PEDESTRIAN.TV has partnered with Stan to celebrate the launch of the brand new Twin Peaks (streaming exclusively on Stan). Together, we’re bringing you a review of the first two parts of the new Twin Peaks. We’re also transforming a Gelato Messina in Sydney today + Melbourne on Thursday into the show’s Double R Diners, and giving away show-themed flavours all day.
**SPOILER ALERT**
THERE ARE SOME BIG OL’ SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING REVIEW. IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE FIRST TWO PARTS OF THE NEW TWIN PEAKS, I SUGGEST YOU HEAD OVER HERE TO HYPE YOURSELF UP ON OUR DELISH DOUBLE R DINER GELATO FLAVA-FLAVS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Well holy shit.
PEDESTRIAN.TV got the extremely lucky chance to watch the first two hours of the new Twin Peaks and friends, my mind is sufficiently blown.
You know how you go into reboots or sequels or continuations with the highest of hopes, only to have your heart kicked in the butt by a half-arsed job? Well David Lynch and Mark Frost certainly didn’t do that.
The first two parts of the new Twin Peaks flips everything on its head, a mystery cloaked in a theory wrapped in an iconic enigma, lain dormant for 25 years, only to rear it’s wild head to kick dirt in your eyes and make your brain swim.
Buckle up, this one is going to be a wild ride.
The first two parts brings back a bunch of characters we grew to love in Twin Peaks. And yes, each of the re-introductions caused me to gasp, and sigh, and wring my hands in glee, knowing that they’ve all aged but time seems to have stood entirely still.
Special Agent Cooper and The Giant open the new vision in Part One, and it seems Coop hasn’t left the Black Lodge at all in 25 years. Which can only mean that Doppelgänger Cooper (the one possessed by Bob) is still at large.
NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE.
We’ve got some new locations to speculate over as well. The new Twin Peaks takes us to NYC, South Dakota, and Las Vegas, entertaining the idea that Bob’s evil has sprawled further than the dark Douglas fir tree woods that surround Twin Peaks.
In NYC we find ourselves in a large warehouse space, high up off the bustling city streets. There’s a glass box with a hole to the outside of the building, very well lit, surrounded by cameras that never stop recording.
We’re introduced to the first younger character, who sits, watches, waits. Is he trying to capture Bob on camera? Is Bob on his way to possess this young man, and he’s going to get trapped? Another layer to the mystery.
He’s also got a massive hard-on for a girl, Tracy, who brings him coffee every evening. She wants to get inside – the room, you sick jerks – and when it eventually happens, things don’t exactly end up going too well. You’ll know when it happens.
Back in Twin Peaks, we see Margaret Lanterman, (aka The Log Lady). A beautiful moment between her and Deputy Tommy ‘Hawk’ Hill (!!!) on the phone, where her log imparts some serious knowledge onto Hawk. Knowing that Catherine Coulson passed away in 2015, it’s simultaneously heartwarming and breaking to see her here, reprising her all-knowing, stickybeaking role.
Andy Brennan and Lucy Moran are still working for Sheriff Truman (though Lucy now says that there’s two Sheriff Trumans, “one’s sick and the other’s out fishing”), and they have a son, Wally, who is 24 years old and has “never even seen Cooper”. Now there’s a lot of speculation and theory around who Michael Cera will be playing in Twin Peaks and I mean, where there’s smoke, right?
Look at them, sweet angels.
A favourite moment for me was coming across brothers Ben and Jerry Horne again. Ben is still holding down business at the Great Northern Hotel, and Jerry has followed his extremely free-spirited ways. His lucrative ‘erb biz is apparently “keeping the place afloat” and I’m entirely not surprised that Jerry’s extremely stoned wearing clothes I can only assume are woven with hemp and have a particular dank smell to them.
Because Lynch is so notorious for everything having meaning and purpose, I found myself leaning forward in my chair, peering into the surreal world before me in an attempt to absorb every aspect of these first two parts. There is a lot to take in, so though you have your whole chair, you’ll only need the edge, I promise you.
These two parts don’t introduce us to all the characters, either. Though there have been set pictures and trailers that have Denise Bryson, Bobby Briggs, Gordon Cole and Norma Jennings, we’re yet to meet them – and others – again.
The new Twin Peaks seems to have more of a feel of Fire Walk With Me, as well. The intensity and bloodthirstiness of Fire Walk With Me is present again in the first two parts. One scene had me half covering my eyes as one of the most horrific scenes that I’ve ever seen on primetime TV played out on the screen. We’ve gotten to see multiple gruesome attacks in the first two hours, which is more than the whole of season one and two combined.
NNNNNNNNOPE.
Let’s take a look at Doppelgänger Cooper for a moment cos hoo-boy that’s a whole thing.
So he’s been missing pretty much since the last time we saw him, in that iconic “How’s Annie?” scene in the bathroom at the Great Northern Hotel. He’s managed to make a bit of a name for himself as a badass. He’s got long hair. He wears leather and snakeskin patterned shirts. He’s charming in that mum-warned-me-about-men-like-you and is a bad dude and isn’t afraid to prove his power.
Doppelgänger Cooper absolutely does a murder, and he also knows that he has to go back to the Black Lodge.
It’s looking like the return to Twin Peaks is going to be another trip into surreal dreamscapes and everything, not just the owls, is not what it seems.
Put on a pot of the blackest coffee, we’re in for the long haul, folks.
Don’t forget the only place you can catch the brand new Twin Peaks is over on Stan, so get on over there and sign up for your 30-day free trial and start the binge.
Photo: Supplied.
