Twin Peaks: The Return Premiere Review: 7 Ups & 4 Downs
It's back and weirder than ever.
It's been 26 years, but Twin Peaks is finally back. Arriving with no pre-release reviews and little known plot information, the new 18-episode event began its run with a four-episode season premiere, and it's clear from these early hours that David Lynch has lost none of his skill for crafting deeply unsettling imagery and terrifically compelling characters.
Twin Peaks: The Return is in many ways a starkly different beast to the original ABC show, but there's a prevailing feeling that this is absolutely the show Lynch wanted to make all along, an aggressively peculiar long-form mystery thriller that, on the basis of the first four episodes, just might end up being the his magnum opus.
It's not perfect, sure, and it remains to be seen what shape the entirety of the season will take, but these creepy, hilarious and star-studded opening hours show Lynch at his most dementedly unfiltered, unrestrained and uncensored.
Note that some spoilers will follow for The Return's first four episodes...
Downs...
4. The Atrocious Visual Effects
One of the first things viewers may notice about the new Twin Peaks is that David Lynch has opted to make use of much more CGI in order to achieve his trademark discordant imagery.
The problem is that there clearly wasn't much of a budget allocated for visual effects, and as such most of the digital elements mesh incredibly awkwardly with the live-action fare, looking goofy and cheap.
The original show had its fair share of cringe-worthy effects (Josie in the doorknob, anyone?), but one hoped Lynch would either rein it in or actually have the budget to make them look convincing this time.
Some fans are already claiming that Lynch is employing deliberately garish effects in order to make the experience that much more unsettling for viewers, but honestly, that sounds like wishful thinking.