Twin Peaks - The First Season (Special Edition)

Movie / Show Details

Amazon.com

Twin Peaks devotees, who have kept the mystery alive on myriad Web sites, will jump at the chance to return to the spooky town that might just be the anti-Mayberry. Rarely syndicated, the Twin Peaks television series has lost none of its quirky and queasy power to get under your skin and haunt your dreams. So brew up a pot of some “damn fine coffee,” dig into some cherry pie, and lose yourself in David Lynch and Mark Frost’s murder mystery and soap opera, which unfolds, in one character’s words, “like a beautiful dream and terrible nightmare all at once.” Twin Peaks was a pop culture phenomenon for one season at least, until the increasingly bizarre twists and maddening teases so confounded audiences that they lost interest in just who killed Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). This series was a career peak for most of its eclectic ensemble cast, including Kyle MacLachlan as straight-arrow FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, Michael Ontkean as local Sheriff Harry S. Truman, Sherilyn Fenn as bad girl Audrey Horne, Peggy Lipton as waitress Norma Jennings, and Catherine Coulson as the Log Lady. Alumni enjoying current success include Lara Flynn Boyle (“The Practice”), as good girl Donna Hayward, and Miguel Ferrer (“Crossing Jordan”), hilarious as forensics expert Albert Rosenfield (who has absolutely no “social niceties”). This four-disc set contains the first season’s seven episodes, minus, curiously, the series pilot. Newcomers will be scratching their heads over the “Previously on Twin Peaks” prologue, but an accompanying booklet sums up the story. Special features include episode introductions by the Log Lady (originally broadcast on Bravo), commentaries by assorted episode directors (but not Lynch), and features from the archives of the fanzine Wrapped in Plastic. –Donald Liebenson