Thoughts on Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)
I was initially going to review this episode-by-episode, but honestly, I’m not sure how I would have done that given this series’s structure. The only real episode I could probably talk about as its own thing is Part 8, which might be the hardest to talk about for other reasons.
I was also planning on rewatching the original run of Twin Peaks before watching and reviewing this, but it’s no longer on Netflix (at least in Canada), so I didn’t get around to that unfortunately. I have seen it before, of course, and I feel like my opinions on it don’t differ too much from most people’s: the first season is incredible, and the first half of the second season is pretty great as well, until the Laura Palmer mystery is solved, when it meanders for a number of episodes, but the last couple from the second season were great.
As expected, this series doesn’t resemble the original run too much. David Lynch always wants to defy expectations, and the new series seems more in line with things like Mulholland Drive and other projects Lynch has done since Twin Peaks.
Not that much of it even takes place in Twin Peaks. Instead, we have South Dakota and Las Vegas as settings that are just as important.
Talking about this story is difficult. It definitely takes its time, but it has just as much weird spiritual stuff as you’d hope. The story takes great inspiration from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, the semi-prequel film released after the series’s run. Unfortunately, I’ve only seen that movie once, and so I found myself going to the Internet a lot to remind myself of what was in that, and how it relates to the 2017 series.
This series has a ton of ambiguity, but it definitely gives you the sense that these things have been thought out. Even though I can’t quite say I know what’s going on at the end, I do think there could be clues throughout as to what’s going on. I even have a few ideas already.
The storytelling itself is truly remarkable for this reason. It’s a completely unique way to present this kind of story in about 18 hours worth of film that has plenty of visual splendor and mystery to keep you interested, albeit probably a bit frustrated.
The series witholds what you want to see for as long as possible. We don’t get to the Dale Cooper as we know him and love him until the second to last part. We do get little glimpses when he’s in the body of Dougie Jones, though, and that ends up being a really entertaining story in its own right, even with it revealing very little to the story of Twin Peaks, Major Garland Briggs, and the FBI.
Most of the characters that return to the series don’t have huge roles. It takes us forever to see Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn), perhaps the most interesting from the original series, and I can’t really say what’s going on with her overall.
Her father, Ben (Richard Beymer), doesn’t seem to have a lot going on, and never leaves his office in the Great Northern Hotel on screen. His brother, Jerry (David Patrick Kelly), is sort of just off on goofy shenanigans for most of the series, though he does encounter a moment of importance, not understanding of course how important it was.
James Hurley (James Marshall) only shows up a few times and doesn’t seem too intricately tied to the story. He does work with Freddie (Jake Wardle), who is a new character that carries some more importance.
Big Ed Hurley (Everett McGill) only has a few scenes, though he does get together with Norma (Peggy Lipton), so you get to see what you’d want to see out of those two characters.
Nadine (Wendy Robie) only has a few scenes, and interacts with Dr. Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn), who peddles his conspiracy theories on a television show, but does give Ed permission to be with Norma.
Overall, the series just gives us some glimpses from these people’s lives. For the most part, they’re no longer part of the story. And in many cases in the original series, they weren’t too important to a lot of things, too. We just see more of these characters doing their thing, and there’s something kind of nice about that.
The police officers have a bit more importance, and among them is perhaps my favorite returning Twin Peaks character: Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook), now a police deputy.
I like seeing how this character got his life together in the last 25 years, and he’s involved in the story more than the others because his father, Major Garland Briggs, was so involved in the Blue Rose/Black Lodge/White Lodge/Project Bluebook story.
The story is much more concerned with the FBI, who were all kind of minor characters in the original series. Miguel Ferrer returns as Albert Rosenfeld, and David Lynch returns as Gordon Cole, whose importance in this story have definitely both been upped.
I’ve used the word story a lot already, and I’m sure people that don’t like David Lynch will object to it, and say there isn’t a story. There is. It’s just not particularly straightforward. There’s a lot going on, and the issue of time is definitely to be questioned, but there is definitely a story here.
It’s possible even the story revolves around a character we barely see. Sarah Palmer (Grace Zabriskie) returns and only has a few scenes, all of which are pretty damn creepy. Apparently, there’s a little girl in New Mexico that may or may not be her, and if it is her, it would go on to explain a lot of things that happen not just with this character in the 2017 series, but perhaps even tying together everything that happened in the past.
The series makes us question time from the very beginning, when MIKE asks Dale in the Red Room, “Is it future or is it past?”
All the stuff that goes on in the Red Room/the Lodges is very mysterious, and doesn’t get answered in quite the same way that the Giant’s words were in the original series. Part of it makes me feel like the series isn’t quite done, but the obvious answer is David Lynch never wanted the questions to be answered before, so we shouldn’t expect them to be answered again.
At the end of the series, you definitely want more. Like the original run of the series, it ends on a cliffhanger, but a cliffhanger that is far more vague. And it could be an actual, true end, but I’d need to go back and rewatch it to see if I can find out why.
If you’re not really into David Lynch weirdness, it’s not as if this series has nothing to offer. The acting is phenomenal. Kyle MacLachlan really stands out in a triple role, and Lynch gets some good performances from his regular actors like Ashbrook and Naomi Watts.
The music to the series is great, too. Most episodes end with a musical performance at the Roadhouse, and I think it’s an interesting way to end each episode.
In addition to that, the score by Angelo Badalamanenti, is phenomenal. So overall, there’s some really great music here, whether or not it’s diagetic.
And visually, I’m not sure there’s ever been more compelling television. There were things here that reminded me of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and that may just about be the highest praise something can get for its visuals. Even if you insist that it’s weirdness for weirdness’s sake, you may still find the visuals entertaining.
As a result, though, it’s not really a show you can just sit down and watch one episode of. Each episode serves the story in very opaque ways, that you almost feel like you need to watch it all. It’s an 18-hour film, basically.
Lastly, I’d just like to point out something that’s been so interesting to me even before the series came out. So many people involved in the new Twin Peaks are now dead, which is crazy given that this only came out a year ago. But I think it speaks a lot to the actors’ devotion to David Lynch and to Twin Peaks.
I remember hearing when the actress that played the Log Lady (Catherine E. Coulson) died. Seeing her show up is bittersweet. She looks like she’s dying, and apparently she died something like four days after they shot her last scene. Likewise, Miguel Ferrer passed away before the series premiered, though he’s not noticeably sick or anything. Don S. Davis (Major Briggs) passed away in 2008, which means he’s only seen in some flashbacks, which he probably only would be, anyways. Same with David Bowie, who apparently was approached to reprise his role as Philip Jeffries, but was sick, and therefore didn’t want to. As a result, we see him in flashbacks, dubbed over by a different actor, because Bowie wasn’t satisfied with the accent he tried out in Fire Walk with Me. Even Harry Dean Stanton, who was very enjoyable in his small role, has passed.
As a result, it feels like we are seeing something that only could have been made when it was. And it’s yet another reason I think the series may never return, though I have heard some mixed words on that from Lynch and Mark Frost.
If this is the last Twin Peaks we ever get, I think it’s satisfying to a certain extent. It’s satisfying in the sense that you knew it wouldn’t be satisfying. Questions aren’t easily answered, and many questions are raised. But that’s probably the way it should be.
Rating: 10/10
