Brock for penning that disaster. 

I don´t mind the Josie doorknob scene but i really really hate that BOB and the LMFAP were there. It doesn´t evoke any kind of mystery which you could discuss. It looks like a TP Best of. "Here have the little man and here is BOB. Do you remember them? Do you feel unsettled?"

NO, i don´t. In fact it´s the only apparence of BOB which I don´t find scary and that means that something isn´t right. I wrote it in another thread before that I find the lightning in that scene very bad. When I watch scenes like this it makes me wonder what Lynch would have done.

Well to say it better I understand why BOB had to show up when Josie died but he isn´t menacing in that scene and I´m grateful that they didn´t ruined und showed him in more episodes. The exception would be the end of episode 27 that was great.

Of course if Lynch directed it it would be another golden moment. But when you look at non-Lynch episodes where BOB shows up it´s just not same. It already started for me in episode 16 with the interrorgation scene of Leland. He makes weird faces and noises it just screams hey I´m evil and a psychopath. If Lynch directed Ray Wise in that scene his performance would be more nuanced and not so literal.

... but I really did! I mean, I get your point and I don't think I want to counter it. But in fact, after the show had gone far away from its roots , from all that made it so unusual, I kind of desired that memory. 'Do you remember them?' - yes I did remember them and how I missed them!

I remember how excited I was about the ending of the 23rd episode. OK, it was all very good for me (the whole episode and the final scene, too) but the appearance of the long-expected characters made it special. And I did feel unsettled like hell!

Bobi 1 Kenobi

B. Beware
O. Of
B. BOB