Twin Peaks (1990-1991)

Who killed Laura Palmer? I love detective stories and that was why when I watched the first episode of Twin Peaks I knew that I had to follow the series, especially when Dale Cooper entered the screen -- oh, that's the "FBI guy" from The Hidden, who looked too young that he might have been recruited right from high school.

What I really loved from the series was its dreamy opening theme - that a few minutes before 8 o'clock on Saturday evenings I had been ready in front of the tv so that I wouldn't miss the first note of the tunes and that image of the bird. [I bought the recording afterwards.] The detective plot was interesting, but some characters were sometimes weird, even though I had seen several works of David Lynch before. In the end, I missed a couple of episodes and never knew how it ended - my penfriend told me it was Laura's father - I can't remember why I missed those episodes, perhaps due to my school activities in those days or because the series disappeared from TVRI and moved to TVRI2, which my TV couldn't receive.

The sceneries in the opening credits were so beautiful and I was surprised when I received a postcard with the picture of Snoqualmie Falls and its Salish Lodge, from my penfriend who lived in Seattle. It was a coincidence because I never mentioned Twin Peaks to her.

L-R: Dr Hayward, Hawk, Sheriff Truman, Dale Cooper

Now I have seen all of the episodes. I didn't know the series was divided in 2 seasons. I thought 'Who killed Laura Palmer' was this series's tagline, so it was weird to see that the killer revealed in Season 2 episode 8. [season 2 consists of 22 episodes] After the revelation, it didn't feel interesting anymore, although the creator created a new enemy for Dale Cooper, Windom Earl. [I read later that the producer wanted David Lynch to revealed Laura's killer asap to increase the series' rating.] For me, the series centered to Laura Palmer's murder and not Dale Cooper.

In the 90's, although I missed the episodes when Laura's killer was revealed, I did watched the episodes after, because then I discussed with one of my penfriends (we both loved Twin Peaks) that the first dead-body killed by Windom Earl might be played by Kyle MacLachlan's brother and also the relationship between Nadine and Mike. My penfriend wanted to know what Mike had whispered in Bobby Briggs' ear.

Dale Cooper in The Great Northern Hotel

In that time I think David Lynch knew how to pick up beauties for his cast: Mädchen Amick, Sherilyn Fenn, Lara Flynn Boyle (although after Twin Peaks, she became so thin!), Sheryl Lee, Peggy Lipton, Piper Laurie; they were all very beautiful. I also loved those close-ups of donuts and pies, and realized that David Duchovny was more beautiful as a woman.

Basically the story was about the murder of Laura Palmer, the little town's beauty queen. Her dead-body was found wrapped in plastic, on the river-bank. FBI agent Dale Cooper came to Twin Peaks to help the local sheriff investigate the case because there was a possibility that the killer had killed a woman named Teresa Banks a year ago. We then met the town's characters and found out that they all had secrets and problems.

I think the FBI only involve themselves in a local murder case after it turns out the murderer has stricken before, so I wonder why they sent a FBI agent to investigate the murder of Teresa Banks in Fire Walk With Me.