Saturday, November 3, 2007

Twin Peaks

     When Twin Peaks debuted on television in the early 90s, it was one of the quirkiest shows ever to hit the airways and definitely one of the most intriguing, cleverly written, and thought-provoking TV shows to come out in a REALLY long time. The pilot alone earned director/producer David Lynch a Peabody Award. Up until Twin Peaks, David Lynch had only done feature films, including hits like Dune, and even his Oscar-winning film The Elephant Man.  I don't think even David Lynch himself could've predicted the amazing success of Twin Peaks and the massive fan following it retains to this day.

     The story begins with high school prom queen Laura Palmer washing up on the lakeshore in her hometown of Twin Peaks. Special agent Dale Cooper is brought in to solve the crime, but the more he inquires into Laura's life, the more he begins to realize that Laura was a completely different person than everyone thought she was. Among her shenanigans were drug use, sadomasochism, and prostitution.  

     Though the story completely revolves around Laura, we hardly ever see much of her with the exception of a few brief flashback scenes. The search for Laura's killer ultimately reveals a town filled with a ton of secrets, and any one of them could be her killer or in some way connected to her murder.  And after just a few episodes, America was totally enthralled and left begging to know who killed Laura Palmer?  

     The show ran for two seasons with 30 one-hour episodes total. And just in case the show didn't take off, a 15-minute ending was produced to tack onto the pilot episode and be released as a singular feature film.  David Lynch never intended for the show to continue past its first 8 episode season, and ultimately never intended to reveal who actually killed Laura.  But after the season ended and her killer wasn't identified, the world absolutely demanded that there be another season or at least some explanation as to what led to Laura being killed. So under intense pressure for a conclusion, Twin Peaks was finally granted a second season, which was much longer, consisting of 22 episodes.  Somewhere around episode 18, we are finally privy to who Laura's killer was.  The rest of the season tries to set the scene for a new storyline, but after Laura's killer was identified, people lost interest, and a third season was never made.  

     Instead, a prequel movie was made consisting of the events surrounding the last week of Laura's life, up to and including her death.  We already knew what happened but it was cool to see Laura acting out all the lurid things we knew she did.  It wasn't a huge hit but is a complete must for Twin Peaks fans.  Actress Sheryl Lee does a simply amazing job bringing Laura's character to life...and death.

     As far as the TV series went though, you really have to pay attention and watch the episodes in order if you're to make heads or tails of what's going on (and even then it's hard to figure out). Something will happen in episode 5 and not be explained until episode 17. A little confusing sometimes, but it's well worth it. Top-notch entertainment!

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