Twin Peaks - A review 25 years later

When the original Twin Peaks came out I was just 11 years old. I finally saw it when I was about 14 years and remember loving it and having a huge crush on Agent Cooper.

In 2017 the return came out and since my good friend Maik Lohse gave such an intriguing feedback (“I am not sure if it is brilliant or terrible”) I decided to rewatch the original show and the new season 3. It turns out that I pretty much shared Maik’s experience to the extent that I had to rewatch all 3 seasons 6 months later to finally make up my mind and with all the rumours about a possible fourth season it felt like the right time to write this review. 

The first two seasons were and still are mostly brilliant. Despite being almost 30 years old they still don’t look outdated but rather timeless. Why does it work like this? Because even the music played at the roadhouse is not particularly nineties. The styles are from various decades James Hurley is the 50ies biker, his uncle Ed Hurley is clearly a 70ies guy and of course Audrey Horne and her legendary sattle shoes are the epitome of the 40ies. The list goes on. 

It started out as your average crime show: A murder of a popular girl in a small town, that shoke a society, where people would leave their doors open at night, to the core. Then they added slightly more and more supernatural elements. It gradually grew and always kept a balance with people average people like Sheriff Harry Truman. It was especially through his eyes that the viewer experienced the show, as he was the typical normal guy trying to cope with all the things that happened around him. He also asked the questions, the viewer wanted to ask himself. Just like when he asked Cooper: "All of this came to you in a dream?"

After the revelation that Leland Palmer was the one who killed Laura Palmer the series seemed extremely lost. Several new characters were added such as Robin Lively's Lana Budding Milford. While her character added a certain comic relief to the show it also took away something from the show. Before all the weirdness had a dark or serious undertone, this character's storyline bordered the ridiculous. 

Another aspect that took away from the show in season two was the forced "break-up" of the Cooper / Audrey Horne relationship. Of course there was no romantic relationship despite the obvious chemistry but there was a special connection between those characters. There is a rumour going around in the internet regarding the reasons for this (I am not going into detail because this post isn't about gossip behind the scenes.) but what ever the reason was, it was handled poorly. The romantic storylines that were subsequently created for Audrey and Cooper respectively were cringeworthy and seemed extremely unrealistic and badly acted, although both guest stars Heather Graham and Billy Zane are great actors, there wasn't much they could do with lines that were given to them.

Luckily season two recovered in time with the black lodge storyline and got back to a gritting mystery show, although one had occasionally to overlook some of the scenes. 

One of my personal highlights in season two was Agent Dennis/Denise Bryce, played by David Duchovny because her storyline was Twin Peaks at its best: A serious topic with an original twist. 

After season two we had to wait for 25 years for season three. Interestingly enough this was stated in the show as one point, when Laura Palmer says in his vision to Agent Cooper: I'll see you again in 25 years. Was the a coincidence or was this David Lynch's plan all along? 

Season three was highly anticipated for various reasons. First of course was the fact that it was finally a continuation to Twin Peaks, then David Lynch was at the helm himself and many of the original characters were returning. Now the challenge was to bring all of these things together and this is where it doesn't work properly. 

The third season if viewed separate from seasons one and two is a visual masterpiece that reminds the viewer on occasion of "un chien andalou" (1929) by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí. It is something absolutely new, especially part 8, when Lynch manages to keep the viewer engaged for 26 minutes, without a single word of dialogue. Kyle MacLachlan is at his best in this season, basically playing 3 versions of the same character.

But if one sees this season as a continuation of Twin Peaks it misses slightly its mark in some aspects. First of many of the old characters seem wasted, as their story lines contribute nothing to the general story and their presence is a fan service that leaves a sour taste. The best example for this is Sherilyn Fenn's Audrey Horne, who has always been a fan favourite. 

Not only does Audrey's storyline not contribute anything to the whole story, she also doesn't interact with any of the known characters. In fact if you remove all of her scenes from season three, it wouldn't change the outcome at all. This is actually a pity since there would have been lots of interesting interactions that would have been exciting for her character, especially with any of the Coopers or maybe even Shelley from the diner.

One of the few characters that we nicely integrated in the new story (apart from Cooper) was in fact Bobby Briggs, now deputy. It ties up some loose ends, regarding his father and the background story to the Black Lodge. As matter of fact this is the part of season three that feels most Twin Peaks to me. While Robert Forster made a great sheriff Frank Truman it would have been better to have back Harry Truman (Apparantly Michael Ontkean was available but for some reason wasn't cast), as it would have made the reunion in the sheriff's department complete.

All in all Twin Peaks is a masterpiece, although each season strikes a very different tone. It is not light entertainment, especially season three but art.