CS Weekly Archive > DVD of the Day > 04/06/07

Challenging Expectations

by jason davis

After a first season that invented "water-cooler television," Twin Peaks returned for its second season, raising more questions than "Who killed Laura Palmer?" while testing the limits of television writing and the audiences' patience with even stranger scripts.

Twin Peaks: The Complete Second Season

Tricia Brock, Robert Engels, Mark Frost, Scott Frost, David Lynch, Harley Peyton, Barry Pullman, and Jerry Stahl
Created by Mark Frost & David Lynch

Eight days after the murder of prom queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), the Washington lumber town of Twin Peaks is thrown into further turmoil by the murder and attempted murder of the two primary suspects, Jacques Renault (Walter Olkewicz) and Leo Johnson (Eric DaRe), the burning of the town's mill with civic pillar Catherine Martell (Piper Laurie) inside, the Machiavellian dealings of real estate mogul/brothel owner Benjamin Horne (Richard Beymer), an assault on eccentric psychiatrist Lawrence Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn), and the shooting of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle McLachlan). Recovering quickly from his wounds, Cooper sets about solving the Palmer case with clues from a helpful giant (Carel Struycken) who visits him in dreams while forces even more sinister than Laura's murderer lurk in the background. With several stoves worth of plots stranded on the front burners, season two set about defying audience expectations with the same vigor as its predecessor, but without its consistency.

Perhaps signing their show's cancellation notice in the process, creators David Lynch (Blue Velvet) and Mark Frost (Hill Street Blues) decided to prolong the investigation of Laura Palmer's murder well into the season. Lynch had always considered the plot a McGuffin to explore the world of Twin Peaks, but the fervor for a culprit had taken the eccentric filmmaker off guard. Dispensing of the two lead suspects allowed the investigation a larger scope, with throwaway lines from season one forming the basis of several plots in season two. Additionally, the series abandoned its ostensible genre of mystery to wander far afield with elements of science fiction, fantasy, and outright absurdism mingling with the already established soap opera and comedy.

The unadulterated dive into the metaphysical, represented by the further development of an entity called BOB (Frank Silva), was quickly adopted by the writing staff, who infused elements of Tibetan Buddhism into the proceedings to give the show an epic scope of good versus evil. Indeed, this conflict would find itself best manifested in the character of Windom Earle (Kenneth Welsh), Agent Cooper's mentor and a devotee of chaos. Earle—ingeniously introduced first by name, then by voice, then by deed, and finally in the flesh across the whole season—brings the series to a cataclysmic close as he matches wits with Cooper for the soul of an innocent girl (Heather Graham). Sadly, Earle arrives in person too late, and the meandering and directionless stories that fill the gap between the revelation of Laura's killer and the machinations of Earle dispel any dramatic tension—as well as the goodwill of anyone watching—to the point that the season would be the series' last.

Finally, with the long-out-of-print first season, this lacklustre second, and a pilot available only as an import, it doesn't take a Special Agent to deduce that there are some missing pieces in this puzzle. The owls are not what they seem, and I suspect there will be a complete series set by the end of the year

- Interactive interview grid featuring the cast
- Interviews with directors Caleb Deschanel, Duwayne Dunham, Todd Holland, Tim Hunter, Stephen Gyllenhaal, and Laura Palmer diarist Jennifer Lynch
- Log Lady introductions

Though the episodes themselves have been beautifully remastered, the long-awaited DVD release of season two (the first season came out seven years ago) lacks the commentaries that made each of the first-season episodes a treasure trove of insights. Though the interactive interview grid provides access to the cast, very little of the show's writing is discussed. Still, several of the directors manage to convey what they were able to bring to the storytelling via their craft, but a cult series like this demands a comprehensive documentary that talks to Lynch and Frost (even if the former merely muses about film and its relationship to a duck). Filmed for the show's 1990s run on Bravo, the Log Lady intros—in which actress Catherine Coulson speaks to camera in character as the eccentric Log Lady—are, while incomprehensible, strangely poetic.

Undoubtedly the ancestor of outré television fare like The X-Files, The Sopranos, Lost, and much of David E. Kelley's output, Twin Peaks tested the limits of what an audience would put up with in primetime and, like many an explorer, ended up lost at sea—but at least it managed to get lost in a compelling and entertaining way.

Twin Peaks: The Complete Second Season
CBS/Paramount Home Entertainment
Not rated; 1,081 min.
$54.99

Buy it now

Jason Davis is the DVD Manager for CS Weekly , a contributing editor for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, and has written for Cinescape.com, MSN.com, and created the TV series Studio 13, which ran on Lorne Michaels' Burly TV network. He lives in the small space left over by his ever-expanding library of books, movies, and music.

Twin Peaks: The Complete Second Season courtesy CBS/Paramount Home Video

From the Trenches
Working screenwriters discuss in their own words a particular aspect of screenwriting, from the mechanics of writing to the personal and professional impact that writing has had on their lives. > VIEW ARCHIVE

The Art of Craft
Screenwriting experts discuss how to approach various aspects of writing and the writing life. A mini-seminar each week from the people who write the books and teach the classes. > VIEW ARCHIVE

The Big Picture

Features that cover all aspects of screenwriting, from our "Seven Best" lists to analysis of old favorites and new classics. > VIEW ARCHIVE

Expert Witness
A panel of experts assembled to provide the facts about the screenwriting business. Readers will be able have their questions answered by an agent, producer, entertainment attorney, and WGA representative—and without paying that 10% commission. > VIEW ARCHIVE

Son of a Pitch
A weekly tutorial on how to write a script. Each week deals with a different element of creating a script, with the ultimate goal to provide a step-by-step instruction manual for new writers. The guide for this is a writer just diving into screenwriting himself, who asks the pros questions any new screenwriter would have about this brave new world. > VIEW ARCHIVE

Weekend Read
Film, book, web site and technology reviews from a writer’s perspective. How can these items help a writer on his or her journey, or make that journey more enjoyable? > VIEW ARCHIVE

DVD Review of the Day
DVD reviews from a writer’s point of view. What aspects of this script and features of this DVD illuminate the writing, development, and storytelling process? > VIEW ARCHIVE