Oliver Battershall

I’ve been a fan of David Lynch’s for a number of years, but had never given Twin Peaks a try until about a month ago. I had high expectations going in, as scrolling through the countless 5 star reviews for the series on Letterboxd (though I’d never degrade myself by logging a TV series on a movie app) had reminded me of the almost mythic status this has among audiences. Right from the start I was charmed, who doesn’t love a small town hiding a big secret? Throughout the first season I enjoyed Cooper’s interactions with the townsfolk and the mysterious Diane, as well as the famous soundtrack which I already owned on CD. But I reached the end of the first season and was already starting to feel a tad underwhelmed. I’d overestimated Lynch’s influence on the show, and was barely seeing any of the beautiful absurdity that we know him for. I was enjoying the mystery, but didn’t feel like it was unravelling in a very satisfying way so far.

Onto season two, I still had some of the same underlying issues, but really enjoyed the last few episodes before the reveal of Laura Palmer’s killer. Leland was hands down my favourite character on the show, and I found him so captivating once we realise how sinister he is. Although I somewhat enjoyed this mid-season climax, it was undeniably very rushed and left plenty of questions that were answered in a very lacklustre way. Then came the infamous 10-episode stretch where the show turns into nothing more than a soap opera. The general consensus seemed to be that you shouldn’t skip these episodes, so I grinned and beared it. Boy was it a slog. Endless pointless subplots, a new romance every episode, and a general quality of writing that made me finally grow sick of side-characters that were already really getting on my nerves (namely Josie). Finally, the last two episodes came around, which I really enjoyed. The final 20 minutes of the finale were excellent, properly harrowing in a way I hadn’t expected.

Overall though, I was left with an unrelenting feeling of “Was that it?”. Out of 30 episodes, maybe 5 of them were great, the rest I found either insultingly tedious or just decent. The charm of the quirky small town characters I found was short-lived, and its desperate scramble to find something for us to care about once the main mystery was resolved was mostly in vain. I plan on watching Fire Walk With Me and the 2017 reboot series soon, I desperately want to love this franchise(?) more.

3/5