You can’t just be a fan of the original two seasons of Twin Peaks and automatically be able to appreciate the new show. You pretty much have to be a David Lynch fan. You can’t just like one of two of his films, or his character in Seth MacFarlane’s cartoon world. If you’re not a David Lynch fan, then you either have to adapt or get off the ship. If you choose to stick around and give the rest of the show a chance, then I really hope it grows on you. I can totally understand why most people flat-out don’t get the new show. The original series was network television. While being edgy for its time, Lynch still had to follow most of the constraints that others in the industry had to. With FIRE WALK WITH ME, Lynch was free of at least most of those constrictions, and we all know how that film was originally received. Episode Eight of this season is the breaking point. If you can’t get past it, then you might as well just stop watching the show right now. I hope that you can keep at it, but for most non-Lynch fans, I just don’t see it as a realistic option.
The episode begins normal enough for a usual Twin Peaks episode. Evil Cooper’s conversation with Ray isn’t the most interesting, but then again, once you get past the essence of Bob, Evil Cooper isn’t really the world’s most interesting villain. To tell you the truth, I didn’t really see Ray’s betrayal coming. While I did see him overcoming Evil Coop as being weak, I did appreciate his collusion with Phillip Jeffries. Not only does this add continued connections to FIRE WALK WITH ME, but it gives me hope that David Bowie may have been able to secretly film some scenes before his death. So what happens to Evil Coop now? Did Bob leave him? If so, are they separate entities? Did he swap places with Good Coop? That would surely make things interesting.
I’ve known for a while now that Trent Reznor and his wife Mariqueen Maandig had been listed as cast members of the new show. My guess had been that their “side project” How To Destroy Angels would appear as one of the bands at The Roadhouse. Little did I know that they would be appearing as Nine Inch Nails (one of my favorite bands) performing “She’s Gone Away” from their recent EP, Not The Actual Events. The EP had been released just days before New Year’s Eve 2016, and the timing kinda makes me wonder if the song is actually about Laura Palmer. I could kinda see people rolling their eyes as I typed that, but I don’t think it’s really that much of a stretch. Trent Reznor is likely just as much a fan of David Lynch as Lynch is to his music.
The episode is structured in such a bizarre way that The David Lynch Variety Hour seems a much more appropriate title than Twin Peaks. Not that there would be anything wrong with such a show. What occurs after the “musical number” seems strangely straightforward. It’s how it relates to everything else that is unknown. One thing’s for sure; Laura Palmer and Bob’s origins have been intertwined since the beginning. The nuclear test sequence is like nothing we’ve ever seen before by David Lynch. That, and everything that follows puts Lynch on a level that could possibly be higher than Stanley Kubrick. And such use of CGI! Many keen on the art of special effects often seem to put CGI down, but here we have a director well-versed in practical effects using CGI to build worlds that seem to have previously existed only in his mind. Fans are already debating what all of this means, but all I want to know is, was that Laura or Bob’s soul in the insect, and was that a young Leland and Sarah Palmer?
Tags: David Bowie, David Lynch, Mariqueen Maandig, Mark Frost, Showtime, Trent Reznor, TV, Twin Peaks
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