I watched Twin Peaks for the first time & was the weirdest experience of my life

Credit: Lynch/Frost Productions

***Warning: Spoiler discussion & images to follow***

At 31 years of age and being a fan of pop culture and of legendary director David Lynch, one might be forgiven for presuming I’d seen or at least be aware of the early ‘90s TV show ‘Twin Peaks’.

Well, you’d be wrong.

As a keen social media user, film and TV fan for many years, I amazed even myself that I’d not had the twists and its eventual ending spoilt at some point, so what better way to spend my summer of 2016 than to binge on both seasons.

Weirdly, mainly because I genuinely didn’t know anything about the show, my only idea of the its contents was along the lines of well, it’’s David Lynch so it’s going to be weird. Boy, was that an understatement.

With the vaguest understanding over who Laura Palmer was and that Kyle MacLachlan was in it, I began my strange and intriguing journey naively: at first it felt like a kooky murder mystery that set itself up simply enough and would unravel as it went on in a structurally familiar fashion.

Credit: Lynch/Frost Productions

In my head, and from what had been hinted to me by various friends, I anticipated a murder mystery that would spend season one dallying around edging closer to unveiling Laura’s murderer, with a big, crazy Lynchian reveal at the end. Naturally, I found myself questioning anyone and everyone. Was he the killer, was she the killer, could it even be them? But what I got was something altogether different. A rather skewered take on a TV drama, and in hindsight I shouldn’t have expected anything else coming from the mind that devised ‘Mulholland Drive’ and ‘Eraserhead’.

Accepting the season one finale wasn’t the hardest thing. Sure, I was disappointed that the season wasn’t self-contained and that we didn’t find out who the murderer was. Being left with more questions than answers set up season two, for me at least, rather nicely.

Credit: Lynch/Frost Productions

Surprisingly, the follow-up season was significantly longer - I’d expected to binge through what I presumed were another eight episodes (as per season one), but almost tripling the number to 22 seemed excessive. And it was after the first half-a-dozen episodes of season two that ‘Twin Peaks’ began to seriously lose me. I noticed that not only were things getting weirder and weirder, but the focus appeared to be shifting from solving Laura’s murder to something more fantastical; something more spiritual and sinister, into a much deeper realm of fantasy horror.

When I did learn of the identity of Laura’s killer, her possessed father, it felt underwhelming - it was sort of plonked a third of the way into the season and nonchalantly so. The intense, lengthy build-up set me up for a fall, but thereafter, once the revelation had registered and sunk in, things quickly began to move onto themes of possession other worldly beings - in short, pretty oddball territory Lynch is synonymous with.

The middle chunk of about ten episodes began to play out like a warped version of a familiar-feeling soap opera, although it’s hard to pinpoint which one exactly because the surreal nature made the series rather unique in that respect. Now realising and accepting that season two was taking me down a completely different path and that Laura Palmer’s murder had been something of a ruse, a distraction to trick me into absorbing myself in this town and connecting with the eclectic inhabitants, it made me question everything about the series, not least its purpose.

Credit: Lynch/Frost Productions

I felt used. Kind of betrayed, but at the same time unsurprised by Lynch’s misdirection. I’ve been a long-time admirer of his crime-mystery ‘Mulholland Drive’, and with an open mind was prepared for anything he threw my way. Yet things rapidly turned into a brain-melting experience from where there was no way back: things would occur, plot twists would present themselves, and characters would continue to reveal yet more audacious and convoluted backstories that more often than not involved affairs with other main characters.

It was a challenge to keep up, and an even bigger one to comprehend meaning to it all. What did particular events mean? Why wasn’t I grasping the iconography Lynch was using? Was I stupid, or was he wrapping enigmas within enigmas within enigmas?

Credit: Lynch/Frost Productions

While I was confused and left feeling somewhat cold, blankly staring at the television screen when the final ever credits played out, I couldn’t decide whether I loved or loathed ‘Twin Peaks’. Was this one of the most inventive, engaging, encapsulating television shows I’d ever seen, or was it the biggest pile of nonsensical garbage I’d wasted weeks on? In truth, it was a bit of both, but while I struggled to make sense of large chunks of it, I found myself totally hypnotised and in adoration of its weirdness; its characters, its clunky, soap opera stylings; and most of all it’s incredibly awesome soundtrack.

Have you watched all of ‘Twin Peaks’? What do you think of the show? Share your thoughts in the comments…

Mike P Williams is a freelance TV, film and entertainment writer, with an obsession for all things Game of Thrones, Jurassic Park and Pixar. Over the years he’s written for the likes of MTV, Total Film, BuzzFeed, and Yahoo Movies UK.