The Pilot and the First Season
With Season 3 of Twin Peaks quickly approaching, I’ve decided to reflect back on seasons 1 & 2 along with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and the feature length deleted scenes compilation: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces. Twin Peaks is my FAVORITE show of all time and I want to share with all of you my take on the show, my feelings then and now, and my theories as Season 3 plays out this year. These articles will be SPOILER heavy so if you’ve never seen the show, stop reading and watch it now.
As I mentioned in my previous article, when I sat down on the evening of April 8, 1990 it was to keep my mom company as she watched the two hour “special preview” of Twin Peaks. She was excited to watch the show because it was set in the northwest not too far from where she grew up. And she really liked actor Michael Ontkean (Sheriff Harry S Truman.) While I can’t say that any one particular point hooked me in I did really enjoy the comedic moments. But mostly I was really into the mystery of the show. Watching it again now I find I’m a lot more aware of the melodramatic soap opera-y quality of the show. It was unlike anything else that was on TV at the time.
On the morning of February 24th, 1989 Packard Sawmill manager Pete Martell (Jack Nance) discovered the body of beloved homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee.) Sheriff Harry S Truman and his deputies get some help in the investigation when FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) is brought to town. Cooper is there because another young local girl, Ronette Pulaski (Phoebe Augustine,) is found bloody and dazed crossing the state line from Idaho. Cooper believes Laura’s murder and Ronette’s condition may be related to the murder of Teresa Banks a year ago in nearby Oregon.
The pilot introduces many of the town’s residents, most all of whom have some kind of connection to Laura. Two of them I was particularly excited about: Great Northern Hotel owner Benjamin Horne (Richard Beymer) and Laura’s psychiatrist Dr. Lawrence Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn.) When I saw Beymer and Tamblyn’s names in the opening credits I was so excited that Tony and Riff from West Side Story were in this show.
Before Twin Peaks I was never very much into mysteries but right from the start I was fascinated. Agent Cooper’s methods mesmerized me. His Sherlock Holmesian style combined with his reliance on his dreams for clues and techniques like the “Tibetan Method.” Cooper’s “Tibetan Method” involves throwing rocks at a glass bottle, each rock representing a person of interest. This leads him to narrow his focus to truck driver Leo Johnson (Eric DaRe.) Leo is a scary guy and he was my number one suspect as well. His wife Shelly (Mädchen Amick) is cheating on him with Laura’s boyfriend Bobby (Dana Ashbrook) who Laura had been cheating on with James (James Marshall) who is really in love with Laura’s best friend Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle.) See I told you it’s soap opera-y.
Me and my good friend Kyle
It’s amazing to watch this show and think about the fact that it was made 27 years ago. It looks so good (especially on Blu-ray.) Although I will say that certain people like my good friend Kyle MacLachlan (we met twice at Disneyland on two separate occasions therefore we are friends) look particularly young. There is also a bit of sadness I feel when seeing actors who have passed away like Nance (Pete,) Catherine E. Coulson (Margaret the Log Lady,) and Don S. Davis (Major Briggs) who all died prior to the shooting of the upcoming season. Likewise for Miguel Ferrer (Albert) and Warren Frost (Doc Hayward) who both passed away after filming the new season.
By the time the season ended with Cooper being mysteriously shot, I couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen next. As I watched each episode I would make notes and call my friends after to discuss what was happening. All my friends knew that if they wanted to talk to me they had better have been watching the show because that’s all I wanted to talk about. In watching it again it holds up very well. And the blu-ray really makes the warm red tone of the show look outstanding. I love the costumes and the way they, along with the sets, convey the feeling of coziness among the cold weathered northwest. The change from location shooting in the pilot to sound-stages in the rest of the series is more noticeable to me now but doesn’t take anything away. However, Audrey’s (Sherilyn Fenn) change in appearance does still bug me a bit but not as much as her theme being a section on the jukebox at the Double R.
Next week: The first half of Season 2.
