Northwest Passage: A Twin Peaks Fanedit

This is one series where a lot of people just seem to think 'oh yeah, that weird show that was weird.' Yeah, it was weird, but there is a LOT of humor in it too, and not just of the dark variety. It's a lot of fun and Q2 left it intact, I'm happy to say. A lot of editors might try to take out the humor and make the series darker and edgier, but it's nice the way it is; a solid crime drama with a sort of wacky twist to it.

Anyway, everything about this is pretty much flawless in every way! Highly recommended.

I finally got around to watching this, and WOW! I'm not a huge David Lynch fan; I get it, but it's not usually for me. As such, I never sat down to watch Twin Peaks, so this is my first exposure. The short version: I loved it! It starts of engaging and a little odd, and then when the season two stuff starts happening, it just gets nuttier and nuttier. The pacing of this thing is a wonder, considering how much was cut. I had no problem following the plot, nothing necessary to my understanding of the narrative as crafted here appeared to be missing, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. There did seem to be some stuff that could be further cut as a few side characters come off as underwritten to the point of being superfluous, but as a Twin Peaks neophyte, I can't say for sure what impact that would further have on the end result. Either way, I enjoyed all of it, and I actually want to sit down now and watch the whole series!

December 8, 2011 @ 11:54 pm

How to judge something like this?

Did I enjoy it? Yes.
Did I miss anything? Well, yes, I miss Audrey Horne, but who wouldn’t? But she has no place in this, which does make me wonder why she got that one scene with Coop.
Was I confused? A little, at times. Some things we were told had happened, and then we went ahead without really making us feel the importance of it…if that makes sense. It’s because in the series we saw it happen, here we are just told of it, and at that point the series didn’t need to give that information weight, because the viewer already knew.
Was I confused when I watched the original series? Hell yes.

The ending is cheesy, but still dark, as the real murderer in not caught. I thought it worked, but we do wonder what happens with the one-armed man and how he could have stopped Bob.

I thought the video was great. Beautiful show.

I do believe I enjoyed watching this more than I would have enjoyed watching the whole series again. There is just too much that I don’t find that good, especially when we get later into the show. This highlighted some of the best things, and actually improved on some scenes.

For this reason along with the above I’ll rate this 9/10.

A nice piece of editing.

Update sep 9 2012

Added ratings for the categories.

Q2 has done something I never thought possible,
he made me like David Lynch!

I have never really enjoyed Lynch's films, and while I watched Twin Peaks on and off in high school, I just never got in to it.

Last summer, I picked up the series set from a discount bin on the recommendation of a friend who urged me to give the series another shot.

I watched it all. But boy, was it ever it was a struggle for me... LOL!
I figured Twin Peaks was just not my cup of tea.

But then I watched NORTHWEST PASSAGE, and something just "clicked" for me. I watched the entire epic in one sitting, completely spellbound. It was still strange and weird and at times confusing, but now it felt more directed, more purposeful, and definitely more conclusive.

In my opinion, editing episodic television into an engaging and entertaining new story is the hardest type of fan edit to create. And Q2 has succeeded wildly! I can not believe he reframed every scene into 16x9! It is amazing!

Visually the edit is beautiful. There were couple audio fades/transitions that I thought were abrupt and could have been smother. But this is pretty close to perfect.

Thanks for the great murder mystery Q2!

I may have to rewatch Twin Peaks again!

April 30, 2011 @ 10:31 am

A tremendous idea, very well executed.

I’ve watched the two seasons of Twin Peaks twice all the way through and I love the show.

The biggest thrill for me watching this fanedit was how the story of Laura’s killer came so much more sharply into focus. I can see now that it’s really a story about possession – demonic possession – but the original TV series stretched out and diluted the main narrative so much that, until now, I never regarded in this light.

The 16:9 framing is surprisingly good. Only a handful of scenes suffer a little from chopping the top and bottom off the frame.

Editing is mostly excellent and the lead up to the climax – with added dream footage from episode 29 – is handled well. I had some minor issues with the continuity at the start of the 2nd disc regarding the mostly excised subplot about Dr Jacoby receiving a supposed phone call from Laura Palmer and going to meet her. The remaining elements of that subplot didn’t quite gel.

Great fanedit. 9/10.