Twin Peaks Premiere Plot Summary:
25 years (or so) after the series finale, Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle McLachlan) is still trapped in the Black Lodge while his doppelgänger is in the “real world” leading a life of crime. In Buckhorn, South Dakota the body of a woman is discovered in her apartment, and the only suspect is the high school principal (Matthew Lillard) — but he has no recollection of being in her apartment. In New York City, a student (Ben Rosenfield) is in charging of monitoring a mysterious glass box. In Twin Peaks, Hawk (Michael Horse) is tasked by The Log Lady (Catherine E. Coulson) to find Cooper.
My knee-jerk reaction to the long-awaited of Twin Peaks to television was the following question:
“What in the hell did I just watch?”
I fell in love with Twin Peaks while binging it through the winter of 2017. The stories, the characters, the cinematography — I literally loved every single aspect of the show.
So initially after watching the two-hour, two episode series return, I have to admit that I was wildly disappointed. The premiere felt like such a departure from the show I thoroughly loved that aired well over 25 years ago. Dialogue was sparse, events happened without any rhyme, reason, or connection, and things were really, really weird. I honestly was let down.
But then, I thought about it.
I’m not going to see the version of Twin Peaks that so boldly aired on network television. This is a Twin Peaks with no boundaries, no limits, and with no shackles on David Lynch’s creativity. This version of Twin Peaks is going to be bizarre, non-linear, quiet, jarring, complicated, hilarious, frightening, and unnerving — sometimes at the same time. This isn’t going to be that soap opera satire mixed with doses of Lynch-ian weirdness … this is going to be a completely different, and messed up kind of beast.
And that’s when I realized this premiere was pretty amazing.
Even with the original series, we were never handed the answers right away, or even shortly down the road. That series taught us to be patient, to let the story unfold, to let the characters develop. Everything (for the most part) is onscreen for a reason, and that reason (for the most part) is revealed at the right time. There were so many head scratching moments in this episode, but we should have faith in Lynch that all will be revealed (hopefully) once the next 16 episodes are rolled out.
If you knock the down the preconceived notion that this will be an exact continuance of the network series, then you’ll not only get what David Lynch is trying to do here, but you’ll love it.
Rating: 8 out of 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQB1NZ8jxRI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k1FjNTh6Iw
