Twin Peaks – The Second Season
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: C+ Episodes: B-
FINALLY! After waiting 6 years since the Season One DVD release and 16 years
since its television premiere, Twin
Peaks: The Second Season has arrived on DVD. A groundbreaking series that these days has
much more than a minor cult following.
The show was a big success for ABC in the First Season, which only consisted of 8 episodes since ABC did not
expect it to be the hit that it was. For
the Second Season ABC expanded the
episode run to a full 22 episodes. The First Season (as well as the pilot) was
full of mystery, innovation, and superb television art direction that is still
trying to be matched today. Creators
David Lynch and Mark Frost knew their series was an offbeat project whose
undertaking may have mixed feelings, but they insisted on maintaining a
professional quality about the series that would be talked about for
years. Lynch’s and Frost’s dream came
true and Twin Peaks remains to be a
television classic. It is difficult to
describe the series without giving anything away, but as a reviewer I will give
a brief plot synopsis.
The First Season starts with the startling
murder of Twin Peaks homecoming queen Laura Palmer. Twin Peaks at first glance appears to be the
perfect suburban town, from the mom and pop corner store to the pies cooling on
the windowsill. It is soon revealed with
murders and an array of bizarre happenings that things are not as they appear. The plot line of this demented series centers
on tracking down the killer of this once homecoming queen, but along the way
there are others that are pulled into this downward spiral of murders,
kidnapping, the occult, and much, much stranger events. The first 7 episodes plus the pilot of the series
seem to center on this homecoming queen’s murder, but that is just a
farce. The true heart and soul of the
series is the deep and corrupt underbelly of Twin Peaks that slowly seeps out
as the series develops. The farce of the
homecoming queen was just a plot device to develop the writers’ creative
technique of digging deeper into a seemingly boring town.
Whereas
the First Season did utilize the
individual town’s people of Twin Peaks
to tell a deeper story, the Second
Season as reviewed here moves away from the creative edge established by
Lynch and Frost once the killer from Season
One is revealed. There is more of a
tangled romance and crazy aura that flows in Season Two that is still great and hints at the greatness of Season One, but never lives up to the
past. This may be due to a team of new
writers and ABC having too much control over the series, but we may never
know. Could Lynch have saved this series
from its short 2 Season run?
The
technical features of this 6-disc, 22-episode box set are quite nice for a
series that is over 15 years old. The
picture is presented in its original 1.33 X 1 Full Screen format. The picture appears clean and crisp, but does
have some light/dark issues as well as a degree of grittiness at times. This reviewer would have preferred some
better remastering and an anamorphic widescreen treatment to this
groundbreaking series, but it is still adequate in its current
presentation. The sound is also quite
nice presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, 2.0 with Pro Logic surrounds and the
original Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono. The
sound does occasionally have high/low issues, but it is so seldom it is not
become a problem.
The
extras are a little less than this reviewer would have liked for a series
audiences have waited so long for, but the extras that are offered are nicely
presented. Extras include the Log Lady
Introductions created by David Lynch that were added when the series re-aired
on Bravo, Interviews with Jennifer Lynch and Todd Holland, Interviews with
Caleb Deschanel and Duwayne Dunham, Interviews with Stephen Gyllenhaal and Tim
Hunter and actors, and a Behind the Scenes look at the series. Overall the DVD presentation is nice and
personally this reviewer is ecstatic that this set this available and has such
a nice presentation.
In the
end, this series was outstanding. Even
with the shortcomings Season Two has
over Season One the series still
manages to consistently entertain and captivate an audience. After years of rights battles and not having
this series available to own this reviewer recommends everyone goes out and
buys this series now. Everything about
this series screams, bleeds, and burns greatness. This reviewer has been dying for this series
and once you are in Twin Peaks you
may be dying too.
- Michael P Dougherty II
