Seen for the fifth time in March 2013.
I've watched both seasons of "Twin Peaks" at least once a year since I watched it for the first time in the spring of 2010 on DVD. It deserves many accolades, including "best series finale in television history," and many individual episodes are deserving of consideration for "best episode of any television show ever." And even despite suffering some late season 2 doldrums, it's still a solid contender for "best television show ever." One can find it's influence on future television shows, especially "The X-files," which more and more seems like it was inspired by some aspects of "Twin Peaks," but with some effort at tweaking the premise so that a more long lasting television show could exist successfully.
But "Twin Peaks" was also so much more than the distilled platonic excellence from which shows like "The X-files," or "LOST" or whatever might have been inspired. It was also a great parody of soap opera, with a dozen compelling minor characters that made up the backdrop of an intriguing mundane mystery as well as intriguing supernatural mysteries. Plus, Kyle Machlachlan channeling Cary Grant as one of the most charismatic television leads that I can recall.
Many oppositions do battle in "Twin Peaks." The supernatural vs the mundane. Big city vs small town. Good vs Evil. All of this and yet the show was so weird and quirky and funny on the one hand and serious and at times scary on the other. The name "Twin Peaks," itself is very inspired to me and all of it's implications and connotations do an incredible job of delineating the show's many facets and complexities. For instance, "Twin Peaks" is the name of the small town where the show is set, assumedly this has something to do with two mountains. But also with the phrase "Twin Peaks" we could be talking about a pair of breasts. Or also, we could think of the phrase as another way of saying "second glance," or "another look." Which to me is what the show really excels at doing, giving us a second look or a different perspective on so many mundane facets of life.
But the show has been much discussed and certain conventional wisdoms have congealed around it with which I have few quibbles. I'd just like to conclude with a few observations.
- The show does not go steeply down hill after the solving of the murder in the middle of season two.
Some write off season two altogether, and though the quality slightly but perceptibly dips during the course of the first ten episodes of season 2, it is still a great show at his point. It remains so many episodes after Laura Palmer's murderer is revealed. When the show really goes into steep decline is the episode where Windom Earle actually appears for the first time.
- The show is actually better if you skip episode 12 "The Orchid's Curse."
The first time I watched the show, I inadvertently skipped this episode where Cooper actually conducts a raid on One Eyed Jacks to rescue Audrey Horne and also some weird melodramatic stuff goes down with weirdo Harold Smith. So when I skipped from episode 11 to the denouement of episode 13, I was really taken and thrilled by what I thought was bold and brilliant storytelling, leaving everything that happened in episode 12 to inference. Like you just infer that Harold Smith went nuts and that Cooper rescued Audrey Horne. When I rewatched the series later, and realized that this episode existed I was more than disappointed. Actually watching this stuff happens feels really pointless and like a waste of time compared to the visceral excitement you get from inferring that it happened. Especially as out of nowhere seemingly, episode 13 begins with an anguished Harold Smith freaking out.
- The show probably wouldn't have been better if they left the Laura Palmer murder unsolved.
Lynch often says that the plan was to never solve the Laura Palmer story but let it slip into the background as they focused on other stories. But what stories would those be? Would it be the same Windom Earle story where a poorly cast actor with no charisma plays a sub-Hannibal Lector villain? Do we still get to watch Andy and Dick play with little Nicky? Do Billy Zane and Heather Graham still come along and bore us to death with their unnecessary presences? How much of Nadine do I have to watch in this alternate universe? Of James?
The show's decline is unrelated to solving the Laura Palmer murder. It was just running out of juice. It began asking too much of a character like Andy, who was entertaining in doses, but completely unable to carry a major portion of the program. Nadine's arc just got too silly. James was kind of a hilarious parody of the brooding sensitive teen for a while but instead of following their instincts and writing him out of the show, they just kept playing that one note for less and less reward. Bobby became less and less threatening over time until he became pointless. And once they wrote out Hank Jennings and even Josie, they lost a lot of charisma and many of the other characters began to lose their relevance. For example, scenes in the Double R diner become noticeably less important after Hank is sent back to prison for attempting to murder Leo.
And the point is none of this really has to do with whether or not they solved Laura's murder too early or not. Clearly, it doesn't make sense to solve her murder this early in the series run. It was an unbelievably stupid thing to do in all honesty. But the show was going to decline anyway. What it had going for it was disappearing rapidly.
The real problem with the show is that as it goes on and we begin to focus on Windom Earle, none of the other characters have a reason to exist anymore. They all go from relative shades of ominous or cutthroat or whatever to just plain silly, and almost all of the stories have resolved, from Ben Horne to Bobby to Catherine Martell. Everything they do becomes increasingly contrived and silly while the show focuses on what turned out to be the abominable failure of Windom Earle as lead villain.
- Leo Johnson is a lot less scary in the beginning and a lot more funny when you know how his story progresses.
- James, Donna, and Maddy are from the very beginning the worst aspect of this fine television show. The only way to understand James is not as a character but as a joke, and a decent one at that. Still, his scenes with Donna, and especially the scenes when all three are together are all really really really painful.
- The final episode is so good that's its worth wading through many episodes of dreck to get there.
How's Annie?
Grade A.
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