"Bob Cooper" is on the loose in the first four episodes of Twin Peaks
Photo Credit: Showtime
Thoughts on the first 4 parts of David Lynch and Mark
Frost’s new revival of Twin Peaks just as soon as I become Mr. Jackpot…
It almost seems like a cliché when it comes to David Lynch’s work
at this point but the new Twin Peaks is almost impossible to describe. The only
thing I can say for certain is that the revival of the 1990 ABC murder mystery
that bought a lot of avant garde elements to television for the first time is
pretty much nothing like the original. Twin Peaks the revival shares a bunch of
old characters, a title, the tonal shifts, and pretty much nothing else with
the original drama. Lynch and Frost are not setting out to recreate a
phenomenon or capitalize on nostalgia they are here to subvert people’s
expectation and create something original all over again. Through four episodes
the results are stunning.
The new Twin Peaks seems to have its focus squarely on the
ongoing battle between the two Coopers. In the legendarily frustrating season 2
finale Cooper is possessed by the evil spirit Bob and doomed to be trapped in
the black lodge while his doppelganger goes out into the world and assumedly
causes chaos. 25 years later we find that Bob as Cooper has grown his hair out,
wears leather, and yes has indeed been causing chaos. The real Cooper has been
trapped in the black lodge for 25 years, and throughout the first four episodes
we witness him attempting to re-enter the world all these years later.
The third and fourth parts which focus primarily on Cooper’s
strange re-entry are a sight to behold. The third episode, maybe television’s
strangest and most fascinating hour, involves Cooper’s transition between the
black lodge and the real world. This transition includes a boxy submarine in
space, a stop motion like sequence between cooper and a blind lady, lots and
lots of toxic vomit, a man being transformed into a small golden ball, and
ultimately Cooper re-entering the world through an electrical socket under the
assumed identity of a different man. This Cooper having been cooped up in the
dark lodge for so long has no idea how to communicate with the world which
leads to an extraordinarily absurdist fourth episode that involves Cooper
winning a whole bunch of jackpots on slot machines, not being able to
communicate like a basic human being, not being able to perform basic human
tasks, all while him generally not being ok being ignored by practically
everyone. It all culminates in a great sequence that involves the perfect use
of Take Five, a Cooper who wears a tie on his head, and has no idea just how
hot his coffee is. It’s hilarious and shows that in back to back episodes
following the same plot that Lynch and Frost can still play with tone in
commanding fashion.
The other elements of the show Lynch leaves in the
background slowly percolating for when they inevitably become important. This
could be seen as self indulgent, and in some ways kind of is, but Lynch always
manages to find something unique and interesting within his side stories. For
example for the first few episodes we spend a decent amount of time on a side
plot involving a young man hired to watch a giant glass box looking out a
window in New York. Most of this runs super slowly and with many static shots
of set up, but even then, Lynch manages to find unique and different ways to
shoot these scenes. For example shots of the Manhattan skyline is the most
generic shot in all of cinema and yet Lynch finds a way to shoot them in a way
that makes the city feel creepier and more claustrophobic. Twin Peaks shows a
visionary director at his most confident. Each scene no matter how slowly play
out or odd it is feels like the work of a master, unique and beautiful. It
makes for a show that looks like nothing else on television even as it meanders
on side stories.
But even when it’s meandering and strange Twin Peaks seems
to have a very clear through line. The show features some very strange asides
(Doc and the shovels are the first to come to mind) but never feels like it
loose its focus. Through four episodes I can feel the show building its world
and its premise slowly but confidently. So far Lynch and Frost are staying
farther away from the town of Twin Peaks itself giving us only brief glances of
the characters of old. Instead the majority of the moving plot seems to focus
around the strangeness of the two Coopers, and a new murder in a town in South
Dakoda. Each of these new plots feel fresher than I imagine anything within the
actual town of Twin Peaks could be at this point. This is no longer a show
about a small town and its problems this is something much bigger and much
stranger, and despite the slow pace and strange asides these four episodes have made me confident that Lynch and Frost have command over the complex story they
are weaving.
Through four episodes Twin Peaks is as special as ever. By
subverting expectations and moving away from any sort of structure from the
original while maintaining a lot of its mythology, Lynch and Frost have created
something wholly unique yet again. These four episodes were an absolute blast
to watch and if it can continue at this level it has a potential to be
something truly special.
Some other Musings:
- I am not going to lie when Andy and Lucy’s son was reviled to be Michael Cera as a biker named Wally Brando I died with laughter. There are few genuinely great surprises but Cera doing a glorious impression of biker Marlen Brando was most wonderful. It’s a scene that is absurd and probably won’t mean much in the grand scheme of things but for a good four and a half minutes I could not stop laughing and that is good enough for me.
- The same applies with all the Cooper getting back into the world scenes in episode 4. Does it ultimately drag the plot out a little bit? Yes. At the same time though I laughed harder than I care to admit at Cooper’s first reaction to coffee and the absurdity of no one calling for help as this man wanders around aimlessly.
- Old characters seem to pop up sporadically with the focus primarily being placed on the Twin Peaks Sheriffs department. More than anything I’m curious to see how interested Lynch himself is at re-integrating the characters into this new world besides a few cameos here and there. It seems like we are heading for a big plotline with Hawk and Sheriff Truman but besides that I have a hard time figuring out how the old characters will merge their ways back in.
- This show is also the first show in a long time that I just want to be fully available for binging. I am usually a proponent for having time between episodes and giving them space to breath but given how many episodes we have to go and how slow this show is moving so far a larger chunk of episodes per week would be appreciated.
That’s all for now. I don’t know how likely it is for me to
talk about this show on a weekly basis considering how many episodes are going
to air and the slow paced nature of the show so far. I am very excited by this show thorough four though so maybe we’ll check in
midway through the season.
That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?
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