Any long-time viewers of Twin Peaks will have been at once beguiled, terrified and intrigued, as well as frustrated, by this extraordinary third series. We’ve been waiting patiently through all the errant, seemingly innocuous and scattered scenes and new characters, hoping that Good Coop is finally revived from his catatonic state and that Bad Coop is returned to The Black Lodge. Finally, finally, by the end of part 14, things looked as though they were on the move. Continue reading
After this 12th part of series three of Twin Peaks, there are only six episodes left, and there’s still a huge amount to tie up – if David Lynch is indeed in the mood to tie things up at all. Who knows what’s going to happen? Will the Dougie Jones/Good Coop issue be resolved – or at least begin to be resolved – in this episode? Of course not. Continue reading
In part 11, we were back in Twin Peaks for perhaps longer than we have been in a while. In fact, we seem to be spending more time in the town as each episode goes by, which suggests that all scattered characters and identities will eventually make their way back somehow and there will be some sort of denouement in the town at some point. Although let’s face it, trying to predict anything in this series is such a futile exercise. I’ve said it before and I’ll said it again, every time you think you know what might happen does the rug is well and truly pulled beneath you. And this is one of the reasons why it’s so watchable: you tune in desperate to see Good Coop emerge from his catatonic Dougie Jones state only to see teases of his old self. Continue reading
We’re now into the second half of this series – or 18 hour-long movie as David Lynch would have us approach it – and we’re still none the wiser when it comes to the fate of Dougie Jones/Good Coop. In this 10th episode, there were diversions, some unsettling scenes (in a more subtle way than the kinetic scarefest that was the epic episode eight) and a few, just a few, more hints at where this might go. Continue reading
How to follow part eight? That was the question heading into the ninth instalment of this remarkable series. It has had a week off – something I had forgotten about – which was probably a good thing after the sublimely extraordinary shenanigans of that episode. It was the episode where Lynch and Frost presented us with a step outside of the present-day timeline and took us back to the 1940s and 50s, to a black-and-white world where the advent of the atomic bomb had created an unspeakable evil that was to manifest itself in 1990s Washington State. Had we witnessed the birth of Bob in these crazy scenes? And what now, after a new dimension of political and visceral polemic, had been added to what was hitherto an invigorating whodunit (albeit and cross-dimensional procedural)? Continue reading
The first thing to say about this episode is, “wow”. The second thing to say about this episode is, “wah?” It was that kind of episode. Again. Constantly throughout this third series of Twin Peaks, you think you kind-of-maybe-sort-of-know what’s happening and can perhaps kind-of-maybe-sort-of-predict what might happen. But then all your assumptions are ripped up in the most unexpected, mind-frazzling, dazzling way possible, to the extent you sit there in stony silence wondering what the fuckety-fuck just happened. This was one of those episodes. Continue reading
Without doubt, Twin Peaks is the hardest show I’ve ever had to review in this site’s relatively short life. Not only is it dazzlingly brilliant in places, it’s also frustrating, strange and doesn’t follow any of the narrative conventions we’ve all come to know. If that wasn’t enough, this series has required extreme patience, as Good Coop slowly starts to find himself again. There were signs in part six that he was beginning to emerge from his Dougie Jones reverie, and there were more signs in part seven, too. Continue reading
