As
a mystery, it’s flawed, possibly horrible. As a strange exercise in surrealism,
it may be unmatched.
Twin
Peaks is a series that aired for only two seasons, from 1990 to 1991. It was
created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. The latter is the respected filmmaker of
such avant-garde masterpieces as Mulholland
Drive and Blue Velvet.
To describe the series while doing
it justice is a very difficult task. The most popular teenage girl in a small
town in Washington is murdered and an FBI agent is brought in once another high
schooler shows up after being kidnapped, raped, and tortured, and falls into a
coma. However, the series isn’t truly about the mystery so much as it is about
the people of this town: Twin Peaks, population 51,201 (though this is
supposedly a typo on the sign which should read 5,121).
The series is clearly well-made,
with Hollywood-level production values and some outstanding acting and
directing, but I still am not sure what to think about it. At times, it’s
fairly dull, slow-moving, and plays out very much like a soap opera. At other
times, it’s borderline supernatural horror. It plays for quirky comedy many
times, and usually hits its mark; there is something about the way Kyle
MacLachlan plays protagonist Special Agent Dale Cooper that results in a great deal of laughter.
The appeal to the show is that
virtually every character leads a double life. The amount of secrets floating
about Twin Peaks would put a Hitchcock film to shame. This show certainly
succeeds in atmosphere, with its looming score and mysterious happenings. I
especially like the retro feel of the show. Though it’s set in 1989, many of
the actors and actresses perform like they’re in a noir film from the ‘40s or ‘50s.
A
lot of the characters are great. The aforementioned Agent Cooper is my
favorite, but I also love the complexity shown by Audrey Horne, Donna Hayward,
and Catherine Martell. Many of the smaller roles have their great moments, too,
and I love anything that has Billy Zane in it, even if it’s for only a few
episodes. I think my favorite performance of the entire series is Ray Wise as
Leland Palmer, father of the murdered. This isn’t without its dull characters,
however, as I find Leo Johnson and Andy Brennan mostly a waste of time. Also I
really don’t get Nadine and wish they left out the whole
thirty-five-year-old-woman-loses-her-memory-and-thinks-she’s-in-high-school-but-also-has-super-human-strength-so-she-wants-to-compete-in-wrestling-and-also-wears-an-eye-patch
subplot.
The thing I like least about the film,
of course, is the mystery plot. It’s set up to be quite a good one, but it
ultimately disappoints as it breaks every rule imaginable. Of course, the
mystery isn’t really the show’s purpose, but I can’t be the only one who doesn’t
think there should be any kind of supernatural element in a murder mystery. I’m
not 100% sure if I’d say the supernatural element ever pays off, either. In the
series, Cooper relies on solving the murder by following strange intuitions and
dreams rather than collecting all the clues that they actually find. As someone
who loves a good mystery story or film, this does bother me, and I do believe
that Lynch’s experimental methods occasionally hurt the series as much as they
help it.
However, I truly think that Twin Peaks is something you’ll have to
formulate your own opinions about. It’s only thirty episodes, so it’s
considerably shorter than most series that are worth watching. You may find you
love how dark and idiosyncratic it is, or you may find you hate it. The series
starts out really strong, with the first three episodes probably being the best
in my opinion, and it goes downhill after episode seventeen or so.
No comments:
Post a Comment