Twin Peaks: The First Season

-Artisan Entertainment (1990)

Summary:

A popular small town girl is murdered and the investigation reveals all of her town’s dirty secrets; including that one about your mother.

My Thoughts:

I was a little too young to care about a show like Twin Peaks when it first aired, so I've got to thank the stars for this edition, because I can finally catch up on what I missed. Twin Peaks was a much talked about and critically revered series for its time, before quickly falling off the face of the Earth. It is also an enormous pain to be a fan of this series, but more on that later.

Twin Peaks revolves around the murder of a high school girl named Laura Palmer. Laura is dead by the time the show starts, but she's as much of a character as anyone else in the entire series. For those who haven't seen the pilot episode, or may not remember it that well, there's a quick little recap of events before the first episode. There's also a booklet that comes with the set to help get you up to speed. A killer is free in the area of Twin Peaks, with Laura’s death being his or her latest victim. The town must cope with the loss, and with all the horrible secrets that the investigation slowly reveals. The story is basically a soap opera with many of the town's residents having at least one or more hidden agendas, like the fact that they all seem to be sleeping with each other in some fashion. When a television drama is named after the town, then you have to figure everyone is going to be banging each other at some point. The other common thread is that most everyone in Twin Peaks had either known or had an obsession with the victim, Laura Palmer. Laura had a finger in every pot so to speak, from being the town sweetheart, a charity worker, to ultimately being a prostitute hooked on coke; Laura was everywhere. Anyone in the town could be her killer and in the first few episodes alone some crazy possibilities appear like a one armed man, his Indian friend, and even an evil presence that lives in the woods all could have killed this poor girl. It’s into this mess that FBI agent Dale Cooper, played by Kyle MacLachlan, steps in to investigate. Along with the local police force, Cooper leads us through the mysteries of one of televisions most bizarre and excellent series of all time.

Twin Peaks greatest draw is the wide variety of crazy characters. There's the Log Lady, Laura's freaked out Mom (complete with lurking Indian action!), the little backwards talking midget, and my favorite character, Dale Cooper. They are but a very few of the dozens of complex and intriguing citizens of the small town of Twin Peaks. The quirky interactions and the fantastic script keep the show from being your run of the mill murder mystery. It pulls you into the investigation and then mercilessly hooks you on the dozens of subplots that run throughout each episode. Even though the show only lasted a few seasons, I like to think of it as a really long, but great film. Sure, the melodrama and campiness get to be a little too much at points, but there's way too much to love about the series not to like it.

The biggest problem with this edition is that it doesn't include the pilot episode, which is both an amazing beginning to this story and is crucial for its information on the dozens of stories that are occurring all at once. This pilot isn’t included because of ownership rights, so the only way to get it is on VHS or in a limited Chinese region 0 format. That means that if you want to see it, you're going to have to make an effort. The booklet that comes with the set explains it well enough, but you really must see the pilot episode to truly get the whole story of Twin Peaks for yourself.

The quality of this set was leagues better than what I thought it would be. You can tell that a lot of care was put into making this edition as spectacular as it turned out to be. The box set looks great, and it has an incredibly moody feel that fits the series to a T. The video quality is very good, but the magic is in the sound. It comes in three flavors: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, and Dolby Digital 2.0. I preferred the DTS mix, but experiment and see what you like best.

Unfortunately for fans of Twin Peaks, as of this writing the second season is not available on DVD for us Region 1 folks. Let's pray that someone has a heart and will release it in our lifetimes. Otherwise, I might be tempted to buy the rest of them on dreaded VHS just so I can see the rest of the episodes…. ugh. If you feel you might like to get into Twin Peaks, I have to warn you it’s a complicated and insane world of no return for anyone who just wants to see all the damn episodes.

Extras:

Twin Peaks: The First Season has some awesome motion menus in conjunction with the creepy sound. It also has some decent slipcover packaging for this four disc set. In this boxed you'll find a booklet that’s actually worth looking at, because it features an interview with Sheryl Lee, the actress that played Laura Palmer. There’s also an invaluable guide to the characters bios from the missing pilot episode and a summary of what happened.

Each episode features a commentary, script notes, and a ditched intro to the show by the “Log Lady” that’s completely bizarre and pointless. The script notes are brilliant and they detail deleted scenes and alternative dialogue if you’re into that sort of thing. The commentaries vary by episode and feature directors, writers, and even one by the production designer. They are all adequate, but there’s not one by co-creator David Lynch, which is highly disappointing.

Disc four of this set contains the main section for the special features entitled “Tibet.” Within this section you’ll find some pretty great extras. “Mark Frost Interview with Wrapped in Plastic” is a phone interview with the co-creator of the series that’s rather standard yet entertaining. The best part about this interview is that the reporters from the magazine Wrapped in Plastic had to re-film their half  due to legal reasons. It’s hilarious to watch them poorly pretend that they are interviewing Mark Frost in real time.

“Learning to Speak in the Red Room” is a great little feature about how the Red Room sequence was filmed, and is must watch.

“An Introduction to David Lynch” is a mini-doc that offers some insight into the mind of David Lynch through interviews with actors, co-workers, and even a professor. Again, its disappointing that we don’t get to hear anything from Lynch himself.

“17 Pieces of Pie: Shooting at the Mar T Diner” is an interview with the woman who owned the restaurant known as the RR in the series. The interview is mesmerizing because it’s all about the success of the restaurant from its appearance in Twin Peaks. Its simply amazing to hear how many people went specifically to that diner to order cherry pie. There are even some who ordered it to be sent across country.

“The Twin Peaks Directory” is one of the neatest extras I’ve seen in awhile. It allows you to browse through characters by their many branching relationships with Laura Palmer. It’s sort of like a Kevin Bacon game in reverse. It’s a fun and nifty little feature, but sometimes it’s rather hard to navigate. It features some great little descriptions of the characters as well. The Leo Johnson description reads, “Wife beating, womanizing, drug dealing, truck driving, arsonist, bad guy thug.” Yep, that pretty much sums that guy up. You also get to see filmographies, biographies, and little video snippets from interviews with various cast members.

Score:

Episode Average: 9.0

Extras:  8.0

Edition: 9.0

-Paul