Wednesday 15 April 2020

Wrapped In Plastic: A Twin Peaks Rewatch - Part 2

High level recap for those who missed Part One:- I’m rewatching Twin Peaks for its 30th anniversary; I’ve watched the pilot and first episode and things are now about to get properly Peak-y…

S01E02 AKA The Art To Catch A Killer
In Which:- Cooper throws rocks and has a dream set twenty five years in the future

- This is the episode that contains a lot of the elements that people would identify as peak Twin Peaks. Cooper citing his love of Tibetan philosophy and dream logic as reason for his methodology of chucking rocks at a bottle for clues and, of course, the dream sequence in which an ageing Cooper meets Laura Palmer and The Man From Another Place in a red room while they talk in backwards sounding riddles and the man does a little dance. This is the Twin Peaks that everyone remembers and it’s still one of the oddest things to ever grace mainstream television (until season three, that is…).
- There are also hints of the occasional moments of broad comedy that the show would do, mainly with Andy. Today, he gets hit on the head with a rock.
_ Something that always struck me as odd - some of the incidental music is also actual music that characters in the show listen to as well. Audrey appears to be listening and dancing to her own theme in the diner. Odd.

Iconic Peaks Moments No. 1:- Cooper trying to get clues to the killer’s identity by throwing rocks at a bottle.
Iconic Peaks Moments No. 2:- The whole dream sequence.
Lynchian Weirdoes:- One-eyed Nadine and her silent curtain runner
First Appearances:- Brother of Ben, Jerry Horne*; Blacky and One-Eyed Jacks; Albert Rosenfeld (the mist sarcastic man in the world); The Man From Another Place (often referred to as the dancing dwarf)
Show Within A Show:- This episode marks the first appearance of a cheesy soap opera that everyone seems to watch, Invitation To Love. 
Cliffhanger:- A tufty haired Cooper phones Harry to tell him he knows who killed Laura Palmer.


S01E03 AKA Rest In Pain
In Which:- The dream is discussed and Laura’s funeral is held.

- This is one of the most irritating dismissals of a cliffhanger ever as Cooper reveals that Laura told him in the dream who killed her but he can't remember. Weak.
- The extended description of the dream includes brief shots from footage shot to extend out the original pilot into a complete feature. The one-armed man, hospital showdown with BOB and twenty five years later sequence are how the film version of the pilot ends.
- This episode marks a bit of a step up in the Cooper / Audrey flirtation which is a little creepy as she is at school and he is 35. It’s supposed to feel cute and they would almost get away with it if they didn't carry on flirting at a funeral for a murdered girl.
- Cooper’s pie obsession continues (huckleberry today) and he gives a trademark Cooper-style thumbs up for the first time
- I have to admit that the whole Catherine and Josie plot around the mill land is not that fascinating.

Iconic Peaks Moments:- Straddling comedy and tragedy with the image of a sobbing Leland going up and down on the coffin.
Lynchian Weirdoes:- Leland begins his dance-crying obsession.
First Appearance:- Sheryl Lee as Laura’s identical cousin Maddy (Lynch created the character as he felt bad that she only got to play a dead girl and wanted to give her more to do)
Show Within A Show:- Invitation To Love is playing as Maddy appears in an acknowledgment of the slightly ludicrous soap opera nature of this.
Cliffhanger:- There isn’t really one - Cooper and Truman escort a distraught Leland from the Great Northern ballroom after his cry-dancing fit.

I was planning to do three eps per post but that’s quite a bit there. These may run for longer than I thought...

* I don't remember us having Ben & Jerry ice cream in the UK at the time so this joke was lost on me.



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