The trick with the new season of Twin Peaks is not to analyze it, but rather, to just let it happen. Returning to Twin Peaks was always going to be an interesting task for David Lynch and Mark Frost because for twenty-five years, fans and critics alike have built a perception of what the show was, flaws and all. Any new show set in a small town, be it even the slightest bit quirky in nature had to deal with the comparisons. Even the CW’s Riverdale, a dark take on Archie Comics, has been called Twin Peaks for teenagers. There is the Twin Peaks of the mind and the Twin Peaks of reality and the chasm between has been untouched for twenty-five years. Until last night.
The original Twin Peaks aired on ABC, it was Primetime TV, so David Lynch had to work within certain parameters. The show’s controversial second season was only controversial because the network forced Lynch’s hand, rushing the reveal of Laura Palmer’s murderer and leaving the show in creative limbo. So it should come as no surprise that given the chance to work with a cable network in 2017, Lynch was not going to produce something that looked like ABC’s Twin Peaks. The new Twin Peaks is Lynch undistilled. For some, that will be a welcome change. For others, it will cause confusion and disappointment. Nostalgia is a tricky beast.
There is no point in analyzing the new season, at least not yet. Lynch is obviously building numerous storylines here, they may or may not intersect at some point, but it’s too early to know where he’s going. The glimpses we get of Twin Peaks are welcome, there is something comforting in knowing that despite Dale Cooper’s mysterious disappearance twenty-five years ago, that small town in Washington State has continued to exist. It didn’t go away with the TV show, Shelly and James and Dr. Jacoby and Hawk have all been busy living their lives. The brief glimpses of the late Catherine Coulson’s Log Lady are especially poignant. Each time Hawk ends their phone calls with “goodnight, Margaret,” it feels like a heartbreaking click of a closing door.
We’ve had twenty-five years to look at the original Twin Peaks. It makes some of the show’s more bizarre moments familiar. We’re used to the weird because it’s an old weird. Disappearing white horses? No problems. Endless close up shots of logs and coffee mugs and traffic lights? We get it. The Red Room with its dizzying flooring? Iconic. So it’s no wonder that the new Twin Peaks is somewhat jarring. It’s uncanny – it looks the same, but it’s not – much like Dale Cooper’s evil doppelganger running about South Dakota.
Lynch captures the tone of Twin Peaks almost immediately; it’s confusing and foreboding and uncomfortable. His aesthetics continue to fascinate as characters appear to be pulled from 1970s fashion catalogues or 1980s soap operas. There’s a lot more violence and a lot more nudity. And there’s also a sense that Lynch will not be rushed this time. His camera lingers on the mundane. Scenes cut in and out that seemingly make no narrative sense (yet). For those looking for an identifiable plot, it’s going to take some time to appear. And for those wanting to immediately understand the show’s imagery, it’s mystery, my guess is that it’s going to take time. A lot of time.
The third season of Twin Peaks feels less like Twin Peaks and more like a David Lynch film. Which makes sense, given the artistic freedom that cable must provide. Those small glimpses of the original cast feel like comfortable touchstones, but Lynch is obviously not in this for a reunion. Whatever this version of Twin Peaks is, it’s Lynch unfiltered, which makes it must watch television. He has eighteen episodes to reveal his vision and it will likely take the full eighteen to ‘understand’ whatever it is that’s going on. Last night’s episode featured a tree with a talking brain. It also featured an unfortunate mullet wig on Kyle McLaughlin. Some will say it’s just being weird for the sake of being weird, but when it comes to Twin Peaks, it’s always been best to just lean in, let the weird wash over. Let it happen. Let it unfold. Don’t fight it.
Twin Peaks isn’t a show to be solved. Not yet. It’s an experience and judging from last night’s offering, a dark experience at that. Best to charge up a flashlight and take Lynch’s hand. The woods are dark and the owls, even after all of this time, are still not what they seem.
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