Monsters of Television

This show just loves the double. Whether it’s opposites attract or good vs. evil or identical personalities, Twin Peaks doesn’t pass up the chance to compare, contrast, and combine.

Double has always been the name of the game in TV. The standard structure of an episode is A plot and B plot. You have your good guy(s) and your bad guy(s). There’s even the ubiquitous two-parter, usually used to bridge the mid-season hiatus and season-to-season breaks.

Twin Peaks itself is like one never-ending two-parter, with stories spilling over from episode to episode, or pausing to only to reappear a few episodes down the line. And then there’s the way the stories are matched up.

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Ah, Twin Peaks.

Every time I try to do a straight analysis of this show, it turns into a gleeful or questioning recap. This oddball little show with its mishmash of genres and unrelated storylines and characters that disappear for episodes at a time only to pop up later as big plot points. Somehow it manages to be endearing, intriguing, and unsettling all at the same time. The only true defining through line is how off the wall it is.

I think my favorite thing about Twin Peaks is how everyone just rolls with whatever flavor of crazy is on the day’s menu.

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“Well this is new!”

Mummy and Daddy are fighting.

There’s an interesting discussion to be had with regard to Doctor Who‘s seventh season opener about the relevance of external stories to the main narrative of a show. So many shows today are utilizing the Internet as a tool to draw in new viewers and keep old viewers interested. From behind-the-scenes videos to website-exclusive mini-stories, shows use the Internet to create an extension of the worlds their audience loves, extensions that promise to fill in the gaps that 45-minute-long stories always leave behind.

Yesterday, I happened across BBC America’s Doctor Who marathon and was able to refresh my memory of season six in preparation for the seventh season opener. I also watched “Pond Life”, a five-part series of short webisodes focused on the life of the Ponds while away from the Doctor.

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“Bobby, you know what you have to have in this world? Balance. Distance. Symmetry.”

Remember when we had this review thing going?

It’s been four months, give or take, since my last Twin Peaks post and I’d like to apologize for the delay. A new job, moving states, the death of my computer (R.I.P.), and various other issues conspired to keep me away, but the reviews are back!

Previously on Twin Peaks: Daddy Briggs was missing, Dennis/Denise showed up as part of the investigation into Cooper’s suspected drug trafficking, James was taken in by Trophy Wife, and there was a wedding.

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Doubles. Everywhere a double.

From the grown woman who thinks she’s a teenager to the man who wants to be a woman – everyone in Twin Peaks has a duality to them that the show revels in exploring (or ignoring, as it sees fit). People aren’t always what they seem (James’s “I’m only quiet on the outside” being one of the big lines in the episode) and what they actually wind up being isn’t always good.

The dual-nature issue is directly represented by the entrance of the White Lodge/Black lodge dichotomy into the narrative. No doubt these lodges – and the spiritual experiences they promise – will come into play later as Cooper delves deeper into the mysteries of Twin Peaks and himself.

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Turns out I was right.

I’d pondered from the beginning where this show would go once its central question – Who Killed Laura Palmer – had been answered. Now that that portion of the season’s entertainment has been wrapped up, it appears that our A-plot will focus on that mystery man himself, Agent Dale Cooper.

Having wrapped up the Palmer case, Cooper is set to leave Twin Peaks (much to everyone’s sadness) and head off for a well-deserved vacation. Daddy Briggs offers to take him night fishing first, so goodbyes are made all around.

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“You’re on the path. You don’t need to know where it leads. Just follow.”

Who killed Laura Palmer?

This is the question, the driving force that started Twin Peaks. We’ve spent the better part of two seasons pursuing the answer to this question, albeit in a very roundabout and convoluted way. We’ve meandered toward the truth, had it revealed to us but not to the characters, and watched as the characters caught up to the final revelation.

Now the truth is out there for everybody to see. The murderer has been found. Justice, of a sort, has been served. The series could end right here without complaint from me. But it doesn’t. So the question has become: what now?

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I’m not sure what to say about this episode.

Part of the Twin Peaks formula – a necessary evil considering its large cast – is that there is very little in the way of resolution to plot lines. Instead, we have a continual stream of intricately connected stories, each becoming the connection for another link. This can be good, because it allows for big stories to build up in their own time, but it also means little stories can get lost in the shuffle. It also means that sometimes we have to have a filler episode, where nothing important happens but many things are set up for the future.

“Drive with a Dead Girl” is most definitely filler.

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Y’all, this is a disturbing show.

Twin Peaks has never shied away from showing strange or distressing things, but this offering may top the list. It may be the remnants of my dreams last night or the steady click click click that echoes through this episode, but I found it extremely uncomfortable to watch.

The truth is that there is only one scene – cut into pieces – that can be directly labeled as graphic, but there is a sense of foreboding, of wrongness that pervades the entire episode. By the time we get to the scene, we as an audience are primed to let ourselves get carried away with any hint of skin-crawling storymaking. That what we are given is legitimately upsetting only adds to the emotion.

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“But you’re just like the others. You lie and you betray and then you laugh about it!”

I wasn’t so enamored with the last episode – because, let’s be honest, it was bo-ring – but I kind of love this episode. Pieces falling into place, some delicious character moments – and a squee-worthy character arrival – what’s not to love?

“Demons” very much deals with everyone’s secrets, with the things they hide inside themselves and hope no one else ever discovers. Harold Smith’s line, quoted above, is the perfect opener as events lead to certain people’s secrets blossoming, others being threatened, and even more coming to a head.

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