Twin Peaks: The Return episodes #3 and 4 dropped for Showtime subscribers last night (as opposed to those of us viewing on the app who received all four last week). Now that everyone is caught up we can all suffer together week by week waiting for more. Which I think is a GOOD thing. I feel as though Lynch and Frost choosing to adhere to the old, an-episode-a-week schedule instead of the more prevalent "binge" itinerary (with this first batch being something of an initial compromise to hook folks) is perfect for the show and seems very much Lynch; as the artist it is his right to control the dissemination of his work - remember that initial Mulholland Drive DVD that had no chapter stops?
I LOVED that.
Having gotten used to devouring shows in single, protracted bites I feel like having to wait for every episode might act as something of an inoculation against the binge aesthetic. This is good. A couple of years ago I binged a large part of Breaking Bad in order to help a friend catch up for the finale. I'd already watched most of the show as it was released, and in seeing it again in rapid succession I realized what an unbelievably different experience it was seeing Walt's story in marathon stretches, how I perceived the characters - especially Walt's - in a very different light. Since that watch I've been wanting to change my viewing paradigm for visual, narrative fiction but, well, it's pretty freaking tough when most of what I see is in binge-friendly formats like Netflix, Hulu and DVD. Fargo would have been perfect... but I still ended up doing two a night most nights, three in one case. Twin Peaks will be a good exercise in increasing my ability to 'wait'.
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