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Sep 03, 2018alanpscott rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
Often lethargic, relatively humorless, and almost entirely meaningless if you haven't watched the original "Twin Peaks" series (and more than once, at that), I nevertheless viewed the whole "Limited Event" from 2017, and am ultimately glad I did. Lynch and Frost tie off many of the ends they left loose, although certainly not all of them (and several new ones get introduced late in the game). Also, Lynch and Frost do something very interesting... we're used to seeing only young, beautiful people on-screen (especially in televised speculative fiction, as opposed to TV purporting to mimic reality). Even the original series featured mostly people in their teens and twenties. In the "Twin Peaks" return, though, many if not most of the characters are OLD... they're the same actors reprising their roles from twenty-five years ago, and they are wrinkled, white-haired, some even doddering. At least two of the actors passed away during production. This focus on older characters is a reasonable choice, but also a courageous and refreshing one, and it's fascinating to watch especially when placed in direct contrast to a recent viewing of the original. The return series definitely has features that seem like flaws. It's from a cable channel, which means that it's free to show more gore and skin than the original series could get away with. The original Twin Peaks transcended its broadcast TV constraints; without that bar to excess, the return sometimes seems lazier. It takes its own sweet time, as well, both in individual scenes and across multi-episode arcs (Kyle McLachlan spends altogether too much time as a shambling, monosyllabic "Dougie Jones," for example - and apparently not one person considers the possibility that he's suffered a stroke?). The special effects are low-fidelity, unconvincing, maybe even intentionally cheesy, almost as if they're just intended as placeholders for the REAL effects that Lynch and Frost were unable to transmit directly from their minds to ours. But in the end I did watch the whole damned thing, shaking my head all along but drawn in again to the world of Twin Peaks... and yeah, I'd probably watch the next one too, if I'm still around to, another twenty-five years down the line...