Okay, here's a question to all. Name the TV show that was co-created by two guys which starts with a fantastic opening season, involves mystery, some of the best (also beautiful) characters created on TV, looks cinematic, has a protagonist blessed with supernatural powers that guides him through out the story, involves alternate worlds and ends with a bummer leaving lot of plot holes and mysteries unresolved.Lost? No. Twin Peaks.
"Twin Peaks" was the "Lost" of 1990s. No. "Lost" was the "Twin Peaks" of last decade. Except it had fewer seasons. To say writers of "Lost",Darlton (fan nickname for Damon Lindolf and Carlton Cuse), were inspired by David Lynch and Mark Frost's "Twin Peaks" is a massive understatement. Even since I started watching "Lost", I was on a look out for the next similar series that I should be watching after "Lost". The hunger and desperation grew with every passing episode and hit the peak when the finale ended with a bummer. One of the greatest things about 'Lost' was the element of mystery. You know what was better than the element of mystery? All those hours and hours of time that we spent discussing the shows mysteries and making guesses about the answers which were never there. But it was still lot of fun. Unforgettable days. That's exactly how I found about "Twin Peaks". In one of the "Lost" forums that I frequented last year, there were always references to "Twin Peaks"every now and then. There were always folks who kept saying "Lost" should not follow "Twin Peaks" in leaving the ending open to viewers' interpretation. Personally speaking, I hate it too.. it's the cheapest way to admit that you were making up the story all along. Another thing that I hate about TV shows is cancellation of the show abruptly. How lame is that.
Anyway, coming back to "Twin Peaks", the show isn't perfect but this series was way ahead of its time. The story starts with murder of Laura Palmer, a young girl who's well known all over the small town of "Twin Peaks". What follows in the next 16 episodes is FBI agent Dale Cooper along with local Sheriff Harry Truman investigating the case and nailing the killer. The resolution to the case may not be convincing but the road to the resolution is simply superb, although I must also add that it can get creepy, really creepy at times. The story doesn't end with 16 episodes. There are 13 episodes that follow 16th episode where Laura Palmer's murderer is revealed. So it's not all about her murder. There's lot more to the story. If you watch the extras, you'll realize there were plans to run this show for years and years, how Laura Palmer's death was actually just a sub-plot to attract audience to the story that was primarily created to explore the deeper mysteries of Twin Peaks.
The character Dale Cooper is easily one of the best characters created on television.Intelligent, witty, flamboyant and everything that you could ask for a protagonist of any TV show. Other characters on this show range from good, okay and beautiful to outright ugly and annoying. The girls on the show are beautiful. I was totally blown away by the character, Audrey Horne, who I think is one of the awesome female characters on the TV. I particularly loved how her character changes from "one of the girls on the show" to "THE girl of the show". I was disappointed with the fact that they didn't give the character a proper closure.
Back to the story, it's dark, it's mysterious, it's nightmarish and sometimes just out of the world.The dream sequences reminded me of Max Payne Prologue levels. It will haunt you for days to come. It leaves a strange eerie feeling. The side plots (sub plots) aren't that interesting but it makes sense to follow it anyway because it's the only way to understand how these characters are all interconnected (sometimes loosely, sometimes very closely). Also, the characters are never what they appear to be on the first glance. At times, it can get annoying but I can see how this would have been amazing during those days. There will be no shortage of twists in the story. Almost every episode will end with a twist that will either bring a new direction to the story or completely change one of the characters.
All that said, "Twin Peaks" is a must watch if you love "Lost" or if you are a crime mystery drama fan. It's similar and different at the same time. But I can tell you this, "Twin Peaks" is definitely one of the reasons why "Lost" writers probably thought it would be perfectly okay to end "Lost" the way it ended. But at least "Twin Peaks" was forced by the network into doing what they did and hey, they had a somewhat okay closure for the Laura Palmer's murder and even the way the show ended was somewhat acceptable. Lot of sub-plots were left hanging but the main plot was resolved."Lost" had all the time to come up with a proper closure. On a positive note,"Twin Peaks" probably also led the way for all the future mystery dramas. It showed network executives that there's a huge audience for such shows, influenced and dared the future writers to cross the line.
