Northwest Passage

When Laura Palmer is murdered in the quiet town of Twin Peaks, the similarities to another murder brings the involvement of the FBI in the form of Agent Dale Cooper. Cooper teams up with Sheriff Truman to help catch the killer. However using Cooper's less than conventional methods they find a mysterious world of goings on in the small town leading as far as drugs, deceit and demons.

David Lynch's television series falls somewhere between the themes of his films without the 18-rated content and a bit of a failure. Since Lynch's films don't get multiplex audiences it's perhaps surprising that this series was so successful (apart from being cancelled of course!). Lynch's look at oddities etc in normal life and his themes of things being wrong just behind the picket fences (see also Blue Velvet) come through well, as does his eye for quirky characters. Each episode had a cliff hanger of sorts although sometimes the plot spun wildly out of control. The actually twists in the identity of the killer and certainly the overall ending was maybe too much for mainstream America to deal with in a TV show but most of this is pure Lynch.

The performances are all good and link with his quirky vision well. Lynch favourite Kyle MacLachlan is good as Cooper while the rest of the cast are made up by TV actors on the whole who manage to hold a small town, TV drama feel to the whole thing that makes it feel that little bit more uncomfortable when the weirdness comes. Small roles from the likes of Miguel Ferrer, Lynch etc add interest.

Overall this is a long Lynch movie. Demons, drugs, weird characters all in a normal picket fence community. Very enjoyable if a little to much to last several series. Depending on how you feel about it the ending is either a superb place to leave it as it shows the power of evil, or a huge let down. I liked it myself.

Twin Peaks is unique in every way. It is almost unbelievable that a series so near-perfect and daring like Twin Peaks could be shown in nationwide TV. David Lynch didn't sell-out as he turned to the small screen, instead he took TV to new forms: never before and after have I seen a TV series that made such a lasting impression. I love each and every character, the brillant dialogues, the beautiful cast (Lara Flynn Boyle! Kyle MacLachlan!) and - best of all - a storytelling so absurd, obscure and perfect that you can only wonder how they made it. Its not only my favourite TV series, it has some of the best scenes ever filmed (the second murder, BOB, etc). And BOB scared me to death, ten years ago and also nowadays - I've seen the Twin Peaks Series now 5 times in its entirety and it is as good as the first time.

i was only six years old when twin peaks premiered in Germany (it was no hit, by the way), but i did remember the huge a hype surrounding it at first. years later i stumbled upon it at a video store and rented the first season. i think the two-hour pilot of twin peaks is a masterpiece.

the characters and the atmosphere, the enigmatic power of laura palmer, my TV was dripping from magic. i think the show (and the resolution of her murder) never lived up to the pilot, but i still think that David lynch really proved his genius with this pilot episode. i could watch over and over again.

later on the show got confusing (well, surprise it's lynch) but you must rent the first season of this.

brilliant!!!

Laura palmer (Sheryl Lee) is found dead--nude and wrapped in plastic. She was born, raised and killed in the town of Twin Peaks. The town sheriff (Michael Ontkean) and FBI Ageny Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) try to find out who killed her...and why. We are then introduced to the interesting...and very bizarre...residents of the town.

Absolutely fascinating. This exploded on TV in 1990 and was a huge hit. It led to the series which (unfortunately) was buried in bad time slots and mismanaged by the network (for instance, director/co-writer David Lynch was never going to tell who killed Laura but the network forced him to come up with a killer leading to a REAL stupid unmasking). Still, it was well ahead of its time and absolutely fascinating. It's like Peyton Place on drugs--or Peyton Place as done by David Lynch.

The opening pilot (which has an alternate ending) was released in Europe as a movie. It's just incredible--beautifully directed with a now classic movie score that perfectly fits the material. It's full of fascinating characters and images and--like most Lynch movies--has plenty of purposely strange moments--but it's never TOO obscure or disgusting (he DID have to keep in TV standards). The characters are full 3-dimensional people--weird perhaps but full characters. Also there are teenagers who (for once) are treated with respect and ACT like teenagers.

The acting is almost great across the board--but Dana Ashbrook, Lara Flynn Boyle, Sherilyn Finn, Ray Wise and James Marshall are especially good. The only bad performances are by Kyle MacLachlan (TOO strange) and Micheal Ontkean (TOO emotionless). Still this is great. Never dull and just beautifully done. A must-see. But if you don't like Lynch you might want to steer clear of this. A 10.

You can count on the fingers of your hands TV shows that really hook you after only one minute, and for the rest of your spectator's life. Twin Peaks is masterfully written, directed, photographed and played. Every single character is unique and haunt you long after the end credits. But something really upsets me with Twin Peaks, and that's the way people only credit david lynch for this masterpiece, too often neglecting the wonderful work Mark Frost did with the scripts. Sure, Twin Peaks is a visual achievement, but the way Mark Frost handled the stories, allowing david Lynch and every other guest directors to express their talents is wonderful, and it's a shame the talented mr Lynch is often the only one to receive credits for it (and I recommend to you, among many others, the Diane Keaton directed episode, which is one of the most beautiful and best "lynchian" episodes of the second season.). So, let Twin Peaks and his inhabitants capture you, let them live in you, and don't forget to thank mr Lynch & Frost for giving us the chance to be attracted in their not-so-strange world