Deadly Premonition is Twin Peaks so hard it hurts

I got done watching the Deadly Premonition ER for the first time about a month ago. Was browsing Netflix this weekend and decided to watch Twin Peaks because I'd heard so many good things...

HOLY SHIT. Just about everything in this show has a parallel to Deadly Premonition. From the weird music beats, weird fucking coffee talk all the time, weird stilted, yet endearing dialogue, even down to the character archetypes. Main character is talking to a person who you're not quite sure exists, that weird, "slightly" effeminate cop. Like, it's so constantly in my face that it's really kinda taking me out of the show.

Anyone else have this similar experience? Or have you ever played/watched/read a such clear homage to something else before you experienced the inspiration and was taken out of it as a result when you got around to the original?

This is what York Morgan looked like before people said it looked like Twin peaks.

I haven't actually got around to watching the ER for Deadly Premonition, but Alan Wake is worth mentioning for the huge Twin Peaks influence. The town of Bright Falls as a whole, the settings of the police station and diner, and several of the characters in the game are lifted wholesale from Twin Peaks (although it is clearly meant as an homage, not plagiarism). Remedy love their Twin Peaks - Max Payne 1 & 2 had several references with Address Unknown and the Pink Flamingo short (the latter of which seems to be mostly inspired by Twin Peaks' season 2 finale).

As for playing/watching stuff in the backwards order of homage first, then seeing the material which inspired it... I don't know. I'm sure it's happened to me but despite racking my brains I can't think of a specific example. I get the feeling that my enjoyment of the source material would only be spoiled if it had dated very badly and if the reinterpretation/homage was very clever or original in some way.

As someone who only caught up on Twin peaks recently, I don't think it has aged badly at all. A lot of series 2 is a waste of time (between the mystery resolution and the finale), but then it always was - that was just a symptom of half a dozen filler episodes in a row without Lynch being in the director's chair.

Deadly Premonition pretty much takes the framework of Twin Peaks and then creates something new on top of it. A lot of character types and mannerisms are similar (or nearly identical, in some cases), but Deadly Premonition keeps a focus on the overlying story and delves heavily into the supernatural, where Twin Peaks was all about the exploration of the town's characters and didn't become all that crazy until after the Laura Palmer arc.

Don't be taken out of the show, though, it's great.

i think its more like deadly premonition is a seriously failed attempt to rip off twin peaks but they japanesed it up so hard the end result was unique.

That and Emily looks like Naomi Watts.

Except it's better in a few ways. Such as length and amount of content. Twin Peaks never went anywhere or came close to a conclusion.
 
Deadly Premonition is way more Twin Peaksy than Alan Wake though.

Well, yeah. I find both Twin Peaks and Deadly Premonition overly weird to the point of alienation, so they succeeded in that regard.

You're kinda late to the party, but I went through the exact same epiphany as you about a year ago after watching Twin Peaks.

A note on the show, though: Stop watching after episode 16, the show goes downhill fast from there.

I always thought it was kinda the whole point of DP.

The ER got me to check out Twin Peaks, and I'm glad I did. Similarities are super apparent, for sure.

Then I checked out more Lynch and everything is crazy.

@Ravenlight said:

You're kinda late to the party, but I went through the exact same epiphany as you about a year ago after watching Twin Peaks.

A note on the show, though: Stop watching after episode 16, the show goes downhill fast from there.

Yeah, it goes downhill, but it's worth powering through for that craziness of a finale. Found its footing again when Lynch and Frost came back only to be totally cancelled.

I played DP after watching all of Twin Peaks and I think it was a lot better experience. I thought it was fun pointing out all of the homages to myself. I kind of wish Alan Wake was MORE of an homage to Twin Peaks like DP because I liked Alan Wake's controls a lot more.

I thought this was pretty much common knowledge. Even required information to understand Deadly Premonition.

Anyways, in my case, it was Twin Peaks, then playing Deadly Premonition, then watching the Endurance Run.

You realize the reason it took so long to make was because it was to close to twin peaks originally and they had to redo a lot of stuff.

At least that's that was the word on the grape vine.

Anyway, ya I already knew this was ripping off Twin Peaks. I think everybody did that cared to know at the time. It's not really shocking news- no offense.

@Ravenlight said:

You're kinda late to the party, but I went through the exact same epiphany as you about a year ago after watching Twin Peaks.

A note on the show, though: Stop watching after episode 16, the show goes downhill fast from there.

Very fast, indeed. It plummets. Real shame, too, it's great until that point.

@MrKlorox said:

Except it's better in a few ways. Such as length and amount of content. Twin Peaks never went anywhere or came close to a conclusion. Deadly Premonition is way more Twin Peaksy than Alan Wake though.

I disagree. The ending of the show was kind of fitting in some weird way. Granted yes it had been picked up for a 3rd season the story would have continued, but....

cooper ended up becoming the vary thing he hunted.

Its not the ending i wanted, but its fitting in a David Lynch sort of way.

@CornBREDX said:

You realize the reason it took so long to make was because it was to close to twin peaks originally and they had to redo a lot of stuff.

At least that's that was the word on the grape vine.

Anyway, ya I already knew this was ripping off Twin Peaks. I think everybody did that cared to know at the time. It's not really shocking news- no offense.

@Ravenlight said:

You're kinda late to the party, but I went through the exact same epiphany as you about a year ago after watching Twin Peaks.

A note on the show, though: Stop watching after episode 16, the show goes downhill fast from there.

Very fast, indeed. It plummets. Real shame, too, it's great until that point.

Yeah there is a good few episodes in the middle of season 2 that are really really bad (someone needs to kill James) but i loved the final few episodes. Windom Earle was great!

Its not the ending i wanted, but its fitting in a David Lynch sort of way.

They are very, very similar, but I prefer Deadly Premonition's second half to what I've seen of the second season of Twin Peaks, and I never felt they were so similar that SWERY was actively biting off Twin Peaks. He was using lots and lots of it, and he riffed on it a lot, but he always put his own little remix to whatever was happening.

Of course, I maintain that Deadly Premonition is one of my all-time favorites, and it's also probably the best game of 2010.

@CornBREDX said:

You realize the reason it took so long to make was because it was to close to twin peaks originally and they had to redo a lot of stuff.

At least that's that was the word on the grape vine.

Anyway, ya I already knew this was ripping off Twin Peaks. I think everybody did that cared to know at the time. It's not really shocking news- no offense.

@Ravenlight said:

You're kinda late to the party, but I went through the exact same epiphany as you about a year ago after watching Twin Peaks.

A note on the show, though: Stop watching after episode 16, the show goes downhill fast from there.

Very fast, indeed. It plummets. Real shame, too, it's great until that point.

Yeah there is a good few episodes in the middle of season 2 that are really really bad (someone needs to kill James) but i loved the final few episodes. Windom Earle was great!

I should probably get around to watching, since I loved Deadly Premonition.