Oh yeah, the original finale script is pretty horrible. I mean, maybe it would play out ok if filmed as planned, but it's just hard to look past how brilliant Lynch's finale is -- and how much of its brilliance comes from doing precisely the opposite kind of stuff that the original script wanted.Adam Grikepelis wrote:While there are arguments out there for and against David Lynch being involved in the downward trajectory of season 2's mid-section, I tend to feel that it was likely Robert Engels & Harley Peyton (and quite likely CBS) who were at fault. At least, based on the intended direction for the season finale before Lynch took over the reigns.oh yeah wrote:I find the weakest episodes in a way the most fascinating of all, they're so different from everything else and so ridiculous at times that you just wonder how it happened.
The Wrapped in Plastic magazine had an article about the very different approach it would've taken (specifically with regard to the representation/characterisation of the Black Lodge, Bob & Windom Earl).
Original script. Wikipedia has a breakdown of the changes.
Also, another reason that I kind of like the weaker episodes is because sitting through them, and THEN getting to Lynch's finale, is just such a great experience -- the shock, the jolt of the uncanny that Lynch's episode produces coming after hours of much more literal-minded and conventional material, is just... amazing. I likened it on another board to taking five hits of strong acid after having only subsisted off of Miller Lights. Because even when the non-Lynch stretch of late Season 2 gets good, it still lacks that inimitable atmosphere that Lynch himself brings, a kind of magic feeling that lets you know you're in the hands of a master filmmaker right from frame one.