Twin Peaks - Series 2

There was a reason behind not persisting with finding a Region 2 DVD release of Twin Peaks Season 2. After falling desperately in love with the sharp, suave and classic cool first series, one of my University chums decided to purchase the entire second season on Spanish import and watch every episode back to back on a comedown during our second year. There are over twenty, forty five minute episodes, so this was far from a swift process. I managed to sit through five of the episodes before the awful sub-plots and spin-off insanity caused me to lose interest. Lynch appears to have had nothing to do with the script or direction in the episodes I saw, apart from perhaps the introductory chapter, of series 2, and the haggard runaway themes and tiresome drama destroyed my hopes of ever returning to Twin Peaks.

 

Three weeks ago, the opportunity arose for me to watch the series once again, this time on Norwegian import, and I took this opportunity by the proverbial balls. It took me a few days to adjust to a regular viewing pattern as I have not been watching any television as of late, but I scheduled an episode or two a day at the most for twenty one days. After getting used to the clearly abundant fact that Lynch had let the Twin Peaks project slip into the hands of charlatans, I began watching the series from the perspective that this is a David Lynch and Mark Frost creation. This fictional town was spawned from their collective mindset and therefore it must be relevant to the dedicated admiration I have for my favourite screenwriter and director.

 

The series gets to about episode twelve when it becomes a hefty chore to get through the low happening of dramatic sewerage. So why go through with watching it? When I found out that David and Mark were responsible for writing and directing the final episode in the series, it was like a gloomy light at the end of a fish-lip-covered tunnel and I put myself through the trials and tribulations of characters that I idolised in the first series but wanted to see down right butchered in the second.

 

Once James Marshal’s character, James Hurley, leaves town, the series is a little easier to digest. His saggy gut wrenching performance is almost too much to handle. The plot just gets so desperately shabby I was almost in tears by the time I got to episode twenty nine, when the fog was cleared and I witnessed the most rewarding audio/visual climax granted by ABC broadcasting. The hero is transformed, the balderdash plots are smashed to pieces and David creates a truly horrific viewing experience…

 

Repetitive screaming, strobe lights, fire, midgets and songs about sycamores linger as the zenith of the series slowly reaches its final peak. Almost all of the central characters are killed and David’s true intentions become crystal clear.

 

After allowing guest directors and writers to ‘take care’ of his project, David smashes everything they created while petrifying the audience they have accumulated with their shoddy modifications of a once fascinating idea, and it is all so dreamy.

 

The only way to really experience episode twenty nine is to watch the entire series from start to finish, that way it is possible to really feel David Lynch’s ever apparent wrath and genius simultaneously in a mind bending, tormenting and unforgettable concoction of passion and rage.

 

After 31068 online petition signatures and a sixteen year wait, Twin Peaks season two was released on R1 DVD in April 2007.          

       Audrey Horne played by 

               Sherilyn Fenn

 

 

 

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Copyright Daniel Emmerson 2008 all rights reserved