I am told that “Twin Peaks: The Return” will not return again after it ends its bizarre and expensive experiment this Sunday on Showtime.
The 18 hours directed by David Lynch were met with curiosity and then indifference as the return series revealed it had no shape, no plan, and no particular direction.
“David never showed us a bit of it,” one Showtime insider told me this past week. The then source added regarding more episodes: “I don’t see how he could improve on what he’s done.”
There were high moments– Part 8 remains a standalone masterpiece. There were low moments– acts of violence including the running over of a little boy– that made no sense.
Ratings dropped week by week until there were none. The return of “Game of Thrones” over on HBO as counter programming didn’t help. Moving “Twin Peaks” to 8pm did, a little, but it was too late.
Last night, in the penultimate installment, three characters were killed off to make way for the finale. After 14 weeks, Kyle MacLachlan’s “Dougie” finally realized he was Agent Cooper and took off to tie up various loose plot lines. Naomi Watts was left, bewildered, in a casino, after doing a valiant job. Laura Dern’s Diane turned out to be an apparition.
Indeed maybe the whole show has been one. At the end of the episode Sherilyn Fenn’s Audrey– who didn’t come into the series until three weeks ago– seemed to wake up from a coma. Has she dreamed the whole thing, including the bad ratings and lack of coherence? Maybe Laura Palmer never died. Has Audrey been in a coma for 25 years? Will Ashley Judd’s character ever be explained? Probably not.
