...I love Twin Peaks Season 1 with a passion. For me it's the best thing ever to be commited to television. Sadly the same cannot be said for season 2 by a long shot. I can't believe how it changed so rapidly in it's second half from the 1st half and the 1st season, chiefly in tone and mood (and they're not good changes by any stretch), and the less I say about the story the better.
Twin Peaks Season 2 episode 1 is brilliant, and one of the best episodes of the series. It's creepy, ominous, blackly funny, disturbing and hypnotic, in fact almost a match to the brilliant pilot in terms of quality. As the investigations of both the teenagers and Cooper and the local law press on it maintains this quality; creepy, sad, funny, and always teetering on the edge of dread and chaos. New characters are introduced, like Harold Smith, an orchid-keeper who never leaves his house and owner of the secret diary of Laura Palmer. Lenny Von Dohen plays him beautifully, and the scenes he has with Donna are great to watch. A love triangle ensues when James starts falling for Maddy during a karaoke session at Donna's house. And it works, without ever straying from the story. The story continues seamlessly from the last series, with Audrey finding herself trapped at One Eyed Jacks and Cooper continuing his investigation through dreams and intuition. The next lot of episodes are for the most part brilliant, maintaining this tone; balancing on the edge of the frighteningly real and the hypnotically surreal, as Cooper has visions of a giant visiting him and giving him clues. And Albert Rosenflower returns, hilariously cynical as ever. But then the TV studio interfered. However, taking a step back for a second, I see no logic in revealing the killer halfway through the season in order to boost ratings, I mean it's basically taking away the centre of the series and leaving in it's stead a jumbled mess of loose narrative threads. And apparently the company made a bad decision, as the ratings plummeted after that, resulting in the series' cancellation many episodes later. So the television studio ABC made David Lynch reveal the killer in episode 16. And from thereon in it does seem quite rushed, although that episode is an absolute tour-de-force and one of the best of the series, and by far the most violent and frightening. The next few episodes are just as compelling as Cooper still tries to figure out who the killer is following another murder, but for the prominence of one highly irritating and unneccessary character; Dick Tremayne, a pretentious men's fashion expert who had a fling with secretary Lucy. This leads to an annoying conflict with the dumbstruck Andy which too often interrupts the more compelling events of the series.
But that dumb plot strand is just a taster of some of the more idiotic things that suddenly pop up in the second half of the series when it has no direction probably resulting from the absence of David Lynch. Indeed David Lynch does have a small but amusing secondary role through Season 2 as a deaf FBI chief who can't stop shouting. What's most striking about the second half of Season 2 is the complete change of tone. And it's far from positive. Season 1 and most of the first half of Season 2 was mysterious, darkly comic, artistic, melancholic, and deeply emotionally involving, and it all stemmed from the central brilliant setup of the murder mystery. It's narrative is perfect, the way the colourful characters' lives impact off each other is hugely entertaining and compelling and it flows seamlessly. And as I sat through the latter half of Season 2 I thought a lot about the first season, yearning to revisit it. The seed of the problem is of course the early revelation of the killer, and secondary to that, the absence of David Lynch and the hiring of too many writers to write in far too many quirky but far from charming characters, pointless tangents and stupid plots, such as Andy and Dick becoming amateur sleuths in order to find out if an orphan is the devil or not. That speaks for itself, I've got nothing more to say on that one. There's no serious heart to it, it's just comic relief for the sake of it. There are a couple of strands that are mildly amusing, such as ex-sleaze Benjamin Horne re-enacting the civil war. But that's all it is, it adds up to jack and shit. On a brief sidenote, I'm sick of people dissing Bobby. He's an excellent character in the series, going from unlikeable, to unintentionally hilarious, and he is very likeable; his relationship with Shelley touching and great fun to follow.
Basically Season 2 becomes something of a circus, with only the looming menace of Windom Earle and the Black Lodge partly redeeming it. For me personally, the biggest insult was pushing hippie shrink Dr. Jacoby to the back and having him assist in uninspired comic routines. He was one of my favourite characters from Season 1, and one of the most interesting and compelling. Russ Tamblyn was perfectly cast, and the scene in which he confronts Cooper about his love for Laura and his intense interest in the mystery. When he confesses in the cemetary at night that Laura gave his life purpose, it is deeply touching. Here was a character I really cared for, and he was ditched, even in the first half of Season 2 as he vacations to Hawaii, not to bash the first half of Season 2. I'm still angry at the way they wrapped up the mystery, after episode 16 it feels as if they were trying to get it over with as quickly as possible, with a funeral in which all the characters re-unite cheerfully and briefly. It's quite unsatisfying. And another of my favourite characters from Season 1; Audrey Horne, is pushed into an unconvincing romance with a young businessman character played woodenly by Billy Zane. There are various other pointless soap opera plot strands but I REALLY don't want to get into them. But the series does pick up with two plots that keep it above complete degeneration into a go-nowhere glossy soap; that of psychopathic ex-FBI agent Windom Earle and his capture of Leo and mysterious and deadly intentions, and that of Jocelyn Packard, who is revealed to be a tragic and deadly character, and whose fate causes her lover Harry to completely break down. His strong and touching relationship with Cooper is put to the test and Michael Ontkean's performance reaches a high point. Kenneth Walsh is hugely entertaining as Windom Earle, taking on disguises and manipulating people into his traps and I only wish there was more of him rather than the dead-end narrative strands I mentioned earlier. His demonic plotting with his newly found slave Leo was the only thing that kept me watching. In the last few episodes of the series Cooper falls in love with an ex-nun named Annie Blackburn, played nicely by Heather Graham in a very early role. Earle uses this to his advantage, and this leads to a confrontion in the final episode involving dead characters related to Laura Palmer in an extra-dimensional realm. The last episode, directed by David Lynch, while far from the best, is excellent (director, David Lynch), disturbing, surreal, frightening, and managing to tie into the original mystery of Laura Palmer. It's visually beautiful and more frightening than any horror film, but alas it could not save the dying series, watched by too few by then the series was cancelled, leaving lots of dark cliffhangers. But to me it doesn't matter. Even if the latter half of the second season wasn't very good at all, Twin Peaks will forever exist in my imagination, ever since I stayed up all night to watch the brilliant first season. Somehow I doubt I'll watch those last episodes any time soon. All I need is the first 18 or so episodes and that's my Twin Peaks...
Next stop, the movie; Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. I like the look of it, it looks closer in tone to Season 1 and it's about the last seven days of Laura Palmer, all about the original mystery I fell in love with. I've leant Season 1 out to a friend, but as soon as I get it back I'll delve right back into the great Pilot episode...or I could go outside for a couple of hours..........maybe not...
