Why-to watch the Twin Peaks reboot:
Living in the era of the reboot, it’s difficult not to be jaded by every revival that Hollywood throws up onto the silver screen, all over the boob tube, or into the internet. These efforts more often resemble a Pet Cemetery-style resurrection-for-profit than a genuine intent to extend the life of a piece of art, with the old actors dragging bloody tropes across the stage before coughing up puffs of dust in the form of battered catch phrases that are calculated to provoke a nostalgic feeling in the audience.
Why-to not watch the X-Files reboot:
Without a proper awareness of the reboot’s context, it can be reborn as something that should have had its brains bashed in immediately and set on fire. For instance, the new X-Files somehow came out of the writer’s room as some Alex Jonesian propaganda, due to the fact that its creators were unaware of how things had changed since the show first aired and simply tried to start things from where they left off.
The Twin Peaks reboot is different, so far. (Spoilers ahead)
That doesn’t mean that it’s not without its problems. For instance, the double-episode pilot was so sluggish that it felt like director David Lynch had mistaken general lethargy for the stilted acting that makes things eerie in most of his other work. Regardless, other elements, like that murdering demon, made shit so weird that you couldn’t help but keep watching.
Lynch and writing partner Mark Frost are giving us way more of the White and Black Lodges, just like we always wanted. And, because it’s on Showtime and his die hard fans will watch literally anything he makes, Lynch is able to expand well beyond the confines of a creepy waiting room surrounded by red curtains and launch his characters into increasingly bizarre sets, some of which seem to float among the stars of a barren galaxy somewhere.
And, while there are obvious and worn elements reminiscent of the original series, such as Lucy’s inability to concisely tell someone which phone to pick up, the new Twin Peaks seems aware of the reboot era in which it lives. Rather than quickly restore the coffee-drinking, pie-eating Agent Dale Cooper that we’ve always known and loved, Lynch and Frost give us a Cooper who has been away for 25 years, twisted and tortured by his travels through another dimension.
The result is Twin Peaks in the midst of a self-aware dissociative fugue. On the one hand, there’s a Bob-possessed Coop who has been on a killing spree throughout the American West.
On the other, there’s a doppelgänger that, after exiting one of the two lodges—I could never figure out which was which—can barely function in the real world. Suffering from dimensionally-induced echolalia, Dougie Jones scores a million dollars in a casino by meaninglessly wandering up to slot machines and shouting “HELLO-O-O!”
By repeating the last thing someone said and guided by a mysterious force that resembles the White and Black Lodges, Agent Cooper manages to get to Dougie’s home and, with a key to his room at the Great Northern Hotel in his pocket, the viewer hopes that he’ll be able to return to that old show we’ve all been missing in the same way that, after 25 years and a horrible dismemberment by ABC, Lynch and Frost seem to be slowly dragging us back to the familiar town of Twin Peaks.
Which Agent Cooper will take over the series to live on in our hearts? By impersonating Cooper, will Bob convince Gordon Cole and Albert Rosenfield to set him free to kill again and ruin our nostalgia for Coop forever? Or will they be able to get Bob back into the Black Lodge and restore things to normalcy? After drinking his first cup of coffee in 25 years, will Dale Cooper as Dougie Jones regain his wits and return us to our beloved town?
Either way, the town of Twin Peaks will never be the same again and I guess that’s a good reason to watch it.
