1. John Justice Wheeler (damn, have more respect for James after that)

2. Vivian Blackburn

3. Niles (her husband) I wished they'd leave as soon as these two set foot in Twin Peaks.

4. Nancy O'Reilly (lil b*tch)

5. ex aequo Albert Rosenfeld / the giggling girl with the funny (german?) accent who works at the RnR.

As much as I love Agent Rosenflower, I have to give him special credit for being particularly irritating. But that was funny, too.               

The sound wind makes through the pines. The sentience of animals. What we fear and what lies beyond the darkness.

Lies!

1: Little Nicky

2. Dick

2. Evelyn Marsh

4. Josie

5. James

1. Dick

2. Dick

3. Dick

4. Dick

5. Windom Earle

I just couldn't abide Dick, maybe because I'm English and his faux-Europeanness did my head in. Mind you, I think that was the point, wasn't it?! Earle was cool sometimes, scary sometimes, but at other times just irritating as hell. Stop cavorting around like a bloody leprechaun, man!!!

"There is no need for medicine. I am not in pain."

I don't dislike Annie or Heather Graham's portrayal, but I do find the character generic and lightweight, almost the stereotype of what Lynch didn't want Laura to be.  I'm not crazy about the idea of Cooper falling for a distaff version of himself.  Audrey is his opposite and because of that his perfect foil.  He was clipped, folksy, and cerebral, while she was capricious, urbane, and instinctual.  Annie was moreso the imperiled sweetheart ingenue.

Leo was an essential red herring and Eric Da Re is a genuinely chilling psychopath.  By the end his character is redeemed somewhat by his attempt to save Shelly from Earle, an abuser coming to the aid of the abused.  Josie was intriguing, but I'm not sure that the writers ever quite figured out what to do with her. 

Compared to many other series, the Peaks cast seems fresh and ingratiating.  Desperate Housewives is much more strained in demarcating its characters.  One character is a hapless romantic because she falls a lot (hilarious!), another is a grasping tramp (seen it), there's an uptight WASP, and an entitled trophy wife rounds out the cast.  Dull stuff. 

Got up early, found something's missing/ My only name/ No one else sees but I got stuck/ And soon forever came

1.  Evelyn Marsh

2.  Little Nicky

3.  Dick

4.  Lana (a southern accent in Washington??? Give me a break)

5.  JJ Wheeler

Why do people hate Annie so much, it seems??

The following characters get my vote:

(1) Little Nicky (While I loathe the menage a trois-story revolving around Lucy, I actually think that Richard is a somewhat appealing and well-cast character. However, everything involving Little Nicky might as well not be in the final cut).

(2) James Hurley (I like the character, really, however James Marshall doesn't do it for me. I'd even rather have Luke Perry play the role. JM seems to have no charisma or facial expressions at all).

(3) Lana (She is gorgeous, but the stories surrounding her are dubious and below the general standard of Twin Peaks. She is a testament to a momentary lack of creativity during the second season, as is Nicky, and really should rather have been left out of the series altogether).

(4) Jean Renault (Now this one is a tough call. In some scenes he is brilliant, but there is just too much too much of the Renault-brothers. These brothers seem to stem from Frost's typical, run-of-the-mill police shows, and only Jacques Renault truly has the charsima - and Olkewicz the acting skills - to pull it off, all the way through).

(5) Sylvia Horne (Granted, she doesn't have much to work with, and her yelling "Ben!" in one of the first episodes does, in fact, clinch it for me. But - as opposed to Eileen Hayward and Betty Briggs who are also stereotypical housewives - Sylvia seems almost entirely irrelevant to the show. Betty has some funny over-the-top housewife features, such as the "We're here for you, Bobby"-scene, and Eileen some almost gripping moments. Sylvia is just filler, really).

Comments: 

Evelyn is an interesting character, though the plots surrounding her and James are, at best, noir-clichés. But the somewhat dubious quality of these scenes have more to do with James than with Evelyn, in my view.

Donna is a gem of a character. I absolutely adore her. She is annoying, but only insofar as it serves a purpose for the plot. LFB does an excellent job, and Donna is deservedly one of the most important mainstay-characters of Twin Peaks. The series wouldn't be the same without her.   

Sarah Palmer is wonderful. I love her shrieking and insane eyes. She is not only an important character and an excellent actress, she is even imperative to the surreal and uncanny tone of Twin Peaks. She may be tough to take and hard on the eardrums, but she is no less than amazing. I'd go as far as to say that she is almost otherworldly.

Annie is a bit on the boring side, but she is well-played, and the 'love story' surrounding her and Agent Cooper is intriguing and believable.

Nadine is a wonderful character during the first season. I love her and her "silent draperunners". However, many of the different plot threads involving her during the second season fall short of being poignant, comic or even surreal. The adrenaline-pumped Incredible-Hulk-type sub-plot is embarrasing and laughable, and should in my view have been sacrifised as well in the editing process.

I suppose we are just perpetually discussing the same old topics over and over again. It may seem boring, if not even extremely narcissistic, however this is the nature of the site. I mean, we are at a forum created around a Tv series that is itself more than 15 years old. There are bound to be some repetitions and good old balony. Sorry, "one suave..." (Or should I just call you "Ben").

Perhaps we could make a thread on annoyning threads regarding TP and/or FWWM. I guess that list would then be self-inclusive. At this point, we could proceed by making a thread about annoyingly self-inclusive threads, and then both threads would also have to be included. What do you say to that idea, "Ben"? ;-)

I just love a great meta-discussion, don't you? 

No, no... I was - and am still - amused by your posts. But I am, for some unapparent reason, also amused by the tiresome amount af repetitions at this forum and the long line of (irrelevant?) topics that we discuss over and over again without ever deriving anything from them.

I am one of those perpetual talkers, myself. But I very much enjoy these strange, surreal, meta-textual digressions. You are, indeed, an entertainer, "One suave fuck".

It is all a matter of perspective.

I am new to this community, have just seen (for the very first time) season two and FWWM - hence I'm like Coop, everything is new to me here (Harry probably yawns when he sees a douglas fir, Coop gets excited).

And just wait for an entire new generation of TWIN PEAKS fans to come here once the DVD box set is out...

Personally, I prefer constructive criticism - If you don't like something, change it (i.e. come up with ideas for intelligent topics). Anything else is meaningless lamenting that serves no purpose.

Here is my top 5 list:

1. Heidi (beeing German I hate German stereotypes and she's among the worst, add to this her annoying giggling. Kosh, I guess I must be grateful that her appearances were limited to the pilot and the finale).

2. Emory Battis (manager of Horne's Department Store)

3. Lana Budding Milford (what a spoiled little bitch)

4. Ms. Jones (Mr. Eckhardt's assistant. Rather spend a night with Evelyn than with her...)

5. "normal" Nadine

Scariest TP moment? When Nadine returned to her "normal" mental state (poor Ed, poor Norma, poor Mike)

Hey again

My point - and I guess this was also One suave folk's point - was that all this, in a sense, is "meaningless lamenting that serves no purpose". In all honesty, which purpose does it serve to debate irritating characters from an all but recent Tv series?  To many this would, indeed, constitute meaningless chatter.

However, I find purpose in the exchange itself - in having peers with which to discuss and debate this show that many have already forgotten, but which has been such a large part of my life.

On another note: I had forgotten all about Heidi, and, yes, she is in every sense a cliché (and not the most likeable kind, I'll give you that). Nevertheless, Twin Peaks is filled with stereotypes that are, most definitely, amusing exactly because they are stereotypical. How about the daft Norwegians or the Icelandic drunkards. I - myself being from Scandinavia - find these to be highly amusing. But hardly everyone from Iceland is a senseless drunk, nor is every Norwegian a naïve, jolly person with bad pronunciation. But, indeed you are right, Heidi is a dubious character.

Straight question, straight answer...

I think debating irritating characters can give you a general idea, what values in a human beeing the members of this forum consider worth persuading or discarding (thus it's an excercise in self-reflection, too, one might find interesting).

I also think there is a distinction in stereotypes between certain characters and ethnic groups. The only stereotype about Germans that is true is that the average German is indeed drinking a lot of beer (though statistics show that consumption of beer has been declining in favor of hard liquor) but not to the point that we are all drunks. The stereotype that is still the worst, is that we are supposedly still clinging to the Third Reich - as a matter of fact, no other European nation has been so re-educated and americanized like Germany (we were the Western "fortress" during the Cold War). Sometimes, I feel more like we are an additional American state, rather than a nation of our own. As a contrast, the French are still the French and boldly withstand any "Americanization" attempts.

As for Scandinavian stereotypes I don't know enough to make a valid statement. However, I remember my visit from 1989 in Norway where I went into a Norwegian liquor store - Well, looked more like a bank with waiting lines and liquor displayed in showcases as if it were gold coins. Considering the astronomical prices you have to pay for liquor, I've heard and can imagine Scandinavians having a jolly good time outside of Norway getting drunk -  because the prices elsewhere must seem like it's almost for free.

I'm not much of a beer drinker myself and if that's the same for you, we do not fall under the stereotype.

Good answer, morpheus. And I agree with you. But, in all honesty, I find meaning in even 'the meaningless exchanges' at this site. Also, I agree with you on the German stereotype, a stereotype that I also find quite ridiculous. However, if Germany is sadly americanized by now, you should (not) go visit Denmark. Up here we love everything American, and we take whatever means necessary to get in President Bush's good book. So sad it is...

And, indeed, you are "one suave f**ck", one suave folk. :-)

I'll check it out right away, this other topic of yours.

Looking at this exchange I am glad I found this site. I've been a fan since about '91, when they aired it for the first time in France where I was living at the time (I'm from Canada). Saw it again on VHS almost 10 years ago. I didn't know what I liked exactly in this show, but I knew I liked it a lot. I remember thinking how it'd be great hooking up with TP fans and I looked genuinely forward to the day where I could join such a community and have all these great conversations I could see coming.

 Now I can say I am just getting started and can already see why I would be so attracted. It's the people, the spirit, the good humor, the appreciation of art, beauty and wackiness. The diverse opinions. If we'd all concent, a forum would suck.

One suave folk, I liked your intervention, made me somehow think of how Rosenfeld would try to relax the atmosphere...(btw it is meant to be a compliment)

Speaking of which, I did put Heidi (so that's her name) and Albert on par in my list, because the german girl's giggle annoys the hell out of me.

But  Albert's annoying nature is self-evident, it's just that he is particularly irritating on purpose to other characters mainly, not to me! Does that count?

Anyway I have to say some characters seem to be built with that in mind: they have irritating traits but eventually become lovable. Some do not follow that pattern at all, they never become likable but hey life's like that too!

Furthermore I was re-assessing my list today and saw that Wheeler and Rosenfeld were on each end of the list.

It struck me that Wheeler is kind of an anti-Rosenfeld: he's all soft-spoken, mild-mannered, romantic(?), but deals with nasty big shots like Ben Horne involved in crime, who knows what would have been found on him? I personally wouldn't trust this man. (Do good? Always tell the hardest truth first? Yeah right, takes his boss daughter's virginity and flies off in his jet to do god knows what deed.)

And Rosenfeld is a cynical, criticizing, antisocial man but bears a good heart and has a spiritual side to him you don't suspect at first. I don't know, but from there I have a lot of speculations going on about this Wheeler.

The sound wind makes through the pines. The sentience of animals. What we fear and what lies beyond the darkness.

Dear One Suave Folk,

I am aware you were joking, and I thought it was funny, but I just wanted to add the "Oscar Wilde" viewpoint to the discussion, so that there are different viewpoints floating around. So I put in the famous Wilde quote from The Picture of Dorian Gray. You must think I'm very humourless and prudish. But it was just a different viewpoint. Sorry if it made you angry.

Oh, my goodness, I had forgotten all about John Justice Wheeler. Now, I'll have to reasses all of my choices.