Customer Reviews

Twin Peaks: Episodes 1-29 [VHS]

5 star:		(246)
4 star:		(43)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(38)

 

 

In the spring of 1990, the ABC network treated it's viewers to a most unusual viewing experience; the David Lynch and Mark Frost creation "Twin Peaks". A hybrid murder/mystery, primetime soap opera, darkly funny comedy and super- natural thriller...Twin Peaks was all of these and yet at the same time none. It would use what on other shows would be clichés to create a richly woven tapestry so original, thought provoking and emotionally truthful that it re- defined what television at it's best could truly be. At times it was hilarious and absurd, other times it was heart-wrenching in it's honesty of human emotion and suffering, and still other times it was deeply chilling and disturbing with images you can't easily shake off days after...and sometimes it was all these things at once. There had never been anything even remotely like it on TV before and (so far) nothing like it since. It's influence can be seen in countless other programs...but only elements, no one has achieved the true artistry that "Twin Peaks" had. Being a mid-season replacement series, the whole of it's first season was only 7 episodes and had much of America asking the question "Who killed Laura Palmer?".

The series' was set in the fictional, northwestern town of Twin Peaks, where the murdered body of local homecoming queen, Laura Palmer is found on a beach wrapped in plastic. This event sets the stage for the arrival of FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) and the subsequent investigation as to the identity of her killer. It is this investigation that will uncover the quiet trappings of this small mountain town to reveal dark secrets hidden within and and even darker things lurking without. He will encounter a remarkable cast of characters, all with their own personal agendas.

"Twin Peaks" was and still remains groundbreaking television of the first order. It was stylistically cinematic, each episode looks very much like an hour long feature film with an equally impressive soundtrack presentation. It was incredibly well written (with so many quotable lines the mind boggles at them all) with fabulous characters, a wonderful sense of humor and a shadowy (and sometimes very scary) sense of mystery. The large ensemble cast of MacLachlan, Michael Ontkean, Piper Laurie, Sherylynn Fenn, Laura Flynn Boyle, Peggy Lipton, Miquel Ferrer, Ray Wise, Joan Chen and far too many more to list here are all uniformly excellent in their respective rolls.

For "Twin Peaks"' debut on DVD, Artisan Home Entertainment has put together a very nice set featuring episodes 1 thru 7 (unfortunately the 2 hr. pilot is missing due to rights issues, originally owned by Warner Bros. it is now owned by Paramount). The packaging is a slick fold-out design with transparent slip case, much like the design of Fox's X-Files box sets. 4 discs are included.

With only 2 episodes per disc, these transfers are mastered at a very high bit rate and the results are stunning. Having been used to the soft, grainy picture afforded by the previous video versions of the series, I was quite unprepared for the unbelievable picture quality delivered on this release. These new high definition, re-mastered transfers are breathtaking, with colors rendered perfectly (the green opening titles nearly leap off the screen). Blacks are solid with excellent shadow detail, flesh tones are accurately reproduced and the show's red color schemes have never looked better (without a trace of bleeding). No digital artifacts are present and I never noticed any signs of edge enhancement, all in all an incredible job.

The same can be said for the sound presentation here, you can choose between Dolby digital 5.1 surround and 2.0 surround or (in a first for any television DVD product) DTS digital surround. These are very good mixes, the DTS surround being the best. The surround elements are reserved mostly to ambient sounds and Angelo Badalamenti's brilliant music, dialogue is placed mostly in the center and is clear and intelligible. This is television and not a Hollywood action spectacular so don't expect reference quality surround use, but a detailed sound mix perfectly suited to the show. Badalamenti's score is especially well presented here.

I would suggest to first time viewers to try and get hold of the pilot episode. Although it has an alternate ending filmed as a possible "closed" ending for European markets, it is actually an uncut version of Cooper's dream in episode 2. You can also purchase an import DVD of the pilot from Amazon.com which is the original broadcast version, the video and audio is not as pleasing as on the set reviewed here but still it is acceptably good. Artisan has included a booklet with the season 1 set explaining the events of the pilot but I would suggest viewing it if possible before viewing ep.1 thru 7. With each show being a day in the investigation, viewers will likely be lost without the events of the pilot to start from.

Overall a very impressive set from Artisan. If you missed this extraordinary show before, don't miss it this time. And please hurry up with Season 2.

Twin Peaks rates as one of the most singularly innovative additions to network telelvision. David Lynch's obsession with making the everyday middle-american world beautifully strange (the word "awe" with its horrific element intact is useful here) and Mark Frost 's (St Elsewhere) quirky writing meld seamlessly in this soap opera that exposes to much beneath its surface. The episodic nature of television often strains to create new episodes that maintain sturdy characters while repeatedly playing the same scenario over and over. In this case the characters are superficial, common and quirky. But rather than falling into the dull routine of love triangles and deceit (although TP has these in abundance) Lynch and Frost immediately disrupt quiet american life with a murder--a dead prom queen, Laura Palmer, floats up to Pete Marshall shattering his early morning fishing routine. The town is cast into chaos. FBI agent Dale Cooper, played perfectly by Kyle MacLachlan, enters the town wide-eyed and appreciative of its tranquil simplicity. Using holistic methods, Cooper unravels the black underbelly that provides the illusion of innocence. Playing between superficial soap opera moments and some of the most horrific and surreal moment ever shown on TV, Lynch and Frost use the weekly format to delve deeply into the dark forces and evils which exists within beauty. And the show is ultimately beautiful in its raw exploration that reveals fear is always obliterated by love--not justice or truth. The show's inteligence survived its first season by hiding behind the murder mysery of Laura Palmer. Lynch and Frost planned to leave this mystery unsolved indefinitely in order to explore all corners of Twin Peaks. Unfortunately, the network forced the team to rush towards a solution in the second season fearing that ratings were dropping because viewers needed closure (actually Twin Peaks was losing the soap opera element as they realized the world of Twin Peaks was more complex and real than most prime time viewers were prepared to patiently stomach). Without its central nexus and Lynch leaving to complete Wild at Heart, the show floundered until Lynch's return. However, the show snapped back into brilliance following Lynch's return. But it was too late. The show met the same fate of all brilliant American network shows that shined too brightly before its time--it was cancelled. The team put together a final TV movie that "ended" the show in the manner it began. Lynch followed it with a dreamlike prequel in the theaters called Fire Walk With Me (a creepy mantra pulled from Laura's phantom killer). All of this if assembled adds up to a work of visual art that was way ahead of its time and dismissed as quirky and silly--but its rough end was probably caused by people expecting to be entertained by quirkines, but kept safe from the show's more awesome yet brutal spectacles. Still the entire work (if one can find it all and watch it in order) stands as a challenge to network programming need for dumbed-down product. First time viewers and skeptical fans should bravely revisit this fragmented masterpiece.

Twin Peaks, mega mega tops. Probably one of the best series ever. Downside is that the VHS quality is very very poor. I have received an e-mail from Artisa (the production people) and they say they WILL be releasing it on DVD in Summer 2000 (earlier in the States). If you only buy one thing next year, make sure it's Twin Peaks.

"Twin Peaks" enthusiasts should know that a decent international/all-region DVD of the "Twin Peaks" pilot is easily obtainable from several venues, principally E-Bay and many specialty DVD retail sites. For a very reasonable price, I purchased a new, sealed copy from a vendor on E-bay. Though it may possibly be trimmed a few minutes from the edition that originally ran on network TV (as the running time is ninety minutes exactly, instead of the 100 minutes or so that most TV movies run without commercials), this international edition flows nicely, has great image quality, and DOES NOT have the cheap tacked-on ending "resolving" the mystery that other foreign editions reportedly do. It has the same creepy cliff-hanger fans remember (Mrs. Palmer screaming and the mysterious gloved hand digging up the hidden necklace). Just make sure you get the edition I'm talking about; the cover of the DVD I purchased shows photos of five or six of the main characters suspended above a black-and-white tiled floor. So, those who are hesitating to get the season one box set from Amazon or another source because the pilot is missing shouldn't worry. Just grab the pilot from one of the places I mentioned and you'll be all set for season one!

Have just been informed that Artisan Entertainment (artisanent.com) will be releasing the entire Twin Peaks series on DVD in November 2000. Mysticism... Humor... David Duchovny in drag. David Warner on TV. David Lynch with a hearing aid! And Harry S. Truman! Peggy Lipton! Diners!

The owls are not what they seem!

I have to echo the other reviewers who lament the absence of the pilot in this box set. And I agree that the extras are disappointing, and that it is unfortunate that they have not yet managed to bring out the second season. I persist in giving the box five stars simply because this series signaled the possibility of a new age of American television. Although there had been some spectacularly innovative and ambitious shows undertaken in Great Britain, such as THE PRISONER and THE SINGING DETECTIVE, American television had undertaken nothing so original and experimental. TWIN PEAKS was as if an art theater had somehow gotten trapped inside one's TV. Although David Lynch had managed to break into the Hollywood mainstream, his films had remained among the most eccentric to come out of any American studio. He remained at heart an independent, America's lone box office surrealist. I believe his surrealism is part of the key to the show's success, for the surreal has not penetrated American art and culture to the degree that it has European. Placing it in small town American intensified the effect.

Before TWIN PEAKS, we had never before seen an American television show that had lavished this degree of detail to camera angles, art design, music, and special effects. There was an unprecedented attempt to create not merely entertainment, but art, and the shocking thing was that a huge number of fans reacted profoundly to something other than the pabulum that normally was to be found on TV. I wonder if other groundbreaking shows like BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER would have been possible without the example of TWIN PEAKS.

Unlike many, I never had too much interest in the plot of the series. I never had any great curiosity about who killed Laura Palmer. For me, what happened took a backseat to how it was all happening, the look, feel, and atmosphere of each scene, along with the almost ritualistic approach to the show's many themes. I looked forward to new references to Tibet, or tables lined with hundreds of donuts, or the way you knew scenes would destined to build because you knew the musical themes so well. And the quirkiness! Dr. Jacoby's odd multi-colored glasses. Laura's cousin Maddie who was also played by Sheryl Lee. The off-the-chart weirdness of Ray Wise's manic singing. And almost everything that Special Agent Cooper did, said, or dreamed. In the end, it all seemed to make some perverse form of sense.

The cast was so good that at the time one imagined that every single individual associated with it was destined to become a superstar. I'm still amazed that many haven't. As it is, it is the best thing that most of the people in the show have ever done.

The second season didn't, unfortunately, match the manic brilliance of the first season, but I found that it nonetheless managed to hold my attention throughout. I think the first season the best thing done on American television up until that time, and the second season one of the finest things. If today there are a few shows that have managed to match TWIN PEAKS-like BUFFY and SIX FEET UNDER and DEAD LIKE ME-it is in large part thanks to its demonstrating that TV truly could be a medium for great art.

2005 is 15 days away, and still no pilot. This incomplete set was released almost 4 years ago, and still the pilot has not been released for U.S. viewers on DVD. Such a shame.
I cant understand how all of you are giving this set 4 and 5 stars, WTF are you thinking? Review the DVD, not the show. The show was awesome, groundbreaking, but this DVD set sux. And why doesnt the Amazon reviewer make any mention of the missing 2 hour pilot? So sad. Sorry to say, but this DVD release is not worth 30 bucks, maybe if it included the COMPLETE UNCUT FIRST SEASON...
Such a shame that a wonderful show has been treated so poorly by the powers that be. Obviously they only care about the bottom line, otherwise Artisan, Paramount and Viacom would have done this right the first time and included the pilot that started the freakin show. DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The fact that VHS copies of the pilot cost like 80 bucks, and the imported crappy DVD of the pilot is almost as much should be a wake up call to execs. WE WANT THE PILOT ON DVD RELEASED ALREADY, otherwise what's the point of this set? I mean seriously, you tell me. It's not the first season if it doesn't include THE FREAKIN EPISODE THAT STARTED IT ALL!!!!!!!!!!

artisan entertainment is releasing twin peaks ( all 29 episodes ) on dvd 2nd quarter next year.

There's obviously no need to say anything about the quality of Twin Peaks, as over 300 people before me have said enough.
But for all those waiting for Season 2 I wanted to update the information concerning the release schedule. It is now pretty certain that Paramount will do a worldwide release at the end of 2005 or the beginning of 2006 - a lot of bonus material has already been compiled, but they still have to do a video transfer and a 5.1 audio remastering of the episodes (which takes time...). If you want more info, go to: www.tvshowsondvd.com/shownews.cfm?ShowID=4407.
Can't wait to see Season 2 in all its glory returning to my TV!

What a fantastic programme Twin Peaks was. The series was Lynch and Frost's dark, magical lens and it made television momentarily as beautiful, compelling and disturbing as cinema. This is what television can be like and so rarely is, everyone should own a copy.

But there is a catch.

This DVD takes you halfway through the first series and there is no Season 2 DVD, nor do Artisan list one as an upcoming release. Who killed Laura Palmer? Who knows, you'd have to buy the very poor quality vhs boxset to find out.

Amazon used to have a review section for Season 2 and I notice that this has also now been pulled. This is a real shame since it was one of the few public forums for venting the considerable sense of frustration that anyone who buys, and enjoys, this DVD will feel when they discover that it covers only half of the first series.

There is nothing, in itself, wrong with the season 1 DVD. The picture and sound quality of the re-mastering are superb, the series didn't look and sound as good when it was first aired on TV...but how can Artisan release only half the series? At the time Twin Peaks was criticised at the time for being inconclusive, unfairly since it was axed, and its (almost) amusing that the passage of time has only resulted the programme becoming even more unresolved.

There is an awful lot of rubbish released on DVD every week and its a pity that something as damn fine as Twin Peaks hasn't been treated with the respect it deserves.

It's been two years since this DVD was released...come on...let's have the second peak.