Okej, we're probably all fairly obsessed with Twin Peaks, what with posting on a forum for it... But which particular aspect of it captures your imagination?

Personally, I'm desperately trying to figure out what happens AFTER the end of S2... I know there will probably never be a definitive answer... But it's fun to look!

the history of the town

i find it really interesting that harry explains that the bookhouse boys know about the evil in the woods and that its been fought for generations. i like wondering how long the blue pine lodge has been there, maybe since the original logging boom. i like wondering how the renault family got so fucked up, and what their parents were like.

Laura, and the darkness in the woods.

"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

"Call it what you want. A darkness. A presence." - Harry Truman, Twin Peaks

It's like a drugged mist fell over this town making everyone deaf to this little girl who is screaming.

Twin Peaks is the culimination of a long tradition American Gothic, translated to the tv medium.

I'm from Sleepy Hollow country, near the Catskill Mountains of upstate NY, so I understand DL and Kyle M.'s fascination with the small, somnabulistic towns in the woods they come from. They feel safe and spooky at the same time, and can exist in a time warp. The anxieties there, and in these stories, speak to us about our greater fears as a culture-- of industry, of outsider "Others," of innocence lost, the breakdown of the family structure etc.

"A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land and pervade the very atmosphere. Some say the place was bewitched... that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, used it for his pow-wows... Certain it is the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continuous reverie. They are given to all kinds of marvelous beliefs; are subject to trances and visions; and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air. The neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions; stars shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other, and the nightmare, with her whole nine fold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols."

-Washington Irving, Sleepy Hollow

I grew up in the same area (Rockland County, NY), and ditto 12r's remarks.  A favorite destination of ours as teenagers was Spook Rock Road.  At one corner sat Spook Rock, where legend has it, at night, you can hear the crying of an Indian maiden who lost her love.  As I recall, none of us would ever sit on that boulder beside the Indian maiden, but we swore the wind through the trees carried the sound of weeping.

And Hawk can tell me Indian legends any old time...
 

 Well of course he's bonkers - that's why we love him so much !!!

One of the greatest characters ever depicted on television. 

well he's definitely eccentric but if he's going to the cash and carry, buying earplugs, then thanking his insivible friend for the favor...that's a whole different level
 

"Did they scoff the whole damn Smörgåsbord?" (Audrey) 

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

I don't like wiping by hand?

But seriously...

The fact that the show, by and large, respects the intelligence of the audience.

The fact that no mater how bizarre my theories get regarding it they can't compare to the show itself.

The fact that it can be interpreted from anything from a very mystical perspective to a completly materialist perspective, which takes more work but is doable, for me at least.

"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

Beauty is momentary in the mind -
The fitful tracing of a portal;
But in the flesh it is immortal.
The body dies; the body's beauty lives.
So evenings die, in their green going,
A wave, interminably flowing.
So gardens die, their meek breath scenting
the cowl of winter, done repenting.
So maidens die, to the auroral
Celebration of a maiden's choral.
Susanna's music touched the bawdy strings
Of those white elders; but, escaping,
Left only Death's ironic scraping.
Now in its immortality, it plays
On the clear viol of her memory,
And makes a constant sacrement of praise.

('Peter Quince at the Clavier' by Wallace Stevens)

Beauty is momentary in the mind -
The fitful tracing of a portal;
But in the flesh it is immortal.
The body dies; the body's beauty lives.
So evenings die, in their green going,
A wave, interminably flowing.
So gardens die, their meek breath scenting
the cowl of winter, done repenting.
So maidens die, to the auroral
Celebration of a maiden's choral.
Susanna's music touched the bawdy strings
Of those white elders; but, escaping,
Left only Death's ironic scraping.
Now in its immortality, it plays
On the clear viol of her memory,
And makes a constant sacrement of praise.

('Peter Quince at the Clavier' by Wallace Stevens)

The characters first of all....The soundtrack, the way it was filmed, the colours (although I'm not a fan of the golden TP definitive box collection )

 Uhm, everything!

I have been thinking about this for a few days now and I think that the best thing that I can say is that I am just obsessed.  I love the show, I love the concept, I love how it has been a cult classic for almost 20 years now.  

The thing that gets me is that TP is a small town with lots of secrets and that is what every town is like, big or small.  Now, the secrets are much more bizzare in TP, but if you replace the surrealism with something else, like mental illness, abuse, drug use...oh wait those are in TP too.  

Anyway, I guess what I am trying to say is that if you tweak some of the facts, the people in TP are just like those in your own town.  I knew people in high school who were just like Laura, Bobby, Mike, James, Donna, Audrey...

I think I may have gotten off on a tangent...oops...