“Twin Peaks” Still Weird After All These Years
It is difficult to know where to begin with Showtime’s “Twin Peaks,†which premiered its first two parts Sunday night. Fans of David Lynch — and fans of the series, who have mythologized its idiosyncratic details over the last two decades — will take in the director’s vision with open arms, savoring its bizarre iconography and nonlinear storytelling. They will undoubtedly find a lot to be happy with in this two-hour premiere, which is parts 1 and 2 of “Twin Peaks: The Return†(though there is no clear delineation between parts). David Lynch, who
directed the episode and co-wrote it with Mark Frost, begins with the Black Lodge, which he explored extensively in the second-season finale and in “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,†the prequel film. The new “Twin Peaks†uses grounding footage from the old “Twin Peaks†to establish some of the basics of the mythology: Cooper is stuck in the Lodge while his doppelgänger — inhabited by Bob (Frank Silva), an evil spirit — is in the world. Lynch, throughout “Twin Peaks,†is at his absolute best in Black Lodge scenes, and there is a bit of relief in seeing that even in this Showtime interpretation, the Black Lodge is still eerie and destabilizing. At the same time, the Black Lodge is also where one of the first obvious differences between the old and new “Twin Peaks†emerges: the simple fact of, this time, much slicker production values.
