Shows as cinematic, daring, and genuinely artistic as “Twin
Peaks” come along rarely even in television’s new “golden age” (and with shows
like “Breaking Bad”, “Mad Men”, and “Game of Thrones”, I truly do believe TV is
enjoying a renaissance). Back in 1990, there simply wasn’t anything else to
compare to it even with a crop of excellent series like “China Beach” and
“Northern Exposure”, so it’s understandable that all these decades later its
cast and crew are still so eager to speak of “Twin Peaks” in DVD and blu-ray
bonus documentaries and onstage in last year’s series of panel discussions at
the University of Southern California. Big stars like Piper Laurie and David
Duchovny will still make time to chat about a 25-year old series that lasted a
mere season and a half.
As a crazed Peaks Freak, I make time to watch every one of
these recollections I can find, so as excited as I was to read Brad Dukes’s new
book, Reflections: An Oral History of
Twin Peaks, I was skeptical I’d learn much. I was totally wrong to be
skeptical. Reflections is the best
book I’ve picked up all year. Dukes scores by digging into the aspects of the
show that have not been discussed to death already. Yes, he covers the oft-told
origin of the series that began life as “Northwest Passage” and the origin of Killer
BOB, the media frenzy that met the show and the early demise that followed the
forced resolution of the core “Who Killed Laura Palmer?” mystery, and
everything else obligatory. But Reflections
really shines when getting into less-traveled zones and giving them
surprisingly serious attention. Full sections are devoted to Duchovny’s Agent
Bryson (though Dukes did not interview that particular actor), Josie Packard
ending up in the pull knob, Diane Keaton and Uli Edel’s turns as director, and
most welcome of all, the sweetness of Frank Silva, the set decorator who ended
up playing television’s most heinous creature. Mysteries are solved. We finally
get some specific details about Stanley Kubrick’s mythic screening of Eraserhead, and Kubrick was not the only
legendary director in attendance. Kimmy Robertson reveals her very personal
role in getting Duchovny cast.
We learn why Windom Earle appears in demonic makeup in the penultimate episode. We get some juicy tidbits about the much-loathed James and Evelyn Marsh mini-noir
that will make me look differently at a subplot I sometimes skip through.
And though no one holds back their personal
opinions (Sherilyn Fenn is as forthcoming as ever about how she thinks Lara
Flynn Boyle screwed up the series), you really get a sense that the cast and
crew loved working together and loved “Twin Peaks” as a job and a show. If they didn’t, Dukes
probably would not have been able to gather nearly 100 of its former denizens (including
long-time holdout Michael Ontkean!) to reflect on it two and a half decades
down the road.
