In case you hadn’t heard, Showtime has announced a nine-episode revival of the
Twin Peaks series that originally aired on ABC from 1990 to 1991. For those of you who are older, the mention of
Twin Peaks conjures up the memory of the quirky TV show and not a symbol representing objectified women, inauspicious food (that’s an assumption since the Dude has no firsthand knowledge), and
Sons of Anarchy posers flexing their biceps and engaging in fracases (or is it fracai?). Yes, youngsters, there is another
Twin Peaks, one that existed before the name was soiled by yet another franchise that the world really does not need. This one is much more tolerant, much more haunting, and with much more enigma and intrigue. The Showtime episodes, set to take place 25 years after the original series ended, will be written by creators David Lynch and Mark Frost (Lynch temporarily bailed on it because of Showtime’s lack of support, but he got his way in the end). In Nebraska, only a couple of public libraries own the
Twin Peaks DVD’s (the series lasted two seasons; the gold box edition contains all of them). For those of you who are fans, it might be time to revisit before the Showtime continuation airs; for those who have never heard of the
Twin Peaks series, it is worthy of a
thumbs up on today’s
Wednesday Watch.
Twin Peaks has a bit of everything. Old fashioned mystery, humor (mostly dark), horror (it will likely cause you to look over your shoulder at times), offbeat-ness, huge amounts of characters that are difficult to keep track of (
diagrams of how characters are interconnected is almost reminiscent of Hegel’s dialectic), complex plot lines, doppelgangers, ethereal music, and a gander into the paranormal or supernatural world. The original show aired a couple years before the
X-Files, another show that has recently reappeared (and may be worth checking out), and with a number of similarities. One of the best parts of the show is main character FBI agent Dale Cooper (played by Kyle McLachlan), summed up by
this blogger:
“I gotta say I was pretty psyched about Coop’s crime-fighting methods. Most case-solving on TV today relies heavily on Western science with microscopes, ‘enhanced’ security footage, and DNA. Coop solves murders by dreaming and throwing stuff. And no one seems to question him. Coop and Twin Peaks champion the belief that there are other ways of knowing beyond science …”
Nuff’ said. Shaka.
