Northwest Passage: A Twin Peaks Fanedit

Second time watching through the original series for me, quite a different perspective when one has prior knowledge. This is an interesting take on the material, a very accomplished distillation of Laura Palmer's story but not without the occasional issues that other reviewers have mentioned (mainly orphaned references that could confuse new viewers). A few favourite moments of mine are lost, but that is hardly a valid complaint when considering the stated aim of the project.

Something that also occurred to me is that, in tone and focus at least, the edit more resembles Fire Walk with Me. With each part similar in runtime to the theatrical cut, one could almost consider the works as a trilogy with two main parts followed by a prologue, barring the few elements in the prequel (most noticeably Annie) that were introduced in the second half of Season 2.

Well-deserved wins for Q2, thank you for going to all the trouble putting this together!

On top of the morning to you, fellow enjoyers of Fanedits! If you’re reading this review to determine if Northwest Passage is something you may enjoy, here is a disclaimer: I have never seen Twin Peaks.

I just recently got the blu-rays from a buddy who loved the show as an early Christmas gift, and figured this was a perfect opportunity to watch and examine Northwest Passage as someone who knows nothing about Twin Peaks. I plan on watching the original show sometime in the near future, however if I end up really enjoying this edit, I may not actually want to! I generally have a hard time watching “older” movies and shows, so bear that in mind as well as you read my review.

Overall I liked Part 1 more than Part 2. The second half doubled down HARD on the weird factor, and more or less discarded every single side character, which left basically all of their plotlines discarded. Q2’s goal here was to do exactly that, but my enjoyment was sapped a little bit by not having any resolution for the large majority of the characters. There were a couple very minor bits where the audio faded kinda quick, but these were in Part 1 and I watched Part 1 much more critically than Part 2. Part 2 I just sat down to enjoy it, while with Part 1 I was looking for transitions and such, mostly out of my desire to learn from one of the greats though, so I’m not docking any points for them.

I’m very glad I watched, and I highly recommend this edit to everyone! Especially to those who, like me, haven’t seen Twin Peaks, and want a compressed version to get a solid story!

For those like myself who enjoy the absurdist murder mystery of Twin Peaks but who have less patience for the soap operatics that make up the balance of the show, this edit is a godsend. It saves the viewer the chore of watching the entire show, and lays the groundwork for the superior (and not coincidentally, more Lynch-controlled) Fire Walk With Me and The Return. The only criticism I have is, as others have pointed out, the re-framing of the Black Lodge sequences from the end of the series and therefore the truncation of Cooper's ultimate fate, which sets the stage for The Return. So a word to the wise: you may want to partake of the series finale even after watching this edit. Aside from that, a fine achievement, renewing my interest in the hermetic small town with the damn fine coffee.

I had the pleasure of seeing this fan edit at the Paley Center in Los Angeles recently. Kudos to Q2 for a job well done.

Quality: Expecting a tv show from 1990 to be editable, look good, and maintain high quality audio is absurd. Based on what Q2 had to work with, I was impressed with the quality. But, keep in mind that I was seeing this in a theatre being projected from who knows what. It was excellent seeing the show in widescreen. The one thing that I really noticed was the difference between the episodes leading up to the reveal and the addition of the final episode in the waiting room. It was a jarring difference in quality visually. But somehow Q2 managed to keep the audio and music especially undisturbed.

Visual: At times, I noticed edits that were awkward. When you're splicing together multiple episodes, dealing with audio changes, continuity, I can definitely understand the difficulty involved. I give it an 8 because it was occasionally noticeable, and I disagreed with some of the changes. It may have been more noticeable to me in particular since I've seen the show enough times to know exactly where a cut was made. The main thing I noticed was how long Q2 managed to stay in a very fluid run until all of a sudden there was a cut to black that I didn't expect. That threw me.

Audio: This deserves a 10 because I was amazed at how well the audio ran throughout. Not one smidge of a dropped line, music was fluid, beautifully done. I suspect that use of the soundtrack may have been involved.

SPOILERS!
Narrative: The lead up to the reveal was awesome, very well done, cuts made appropriately and the strength of Laura's story was surprisingly fluid without all the filler. The reference to the loud swedes was hilarious. I had to downgrade the narrative because the reveal was choppy and very disappointing to me, as a huge fan of the series. In my opinion, I don't think there's anything wrong with the reveal being somewhat early, which is the original intention. One of my favorite scenes (is this weird?) is Leland looking in the mirror and changing to Bob, the first reveal, and then Maddie's death scene. I can't believe it was on television. It is an amazing scene, shot with gut wrenching transparency, the rolling through Bob and Leland, it's sickening and exciting in a way that only David Lynch can achieve. I couldn't believe my eyes when all we saw was Bob. It was also very awkward when they discovered Maddie, the whole gazebo thing, there were portions of that which could have been left out altogether. The road house reveal should have played verbatim as jumping to the end of the season left a sour taste. As someone who's seen the ending many times over, Dale was not there in relation to Laura for any reason, I did not like this.

Enjoyment: Let's face it: seeing anything about Twin Peaks in an actual theatre was very fulfilling and I'm so glad this opportunity was available. Whether or not we had bells and whistles in the LA screening, it was still amazing. I was loving every second of it. This is definitely aimed at those who haven't seen the series and would probably be better in that case. I will not end up watching this again, just due to the way it ends. But like I said, huge kudos to Q2 for a job well done.

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!