10 Things We Learned From Twin Peaks: The Return Premiere
5. THOSE Special Effects Are Already Proving Divisive
The Return is something almost entirely divorced from the series from which it continues, faint allusions to the Laura Palmer aside - but one perhaps unenviable aspect remains a constant: the odd use of special effects.
In the first two seasons, the use of visual effects was quaint at best and shoddy at worst. Josie Packard's death scene - in which the femme fatale was absorbed into a wooden doorknob - is infamous for how 32 bit it translated in post-production.
Many scenes in the Red Room see Cooper navigate it under the direction of the Lodge spirits, but this wasn't the understated art space of old. The curtains were rendered in very obvious CGI, as were the now shifting levels of the chevron floor. The aged ghost of Laura Palmer removed her face to reveal the glowing husk within. You could almost see the harsh digital template. The evolution of the arm was also patently rendered using CGI.
But to what end?
We know Lynch had the budget (and most certainly the sculpting nous) to create these effects practically - he almost walked because the money offered did not match his vision - which leads one to deduce that the flagrant use of CGI here was meant to convey a definite sense of unreality, in keeping with its depiction as a metaphysical realm.
As with MacLachlan's performance, its success hinges on the follow up. It was jarring to see something so obviously rendered - but that might have been the intention. The Red Room certainly looked like nothing that could exist in the material realm.