IN DREAMS I WALK WITH YOU

My night's viewing was capped off with a re-watching of BLUE VELVET, which I haven't seen in at least 12 years.  My head is still spinning.  This film has lost none of its fascination and power to disturb, no matter how many times you've seen it.

After BLUE VELVET, director David Lynch collaborated with Mark Frost on the unique soap TWIN PEAKS.  What is striking is that TWIN PEAKS is very much about a place and a mood, in a way American soaps are not.  What can we say about Pine Valley or Salem except that they're a backdrop for plots and characters?  I would like to see one soap take on the challenge of creating a world that you want to visit, regardless of which characters inhabit it.  To some extent British soaps like CORONATION STREET and EASTENDERS have created their own hyper-realities, which are the main draw of the shows with their sense of community and vibrant working class life.  If American soaps were to have a stronger sense of setting, it could result in higher ratings as viewers will tune into a show not because of the characters and plot but because they just like to visit Oakdale or Genoa City.

Oh good grief. I hope this wasn't what Ellen Wheeler was trying to get at when she had those awful ads for GUIDING LIGHT extolling the virtues of Springfield via CameraPhone. (TM)  you know, the ones at the beginning of the year that were all like "High School graduation!  Your first car!  Mom's apple pie!  SPRINGFIELD!!!!!"  Maybe if Ellen Wheeler's Springfield had a dark, twisted side to it like Lynch's Lumberton, I'd actually watch the show.