Twin Peaks' first season is a confusingly alluring season of television. It sticks in your brain. It really doesn't seem like it should be as good as it is. The show is juggling different tones: a murder mystery, a soap opera, a love story (which okay, yeah that's also under soap opera), a slice of small-town America, and what can only be described as psychedelic dreams laced with symbolism. By legacy alone, Twin Peaks should be watched for what it did for television. But it was also a pretty good show.
If Twin Peaks does not seem like your kind of show, don't let that scare. It doesn't seem like my kind of show. I'm not really into David Lynch. I didn't like Mullholland Drive (which, full disclousure, is the only movie I've watched of his. Yes I know I need to go see Blue Velvet immediately). I don't watch soap operas. I don't really like things that just continually throw weird shit at you just so you can say "Wow that was weird."
If there's one false step in the first season, and I know I diverge from a lot of Twin Peaks fans in this opinion, it's the first 30 or so minutes of the show. It's 100 percent because of the acting. The seriousness that the camera is treating the material is juxtaposed with soap opera acting - which is a shade off from the rest of the episodes to my eye. It's not a huge difference, but for some reason I just can't get past it. It's a little more expressive and over-the-top. It's acting to where you can always tell they are acting. That's not always a problem, but it just points me to the falseness of the characters. This is not only a 30 minutes problem, but the entire pilot problem for me. But the end of the episode ends up dropping plot bombs on you every 10 minutes so that's more entertaining.
I honestly think it's just because the situation - the instant reactions of a girl being murdered - is so serious and the acting is clearly ACTING that it blends less well when a new soap opera element is introduced. Almost none of the actors come out that well. The one who comes out best is Grace Zabiskie, playing Sarah Palmer, and I still am unmoved by her tears because she cries in the old movies style and not realistically. (Now that statement might actually get me in trouble here. It's still probably convincing enough for people with kids.) Dana Ashbrook (Bobby Briggs) is never worse than he is in this episode. I came to love Jack Nance's odd delivery, but it still didn't even work for me in retrospect here. And James Marshall, well... never mind I always just kind of tolerated him throughout the series.
However, whatever happened in the first episode that prevented me from embracing the series is gone for the other seven episodes. I can't explain it. It just clicks for me the rest of the way on. Not only is the acting not a weakness past the first episode, it's a strength (for the most part). I don't even know if they do anything differently, but I sure as hell love it.
The glue to the series is unquestionably Special Agent Dale Cooper as played by Kyle MacLachlan. In fact, I don't think he shows up until halfway through the pilot and that could be the answer to my problems in the first 30 minutes. He's just not there and I need Agent Cooper there. He is possibly one of the most unique law enforcement officers in the medium of television, which is no small feat given the large swaths of time dedicated to law enforcement. He is endlessly optimistic, completely devoid of judgment, and incredibly competent. Where you usually expect a character to zig, he tended to zag. For instance, you just don't see an FBI agent go into a small town and seamlessly dictate how the investigation will be conducted. Sheriff Harry S. Truman (who just FITS in with this show really well and is one of my favorite characters despite not having all that much to actually do) understands he's just there to help and respects Cooper. Likewise, Cooper can tell Truman knows what he's doing and respects him equally.
One of the big indicators that Cooper is vital to the series is that he is a part of two of the most delightful and burgeoning relationships that happen as the first season progresses. There's the aforementioned Cooper and Truman relationship which is one of the more surprising and welcome friendships I've ever seen portrayed. The other, of course, is between him and Audrey Horne. There's just a magic between MacLachlan and Sherilyn Fenn in their scenes that enhances the episode. It's a shame off-screen developments caused the writers to abandon that for the second season because it was one of the better parts of the first season.
Leaving aside Maclachlan's performance, which honestly if i squint I could see on different shows, my favorite performance that is distinctly Twin Peaks is definitely from Richard Beymer. Beymer plays his character over-the-top yet somehow still containing a semblance of reality. When performances are generally grandiose and heightened, Beymer provides an example of someone who can pull that off while still seeming like an actual character. The other shining example is oddly enough Piper Laurie as Catherine Martell. I say that because she has one of the roles that somewhat disappears when you look back on the show. But she is certainly giving the most soap opera like performance with her devouring of scenery and she does it so well you don't even care. (Obviously this is under the assumption that a soap opera performance is a bad thing which is an opinion I hold, but if you do not share that opinion, boy you probably LOVE her performance.)
There are a lot of performances to get through and I probably hold an opinion of all of them, which you certainly can't say about every show. Ashbrook either gets better and sinks into his character as the show goes on or I just get used to him. It doesn't really matter to me either way because eventually I grow to like his performance. I always enjoy Ray Wise, who has guest starred in about a million shows. Warren Frost gives probably the most subdued performance of all the actors, but it works all the better for it. James Marshall is as awkward in his eighth episode as his first so I tend to think Ashbrook actually got better, because Marshall never does for me. Joan Chen makes the least impression on me and I didn't really like her performance or her character. Russ Tamblyn (Lawrence Jacoby) is great.
I really liked Everett McGill even though he for some reason seems like the character most likely to fit in on Days of Our Lives (of which I've seen maybe 10 hours total in my life due to haphazardly glancing at when my mom is watching it, which she has done as long as I've been living). It's a sin it took me until now to mention Mädchen Amick (Shelly Johnson) who unfortunately has to act alongside Eric da Re, who is in the running for the worst actor on this series with Marshall. I can't believe two things: that Sheryl Lee never acted before this and that she hasn't had more of a career post-Twin Peaks, because she makes such an impression in such little screen time that you wish you saw her alive. (Because I only have so much space - the rest: Michael Horse as Hawk is awesome, Harry Goaz as Andy is a fantastically terrible actor, and I actually have no opinion on Laura Flynn Boyle for better or worse.)
The interesting thing about this show, when researching it, is how much credit David Lynch gets and how little he actually had to do when the cameras started rolling. He co-wrote the first three episodes and directed the first and third, but other than that he didn't have any direct involvement in the rest. He obviously deserves credit for molding the directing style and helping to formulate what the show would be. But I think Frost wrote almost all of the characters except for Agent Cooper (which by my own admission is a rather important character) This is just an observation and honestly the non-Twin Peaks credits for Frost are so disappointing and just plain bad that it's weird he helmed most of the first season.
I will refrain from giving this a grade for two reasons: an A feels dishonest as I don't really know if my overall feelings would warrant that and the grade is flexible in this case. I think Twin Peaks' first season is a show that gets better every time I watch it. It is the rare show that, first 30 minutes of the pilot excepted, I will never get tired of watching. That is an extremely rare quality in a show and I can count on one hand the number of shows where that applies. Hopefully my words, rather than an inability to given an A, can convey my feelings towards this show.
Playlist
1. "Swimming Stone" - 20syl
2. "Be Above It"- Tame Impala
3. "Wesley's Theory" - Kendrick Lamar
4. "Lonely Soul" - UNKLE feat. Richard Ashcraft
5. "From Hate We Hope" - Steve Mason
One of the big indicators that Cooper is vital to the series is that he is a part of two of the most delightful and burgeoning relationships that happen as the first season progresses. There's the aforementioned Cooper and Truman relationship which is one of the more surprising and welcome friendships I've ever seen portrayed. The other, of course, is between him and Audrey Horne. There's just a magic between MacLachlan and Sherilyn Fenn in their scenes that enhances the episode. It's a shame off-screen developments caused the writers to abandon that for the second season because it was one of the better parts of the first season.
Leaving aside Maclachlan's performance, which honestly if i squint I could see on different shows, my favorite performance that is distinctly Twin Peaks is definitely from Richard Beymer. Beymer plays his character over-the-top yet somehow still containing a semblance of reality. When performances are generally grandiose and heightened, Beymer provides an example of someone who can pull that off while still seeming like an actual character. The other shining example is oddly enough Piper Laurie as Catherine Martell. I say that because she has one of the roles that somewhat disappears when you look back on the show. But she is certainly giving the most soap opera like performance with her devouring of scenery and she does it so well you don't even care. (Obviously this is under the assumption that a soap opera performance is a bad thing which is an opinion I hold, but if you do not share that opinion, boy you probably LOVE her performance.)
There are a lot of performances to get through and I probably hold an opinion of all of them, which you certainly can't say about every show. Ashbrook either gets better and sinks into his character as the show goes on or I just get used to him. It doesn't really matter to me either way because eventually I grow to like his performance. I always enjoy Ray Wise, who has guest starred in about a million shows. Warren Frost gives probably the most subdued performance of all the actors, but it works all the better for it. James Marshall is as awkward in his eighth episode as his first so I tend to think Ashbrook actually got better, because Marshall never does for me. Joan Chen makes the least impression on me and I didn't really like her performance or her character. Russ Tamblyn (Lawrence Jacoby) is great.
I really liked Everett McGill even though he for some reason seems like the character most likely to fit in on Days of Our Lives (of which I've seen maybe 10 hours total in my life due to haphazardly glancing at when my mom is watching it, which she has done as long as I've been living). It's a sin it took me until now to mention Mädchen Amick (Shelly Johnson) who unfortunately has to act alongside Eric da Re, who is in the running for the worst actor on this series with Marshall. I can't believe two things: that Sheryl Lee never acted before this and that she hasn't had more of a career post-Twin Peaks, because she makes such an impression in such little screen time that you wish you saw her alive. (Because I only have so much space - the rest: Michael Horse as Hawk is awesome, Harry Goaz as Andy is a fantastically terrible actor, and I actually have no opinion on Laura Flynn Boyle for better or worse.)
The interesting thing about this show, when researching it, is how much credit David Lynch gets and how little he actually had to do when the cameras started rolling. He co-wrote the first three episodes and directed the first and third, but other than that he didn't have any direct involvement in the rest. He obviously deserves credit for molding the directing style and helping to formulate what the show would be. But I think Frost wrote almost all of the characters except for Agent Cooper (which by my own admission is a rather important character) This is just an observation and honestly the non-Twin Peaks credits for Frost are so disappointing and just plain bad that it's weird he helmed most of the first season.
I will refrain from giving this a grade for two reasons: an A feels dishonest as I don't really know if my overall feelings would warrant that and the grade is flexible in this case. I think Twin Peaks' first season is a show that gets better every time I watch it. It is the rare show that, first 30 minutes of the pilot excepted, I will never get tired of watching. That is an extremely rare quality in a show and I can count on one hand the number of shows where that applies. Hopefully my words, rather than an inability to given an A, can convey my feelings towards this show.
Playlist
1. "Swimming Stone" - 20syl
2. "Be Above It"- Tame Impala
3. "Wesley's Theory" - Kendrick Lamar
4. "Lonely Soul" - UNKLE feat. Richard Ashcraft
5. "From Hate We Hope" - Steve Mason
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