Review Detail
9.2 33 10
(Updated: September 08, 2012)
Overall rating
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
10.0
Enjoyment
10.0
April 15, 2011 @ 1:02 am
Northwest Passage: A Twin Peaks FanEdit – review by emphatic
Note: This review will only handle the edit itself and none of any available extras on the DVD and AVCHD discs, as I got the AVCHD and stripped that down to the edit itself to watch in my HTPC.
VIDEO:
The video quality is top notch. Twin Peaks has never looked this good. The brand new 16:9 framing of the show never feels weird and I often feel myself going “what a beautiful show this is”.
10/10
AUDIO:
The 5.1 audio track is superb. I noticed some very low original music from a scene (I think) where it sounds somewhat like the music that’s in the scene after drops into, but it doesn’t affect the mood of any of those scenes at all, so it doesn’t affect my score.
10/10
While I’ve seen at least 10 FanEdits so far, I think this is the first time I’ve actually written a review. When Twin Peaks premiered on Swedish (National) TV, I was a mere 17 year-old and missed out on all of the mystery, weirdness and excitement even though all the grown-ups could not stop talking about key moments, often looking happily disturbed. A couple of years later the show was on again, and this time I was hooked from the get-go. Swedish cable TV have a habit of showing this during the summer holiday season almost every year, so I have seen it more than once on TV and then when the whole show was released in that nice Gold Box it was a release day purchase for me. I’ve only watched the extra material on that box though, as the thought of all the crap they made us suffer through in the second season has turned me off it many times now. I mean James Hurley leaving town and getting mixed up with a supposedly scorned housewife? Gimme a break.
Fast forward to the end of 2010 when I saw the teaser trailer for this edit. I knew in an instant that I was in for a treat, and man, I couldn’t be happier with the end result. Watching this very suspenseful edit is a joy, and not once do I find myself missing the antics of Nadine Hurley, Hank Jennings, Colonel Briggs or the characters involved in the Ghostwood Real Estate project. I watched the edit with my girlfriend who’s also a big fan of the show, and her only comment was about how Johnny Horne’s face was being shown without him being previously introduced.
Notable highlights that (very smartly) adds even more mystery to it all:
When a dazed and confused Dr. Jacoby shows up at the hospital “out of the blue” and is admitted we get a very good explanation for this shortly after and it felt just perfect and fresh. We don’t need to see what happens to him as it’s just not much more than a random attack.
When Donna, James and Maddie have a sit-down at the Double R diner, we see someone start a song at the jukebox, then lazily stroll past them to the adjacent booth where (fans of the show know) he’ll be eavesdropping on their conversation for the duration of that scene. At the end of it, this is originally “revealed” as the camera pans over to show his face even though we’ve seen his unmistakable neck each time the camera is on Maddie. Even if he later would appear as a criminal associate of Leo’s (like originally), just showing him like some silent predator biding his time in the background works great.
Waldo being put down. Would it matter to know who’s responsible? No. Does it make things interesting? Yes.
The Leo Johnson shooting. I would have liked to have seen the infamous “soap in a sock” scene added in (to provide a motive for the shooting) as now not seeing the shooter gives the viewer a chance to choose Bobby Briggs as actually doing something heroic (from outside that window, as Leo is no longer “chopping wood indoors” in this edit). It’s really up to the viewer to decide what happened to Leo. If we’re led to believe it’s done by Shelley or Bobby, later having Bobby roll Leo around in a wheelchair would not have any distracting effect.
The black eye on Albert Rosenfield. This is never explained and is a lovely little nugget for fans of the show and totally in character with Albert’s overall snootiness gone too far and ending with someone giving him a knuckle sandwich. Cooper never ask him about it.
Cutting short the humiliation of Andy as he breaks down and cries when the case’s horrifying time line is read aloud by Cooper in the conference room and Albert taunt him with the “three hankie crime” comment.
Leo turning up in a wheelchair with Bobby as the driver felt a bit weird, but it’s more an added mystique than raises questions IMHO.
Things I personally would have handled differently (I’m not an editor, so don’t know if everything I suggest below is doable):
When Cooper executes his patented “Tibetan dream suspect exclusion technique” with a bucket of rocks, a blackboard and a glass bottle, Johnny Horne’s face has never before been shown, yet here he gets a “flash from memory” like the other names on Cooper’s list of names. Not a big deal all in all, but if a future V2 would ever surface of this edit, it would be nice to just cut to one of the attendees instead of showing the flash of Johnny.
Big Ed’s sudden appearance as an asset to the “off the books task force” visit to One Eye Jack’s felt a bit too unexpected to me, as the whole Book House Boys’ part is cut from this edit.
When Special Agent Cooper is telling Sheriff Truman that they need a warrant for the arrest of Benjamin Horne, there’s a quick shot of the blackboard showing the drawing of the map to the Black Lodge. Knowing what it is, it’s quite distracting to a seasoned Twin Peaks viewer.
I really could have lived without the Mr. Smith subplot. Too bad he has that diary as I really don’t like the “huge hair” shot of him with and Donna in the indoor green house and even though we get to see the cool neighbors, the soapy feeling of this part’s easily the worst part that remains of the “filler material” from season 2. Also, in a short instance, the wrong cheek has blood on it (blood that magically appear even before the rake touches his skin I might add) Personally, I wish that the diary somehow could come from Dr. Jacoby instead (seeing as Donna tips off Cooper about Mr. Smith and his possession of it).
The white fur that Leland takes from Benjamin Horne’s stuffed animal that ends up planted on Maddie never really pay off.
Entertainment: 10
Picture: 10
Sound:10
Overall: 10
So, a full 10/10 from me! Awesome work!
Northwest Passage: A Twin Peaks FanEdit – review by emphatic
Note: This review will only handle the edit itself and none of any available extras on the DVD and AVCHD discs, as I got the AVCHD and stripped that down to the edit itself to watch in my HTPC.
VIDEO:
The video quality is top notch. Twin Peaks has never looked this good. The brand new 16:9 framing of the show never feels weird and I often feel myself going “what a beautiful show this is”.
10/10
AUDIO:
The 5.1 audio track is superb. I noticed some very low original music from a scene (I think) where it sounds somewhat like the music that’s in the scene after drops into, but it doesn’t affect the mood of any of those scenes at all, so it doesn’t affect my score.
10/10
While I’ve seen at least 10 FanEdits so far, I think this is the first time I’ve actually written a review. When Twin Peaks premiered on Swedish (National) TV, I was a mere 17 year-old and missed out on all of the mystery, weirdness and excitement even though all the grown-ups could not stop talking about key moments, often looking happily disturbed. A couple of years later the show was on again, and this time I was hooked from the get-go. Swedish cable TV have a habit of showing this during the summer holiday season almost every year, so I have seen it more than once on TV and then when the whole show was released in that nice Gold Box it was a release day purchase for me. I’ve only watched the extra material on that box though, as the thought of all the crap they made us suffer through in the second season has turned me off it many times now. I mean James Hurley leaving town and getting mixed up with a supposedly scorned housewife? Gimme a break.
Fast forward to the end of 2010 when I saw the teaser trailer for this edit. I knew in an instant that I was in for a treat, and man, I couldn’t be happier with the end result. Watching this very suspenseful edit is a joy, and not once do I find myself missing the antics of Nadine Hurley, Hank Jennings, Colonel Briggs or the characters involved in the Ghostwood Real Estate project. I watched the edit with my girlfriend who’s also a big fan of the show, and her only comment was about how Johnny Horne’s face was being shown without him being previously introduced.
Notable highlights that (very smartly) adds even more mystery to it all:
When a dazed and confused Dr. Jacoby shows up at the hospital “out of the blue” and is admitted we get a very good explanation for this shortly after and it felt just perfect and fresh. We don’t need to see what happens to him as it’s just not much more than a random attack.
When Donna, James and Maddie have a sit-down at the Double R diner, we see someone start a song at the jukebox, then lazily stroll past them to the adjacent booth where (fans of the show know) he’ll be eavesdropping on their conversation for the duration of that scene. At the end of it, this is originally “revealed” as the camera pans over to show his face even though we’ve seen his unmistakable neck each time the camera is on Maddie. Even if he later would appear as a criminal associate of Leo’s (like originally), just showing him like some silent predator biding his time in the background works great.
Waldo being put down. Would it matter to know who’s responsible? No. Does it make things interesting? Yes.
The Leo Johnson shooting. I would have liked to have seen the infamous “soap in a sock” scene added in (to provide a motive for the shooting) as now not seeing the shooter gives the viewer a chance to choose Bobby Briggs as actually doing something heroic (from outside that window, as Leo is no longer “chopping wood indoors” in this edit). It’s really up to the viewer to decide what happened to Leo. If we’re led to believe it’s done by Shelley or Bobby, later having Bobby roll Leo around in a wheelchair would not have any distracting effect.
The black eye on Albert Rosenfield. This is never explained and is a lovely little nugget for fans of the show and totally in character with Albert’s overall snootiness gone too far and ending with someone giving him a knuckle sandwich. Cooper never ask him about it.
Cutting short the humiliation of Andy as he breaks down and cries when the case’s horrifying time line is read aloud by Cooper in the conference room and Albert taunt him with the “three hankie crime” comment.
Leo turning up in a wheelchair with Bobby as the driver felt a bit weird, but it’s more an added mystique than raises questions IMHO.
Things I personally would have handled differently (I’m not an editor, so don’t know if everything I suggest below is doable):
When Cooper executes his patented “Tibetan dream suspect exclusion technique” with a bucket of rocks, a blackboard and a glass bottle, Johnny Horne’s face has never before been shown, yet here he gets a “flash from memory” like the other names on Cooper’s list of names. Not a big deal all in all, but if a future V2 would ever surface of this edit, it would be nice to just cut to one of the attendees instead of showing the flash of Johnny.
Big Ed’s sudden appearance as an asset to the “off the books task force” visit to One Eye Jack’s felt a bit too unexpected to me, as the whole Book House Boys’ part is cut from this edit.
When Special Agent Cooper is telling Sheriff Truman that they need a warrant for the arrest of Benjamin Horne, there’s a quick shot of the blackboard showing the drawing of the map to the Black Lodge. Knowing what it is, it’s quite distracting to a seasoned Twin Peaks viewer.
I really could have lived without the Mr. Smith subplot. Too bad he has that diary as I really don’t like the “huge hair” shot of him with and Donna in the indoor green house and even though we get to see the cool neighbors, the soapy feeling of this part’s easily the worst part that remains of the “filler material” from season 2. Also, in a short instance, the wrong cheek has blood on it (blood that magically appear even before the rake touches his skin I might add) Personally, I wish that the diary somehow could come from Dr. Jacoby instead (seeing as Donna tips off Cooper about Mr. Smith and his possession of it).
The white fur that Leland takes from Benjamin Horne’s stuffed animal that ends up planted on Maddie never really pay off.
Entertainment: 10
Picture: 10
Sound:10
Overall: 10
So, a full 10/10 from me! Awesome work!
E