TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN, PART 8. Movies Minute By Minute – Jeff Wood (Bloomsbury Time/Codes Series, 2025)
“Twin Peaks as The Return is the epic and serial momento mori of 20th century Americana passing through the violent taxidermy of its own hallucinatory euphoria and into the perpetually reanimating nightmare of itself, looping and glitching as violently unreal.”
The fact that the above quote is taken from the endnotes section gives a flavour of the mind-blowing quality of the text contained in the main body of this short (120 pages) but immense book.
Jeff Wood embarks on a deep dive into the Twin Peaks universe taking the risk of drowning in the vast ocean of David Lynch’s visionary genius. The Ohio born author swims freely in the ambiguities, weirdness and complexities he discovers.
Twin Peaks’ original run in 1990 comprised two seasons and 30 episodes. Quite simply it redefined what television series could achieve in a way that modern streamers now take for granted . Season 3, promoted as a ‘A Limited Event Series” subsequently landed in 2017. Lynch and co-writer Mark Frost were given carte blanche in ‘the return’ to go with the flow, a degree of self-control that could have proved disastrous but actually resulted in 18 episodes that brilliantly expanded and enriched the narrative universe of Twin Peaks.
At its epicenter is ‘Part 8 Gotta Light? which has rightly been heralded not only as the pinnacle of the ‘show’ but on a par with the greatest of Lynch’s cinematic achievements. It’s hard to think of any of the greatest series –like, say, ‘The Wire’ or ‘Breaking Bad’ – that could be so satisfactorily encapsulated in a standalone episode lasting just 58 minutes.
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If Dune is David Lynch’s prize turkey, Fire Walk With Me, follows as a close second. It is significant that neither are included in the ‘select filmography’ in ‘Catching The Big Fish’, Lynch’s collection of anecdotal reflections on meditation, consciousness and creativity published in 2006.
My Mom always said to me that I should ‘play nicely’ but such advice would, I suspect, be anathema to David Lynch.
No prizes for guessing that I bought this through an addiction to David Lynch’s cult TV drama Twin Peaks.
The genius of Lynch is that he always knows exactly the look and atmosphere he wants. Cruise is so right because she looks so spaced out and her voice exudes an eerie stillness perfectly in tune with the surreal ‘there’s something in the woods’ quality of the drama. She was discovered by composer Angelo Badalamenti and this song is very similar in feel to her sublime performance of Mysteries of Love featured in thr Blue Velvet movie (and later covered brilliantly by Antony).
“Hi, Lloyd. Little slow tonight, isn’t it?” – The Shining (1980)
