Warning: This article covers episodes 1 & 2 of the new season of Twin Peaks. To this extent expect material covering the content of the episodes. Further references are made back to the original two seasons. Whilst there are no real spoilers at play here, if you wish to remain blind then please don’t continue!
Recently dubbed as the ‘television event of the decade’, the anticipation surrounding the return of Twin Peaks is far from unsubstantiated. For those unaware, Twin Peaks was an experimental American drama first airing in the early 1990’s. Created and penned by silver screen giant and self professed oddity David Lynch alongside novelist Mark Frost, the original run of the show came to an unexpected and climactic end after two seasons. With viewer ratings dropping, the show was axed by broadcaster ABC. With it’s final episode left dangling on a cliff edge, fans were teased at the potential hint of a return 25 years later.
And now, ‘it is happening again’.
Led by the original creators and with the returning impact of the majority of it’s original cast, a new 18 episode series (directed in it’s entirety by Lynch), has finally graced our airwaves.
With many popular favourites returning (crucially including protagonist and cult hero Special Agent Dale Cooper), the creators have announced the addition of a number of new characters, arriving in the form of names such as Laura Dern, Michael Cera, Naomi Watts, Jim Belushi and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The addition of such heavyweights sends a serious statement: Twin Peaks is back in a big way.
Though 25 years down the line (with characters having aged in varying degrees of kindness), the story picks up where we left off. Special Agent Dale Cooper is still residing in the ‘Black Lodge’. Draped with its velvet curtains and optically baffling floor, not much has changed here. Our introductions to returning characters are gentle and away from familiar plots. A number of previously crucial faces are squeezed back in but as far as their relationships stand up to the plot going forward, there is not much to say as yet. On the contrary, new characters are introduced in a series of increasingly obscure vignettes and provide the backbone to any sense of story that is offered to the opening episodes.
What really is clear here is the level of creative control that has been given to Lynch. Whilst creative differences in the 90’s led him away from the show for a large bulk of the second season (arguably resulting in the loss of quality throughout this period of the story), the producers are clearly not willing to allow for the same result this time round. Having developed the successes of ‘Lost Highway’ and ‘Mulholland Drive’ since his small screen absence, Lynch has carried the thematic value and the downright weirdness of his more recent pictures across into the world of ‘Twin Peaks’.
Littered with allegory and so far only just sprinkled with real plot, the season openers have really cemented the nightmarish tone that the show will proceed with. Twin Peaks as we knew it, led with a heavy story driven form, occasionally breaking out into moments of open mouth surreality, has totally disappeared. Expect a total flip of that formula this time out. The resulting atmosphere is indescribable.
The prevailing sense of confusion left at the end of these episodes will be a nuisance to newcomers and a familiarity to those versed in the ways of Twin Peaks. Leaving as much jigsaw piecing and unpicking as one could ever hope for in a David Lynch work, at least in the form of a television series we have the security of knowing that maybe, just maybe, some of the thousand questions drawn up here may be answered over the coming weeks.
Author: Joe, York Store
