And the winner is...
1. TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN (Lynch/Frost,
2017)
At this point, enshrining “Twin
Peaks: The Return” on a film list no longer really counts as much
of a provocation. “Cahiers du Cinema” tabbed it as the best film
of the 2010s. Jim Jarmusch called it the best American film of the
past ten years. It's practically the conformist position now.
Some television critics remain
understandably territorial about the matter, viewing it as a slam against the small screen, hearing the implication from
film snobs that the series is so artistically accomplished it can't
be “mere” television. They have a point, but I also doubt that
many critics would be claiming “Twin Peaks” for the film team if
it was created or directed by David Simon or Vince Gilligan. Since
“Twin Peaks” is co-created by the venerated filmmaker David Lynch
(along with Mark Frost, who I think we're all guilty of overlooking –
look at me, I just consigned him to a parenthetical aside) many want
to incorporate it into his film work. It's the same reason that Rainer
Werner Fassbinder's television mini-series “Berlin Alexanderplatz”(1980) received 11 votes in the 2012 “Sight & Sound” poll as
one of the ten best films ever made.
I have no horse in this race. I'm
including “Twin Peaks: The Return” on my list for a simple,
non-ideological reason. I don't write about television, and I want
the opportunity to write about the most remarkable thing I've seen on
a screen over the past ten years (aside from the Eagles finally
winning a Superbowl, of course).
The second season (1991) of “Twin Peaks”
suffered from its share of rough patches, many of which can be summed
up with the words “Windom Earle.” At least we still had Agent
Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) to hang out with every week. But when David
Lynch, largely uninvolved with much of the second season, returned to
direct the series finale, he crafted perhaps the most chilling hour
of television ever produced, capped off by the devastating spectacle
of our beloved true-blue hero Cooper sneering, “How's Annie? How's Annie?”
In that episode, Laura Palmer (or a
spirit resembling Laura Palmer) also promised/threatened Agent
Cooper, “I'll see you again in 25 years.” That promise/threat was
kept more or less on schedule, and the wait was more than worth it as
the new series felt like that jaw-dropping finale had been unpacked
and expanded into 18 episodes of brilliance, alternating humor and
horror, and slapstick with the sublime, all with a formal elegance of
pure Lynchian vintage (and Frostian too!)
“The Return” occasionally indulged
in fan service. We all got to see if Big Ed and Norma would finally
get together, and whether Albert would ever learn how to play nice. We finally met Diane, the Log Lady was back, and Windom Earle wasn't. Hooray! But the
series thwarted audience desires too, mostly by denying us the return
of the actual, vintage, all-American Dale Cooper until the final few
episodes, giving us good ol' Dougie instead just to taunt and divide
viewers, some of whom felt there were just too many Coops. I'm on
Team Dougie 100%, for the record. How did MacLachlan not win every
award in the world for his versatile work in this series?
Hello-o-o-o!
And, of course, there's Episode 8. If
we're going to indulge in calling “Twin Peaks” cinema, Episode 8
is nothing short of the greatest horror film ever made, a plunge into
the darkest recess of the American nightmare and featuring the most
primally terrifying villain of all time in the Woodsman. Don't
over-interpret, just drink full and descend.
And in the end... yes, in the end. I
would never have imagined it possible to finish a series (film or
television, who cares?) on a more fundamentally disturbing note than “How's
Annie?” but damn if I can't still hear the scream that wraps up
“The Return.” Lights out for everyone, and what year is this
anyway?
Do I want more “Twin Peaks”? I
can't think of any way it would be possible to exceed “The Return”
so of course I want more. Because I can't wait to see how Lynch and
Frost can achieve the impossible yet again.
"Do I want more “Twin Peaks”? I can't think of any way it would be possible to exceed “The Return” so of course I want more."
ReplyDeleteI've repeated this sentiment (almost verbatim) since seeing it in 2017.
I'd probably go further and say it's Lynch's single most defining work.
Words really can't express how much it thrilled me. Probably helps that I'm not a huge fan of the original series!
Seeing the world of Twin Peaks get torn to shreds and corrupted beyond recognition was just amazing to me.
Delicious.
Do me a favour Dave and pour me another glass from that terrible well of yours. I will never be full, but perhaps I can descend further into ecstatic oblivion.