Amazon.com video review:
For a couple of hours in 1990, David Lynch took over the
network airwaves and subtly, subversively transformed American
television forever. Amazingly, the TV series that followed this rich
and strange feature-length pilot became an international phenomenon as
people all over the world became obsessed by one question: Who killed
Laura Palmer? Twin Peaks is the apotheosis of all things Lynch,
and arguably his single greatest achievement. Set in the dark, damp,
woodsy atmosphere of a small mountain town in the Pacific Northwest,
Twin Peaks is a murder mystery, detective saga, soap opera,
sitcom--the essence of television distilled into one mind-blowing
serial. Lynch subverts TV conventions right and left, not the least by
concentrating on the grief of Laura's friends and family, and
orchestrating their tears into a symphony of mourning. Twin
Peaks is about the endlessly seductive idea of "mystery," of the
ways human beings find to deal with the unknown. It was never about
solutions; after all, answers (which are invariably anticlimactic)
only kill the Mystery! So, although it took another year or so before
Lynch and his partner Mark Frost were eventually forced (by the
network and public opinion) to reveal the identity of Laura Palmer's
murderer, the tantalizing clues are the real heart of the enterprise,
and they're all right here in the debut. And so are some excerpts from
Agent Cooper's surrealistic dream sequence (which appeared in the
third episode of the series), featuring the dancing, backward-talking
little "Man from Another Place," as part of a special European-release
finale (you wouldn't want to use the word "conclusion") for this video
version. --Jim Emerson
