Review for Twin Peaks: Season 2

The delay in releasing Season Two of 'Twin Peaks' in the UK is surely as mysterious as the series itself! I rushed to buy Season 1 when it was first released - more than eight years ago. Of course, by now, devoted fans will have looked beyond these shores to buy the second season and there may not be many of us left ready to buy this edition. Which is not to say that this is not a welcome release. It most certainly is, and, if the price is right, it might prove popular enough to reintroduce the whole series to a new generation. After all, it is, in my humble opinion, one of the finest TV shows ever made.


Season 1 was very short. Just seven 48 minute episodes which, in the final analysis, merely set the scene for Season 2 with its multitude of interconnecting but baffling sub-plots. Season 2 is a much chunkier affair, running for some 17 hours, and delivering some of the most potent, surreal and dark television ever made to that point (1990-92) and beyond.

I was a little delayed getting to this review, chiefly because I felt inclined to re-watch Season 1 first. I would say that this is essential. Season 2 is surreal enough without having witnessed the initiation of the narratives in Season 1.

What I had all but forgotten is that the atmosphere of the series is quite incredible. Somehow, 'Twin Peaks' seems to play out in a parallel universe where everything is as we know it, yet not quite as we know it. It's dark but funny, quirky but disturbing, irreverent but deadly serious, surreal but hyper-real - a series of contradictions that make it absolutely unique.

Season 2, despite having dozens of red herring sub-plots, many of which remain maddeningly un-resolved to this day, has three main anchors to the storyline, like any good surrealistic soap. There's the unresolved murder of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), the question of who shot Cooper in cliff-hanger ending to Season 1 and thirdly, what about Bob?


In case it was so long ago that you saw your Season 1 set, you'll recall that it opened with the discovery of a dead body - Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), a seemingly innocent high school girl.

FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) is sent to the small town to investigate, carrying with him a small dictation machine which he addresses as Diane (we never know if that's because the tapes will get sent to a 'Diane' or whether that's his pet name for the machine).

As his investigation goes deeper, the friendly front of the town and its people begins to dissipate to reveal a dark netherworld (imagine 'The League of gentlemen' without the Pythonesque gooning).

Thanks to pressure from the network, Laura Palmer's killer is finally revealed in Episode 16 (leaving a further 13 episodes of the series to tie up any loose ends), a decision which irked Lynch who favoured leaving this unresolved until the season's end.


So we learn (after the Laura Palmer arc is essentially over) that Special Agent Dale Cooper has a violent past that has come back to haunt him. His ex-partner Windom Earle appears to help track down 'the Black Lodge' - a place of great evil, which takes the series on a nightmarish arc that drifts into the supernatural. (It makes you wonder if the world would have been ready for 'The X-Files' without Twin Peaks).

Half way through Season 2, ratings started dropping with many complaining that the show was becoming less and less understandable, more and more surreal. As with 'The Prisoner' before it, these were the very ingredients that so delighted the hard-core and 'Twin Peaks' may have been unable to sustain the mainstream for long (actually, it was surprising it ever did in the first place) but it was guaranteed a place of honour for fans of Cult TV. At one point, it looked like Season 2 would get canned early, possibly part of the motive for getting to a fixed resolution of the Laura Palmer mystery good and early.


Agent Cooper was finally given a love interest without in the form of Heather Graham and the Windom Earle and the Black Lodge arc was further developed. Despite the series ending with a Lynch directed cliff-hanger, it was to remain forever unresolved as a third series was not commissioned.

One intriguing highlight to note in Season 2 is the presence of a young (pre X-Files) David Duchovny in a dress, as well as David Lynch himself taking a part as Gordon Cole.

The extra features are nowhere near as comprehensive as the Series One set. Principally they comprise interviews with directors of the series including Caleb Deschanel, Duwayne Dunham, Todd Holland, Tim Hunter, Stephen Gyllenhaal, and David's daughter Jennifer Lynch (who wrote the book release Laura Palmer's Diary). On the final disc is a large interview grid which offers a "Play All" option which features cast members Kyle MacLachlan (Special Agent Dale Cooper), Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey Horne), Madchen Amick (Shelly Johnson), Dana Ashbrook (Bobby Briggs), Richard Beymer (Benjamin Horne), James Marshall (James Hurley), Kimmy Robertson (Lucy Moran), Don Davis (Major Garland Briggs), Charlotte Stewart (Betty Briggs), Lenny Von Dohlen (Harold Smith), David Duchovny (cross dressing DEA Agent Dennis/Denise), and Garrison Hershberger (Mike Nelson).


These mini interviews are really bite-size so it's OK to just 'Play All'. You can also watch each episode with the Log Lady intros created for Bravo (the only channel to have aired the show in syndication), but these sequences look really grimy compared to the otherwise excellent visual quality throughout.

Unsurprisingly there are no episode commentaries, and no appearances from Mark Frost or David Lynch. Lynch despises such frivolity which he believes destroys the magic.


Picture quality is really excellent and the soundtrack (in case you'd forgotten) is absolutely exquisite with Angelo Badalamenti's off kilter jazz ambience providing just the right tone and atmosphere. Add to that the torch singing of Julee Cruise and you have a near perfect score - still a favourite OST of mine. At the time, "The Nightingale", "Into The Night" and "Falling" were all spin-off hits in their own right.


All in all, fans of the series shouldn't hesitate to get this set. Eight years is more than enough time to have waited and now it's here, there's no need to wait another moment. It's time to switch on the TV, curl up with a good strong cup of coffee and a slice of cherry pie and disappear into a dark alternative world.