Created By: David Lynch & Mark Frost.
Note: This
isn’t an episode by episode breakdown – not even of the six directed by Lynch -
of the show just some general thoughts on it. I don’t have the time for that –
although I have seen the entire run of the show within the last six months –
for the third time.
More
than 20 years after Twin Peaks went off the air, the series still stands as
perhaps the weirdest show ever to make it to network television in America.
Stranger still is the fact that for a brief time, Twin Peaks was the pop
culture sensation of the moment. It’s thrilling first season – a two hour pilot
and 7 more 1 hour episodes – became must watch TV, no matter how weird it all
got. Perhaps it was inevitable that the show could not maintain the level of
inspired genius of season 1. With Lynch not as hands on in season 2, the series
suffered – it took weird detours into overstuffed subplots, and started to feel
like it was just adding stuff for the sake of being weird. The mastery of tone
that was present throughout season one – perched precariously between parody,
thriller, comedy and surreal nightmare – began to slip. Knowing they were going
to be canceled at the end of the season, Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost
decided not to wrap up the series, as most would do knowing the ax was falling,
but instead end season 2 with what seemed like a giant fuck you to the audience
and the network. Than when Lynch went on to make the film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk
With Me the year after the season was cancelled (which will get its own post),
people assumed he would wrap the series up for real. Instead, once again, Lynch
basically said fuck you to the audience with the film – no wonder it was hated
(and not wonder it has since found the cult it deserves). Lynch was a cult
director before Twin Peaks, and he returned to one after. But for a few
glorious moments, David Lynch had mass appeal – and he used it to its full
potential.
The
first season of Twin Peaks remains one of the great TV seasons of all time. If
you’re looking for the start of auteur driven television – which has since
given us everything from The Sopranos to Mad Men – it’s here. The series opens
with the body of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) being discovered in the titular
small town. Twin Peaks seems like the perfect place – an idyllic logging
community, where everyone knows everyone else, and people are friendly. They
have a square jawed Sheriff, a bumbling deputy, the local diner, where everyone
eats. Life revolves around the high school, the diner, and the logging
companies – where most people work, or depend on anyway, to support them. Laura
was one of the stars of the town – a beautiful, teenage blonde, who was dating
the popular football star, Bobby, and was best friends with the goody-two shoes
Donna. The pilot episode is all about the immediate aftermath of discovering
the body – and how it affected everyone in town in strong ways. Laura’s parents
(Ray Wise and Grace Zabriskie) most of all, but hardly alone.
Into
this town walks FBI Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) – who immediately falls
in love with the place. It has the smell of pine, great coffee, and one hell of
a piece of pie. He sees the inherent goodness in the town, and wants to get to
the bottom of the case. He gets “feelings” sometimes about a case – and
occasionally has dreams in which he’ll discover clues. Perhaps the most famous
scene in all of Twin Peaks is one such dream – in an episode directed by Lynch
himself – as a mysterious dwarf in a red room speaks backwards telling him what
he needs to know.
The
first season of Twin Peaks works brilliantly because it is able to keep all its
many moving pieces in the air at the same time. It’s certainly an odd series of
television – and we’re never quite sure how everything is going to fit
together, but you also don’t really care. It feels like Lynch and Frost have
you right where they want you – and twist the series every so often to keep you
guessing. The cast is large – but it makes sense since the show isn’t solely
about a murder of a woman, but her effect on the town. As the season
progresses, Agent Cooper continues to believe in the inherent goodness of the
town and its people – but we in the audience aren’t as convinced. There is
something evil in this place – and it’s been there a long time – and the town
has seemingly actively avoided it. Laura’s death makes it impossible to look
away. The season ends with a cliff hanger – Agent Cooper getting shot by a mask
man. It was the perfect way to end – and set up what was to come brilliantly.
What
came, of course, was the wildly uneven Season 2. For everything that worked
brilliantly – like the opening of Season 2, with Agent Cooper lying on the
ground bleeding for the first half of the first episode – there were an ever
increasing number of subplots, characters and detours that took us away from
what we really wanted to see. Lynch and Frost conflicted about whether or not
to solve the murder – Lynch didn’t want to, Frost did (they both said they knew
from the beginning who the murderer was) – and when they did solve the murder
halfway through season 2, the show didn’t seem to have a plan on where to go to
next. Ratings kept dropping, and the show was eventually axed – but not before
Lynch returned to direct the series finale, a mindfuck of an episode worthy of
him.
Twin
Peaks remains one of my favorite TV shows ever – even the uneven season 2. Say
what you want about – it was still weirder and more daring than anything else
on TV. No, it didn’t work anywhere near as well as season 1 – but it was
something anyway.
At
its best, Twin Peaks was a masterful mixture of tragedy, comedy, thriller,
parody and surreal nightmare. It walked that line brilliantly – and introduced
us to a host of characters that remain lodged in your mind. The first season is
genius – and deserves all the praise it receives. The second season is deeply
flawed, but is worthy of your attention. Twin Peaks represented the apex of
Lynch’s popularity – for a short period of time it seemed that people were on
his wavelength. It didn’t last long – but I’m amazed it happened at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment