Twin Peaks - Definitive Gold Box Edition (Slimline Packaging) [DVD] [1990] - Classic Mystery TV Series Collection - Perfect for Fans & Collectors - UK Import - Great for Home Entertainment & Gift Giving

I've never called myself a "Peaks Freak" but I suppose I meet some of the criteria to fit under this moniker, and after indulging in the Definitive Gold Box Edition I do so with a certain enthusiasm that I had forgotten I had for this show and its characters. The boyish wonderment while lost in the Twin Peaks universe was swept into a fire of obsession just like it did when I first watched the program in Junior High and later, in its totality, in college, a flush of nostalgia for a unique pocket of pop culture history driving me to compulsively daydream at work about the episodes I had watched the night before. Even at its worst, and it does get pretty bad, its still a special journey unlike any other television drama. After a monstrous six or seven episode lag occurring immediately after Laura Palmer's killer is revealed in the second season, the series gains a bit of its original footing back at the finish line, wrapping up with a sensationally weird, cliffhanger finale directed by the mastermind himself. Twin Peaks was always loosely satirizing the soap opera genre by utilizing its style, but it took itself seriously enough to permit its audience to invest emotionally into those conventions. The style was a comical device but it was also the theater in which the authentic drama was displayed. The decision to reveal Laura Palmer's killer (the show's MacGuffin) was pressed onto David Lynch and Mark Frost by the Network, insisting on it due to the audience demand. In retrospect this is arguably the biggest blunder in television history. Lynch claims he had never intended to reveal the identity of the killer. Bitter over compromising his vision Lynch stepped back from the show as did Frost, affiliated only on a production level as they took on new projects. The show really idles in its lack of direction from its co-creators. I mean it becomes obvious during these post-Laura episodes that the show has gone into a tailspin with absolutely no compass. It's only goal seems to be to indulge in quirkiness and in doing so the show gets close to becoming annoying. The storylines during this span of episodes are contrived, disingenuous, absurd and nearly unwatchable. You would have had to have been the holiest of Peaks Freak during the original broadcast to hang through this schlock and even on DVD it gets tough but because you know there is an endpoint you hang out a little longer, even if the show isn't taking itself seriously anymore because for some reason you do, or you want to, and so you force yourself into believing its still legit, or on some "next level" trip, or that any episode now it will all turn around. And then something wonderful happens. It almost pulls off such a feat. The show, near its final arch, begins to gain momentum with a boost of magic. A huge attraction to Twin Peaks was its metaphysical elements. While watching the last five episodes of season two I couldn't help but to think of LOST, another program which relied on supernatural twists which I was a huge fan of. The last time I had seen these season two Twin Peaks episodes LOST hadn't been created yet so I never thought of any borrowed aspects of the Twin Peaks universe existing in other shows but watching the episodes now I definitely see a connection. My awareness of the influence Twin Peaks had on LOST added a thrill to the last three episodes. The show was heading in a direction that could have been beautiful again if allowed a season three, but unfortunately, it was too late. too much damage had been done from the lag. But then again maybe Twin Peaks is Twin Peaks because the way it left. One of the reasons the end of the second season remains enduring is probably because we'll never know how it was to continue and so we are left to imagine it on our own.The Extras included in the box set are very complementary and insightful to the series. I felt I learned a lot about the show that I didn't know from watching the making of documentaries and seeing some of the cast at the time this was filmed was interesting as well.