This return of Twin Peaks could easily put a lot of people off. It's not the same Twin Peaks as the old one. It's more obtuse, weirder and a significant portion of it isn't set at Twin Peaks. And it doesn't have much in the way of a soundtrack, at least so far. Yet there is something of the spirit of Twin Peaks in it. This is Lynch when not held back by network TV. Part 1 introduces a whole lot of new characters, locations and questions, questions which knowing Lynch will only be partly answered by the end or not answered at all. And that's fine. This is something that you have to let wash over you, and when you do, there's a lot of wonder to be found.
Lynch has a way of making even mundane things intriguing. We're introduced to a guy in New York City whose job is watching a box. The slow way Lynch shows his routine could have been boring, but it's actually kind of absorbing. There's something about the dialogue and interactions between this worker and the girl who likes him that is just 'off' enough to be reminiscent of the awkward dialogue you'd find in the original Twin Peaks. But slowly, tension builds, culminating in a rather strangely shot sex scene and a pretty intense, horrific moment that reminds us you never know what to expect with Lynch.
Lynch's way of making common conversations bizarre is at its best with the lady who phones the police because of a bad smell coming from a hotel room. This plot in itself is another one set away from Twin Peaks, so I wonder how it'll be connected. The crime scene is very gory and further than I'd expected to see in this R-rated vision of Twin Peaks. The arrest of Macklay and his questioning are beautifully strange. His wife seems more concerned about how it will affect dinner with some guests than whether he might end up in jail, and Macklay seems confused about what he did. His confusion during the questioning is well acted and his realisation that he has some time unaccounted for. It seems he didn't remember what he had done until that moment, after which he was hiding something. So what made him kill Ruth Davenport and then forget about it? Something that has to do with Twin Peaks, I'll bet.
We get some weirdness in the Twin Peaks area too, where someone who looks like Cooper but clearly isn't gets up to some very strange business. I don't even know how to describe this scene because I don't know what's going on in it, but it involves him staring at some... strange people. Not that's he's not strange himself.
There's plenty else to like too, including the return of memorable characters from Twin Peaks, notably Ben Horn, Adam, Lucy and the Log Lady (with another mysterious message, of course). From this first episode it's already obvious that this season is even weirder, even more experimental, and possibly even more frustrating than the first two. And I'm down with that.
Lynch has a way of making even mundane things intriguing. We're introduced to a guy in New York City whose job is watching a box. The slow way Lynch shows his routine could have been boring, but it's actually kind of absorbing. There's something about the dialogue and interactions between this worker and the girl who likes him that is just 'off' enough to be reminiscent of the awkward dialogue you'd find in the original Twin Peaks. But slowly, tension builds, culminating in a rather strangely shot sex scene and a pretty intense, horrific moment that reminds us you never know what to expect with Lynch.
Lynch's way of making common conversations bizarre is at its best with the lady who phones the police because of a bad smell coming from a hotel room. This plot in itself is another one set away from Twin Peaks, so I wonder how it'll be connected. The crime scene is very gory and further than I'd expected to see in this R-rated vision of Twin Peaks. The arrest of Macklay and his questioning are beautifully strange. His wife seems more concerned about how it will affect dinner with some guests than whether he might end up in jail, and Macklay seems confused about what he did. His confusion during the questioning is well acted and his realisation that he has some time unaccounted for. It seems he didn't remember what he had done until that moment, after which he was hiding something. So what made him kill Ruth Davenport and then forget about it? Something that has to do with Twin Peaks, I'll bet.
We get some weirdness in the Twin Peaks area too, where someone who looks like Cooper but clearly isn't gets up to some very strange business. I don't even know how to describe this scene because I don't know what's going on in it, but it involves him staring at some... strange people. Not that's he's not strange himself.
There's plenty else to like too, including the return of memorable characters from Twin Peaks, notably Ben Horn, Adam, Lucy and the Log Lady (with another mysterious message, of course). From this first episode it's already obvious that this season is even weirder, even more experimental, and possibly even more frustrating than the first two. And I'm down with that.