Still Walking

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I wonder how many times I've seen Fire Walk with Me. That's a question I might've asked myself when I was in high school three decades ago and have trouble coming up with an answer. But I was watching it again last night, having recently finished another viewing of Twin Peaks season two. I fell asleep about halfway through the movie, though.

How many times have I willingly watched and unironically enjoyed Chris Isaak's lousy performance as Special Agent Chet Desmond? It's strange how often great singers make for poor actors. There's so much nuance in his vocals when he's singing but he just delivers every line flat as old coke when he's acting.

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Still, I do like him and Kiefer Sutherland together. Sutherland's performance as the dopey but still basically competent Sam Stanley makes their double act work. It was originally supposed to be Dale Cooper in Chet Desmond's place but Kyle MacLachlan wanted to minimise his role. If it had been Cooper in Desmond's place, it would've made more sense of all his comments in the pilot episode about local law enforcement not playing nice with the FBI and Albert being more on the ball than Sam. It still basically works, though.

Not all singers are bad actors, as we can see when David Bowie shows up shortly after Chris Isaak's character disappears. It's a shame Bowie couldn't have come back for the role in season three.