Customer Reviews

Twin Peaks: The First Season (Full Screen)

5 star:		(153)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

Sure, everyone has his/hers favorite TV shows, and preferences shift with seasonal mood, age and experiences. However, THIS IS TELEVISION AT HER BEST!

"Break the Code - Solve the Crime. You got that Lucy?"

Mysterious, intelligent, naive, bold and nostalgic for an American way of life gone - if it ever really existed; yet coveted in all our visions of Utopia.
Then again, there is always a serpent in every Eden. And David Lynch knows how to point it out masterfully!

Now, SEASON 2 is (finally) available. However, that package is lacking in both extras and paraphernalia. Luckily, there is a GOLD BOX that includes both seasons and has everything a true fan would want (save a true sequel...).
My advice, opt for that one.

All Twin Peaks fans need to buy this set...Season 2 isn't available yet but maybe it will be if more copies of Season 1 are sold. This first set was really well done and actually has extras unlike a lot of other David Lynch discs. If you loved the series, you'll love this.

As others have stated, the pilot episode is available and the quality is very passable.

I am giving this five stars because it is simply the greatest television ever created. Dazzlingly original, visually mesmerizing, and funny as hell, this is David Lynch at his absolute best, and that is saying a lot. Sure, the series ran out of steam somewhere in its second season, but the first season remains the only television show I put everything else on hold for so I could watch. I doubt we will ever see such creativity on the tube again.

Having said all that, I was indeed shocked to find that the pilot was not included with this set. Yeah, you can get it now in an inferior transfer, but that is not the point. The pilot is essential to the first season.

If you have never seen this, or attempted vainly to "get into it" when it was first shown because you started in the middle, this is your chance to see what all the buzz was about. Get the pilot, get this set, and discover television nirvana.

This rating is not actually prorated as I haven't watched anything beyond Episode 1. THat's because Episode 1 is not the Premiere, nor is the premiere included in this set, which is the reason for my disappointment, and why I haven't continued watching. It is apparent that, from the beginning of the series, the premiere is at the crux of the series from whence all events flow. I had to order the 'pilot' episode from Amazon.COM (not Amazon.CA) as I guess it's not available in my country (we only have 5 miles of paved road, y'know!). So, if you are considering buying this series, remember this caveat, and be sure to pick up the Premiere as well, or the experience will not be complete.

I have to echo the other reviewers who lament the absence of the pilot in this box set. And I agree that the extras are disappointing, and that it is unfortunate that they have not yet managed to bring out the second season. I persist in giving the box five stars simply because this series signaled the possibility of a new age of American television. Although there had been some spectacularly innovative and ambitious shows undertaken in Great Britain, such as THE PRISONER and THE SINGING DETECTIVE, American television had undertaken nothing so original and experimental. TWIN PEAKS was as if an art theater had somehow gotten trapped inside one's TV. Although David Lynch had managed to break into the Hollywood mainstream, his films had remained among the most eccentric to come out of any American studio. He remained at heart an independent, America's lone box office surrealist. I believe his surrealism is part of the key to the show's success, for the surreal has not penetrated American art and culture to the degree that it has European. Placing it in small town American intensified the effect.

Before TWIN PEAKS, we had never before seen an American television show that had lavished this degree of detail to camera angles, art design, music, and special effects. There was an unprecedented attempt to create not merely entertainment, but art, and the shocking thing was that a huge number of fans reacted profoundly to something other than the pabulum that normally was to be found on TV. I wonder if other groundbreaking shows like BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER would have been possible without the example of TWIN PEAKS.

Unlike many, I never had too much interest in the plot of the series. I never had any great curiosity about who killed Laura Palmer. For me, what happened took a backseat to how it was all happening, the look, feel, and atmosphere of each scene, along with the almost ritualistic approach to the show's many themes. I looked forward to new references to Tibet, or tables lined with hundreds of donuts, or the way you knew scenes would destined to build because you knew the musical themes so well. And the quirkiness! Dr. Jacoby's odd multi-colored glasses. Laura's cousin Maddie who was also played by Sheryl Lee. The off-the-chart weirdness of Ray Wise's manic singing. And almost everything that Special Agent Cooper did, said, or dreamed. In the end, it all seemed to make some perverse form of sense.

The cast was so good that at the time one imagined that every single individual associated with it was destined to become a superstar. I'm still amazed that many haven't. As it is, it is the best thing that most of the people in the show have ever done.

The second season didn't, unfortunately, match the manic brilliance of the first season, but I found that it nonetheless managed to hold my attention throughout. I think the first season the best thing done on American television up until that time, and the second season one of the finest things. If today there are a few shows that have managed to match TWIN PEAKS-like BUFFY and SIX FEET UNDER and DEAD LIKE ME-it is in large part thanks to its demonstrating that TV truly could be a medium for great art.

"Twin Peaks" didn't roar out of the gate when it first appeared. Lynch and Mark Frost quietly set up this twisted soap opera (which had an impact and influence on the style, look and texture of everything from "The X-Files" to "CSI"). My only complaint is that when I received this as a gift, my wife didn't know that the pilot episode wasn't included and that's where the murder occurs.

Here's what you do get--seven episodes in a nearly pristine high definition transfers of the original full screen series on four discs with extras on disc four. There's material from the fan website, a booklet (which should have had more material on the series), interviews, introductions by the Log Lady and audio commentary. I haven't accessed the latter two features yet and have only watched bits and pieces of each episode until I receive the 90 minute pilot episode.

The packaging is exceptional although it's in an accordian fold out case. Curiously (or not as Lynch isn't the most interested in doing audio commentaries from what I can tell), it looks as if Lynch doesn't do an audio commentary for the series. The set only gets four stars as it doesn't include the pilot and honestly this could have been put onto a two or three disc dual layered set without any loss of quality at a less expensive price. Still, all told it's always interesting to visit Twin Peaks. Aside from some damn fine coffee you're never quite sure what you'll get in Lynch and Frost's twisted tale of murder, money and dry humor. Get it before it goes away.

"Twin Peaks" was the ultimate cult TV show -- suspenseful, complex, hilariously written and with hidden layers that casual channel-flippers might not catch.

And though it's only eight episodes, the first season of David Lynch and Mark Frost's "Twin Peaks" is a brilliant piece of television, with a dozen subplots all somehow linked to the mysterious death of the beautiful, troubled Laura Palmer. Brilliant writing, quirky acting, and great cherry pie are all mixed up in the darkly eerie season.

For the record, it doesn't contain the pilot episode, where Laura is found "wrapped in plastic," and Special Agent Dale Cooper(Kyle McLachlan) is called in to investigate. Nope, the first season starts with the episode after that: Cooper continues to enjoy the comforts of the hotel, while continuing the investigation -- and getting some surprising results from the autopsy.

What's more, the question of who killed Laura is getting more complex, due to a bloody shirt, a drug deal, a secret affair and a heart necklace. People catch glimpses of a one-armed man and a grey-haired killer -- and Cooper has a prophetic dream with both men, as well as a red room, a double of Laura Palmer, and a tiny man who dances to jazz music.

While Cooper tries to sort out his evidence and dreams, he finds that Twin Peaks is not the small-town idyll he thought it was, and Laura Cooper was enmeshed in its darkness. There are secret love affairs, town crazies, drug smuggling, corporate devilry about a mill, and an evil presence that lurks in the woods nearby...

"Twin Peaks" is hard to even describe, because the plots were a perfect balance of the surreal and mundane. It starts off as a basic murder mystery that allows us to the see the underbelly of rural America. But starting in the second episode, it becomes something much, much more.

Lynch loads the storyline down with eerie symbolism, creepy visions and inscrutable (but important) lines ("Through the darkness of future past, the magician longs to see...."). But he and Frost also spun up some wonderfully quirky scenarios, such as Cooper throwing stones to determine who killed Laura, or his famous dream of a dancing midget and a strange Laura double, both talking in a weird "backwards" manner.

And the dialogue has that brilliace that most series cannot keep going for long ("Fellas, don't drink that coffee! You'd never guess... there was a fish in the percolator"). Considering how strange the characters are -- including Cooper -- it's not too surprising that it's crammed with quotables ("Black as midnight on a moonless night...." "Pretty black").

And the characters are VERY strange. Cooper himself is played with quirky brilliance by McLachlan -- he's a bright, lovable, friendly kind of guy who loves Tibetan mysticism, tape recorders and a "damn fine cup of coffee." He's not your average hard-nosed FBI agent.

And Cooper flanked by a number of talented actors playing two basic varieties of characters: the relatively normal ones with a slight quirk, such as abusive truckers, the sheriff, teen lovers, obnoxious FBI agents. And the REALLY strange ones, like the weird Log Lady, the one-armed man, the spacey Lolita, and the eerie spirits that haunt Twin Peaks.

Quirky and surreal TV is currently in vogue, but they all stem from the little town of "Twin Peaks," and the first season is an entrancing experience.

TWIN PEAKS is a masterpiece, any fan should get this, however:
I cannot seem to access more than one episode per DVD, and the information at the top of each screen from which to choose from is barely readable. I cannot tell how to click different episodes, much less find them on the DVDs. Can anyone who has purchased this DVD set explain how to see all seven episodes,for I have only ever been able to view one episode per DVD, which is a choppy not -fun way to watch TWIN PEAKS. Thre stars since I've only been able to watch three episodes! If anyone can write to me and explain how to see entire first season, please do: collectorsa1@yahoo.com

The music, the weirdness, the crazy drama...watching this show was like being stoned while you're sober. The characters were as intense and strange as their stories.
The quality of this set cannot be beaten. I've got the entire series on VHS and paid a lot for it, but the VHS version is so grainy you have to be a really hard-core fan of the show to enjoy it at all. On the other hand, this set puts 2 episodes on per DVD, and while it's so crisp it could make you cry after the VHS version, it never needed to be sooooo perfect, I've been very satisfied with other series that put on about 4 episodes per disc. And now the problem is, they spent so much making these that they never really made the profit they were after and soured on releasing the 2nd season.
However, if you were a fan of this show you will not be disappointed in this set. It is such a pleasure to at least be able to watch clear, sharp versions of these episodes, before you have to finish watching the series on VHS tapes.

This is arguably the greatest Television program in history. You don't have to take my word for it, I don't really agree with this, but if it is not the best, it is definetely one of the best.
If you love a great story you'll love this and if you don't then you'll love it anyway.
Twin Peaks is fantastic. The script and story was adapted from the short book "The secret diary of Laura Palmer" and it was done to the best it possibly could have been.
David Lynch is not fully responsible for the birth of this great television series, however he is the person most talked about for being part of it.
The episodes he directs all seem so real that you feel like you know the town of twin peaks and the people in it. He is a genius when it comes to directing, and it certainly shows in this.
The series is perfectly orchestrated, you will never get bored, you will be biting your nails and sitting on the edge of your seat, It's funny where necassery and the cliffhangers will leave you desperate for more.
Do yourself a favour and buy this. You won't regret it and you will also decrease the treacherously long gap that is constantly increasing over the production of season 2.
So save your money, put any ideas about getting season 8 and 9 of The X Files on hold (forever), don't bother with the latest dragged out and hollow Buffy seasons and buy this. It's brilliant!
The story follows the unravelling of the mystery of Laura Palmers death. Thier are many twists and turns along the way that surprisingly never lose thier tension and appeal when you watch them more than once.(Unlike 24)

P.S
I reccomend getting your hands on the English version since it contains the pilot episode that the U.S version doesn't. It is overpriced (Just like everything else in my crappy country) but it is the best version you can get.
If you do take my advice and buy either the English or U.S version DO NOT WATCH THE SPECIAL FEATURES if you havn't seen all of the show before.
Whoever designed the set left in features that give away major twists that happen much later in the show. Take my advice on this, you will be very angry at whoever designed this set if you watch them and haven't seen all of twin peaks before. (They aren't very good special features anyway)
I hope this review has been useful, now scroll back to the top of the page, and click buy.