The second season of Twin Peaks was released on DVD a couple of months ago, smack dab in the middle of my studies (why they couldn't just ask me when to release it I'll never know) so I've only now been able to revisit one of my favourite shows of all time.
Given the mysterious lag between the release of the first season (around 2003) and this baby, it's been quite a wait but as soon as I flicked it on last night I knew that it had been worth it.
For those who came in late, Twin Peaks was a David Lynch tv series in the early 1990s which earned something of a cult following for it's style, playful reinterpretation of the soap opera genre and moments of out and out surreality.
It was set in smallish logging town in the middle of a something's-not-right forest and (initially) centred around an FBI led investigation into the killing of a local girl, Laura Palmer.
Of course, being grounded in the soap genre, this was far from all that was going on in town and a diverse cohort of locals added interwoven tales of crime, love, treachery and all the other good things you would expect in Lynch's idealised 50's looking town.
Season two kicks off with a bang, following up from a massive cliffhanger episode that saw show hero Special Agent Cooper shot, local thug Leo Johnson shot, town beauty Shelley Johnson and mill owner Catherine Martell trapped in a burning sawmill and Laura's shrink Dr Jacoby attacked in a park.
As the show centres around Cooper and this first episode back was written and directed by David Lynch himself, there is some amazingly surreal stuff with Cooper lying shot on the ground in his hotel room dealing with visitations from the worlds most oblivious and decrepit room-service waiter and then a mystical giant.
Here's a glimpse - even though the quality is no match for the beautiful film clarity of the dvd, you'll get the gist.
Everything about this dvd worked for me - the image quality and sound were spectacular, the writing and performances brilliant and my concerns that the show might have been better in memory than reality were blown away within moments.
Whether you've never seen the show before or you've seen it a dozen times, do yourself a favour and make the time to check it out.
