Twin Peaks Virgin Diary – Less weird, more soapy mystery

Season one, episodes 4-5

I get it, I really do. I get that this is well-filmed, quality television. I get that the acting is very good (if not over-the-top and tongue-in-cheek at times). I’m slightly intrigued by the mystery and mildly entertained by Agent Cooper’s wide-eyed love for Twin Peaks and its inhabitants. Yet still something about Twin Peaks is just not clicking for me.

Since it only lasted 30 episodes, I sense that many viewers agreed with me. It’s so slow-moving and maybe the seemingly disjointed parts will come together at some point, but right now, I just don’t care about eye-patched Nadine or the fact that some episodes are completely bizarre and others totally normal. There’s just no one “real” enough to identify with, and if they are, they’re so cold you don’t really empathize. Josie, I’m looking at you….

When I was doing my Supernatural virgin diary, I couldn’t wait to watch the next episode. I couldn’t get enough of the character growth, the humor, the arcs … everything. I find myself decidedly “meh” about watching the next episodes of Twin Peaks. Yet now, when I write about it, the things I pick out of the episodes are fascinating to me. So why is it just not big fun to watch? I’m not giving up yet!

“Rest in Pain”

• As weird as Cooper is, he’s clever and watching him manipulate Audrey into admitting she was the one who slipped the one-eyed jack note under his door was a pleasure.
• Does Maddie know she looks just like her cousin Laura? This may be an interesting twist.
• Laura’s funeral had to be tongue-in-cheek, right? It was such an overblown scene that I took as making fun of the big dramas and their inappropriate interactions at inappropriate times. The dad throwing himself on the coffin, for example.
• This was the episode of secret compartments: Audrey’s secret spying place, Shelly’s hiding place for her gun and Leo’s blood-stained shirt, Catherine Packard’s hiding place for the second ledger.

“The One-Armed Man”

• This was the most normal episode so far, and definitely felt the most like a soap opera.
• The mystery is getting more complex, and it seems everyone’s got a secret.
• Norma’s husband, Hank Jennings gets his parole and makes a mysterious call to Josie.
• Bobby plants Leo’s bloody shirt at Jacques’ place.
• Audrey manipulates her dad into a job at the cosmetics counter of the department store to try to solve Laura’s murder.
• Why is Lucy mad at Andy?
• A bird attacked Laura and probably belongs to Jacques.
• Leo drives a red corvette and his boss looks to be Horne.
• Josie spreading mayo on a sandwich so deliberately was gag-inducing.

Tell me … should I be in love with Twin Peaks by now?

Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Jun 21, 2010 @ 11:03 EST5EDT