New Twin Peaks a head-scratching ride
Twin Peaks
(out of 4) Created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. Starring Kyle MacLachlan, Sheryl Lee, Michael Horse and Catherine E. Coulson. Airs Sundays on Crave TV. Spoiler alert: This story contains spoilers for Twin Peaks.
The overhead view of a plunging waterfall that features in the opening theme of the new Twin Peaks is an apt metaphor for what watching the first two episodes was like.
Viewers were buffeted here and there, disappearing into whirlpools of weirdness and being spit out the other side. There can be no doubt that David Lynch was given complete creative control of the series based on what transpired in these first two hours. Twenty-six years after the original left the air, Lynch is still more than capable of confounding and unsettling us.
This new version brought back oddities beloved of Twin Peaks fans — the Log Lady, the Black Lodge, the Giant — but also new ones: a talking lump of flesh atop a tree and a shadowy monster in a mysterious glass box. Among the welcome returns was the music of Angelo Badalamenti — particularly that haunting opening theme — and familiar faces such as the late Catherine E. Coulson, poignant in her final appearances as the Log Lady.
Some loose ends were left untied: we still have no idea, for instance, what happened to Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn), last seen inside an exploding bank. But we did catch up with arguably the two most important characters: Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) and murder victim Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee).
It soon becomes clear that Cooper is trapped inside the alternate universe of the Black Lodge while his doppelganger has escaped, sporting long hair, a tan, a leather jacket and snakeskin shirt, and a penchant for violence.
The episodes spend considerable time with Cooper inside the Lodge, with its distinctive red curtains and zigzag floor, where he encounters an older Laura (who is sucked out of the Black Box) along with the Giant, Mike the one-armed man, Leland Cooper and the talking tree.
We also revisit the Twin Peaks police station (Deputy Hawk is in charge with the “two” Sheriff Trumans away, receptionist Lucy has married Deputy Andy and they have an adult son), the Great Northern Hotel (Benjamin Horne is still in charge while his brother Jerry sells legal marijuana) and the Bang Bang Bar (Shelly goes there with friends and sees Laura’s former secret boyfriend James). Former psychiatrist Dr. Jacoby is now living in a trailer in the woods and buying shovels; Sarah Palmer is at home drinking, smoking and avidly watching a rather gruesome nature documentary; an ailing Log Lady (Coulson had cancer when her episodes were shot) phones in tips from her log to Hawk.
But there are new locales and characters.
In New York, in a building owned by an anonymous billionaire, a young man is paid to watch a large, empty glass cube with a sort of porthole to the outside. When the young man
Viewers were buffeted here and there, disappearing into whirlpools of weirdness and being spit out the other side
brings a forbidden visitor, a young woman, upstairs to have sex, an alien-like creature materializes inside the box, breaks out and kills them.
In Buckhorn, S.D., police find the head of a librarian, minus one eye and her body, along with the headless body of an unidentified man. The high school principal is charged with the murder.
At first, these new plots seem unrelated to what’s gone on in Twin Peaks, but Cooper, ejected from the Black Lodge and apparently falling through the sky, materializes in the glass box while the observer is out of the room before being sucked back out again.
And his doppelganger, known as Mr. C, has some connection to the Buckhorn murder. He is seeking information from the high school principal and kills the principal’s wife, who clearly knows him.
And that’s just an abridged sample of the twists and turns. It’s a lot to take in and left even aficionados confused, judging by the reactions on Twitter, but fans seemed willing to stick with Mark Frost’s and Lynch’s vision throughout all 18 episodes.
Two more are currently available now on CraveTV.