CliqueClack Flashback – Twin Peaks

When Twin Peaks first came out in 1990, I was too young to watch it. Luckily, it’s reputation preceded it and I discovered it in college. As I often do, I quickly became completely obsessed with the show, watching it whenever I had a free moment, reading about it on the internet, and even posting theories and comments on several of the still-active Twin Peaks websites (yes, we Peakers are that crazy). To this day, the show remains one of my absolute favorites.

For those of you unfamiliar with the show, it was about a very odd small town: Twin Peaks, Washington. The whole town gets turned upside down when the local prom queen winds up murdered and wrapped in plastic. Special agent Dale Cooper of the FBI is brought in to investigate the case and all the lying, cheating, and stealing going on underneath the quiet small town facade of Twin Peaks is brought to the surface.

Of course there was a whole lot more going on. This was a David Lynch project and had his very strange sensibility. Some people claim that his work is weird for the sake of being weird, but I’m a big fan. Some trademark Lynchisms in the show include a woman who talks to a log that she carries around with her, bizarre dreams that involve people talking backwards, and mystical lodges hidden deep in the woods. The Lynch factor aside, the show was a great sprawling mystery series with a bunch of quirky characters.

It was a fairly groundbreaking show and I can see the influence of Twin Peaks on TV today. Lost comes to mind as a show that seems to owe a lot to Twin Peaks. Lost executive producer Damon Lindelof has mentioned the show as a huge influence. Both shows feature huge mysteries that deftly work in the supernatural and science fiction in a very stealthy manner. I think Desperate Housewives reflects some of the themes of TP as well. Both shows focus on airing out the skeletons in the closets of seemingly honest, small town folks; and what skeletons they are.

The show featured a great cast. Kyle MacLachlan (who can be seen on Desperate Housewives) anchored the show as the quirky FBI agent, Dale Cooper. Lara Flynn Boyle played one of the many tortured teenagers before she graduated to The Practice, and before Ray Wise was goofing it up as the Devil on Reaper, he was playing grieving father Leland Palmer on Twin Peaks. Peggy Lipton of Mod Squad fame also played a big role as the local diner owner. As any fan would know, Twin Peaks wouldn’t be Twin Peaks without a slice of cherry pie and a hot cup of coffee.

If you haven’t checked out the show before, I highly recommend giving it a chance. The best part is this is a completely free proposition, as the show can be streamed from CBS.com. The only caveat here is that the TV movie/pilot/first episode is missing from the CBS site. It was also missing from the season 1 DVD set that was released, as there were some weird publishing rights issues. My first time through the series, I missed out on the pilot, too, so don’t worry; you may be slightly confused at first, but you’ll be able to catch up by the end of the first episode. If you’re that concerned, you can rent the DVDs from the ultimate collection that was released about a year ago, which included the pilot. The DVDs look great, maintaining Twin Peaks‘s reputation as one of the best looking TV series, as David Lynch personally oversaw the digital transfer.

Have I convinced you to check out the show, or were you already a fan? Just don’t yell at me when you get completely freaked out at the weirdness, or upset at the cliffhanger ending. Let me know what you think when you hit the episode in season 2 when the killer strikes again, though. I maintain that it is the most intense scene I have ever seen on television.

Clacked by Bob Degon
on Dec 17, 2008 @ 14:00 EST5EDT