Rewatching “Twin Peaks: The Return”, and it feels like a show about the collapse of any sense of connection or continuity in contemporary American life.
This is true even in the show’s structure: “Twin Peaks” is no longer an ensemble soap opera, but a collection of disconnected vignettes.
This is true even in the show’s structure: “Twin Peaks” is no longer an ensemble soap opera, but a collection of disconnected vignettes.
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“The Return” aired on Showtime, on cable. It was arguably most successful on streaming. It felt like a show watched alone, in private.
The vast, empty, abandoned suburban housing estates. The eerie prison complexes. The eponymous town, which feels less like a community than a geographical happenstance.
“What? Do things appear?”
“I haven't seen anything since I started.”
I’ve always loved Lynch’s willingness to troll the kinda of audience that tries to rationalise or categorise or neatly explain his work.
In “The Return”, Sam is effectively watching television, trying to document what happens therein.
… And then it kills him. Aggressively and gruesomely.
Disconnected communities and lives, held together by long empty roads and invisible networks.
Much of the original “Twin Peaks” was about how the town could not escape globalisation.
The mask is easier to decode than Lil. Four features add up to this character mask. The message was delivered to Laura.
The cynical attitude… just isn’t Lynchian
So you have soap, cop show, horror, sitcom and tellingly, last episode aside, ends on a musical number.
TV can't truly replicate the cries of family when their child dies. I will never un-hear how visceral that response is.
For that reason alone, I cannot watch this. Good to hear your takes tho.