Twin Peaks Return: Review

It's been nearly three years since David Lynch announced that he was going to return to that wondrous and strange world of Twin Peaks, the cult masterpiece that began an era of television that, in many ways, we have never left. A lot has happened in that time. He very slowly managed to reassemble much of the same cast that made the series so wonderful in 1990, along with nearly two hundred other actors. He left the series in 2015, then was brought back. The series was extended from nine episodes to eighteen.  And with all the fanbase and critical attention, Lynch managed something nearly unheard of in the age of the Internet - he managed to keep secret almost every detail of the series, including whether or not the actors he'd brought back would be playing the same roles.

So last Sunday, Twin Peaks finally returned to Showtime. And there's good news and bad news. The good news is that its nearly as quirky and bizarre as it was nearly a quarter of a century ago. The bad news is that its still pretty inscrutable, and may be difficult to fathom even for those loyal fans that parsed every single element of the original series low those many years ago. However, that bad news may not be a detriment to those loyal followers who have been out there since the series inception (it may not be much of an exaggeration to say that Twin Peaks invented the Internet), as trying to unearth every detail of the series, like so much of Lynch's work, is part of the joy.

What we do know (or at the very least seem to know) in the first four parts is that Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle McAlachan) has been trapped in the Black Lodge for the past twenty five years - sort of. His doppleganger BOB, which escaped in Cooper's body in the series finale, has been living a bizarre life ever since. He has been involved in crime and killing (in the first part we saw him murder three people), but seems aware that his time to return to the Black Lodge may be coming. In last night's episode, Agent Cooper finally managed to escape, but somehow he has lost almost every memory of who he is. There is something spiritual about him - he seemed able to win a fortune on a series of South Dakota slot machines last night- but he barely seems able to talk anymore.

Meanwhile, in Twin Peaks, Deputy Sheriff Hawk (Michael Horse) was given warning by the Log Lady that Dale Cooper, who had disappeared right after the time he returned from the Black Lodge, is back, and that the key to finding him may be something in his heritage. He doesn't know what that means, and neither do Andy and Lucy (now married with at least one child). Sheriff Frank Truman (Robert Forster) seems determined to try and get to the bottom of this.  And the FBI, finally alerted to Cooper's presence, has sent out Director Gordon Cole (Lynch) and Albert Rosenfeld (the late Miguel Ferrer), neither sure what they have gotten themselves into.

There's a lot more going on in Twin Peaks: The Return. And to try and give even limited description to it would both confuse and, in another way, miss the point. The main part of the problem (at least so far) is that so little of the series has been set in Twin Peaks itself. The series has been set in South Dakota, New York, and a fair amount of it in the netherworld between the Black Lodge and 'reality'. We've seen only bits and pieces connected to the characters we remember, such as Ben and Jerry Horne, James Hurley, Shelley Johnson, Bobby Briggs et al., and its hard to figure out what has happened to them in the interim. There has been a fair amount of disconnect here, and while Lynch and Mark Frost have done a good job of connecting the action in the series, its hard finding out how it links to what has come before. Yet, somehow, that adds to the appeal of the series. Twin Peaks didn't just dance to the beat of its own drum; it didn't have a beat that played recognizable music. Yet despite all that, probably because of all that, its appeal lasted long after the series ended.. The level of mystery may be hard to fathom, but that's what made it a masterpiece. Have faith in the owls. Maybe this time we'll finally find out who killed Laura Palmer.

My score: 3.75 stars.