David Lynch and Mark Frost’s TWIN PEAKS: THE TELEVISION COLLECTION

Part One: Original Pilot; episodes 3-9–Discs 1-3

Here’s why I never get anything done: I only saw the first couple episodes of the third series that was streaming back in 2017-8, and when I decided to watch the entire run in memory of Lynch, I figured I had to start back at the very beginning and make a running start. I found this big boxed set of everything except FIRE WALK WITH ME, which I have from Criterion. It’s sort of escapist fun and horror perfect for our end-of-times-era.

This is my third watch-through of the first two seasons. I came to it late and eventually saw all the episodes in London back in the early nineties; and rented FIRE WALK WITH ME after it bombed at the box office. It was pretty brilliant. Around 2007 or so, I rewatched the first two seasons with Lucy and my son, and we all enjoyed it greatly from pretty disparate ages, cultures and interests.

This time through I’m having a great time.

I forgot what a white middle class world Lynch’s movies exist in; and it’s a world with a deeply divided personality. On the one hand there are the simple creature pleasures of coffee and donuts and mountain air, etc.; on the other, there’s these monsters that live inside most of the characters, and come out in some of the most frightening scenes I’ve ever watched on television.

The show, as everybody remembers, is hilarious; at other times, beautiful and moving. Lynch’s characters shift back and forth from warm smiling gentle affections to shrieking grief and horror, which leaves you feeling both upset and absorbed.

Some highlights this time through were Ray Wise as Leland Palmer, who is even more brilliant than I recalled; and Richard Beymer as the sleazeball hotel owner; Mrs. Palmer played by Grace Zabriskie brings the ceiling down with emotional hysteria but never seems ridiculous, which is quite a gift. I forgot how hilarious Everett McGill and Wendy Robie are as Ed and Nadine. But then every performance in this show is good. (Many of McGill’s reaction shots to Nadine made me laugh out loud.) Nobody brings out the comedy of people seeing crazy in one another like Lynch. I never liked Kyle MacLachlan before this series–he seemed like a cardboard cutout appropriate to Lynch’s vision in BLUE VELVET and DUNE, but I saw nothing else in him. But ever since seeing him in TP I’ve had great affection for him. His character of “Coop” is great fun, and I won’t reprise what that means for those who probably remember this brilliant series for themselves.

The shows directed by Lynch are of course the greatest of the series, and nobody comes close to matching his vision of this place. There are some really fun supplementary materials including a long interview in a bar where Lynch talks with MachLachlan, Amick, and the guy who did most of the sound recordings on this beautifully produced series. Also some out-takes and deleted scenes.

I liked Ontkean more this time through than the first two times. He really keeps the whole crazy thing together.

The remaining shows, as I recall, were still interesting and I enjoyed them, but they tail off until the crazy Lynch-directed ending. I’ll carry on through watching these all before I step into FIRE WALK WITH ME again.