Twin Peaks, side by side.

TV Last night, after sitting my laptop next to a portable television, I watched the final two episodes of Twin Peaks side by side, just about in synch (ad breaks and buffering led to some hiccups) and was entirely convinced this was the proper way to enjoy the episodes.

 On the simplest level, like Mike Figgis's Timecode which similarly juxtaposed action in separate screens, longueurs in one episode such as lengthy driving sequences or pauses in conversation coincide with important action in the other and the shots and themes really do talk to one another.

But there's much to it than that. Alex Fulton has a length explanation for this theory with plenty of evidence along with how it effects the narrative to create a happy or at least satisfying ending:

"Herein I will suggest my own opinion, based on a unique reading of the material, that the ending is in fact of the happy variety: Cooper wins. Having said that, the way the events are depicted works like a puzzle with its pieces all out of place. Using a little bit of that intuition Agent Cooper so often employs allows the viewer to lock the pieces in place. A rearranging of the events of final two episodes gives the viewer a more satisfyingly optimistic conclusion, albeit one that does not resolve in the traditional way of most television. It requires some work on the part of the audience—not a strange concept in avant-garde art—to properly formulate."Here's are some of the key moments:



And a focus on the ending in particular:



It's remarkable how the final shot of the forest in #18 is the exact length of the closing credits in #19 and the experience ends with Julee Cruise on #17 which just happens to be two minutes longer.

Pop-Up Globe.

Theatre While we wait for Shakespeare's Globe in London to return to its roots, in Australia, a pop up version of iron and steel has opened in Melbourne in Australia and looks brilliant:

"As a gamble, it’s paid off – the Pop-up Globe has completed two seasons in New Zealand, and already sold 40,000 tickets for its first repertory rotations in Melbourne. Three companies with a total personnel of 90 travel with the show, as does its wardrobe of 500 bespoke costumes. The size is warranted for the programme; no less than 14 individual shows are staged every week of its season. It’s a relentless schedule replicated in the physical construction of the theatre itself; the whole Pop-up is assembled over just six weeks, and packed down in less than three."

Touring companies which carried a theatre with them is how drama and comedy flourished in the sixteenth century and it's often suggested how Shakespeare was inspired to become an actor and dramatist, perhaps even joining a company himself in the "missing" years.

Dr. Eighth.

Book A few years ago BBC Radio 4 broadcast about the history of the Mr. Men and how the franchise is being looked after and exploited by Roger Hargreaves's son Adam, especially after it was sold on to UK entertainment group Chorion and how they're only really interested in modernising the product around the fringes, keeping the key elements as much as possible. Now, here's some cross franchise pollination with Who stories written and illustrated in the style of a Mr. Man book, one for each Doctor, including Eighth. As expected Hargreaves has the very 2013 problem of not being able to reference anything about this iteration of the Time Lord due to other licensees having properly defined him apart from about an hour of telly. I'd expected his solution would be to offer a generic version, but actually between the character design with his floppy hair and green skin (surely a reference to his jacket in Night of the Doctor) and what few lines of dialogue he has, the writer offers a pretty good approximation of his dry wit.  Across the thirty-two pages there are two linked stories, about saving the crew of an exploding starship and mediating a conflict between the Sea Devils (old school design) and Silurians (nuWho look) and it's all good fun and even manages to have an illustration of the inside the TV Movie console room evoked by the steampunk supports.  Placement: Frankly there's nothing in here which not as well be canonical considering what's been permissible elsewhere, so due to his costume, I've put it at the start of the Time War.