Twin Peaks: Second Season [DVD] [1990] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

"Twin Peaks" was the ultimate cult TV show -- suspenseful, complex, wittily written and with hidden layers that casual channel-flippers might not catch.

And while the long-awaited second season is not quite the brilliant experience that the first was, it's still an astoundingly good and convoluted piece of storytelling. With more episodes to fill out, David Lynch continued his exploration of small-town America -- too bad it didn't last more than this second season.

As the second season opens, there is major unrest for the inhabitants of Twin Peaks -- and a badly-injured Cooper (Kyle McLachlan) has a vision that may have something to do with Laura Palmer's death. But the murder investigation is only getting more bizarre, as Cooper learns of Laura's diary -- and discovers a bizarre twist in an already-bizarre murder investigation.

The mystery is solved mid-season, and the foreshadowing reveals who it is (or rather, who it SEEMS to be). But that's not the only plotline in the second season -- Lynch bestows a psychopathic ex-Fed, parasitic demons, a disastrous beauty pageant, strange caves, and a twin pair of "Lodges" that seem to exist outside space and time... which Cooper's murderous ex-partner is searching for.

The second season of "Twin Peaks" is, admittedly, not quite as good as the first season. The first season was tight as a drum, while the second has some storylines that run away from the writers. But even mediocre "Twin Peaks" is simply brilliant and bizarrely entertaining.

In fact, this season gets even weirder than the first. Lynch's quirkiness grows into total weirdness, full of symbolism, surreality and dirty little secrets right up the end. The series is sprinkled with what seems to be random weirdness, but as the complicated storylines wind on, the true meaning of them becomes clear. Now THAT is great writing.

And Lynch and Co. maintained the strangeness, and actually increased. The second season relies heavily on mysticism and the supernatural, like that whole Black-White Lodge clash, and all the storylines circling around it. Just look at that soul-in-the-wooden-knob story. And Lynch's warped sense of humor is still in place ("I haven't felt this excited since I punctured Caroline's aorta!").

Perhaps the biggest problem is the ending. ABC canned the series before Lynch could wrap up the various plotlines, so it ends with a lot of cliffhangers and no resolution. Be prepared to yell, "What next? What next?"

Coop grows even more likable in this season, as he comes face-to-face with some of the nastier aspects of Twin Peaks -- not to mention his own past. He even gets a motivating love interest. Other characters (such as the Log Lady) get more attention as well, but Coop's personal journey is perhaps the most intriguing.

A series like "Twin Peaks" only comes along once in.... well, decades. It's influenced other weird series ("Wonderfalls," "Lost," "The X-Files"), but the original is the best -- a stunning, creepy, bizarre headtrip. Must-have!

"Twin Peaks" has been unfairly criticized for jumping the shark early. That's simply not true. Lynch and his films have never had easy resolutions. It's also clear that Lynch and Frost weren't exactly sure where they where going with the second season. the first season of the show with its mixture of surrealism, soap opera situations, suspense and melodrama caught on unexpectedly and created unrealistic expectations for the second.

Sure there were a handful of second season episodes that stretched the patience of the audience but overall the second season holds up quite well when compared to the first. A pity that "Twin Peaks" never had a "true" resolution (I know a lot of folks dislike the way the series ended. Reportedly Lynch and Frost did this to try and keep the network on the hook for a third season or TV movie).

First up, the show looks great. Lynch went back and supervised the transfers and the colors are more accurate than on the first season set that came out from Aristan in 2001. We get all 22 second season episodes. We also get Log Lady introductions. We get a selection of interesting interviews with production staff including directors Caleb Deschanel, Tim Hunter, Stephen Gyllenhaal, Jennifer Lynch, Tim Holland and various cast members in an "Interview Gird". Sadly, Lynch is absent but he always is for the home video presentations of his films so its not a surprise. That's OK as he is ably represented by the show itself. The show has a huge influence that impacted other shows like "The X-Files" (Duvochny's role as an FBI agent here and his casting in "X-Files" couldn't have been an accident and although he lacks the zen-like quality of McLaughlan)to even recent shows such as "Lost" and "The Lost Room". Interestingly, each of of these series has had problems with their resolution. As in magic it's not the set up per se that matters as much as bringing back the object that you made disappear. The longer the magic act the more difficult it is to pull it off. In retrospect although I don't like the way the second season ends (and would like to have a better more positive resolution as that's what was always hinted at to me in Agent Cooper's demeanor and approach), I'm not surprised it ended the way it did. A pity that Lynch didn't choose to do a movie sequel instead of a prequel. Perhaps with the popularity of this set and the impeding re-release of the first set (with yeah! the pilot)we'll see that happen. While I didn't like the end of the second season (and from what I recall both Lynch and Frost knew it wasn't coming back for a third), the show still is an enjoyable ride for fans. The way I imagine the series (which makes me feel a bit better about the conclusion of this show)is that all the events from the second season AFTER we find out who Laura's killer is was just...a dream (hey, it worked for "Dallas" and it makes the conclusion work a bit better for me).

David Lynch's visually stunning compositions and the writing that he and Mark Frost concocted kept viewers on their toes with funny and often weird touches. When the second season premiered many critics (and fans to be fair) were frustrated with the slow resolution of the central mystery--who killed Laura Palmer and why? The slower resolution allowed the show to blossom with interesting side stories (where I'm sure J.J. Abrams got his idea for the approach for "Lost"). That's not a surprise though since we had more than twice as many episodes as the short first season to cover much of the same ground.

The only problem I had was that when it comes to the main page where you select previews (where an Easter egg for "Inland Empire" is located) or main menu it freezes before moving forward on its own (I assume that's because there are no previews since I didn't see any). It's an odd hiccup and I can only assume it's a flaw in the disc.

The first episode of season two opens with Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) shot, bleeding and unconcious on the floor of room 315 of his hotel. After he recovers Cooper and Sheriff Harry S. Truman (Michael Ontkean) continue to unravel the mystery of Laura Palmer and other related mysteries. We also meet a cross dressing FBI agent (David Duvochny), a dwarf and giant along with the usual cast of bizarre characters during seson two. Frost, Lynch and the other writer/directors continue to mine the dry, deadpan humor that made this series work so well.

This groundbreaking series still works because of Lynch's weird, off-beat style, Frost's writing and the deadpan humor that the terrific cast gets to dish out.

There is a region 2 version of this set, although it doesn't like look it has come out in the UK - it has been released on mainland Europe.

However, a few mistakes have been made in production - about half of the advertised extra's are missing from the region 2 (and region 4) set. Most importantly, this means that half of the Log Lady intro's are missing.

Supposedly, this region 1 set does have all the extra's.