The Laura Palmer mystery was supposed to be the opening chorus to a much larger song, but the show got cancelled.  I have always viewed Twin Peaks the place as infinitely bigger than the main mystery itself by being packed with dark undercurrents that we were just tapping the surface of before ABC pulled the plug.  The history of the town and offbeat characters were so rich that there were bound to be a plethora of more stories both large and small that could have easily carried the show through many seasons.  We the fans got what we were given, not everything the writers had to say or tell about yet another tale about life in Twin Peaks.  We'll obviously never know where it was going fully, but ironically the way the show was cancelled and with the release of FWWM the TP mythos ended up forming a perfect golden circle that we as fans can all appreciate and be satisfied with for the rest of our lives.

PS - JFK, you crack me up how passionate and fired up you get about this stuff and I mean that in the most endearing way    

i was a literature and philosophy major, i cant help myself. thanks though.

I've seen Inland Empire, and I didn't enjoy it one bit.  Mulholland Dr. is my favourite Lynch work and my favourite film ever.  But you keep referring to the Laura Palmer mystery as if it were some small insignificant thing, just a stepping stone.  For me where the heart and soul of the show stemmed from...

And my childhood wasn't very depressing, I just tended to immerse myself in my fantasy world.

you do know tho, that lynch and frost have both admitted the murder case to be a macguffin, and the case would eventually fall into the background as the townspeople and their lives seperate from laura became the case. they didnt even want to solve the murder. basically they were forced to. so if we're going for metaphor, then i see it as a flower, the murder is the seed, and a stem and flower are born from that, just as TP grew from that pilot episode. granted, the stem may have had a hard time for a while. but i see the lodges, or the last episodes that deal with them, as the flower. without the seed, no flower. but only a seed, and no flower? i dont see the point. things have to change, adapt, or evolve to continue to exist. even fantasy.
and i didnt mean to insinuate you were a depressed kid, the point i tried to make was that dont you remember as a kid how new and magical things were? i was saying that seeing TP at that age impressed me in the way that is rarely felt in adulthood, but is everywhere as childern.
interesting, though, is that you say you immersed yourself in fantasy to avoid unhappiness when you were young, yet now you barely appreciate the fanciful elements of TP, FWWM, and also IE apparently(tho im a MD lover as well). instead you want to focus on the tone of the show in the first season, and dont get me wrong, im right there with you in agreement. to be that good, that large, that dynamic, in that short period of time, is incredible. but so is the finale. they do not cancel each other out(even if the finale is negative and abstract and open-ended). hell, they compliment each other.

i was a literature and philosophy major, i cant help myself. thanks though.

 Me too! I'm in my second year of a Literature/Philosophy degree.

I don't get as worked up about the mythology as you do, but I am addicted to secondary criticism. I can't read/watch/listen to anything without reading reviews/discussions about it. It's kind of worried me recently, as I'm wondering if I really form my own opinion about things.

I understand what you're saying, but I think you may misunderstand me.  I hugely admire the creativity of Frost and Lynch.  I greatly admire the idea of the Lodges (though not the way it's built up, I felt the investigation into them could have been a little more exciting and intense, instead of the Major, the Sheriff and Cooper pacing around debating about it and trying to figure it out).  The Windom Earle storyline is a lot of fun, but at the same time I don't find him all that menacing.  Cool, but not menacing.  Not in the same frightening, shocking and saddening way Leland/Bob is, an ordinary, friendly man committing demonic deeds.  That's true horror, not some psychotic, grinning villain.  And I agree, things should flower and change and adapt, that's why I applaud Lynch for the way he strung Mulholland Dr. together into such a wonderful piece.  But it's more a matter of personal preference.  When I say I'm not impressed by the Lodges, it's simply the way the series' put it forward.  Just felt quite plodding and vague for a while, lacking in drive.  I could critique that as much as I want, but what it all comes down to is personal preference.  I didn't feel much for the Lodges' thing, I felt it was missing the human element that made the Laura Palmer mystery so gripping.  But that's just me, soo...

Twin Peaks came for me at a moment in my life when I was a wreck, I'd been kicked out of school, alienated, and I felt like shit, I was 17.  I'd been a fan of Lynch for many years, he was always my favourite filmmaker.  But then Twin Peaks came in the mail from Amazon, and right from the pilot episode I fell deeply in love with it.  It was a magical experience for me at a hard time in my life.  Maybe as I rewatch TP I'll appreciate it more as a whole.  Anyway, ever since then it's been a huge part of my life, like another world I can contemplate and relate to.  Anyway, I'm rambling, so bye for now...

wiz- i think its less a problem of understanding each other than the fact that you havent REALLY explained some off your ideas in the past, and instead hid behind jokes or flames. i didnt have much to go on while we were in discussion. But when you post things like the last post above, i feel you are being much more honest with the board. and i appreciate it. so thank you.

i was a literature and philosophy major, i cant help myself. thanks though.

 Me too! I'm in my second year of a Literature/Philosophy degree.

I don't get as worked up about the mythology as you do, but I am addicted to secondary criticism. I can't read/watch/listen to anything without reading reviews/discussions about it. It's kind of worried me recently, as I'm wondering if I really form my own opinion about things.

 I guess me, JFK and gisopurs all have something in common...