‘Twin Peaks Season 3 – The Return’ directed by David Lynch
It goes without saying that David Lynch divides audiences. His surreal visions of the world and the tall tales he weaves are never going to be to everyone’s taste.
The naysayers continually complain of the absence of linear narrative in his work, or point to the wilful weirdness, the stilted dialogue and the wooden acting. Actually, a lot of the time, all these criticisms are valid but what count as weaknesses in other auteurs turn into strengths in the Lynchian universe.
I have been a fan of Lynch since being blown away by his nightmarish debut full length film Eraserhead when it was first released in 1977. Over the years I have learnt to have patience and to tolerate his self indulgences secure in the knowledge that he will deliver memorable images and mind-bending storylines.
Despite this, I approached the return of Twin Peaks, after a 25 year gap, with some trepidation. Being handed a truckload of cash from Showtime and Sky plus carte blanche to do whatever he wanted seemed to be the main motivating factors in reviving a series he had previously said was finished. It wasn’t as if he went to the studios with fresh ideas for updating the story.
On top of this, the statement that the new season would follow many of the themes unlocked in the 1992 big screen spin-off ‘Fire Walk With Me’ didn’t bode well. This movie is big in France but was widely panned by critics upon release.
I share Quentin Tarantino’s verdict that this was Lynch disappearing up his own ass for a misguided project that was neither a true prequel nor a proper sequel to the TV series. A cameo by David Bowie as Phillip Jeffries, a FBI agent assigned to the so-called Blue Rose cases (think X-Files), was a lively novelty but just one of many half-baked ideas that lacked substance.
Bob is dead but he still has a bad influence on Agent Dale Cooper
As with many ‘cult’ movies (aka ‘Turkeys’), FWWM has been the subject of a critical reappraisal in recent years. For example, Guardian film critic Mark Kermode and Village Voice’s Calum Marsh respectively named it as “marvellous” and a “masterpiece”. It is still neither in my book but is probably required viewing if you want to pick up some of the key references in the ‘Return’ series.
A more positive factor was the news that Lynch would be directing all 19 episodes and that writing credits would be shared with co-creator Mark Frost. In the two original seasons aired in 1990/91 Lynch directed only six of the thirty episodes.
After the creative disaster of Dune (1984), Lynch has always insisted on having the final cut of his work. This has allowed him to follow his own path which includes his two most acclaimed movies : Blue Velvet (1986) and Mulholland Drive (2001).
Prior to this new Twin Peaks series, his last full length feature film was 2006’s Inland Empire (let’s try to forget Duran Duran: Unstaged in 2014 shall we?). With interests in painting (‘The Art Life’), music and bringing transcendental meditation to the masses, it didn’t seem that Lynch was straining at the leash to come out of retirement.
But although the financial lure obviously proved decisive, it’s clear from the start that this series was going to be more than just a mercenary cash-in gesture. The sublime extended opening episode contains enough new story threads and extreme weirdness to ward off casual viewers: decapitated corpses, ghosts in machines (literally) and a conversation with a tree-shaped creature in the netherworld of The Black Lodge who announces “I am the arm and I sound like this”.
Good Coop – Bad Coop
You also have to get used to the fact that Kyle MacLachlan appears as two versions of Dale Cooper, the saintly FBI agent we know and love plus a leather-skinned dobbleganger who is a demonic stranger. On top of this Cooper enters the body of a struggling insurance salesman Dougie Jones and in this persona spends an inordinate amount of time in a semi-zombie state.
David Lynch as Gordon Cole
Lynch himself revives the role of Gordon Cole (Cooper’s FBI chief) whose inadequate hearing aid conveniently means that he can shout rather than act.
One of Cole’s new assistants is singer Chysta Bell as Tammy Preston, a beautiful woman (see how she moves!) who, it is fairly safe to say, didn’t get the part on the strength of her acting skills.
There’s little point in attempting a summary of
FBI’s lastest asset – Chysta Bell as Tammy Preston
the rest of the new season. To do so would be like trying to explain fantastic dreams or deconstruct the deep darkness of nightmares. I don’t envy those journalists who were charged with this thankless task. Woe betide those who miss a key reference or the significance of an incidental character – the message boards on social networks are unforgiving of such lapses.
What I would say is that the most astounding and unmissable episode is the 8th; something paid culture critics and unpaid Twin Peaks nerds all agree on. After a stunning performance at The Roadhouse of ‘She’s Gone Away’ by The Nine Inch Nails, we witness a stunning Kubrick style visual presentation of evil forces unleashed by the first atom bomb test explosion in New Mexico on July 16th, 1945 .
Gotta light? The Woodman cometh.
This historic event has little to do with the Twin Peaks story up to that point but the fictional aftermath has everything to do with the recurring themes of the loss of innocence and how the sleep of reason produces monsters.
These particular monsters are personified by the Woodmen, terrifying blasted figures that are part ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, part ‘The Walking Dead’.
This one hour in itself makes the Twin Peaks Return worthwhile, encapsulating everything that is so cool about David Lynch. The soundtrack to this episode is exeptional with inspired use of Jonny Greenwood & Krzysztof Penderecki’s Threnody For The Victims Of Hiroshima. (n.b. the soundtrack to the complete series is well worth checking out)
The whole season is a mixed bag but still stands as a major TV event containing more than enough brilliance to justify the return.
