Twin Peaks - David Lynch

Twin Peaks

(possible spoilers)

Twin Peaks

April 8, 1990 - the pilot episode of Twin Peaks was aired. A lot changed on that day for TV. By that time we had seen Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Dune, and the very new and challenging Blue Velvet in the movie theaters. To have the man who directed these do a TV show? That was super exciting to me, and many others. 

I had some internet issues recently so I decided to start watching movies that I owned, but hadn't watched yet. My goal being to go through all my DVDs and watch or rewatch, and review. Then decide if it is something I want to keep or sell/give away. I decided, since I was without internet for almost a week, to start with a big box set - the Gold Box set of Twin Peaks...all ten discs. I started with the two-hour long domestic cut of the pilot episode (I did later watch the international cut which provides a clear ending to the pilot in case it didn't get picked up). Then I dove right into the strange, dark, noisy, violent, and sometimes surrealistic vision of David Lynch. 

Back when Twin Peaks first came out, I met up with a friend and we would watch it together almost every week. It was so different from anything else we had seen, or anything else on TV at the time. The episodes were fun to watch and they kept us coming back for more. They were weird and spooky, though thinking back I remember very little of the plot - just some visuals, and some characters. I mean, who could forget Log Lady, or the "Damn fine cup of coffee" - they were part of the cultural lexicon at the time. Initially there was a really good mystery about who killed Laura Palmer, homecoming queen. There were hints that she had a dark side, a past that was haunting her for some reason. This for sure kept me coming back, and it kept me engaged during this rewatch as well. Were there quirky characters, and melodramatic moments? Sure. Isn't that what you might expect from a Lynch product at that time? 

Once the mystery was resolved, I believe at the start of Season Two, the show seems to fall apart. It falls into soap opera territory which was hinted at in the first season by numerous clips of a fake soap opera named "Invitation to Love." Sure there were comedic moments, but often times they came across as quirky characters doing things just to be odd and weird. So many things happening that seemingly had no reason, nor provided anything to the story. Weird for weird's sake. I fully realize that for a true Lynch fan, this may be exactly what they want, and what they love. I also realize that a show like this was probably not made to be binged, but to watch once a week so that you have a break from the strangeness.

That being written, the cast was solid and amazing, and the majority of the performances were really good. The actors believed in what they were doing, and believed in the characters which added a reality to them, and grounded them (as much as was possible). At the same time, rewatching it brought up some issues for me, some things that may have worked back in 1990, but do not work in 2021, especially in Season Two. For example:

- David Duchovny (pre X-Files) playing a DEA agent as a crossdresser. It is clear that he doesn't play the character as trans so I didn't see it as a big problem, but I am cis and I'm sure others could read the character differently. 

- there is a character who dresses in disguise as a Japanese man. This is a predominantly all-white cast, and while the character was not done as a caricature, nor was it as horrible as Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's, it was not a choice that works in this current timeframe.

- the few Native characters speak with "native wisdom" as you would expect in a show written by two white men.

- black Mammy style salt and pepper shakers

- one characters son (who really has very little to do with the plot) wears a feathered headdress, and likes to play as a stereotypical Native American 

- David Lynch playing a recurring role as someone with hearing loss, and shouting all the time (along with big hearing aids in each ear)

- one character has a bit of a breakdown and believe he is a Confederate general so there are a few scenes with a lot of confederate flags

- there is the constant way in which women are treated by the men in their life, being yelled at, hit, talked down to - more misogyny than needed, and that classic of pairing older men with younger women.

- even with a very attractive cast, the times when people are in a sexual situation - it is the woman who is nude. The only time you get a hint of a shirtless man is when the character is dead. BUT there are plenty of shirtless women (all from the back or side) as it was TV.

- did I mention possible incest?

Now this whole box set of the first two seasons that were aired on TV has a remastered picture and sound, both of where were personally approved by David Lynch. I write that because there were so many times where the music and the sound effect were loud enough to cover some of the dialogue. There shouldn't be any reason for me to turn on subtitles just to understand dialogue because the music is so loud. Having watched the recent Showtime Limited Event Series, it is clearly a choice that Lynch made, and I don't understand that choice.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

Someone decided after Twin Peaks went off the air that they wanted to explore the life of Laura Palmer. The original series mentioned Teresa Banks and how Laura Palmer's death might have been by the same killer. This film starts with the discovery of Teresa Bank's body. It then continues to show us Laura Palmer's last few days. My question is this, does this film tell us anything new that we need to know? A lot is covered in the original Series, and beyond showing us more of Laura and her actions, the stress she is going through, etc, the movie doesn't do much explaining of how we get to where we are. We know that Laura was being haunted by BOB, and while the film shows the moment when she realized who BOB is, that doesn't really explain anything. It is implied that Laura has been sexually abused by BOB which may have lead to hear starting to do drugs but nothing is clear. It clearly shows the killer (who we all know from watching the Series), and considering who it is there is a major creep factor in this film. There is some weirdness that must make sense in Lynch's mind, but not to mine. There are cameos by David Bowie who has two lines and then is never seen again (though I just read that there is a whole feature length film named "Missing Pieces" that was cobbled out of footage from the cutting room floor, and it shows more Bowie.) 

My issue with this film is the same as the original. All the straight man tropes - hints of lesbianism, bare breasts, bondage, violence towards women, female side characters that are either shrewish mothers, or young girl whores - nothing that really holds up in this current timeframe. I remember when I first saw this in the theatre I thought it was great and it worked, but I don't think it does now. Or at least I am not a fan. That being written, I was inspired to order the Limited Event Series that aired on Showtime. The end of the Series left us with BOB inhabiting a character I liked so I'm curious how this turns out.

Twin Peaks: Limited Event Series

18 new episodes, plus a whole disc of documentary footage? count me in!! I was excited to see how this was all going to turn out. 

Scene: a very thin woman sitting at a table with drug paraphernalia on it. She shoots up, yells out a random phrase a few times and passes out. The camera lingers on her, and lingers.....and lingers. We then see a boy sitting on a couch, clearly her son, eating what looks to be the last donut from a gas station. Behind the couch is a large window showing a car parked in front of a garage across the street. We, and the boy, see a group of guys pull up, run out of their car and attach something to the bottom of the parked car, then they drive away. The boy goes over and crawls under the car to look at what is there. As he is about to pull it off, another car pulls up with different men who get out, yell at the boy to leave the car alone. He does and you see him go back into his house. One of the men gets into the car, starts it, and it explodes. Body parts are strewn across the street, and on top of the boy's house. The mom wakes up, yells the same phrase a few times, shoots up again and passes out.

So, what does this have to do with the story? Do we ever see this boy or this woman again? No. Is there any reason to show the woman doing drugs? No. 

If you enjoy these sorts of scenes that do not advance the plot, and show characters and people that have little to nothing to do with the main characters at all, and don't even really give much atmosphere to the film as the scene is a one-off, then you might enjoy the Limited Event. 

I did not. Did the Limited Event provide closure to the whole series? In some ways yes but I don't believe it needed 18 hours to do so, especially when the majority of the 18 hours were spend in Las Vegas, South Dakota, and places that were not Twin Peaks. There were the same old boring tropes - women being objects, women being treated with violence, or disdain, violence for violence's sake, women being nude for no real good reason while barely showing a shirtless Dale Cooper. Along with that were the issues with sound - so many sound effects that made no sense but were loud enough to be almost painful to listen to. There were scenes that repeated themselves, or jump cuts that were used over and over to extend what could have been a 2 min logical scene into a 10 min scene that lost any intensity, and lost my interest. While I am glad I watched it and got some closure, I do not believe it needed 18 episodes. And naturally the ending was left somewhat open ended so there could be more - though I am satisfied with what I know. 

Over all, if you are curious about Twin Peaks, I would stick with the original TV series and be done with it. If you are a David Lynch fan, then you will want and clearly enjoy everything.