The style and vision of the show was something that no one had ever seen on the small screen at that time. Yet anyone that was familiar with David Lynch and his movie Blue Velvet had a taste of what was in store for them. Lynch along with writer producer Mark Frost, created the vision and genius that is the world of Twin Peaks. Through two seasons we were brought into a wonderful world that was part Mayberry, part X-Files and all parts deeply fascinating and unsettling.

The campy surreal drama became a pop culture sensation that created catch phrases, t-shirts and encouraged everyone to eat cherry pie with a good cup of joe. The show influenced future shows like Northern Exposure, Desperate Housewives to Lost. All dealt with the human condition and the darkness within.

So if you’ve missed the show back when it originally aired never fear, for the first time the entire series, including the original pilot, is being released in one beautiful box set. Yes, I am so happy that CBS DVD and Paramount are releasing it the way it should have been presented years ago. I’ve written previously about my dismay of how the series has been handled on DVD. The first season was released on DVD back in December 2001, but here was the rub, it didn’t include the pilot episode since it was shot by a different studio. How you can release a series and not include the first episode is beyond me, shame on you Artisan Home Entertainment for not at least including a disclaimer. Season two was released earlier this year in April and included some nice bonus features like interviews and introductions for all episodes by the Log Lady. It was nicely done but I still had a bad taste in my mouth from how season one was handled and released.

So that is all water under the bridge with this new Gold Box Edition, it not only has the complete series with the original pilot but it has the international edition of the pilot as well. This is a version I’ve heard about back when the series was originally broadcasted, where it solved the Laura Palmer murder and gave us a killer at the end of the story. Well it does solve the murder but doesn’t really ruin anything in the long run and can sort of still be placed in the American version of how it all plays out. It’s hard to explain without blowing any plot points. My advice is at least watch all of season one and the first episode of season two and then go back and watch the “alternate ending” option of the pilot. If you do that you’ll understand what I am so delicately trying to walk around and will understand why it still plays okay. In fact most of the footage is later used in the American version of the series.

For my money this added feature of just having the two different versions of the pilot is motivation enough to own this edition but that’s just the beginning of bonus features. All episodes have been remastered and they look fantastic with a new 5.1 audio and the original 2.0 for you purists that are both approved by David Lynch.

There’s deleted scenes of lost footage from the cutting room floor that I have yet to watch, since I am slowly watching the series from the pilot to the 30th and final episode. There are also all of the Log Lady introductions of each episode (taken from the VHS release if I’m not mistaken). Speaking of VHS, they look like they are copies off of the VHS tapes. Makes me wonder if they lost the originals at some point because they look simply horrible and the DVD format just helps to make it look worst.

“Secrets from Another Place” is a series of documentaries that explore the early stages of creating the show, the impact, the production, the music by Angelo Badalamenti to the final canceling of the show. This is a great collection of documentaries that really offers a wealth of information. It also introduces us to the co-creator Mark Frost who often seems to get over looked by the more famous and more successful, David Lynch. It’s also interesting to note that David Lynch is NOT in these documentaries at all.

Instead, he has his own way of being interviewed and going through memory lane with the strange interview/surreal dream sequence entitled, “A Slice of Lynch.” In it he’s sitting at a bar reminiscing with Twin Peaks actor Madchen Amick, Kyle MacLachlan and crewmember John Wentworth. It’s fun and very Lynch I suppose and offers some insights into his brain. Of course the most interesting aspect is the fact that he never intended on solving the Laura Palmer murder and regretted caving in to the studio suits.

Other great extras are Kyle MacLaughlan’s monologue and Twin Peaks sketch on Saturday Night Live. Phil Hartman’s portrayal of Laura’s Dad (originally played by Ray Wise) is worth it to watch alone. There are plenty of other bonus features but the one that I never expected to find or even know it existed are these Georgia Coffee commercials that only ran in Japan. There’s 4 and one alternate version in all and they have a whole story arc that takes place with the characters, actors and locations of Twin Peaks. It’s pretty cool as far as commercials go and have that fun Twin Peaks vibe.

All in all this collection is what should have come out back in 2001. The whole series is here and looking better then it did when they were originally aired. Kudos again to CBS DVD and Paramount for finally taking the care and respect to a series that deserves the after life on home DVD.

Comments

yahoo!! Written by Guest on 2008-04-21 07:35:35

Write Comment
Name:	Guest
Title:
Comment:
Code:*

Powered by AkoComment 2.0!