Twin Peaks (1990-1991)

What can I say about this television series? I think that it is one of the best t.v. series ever. I love this series and I have for many years since it first appeared. There are so many twists and turns in this series and so many interesting and weird characters. There is so much to like. I loved everything about the show. I love the weird atmospheric music and the haunting woods. I love BOB and the mystery that surrounds him.

A lot of people would have seen this show by now so I am not going to go through episodes or anything like that. I would rather discuss the characters and everything else about the show that makes it stand out from all of the other junk that passes as entertainment. I hate it when people say that they couldn't understand the show. It is easily explained in a few sentences. Local high school girl, Laura Palmer, is found murdered in small town. An FBI agent called Dale Cooper comes in to investigate. Agent Cooper is not an ordinary agent. He is willing to open his mind and explore different investigation methods than the normal ones. He is quirky, yet very intelligent and intuitive. He knows plenty about Tibet and about spirituality. He falls in love with Twin Peaks over the course of his investigation. He investigates Laura's boyfriend Bobby Briggs and her bit on the side, James Hurley. Laura had been leading a double life that her best friend, Donny Hayward, didn't know about. She was heavily into sex and drugs.She was having sex with abusive trucker Leo Johnson.She was visited by a spirit called BOB who was haunting her. It is discovered that BOB had inhabited her father, Leland Palmer's body and he was forced to abuse and then murder his own daughter. End of story. There are different plots unravelling at the same time in the little town. But, that is about it.

It was created by a favourite of mine, David Lynch who is well known for his strange movies such as Eraserhead and Blue Velvet. I have always liked his work and this series was a real treat for me. There are some great actors in this series. Kyle MacLachlan stood out as the quirky Agent Cooper. Michael Ontkean was great as the small- town Sheriff Harry Truman. Sherilyn Fenn was the smouldering Audrey Horne. Lara Flynn Boyle was Laura's best friend, Donna Hayward. Then there was Big Ed(Everett McGill) and his crazy wife Nadine Hurley(Wendy Robie). Sheryl Lee played the dead Laura Palmer and her cousin Madeline Ferguson. James Hurley was played by James Marshall. Leland Palmer was played brilliantly by Ray Wise. There was such talent on show in this series. We were spoilt for choice. The evil spirit BOB was played by Frank Silva who was chosen for the part by Lynch when he was a set dresser on the show.

BOB is creepy and I think that the long greying hair and denim jacket add to his weirdness. He is seeking souls to corrupt and he has inhabited many souls before he comes to Leland Palmer. BOB wanted Leland's daughter, Laura and when he couldn't inhabit her soul, he made her father murder her as shown in the movie Twin Peaks:Fire Walk With Me, which I will review in a later post. BOB eventually inhabits Agent Cooper at the end of the show and I thought that that was a weak ending to a great show. The ending was due to the cancellation of the show because of poor ratings. David Lynch admits that it was a mistake to reveal Laura Palmer's killer so soon into the second season, but he was under pressure by the network. I felt that the ending didn't do justice to the show, but I was pleased with it nonetheless. I still love the show and I would be reluctant to say anything bad about it. I could go into every little detail about the show, but that would be too much information, and as you can tell, I love this great show and I urge you to see it if you have not done so before now. As far as I'm concerned, there will never be anything like this show again. It is a true modern classic.