I have always wondered how other fans view each of the characters in the Twin Peaks universe, whether they like them, loathe them, or meh! Just curious about how other fans views fall in line with my own.

And the reason for your love, hate, or don't care sentiments.

I'll start first.

Pete Martell - Love him.  One of the first characters we view in the TP universe.  A simple man with a heart of gold that wouldn't harm a fly.  Gets pleasure out of the most trivial everyday activities and has a wonderful sense of humor.  Would take a bullet for just about anyone in the town of Twin Peaks.  Puts up with Catherine's crap.  Develops a friendship with Audrey. Loves fishing and is a hard worker at the mill. God, I hope he survived the explosion at the Savings and Loan!  Prototypical good ole boy Lynchverse character.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

HATE: Josie. She cries and acts like a little baby all the time, but she's really manipulative and deceitful. She's the type of character that makes women look needy and irrational. I was never interested in her character or any story lines involving Josie. And it's never been explained to me why her spirit goes into the dresser drawer--- what is that about??

LOVE: Nadine. Just when TP starts to get too serious and estoric, here comes Nadine-- totally crazy and hilarious. And the best part is the whole town just goes along with it! They even let her enroll in high school again! She was a great source of comic relief and helps to give TP its wierdness/charm.

 I agree about Josie, disagree about Nadine

This is going to sound harsh, but I wish Nadine Hurley's suicide attempt in the season one finale had been successful.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Pete declaring his love of video games "Grand.....Theft...Auto!!!!"

I'm almost afraid to ask if you're joking or not on this one -what with you young kids nowadays!

I'm pretty sure Pete is talking about Grand Theft Auto: the term, and he's not sitting aound the Pine Lodge racking up points on the video game.

lol  

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

 Fair enough.  I think he had such great lines and Jack Nance delivered them with such gusto and poured his heart and soul into the character.

So far, my own personal record of the characters mentioned in this thread-

Pete - LIKE

Josie - DISLIKE

Nadine- DISLIKE

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

LOL -I told you coolspring I was "afraid to ask."    So that's a relief!

I personally love all the characters in the first season -I love the writing, I love the story arcs, I love the actors.  Yes, even the gushy Donna/James stuff.  Actually, the weakest character for me was Maddie- I didn't really think she gelled until the episode before she died in season two.

Season two -especially the second half I disliked just about every choice made for the players- including Cooper, Audrey and Pete.  

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Booth, you make me love you more and more each day.

Top of my character Like list is of course Major Briggs. There's just something so fatherly about him that I find appealing. Even when he's disciplining Bobby for smoking at the dinner table, he's still chucking that fantastic Briggs wisdom at us.

Top of my character Dislike list...Donna f'ing Hayward. I partially blame Lara Flynn Boyle and partially blame whomever was writing her character. When you compare the FWWM Donna with the series Donna, it's like night and day, and I can't say it's entirely on the shoulders of the actresses either. Donna in the series was written to be wayyyyy too naive about Laura's activities; in FWWM it was made more apparent that Donna did indeed know some of what Laura was up to. As a result, Donna in the series comes across rather ridiculous and whiny. Lara's acting didn't help either...she could have easily played Donna has a more sympathetic character, but by the end of season 1, all she makes me want to do is chew my own face off every time Donna comes on screen. Bleh.

As far as the characters already mentioned in this thread...Pete I like. Nadine I'm neutral on. Josie I dislike. Though towards the end of the series, I get rather neutral with Pete. I liked him better earlier on in the series. Nadine was more enjoyable pre-suicide attempt. The high school shtick got old really quickly, but it gave us more Norma-Ed facetime so that made it relatively OK. Josie was just ridiculous most of the time, though I don't think having the character be Italian and played by Isabella Rossalini would have made it any better. I find her to be just as poor of an actress and ethnicity couldn't have saved the character if it tried.

~ Amanda

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

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Donna Hayward – Don’t Like. I agree with KahlanMnel. Donna was both often written terribly, unrealistically and depicted by Lara Flynn Boyle and Moira Kelly. The role of Laura’s best friend warranted a fantastic character, however, I do not believe that this was frequently achieved. She was too often emotional or indifferent during the most inappropriate times, and consistently immature considering her age. I especially detested Donna’s attitude during episode 8 and the particular line “You’re my daddy” from episode 29, but these are only specific examples.

The Log Lady – Like. I continue to hypothesize of her possibly more than any other “minor” character. Her dialogue and actions were never written irregularly and Catherine E. Coulson was evidently committed to her portrayal of the “peculiar” character.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

I like all the characters from the first season -yes, even poor Josie and James. I think it's cast wonderfully and flawless.

Maclachlan, Fenn, Laurie, Beymer are the standouts for me -especially during the first season. They get fantastic scenes where they can play off of one another. Fenn, and it was probably due to her age, is the only one of the teen characters that can go head to head with one of the grownups and hold her own. *The second episode scene between Audrey and Ben is all one shot! And she hits all the right beats. And Piper Laurie is just a master. Leland is great, but he was never really front and center until the second season to me.

And I think the early stuff with Dana Ashbrook is really underrated.

I don't have a problem with James and Donna so much -it's just that there's not much for them to go to. It's always more interesting peeling the layers away at the "bad" kids (Bobby, Audrey) then the "good kids."

Like: Pete, Cooper, Albert.

Neutral: Harry, Big Ed, James.

Dislike: Josie, Nadine, Dick Tremane.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Like - Pete, Andy, Lucy, Ben & Audrey Horne, The Log Lady, Major Briggs, Gordon Cole and especially Bobby (LOVE them bad boys...)

Dislike - Mike the Snake, (why is he so different acting in the series than in FWWM?), Donna, Evelyn, Dick Tremaine, Josie

Neutral - James, Big Ed, Nadine, Shelly, Norma, Harry (he's an integral part of the series but I HATE watching him make out with Josie....he's sloppy and all over the place...)

I really liked Shelley and also Norma when she was in scenes with Shelley in particular.

Pineweasel what do you mean about Mike ('Snake') being different in FWWM? Isn't he only in one scene in FWWM? I'd say he's meant to be unlikeable but I liked the character and his portrayal, if not his later plot with Nadine!

I bet Pineweasel meant the Pilot.

Harry Truman - Like him.  Waffled between like and neutral but the meathead won out.  He is Watson to Cooper's Sherlock and provides the grounded investigation perspective to Cooper's cosmic one.  He has horrible taste in women and is dumber than a sack of rocks, but you can't help but like the big oaf.  Of all the male cast, he easily has the best hair sporting a monster afro.  You really feel he would do anything in his power to try to save Cooper risking life and limb.  Bottom line, a rock solid guy with everyone's best interest in mind who loves his community.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper