CTVA 215 Week 9 - Twin Peaks: "Pilot" (1990)

I went into Twin Peaks with kind of an unusual perspective, one that die hard Twin Peaks fans would almost certainly say is the wrong way to watch the franchise. When I started the Twin Peaks pilot I had seen none of the show, but I had seen the 1992 prequel film Fire Walk With Me. Having almost no prior knowledge about the story or characters of Twin Peaks, the film was a pretty confusing and extremely upsetting account of the last week of Laura Palmer’s life. We see at the end of the film who killed her, blatantly showing us the answer to the mystery that much of the original show spends time solving. I knew that Twin Peaks was much more than the story of solving Laura Palmer’s murder however, and I was very excited to see the direction the show went in.

Twin Peaks episode one is one of the best episodes of television I’ve ever seen. That’s not a hot take, the quality here is very self evident. What David Lynch and Mark Frost are able to accomplish in 90 minutes in terms of world and character building is astonishing. It certainly helps that I had the context of Fire Walk With Me to introduce me to the large and eccentric cast of this show, but even if I hadn’t seen the film I would’ve been able to immediately understand the personality and dynamic of characters like Bobby, James and Donna along with the other abnormal and mysterious character that populate this town. Dale Cooper of course is the highlight, an incredibly likable and offbeat FBI agent who’s featured slightly in Fire Walk With Me and was my favorite part of the film. He’s full of quirks and seemingly supernaturally good at his job, but is ultimately a very affable guy. He contributes a lot to the more lighthearted tone of the show (compared to the film at least) and the way Kyle MacLachlan portrays him makes me want to keep coming back to the show. What I love so much about this pilot is that, even though I know who the killer is, the show feels no less mysterious. Lynch and Frost constantly present more questions about Twin Peaks, and the town’s never-ending mysteries keep drawing me back in. This is especially impressive considering I know the pilot is fairly grounded and “normal” compared to the rest of the show! It’s a masterful, game-changing first episode that makes me immediately understand how the show gained such a following in 1990 and makes me extremely excited to immerse myself in this strange northwestern town even more.