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Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery - Blu-ray Review

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5 stars

Twin Peaks. Regardless of your feelings about this two season show, there is no denying that David Lynch’s vision of small town America left an impact on the popular culture – one as deeply felt as the Seinfeld crater in its 9 season run over at NBC. Maybe it isn’t quoted as much in the general public but the eerie camp that charged its way through 30 episodes left a scar so deep that its loyal fans – sick of watching splotchy Netflix episodes - are still petitioning CBS to bring it back. That’s quite a legacy.

The carefully-plotted show – each episode is one day full of hidden clues - is perhaps the most bizarre television series ever created. Two seasons, one film, and still its fans clamor for more of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s murder mystery.   Why? Because we can’t get enough. Maybe we never will. All I know is that its influence is everywhere. The series debuted in the year of big hair and even bigger glasses. That was 1990 and, less than two years later, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was out in theaters, serving as both the prequel and finale of this much-loved police investigation meets soap opera in the great northwest.

This week’s release of the mammoth Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery 10-disc Blu-ray collection - which presents the 30-episode series alongside (for the first time) its 1992 movie prequel, Fire Walk With Me - offers a new opportunity for fanatics to reopen old wounds and wonder what might have been had the show continued on. While it doesn’t include every nugget of Lynch’s lore, this set is the most comprehensive release to date and amplifies everything that was memorable about the series.

Inspired by Lynch’s childhood experiences in Montana, Twin Peaks is the story of what happens when an FBI agent stops for coffee and pie in a town full of secrets. Starring Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Ontkean, Sherilyn Fenn, and Lara Flynn Boyle, the show was aired on CBS for just under two seasons and ended with the biggest of all cliffhangers. Lynch’s follow-up, the four-hour long Fire Walk With Me film was brutally edited by the studio (to the point that it never made any sense and disappointed a lot of fans) and released to an unsuspecting public. Heads were scratched. Fingers pointed. And still we wanted more.

Featuring some of the finest, weirdest, and memorable performances from Richard Beymer, Michael Anderson, Kimmy Robertson, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, Grace Zabriskie, Dana Ashbrook, Peggy Lipton, Ray Wise, Sheryl Lee, Miguel Ferrer, Madchen Amick, Don Davis, Al Strobel, Michael Horse, Piper Laurie, James Marshall, Russ Tamblyn, David Bowie, Chris Issak, and Catherine Coulson, Twin Peaks is the spookiest slice of camp and horror ever produced by a still-floundering CBS. The influence it continues to have on television shows is monumental.

The 30-episodes and (now) somewhat restored Fire Walk Me complete the mystery...sort of.  This release – including The Missing Pieces material - is a love affair completed by Lynch for the fans to sink their teeth into. Overall, there’s nothing Twin Peaks fans can complain about here. Everything that has been omitted from previous editions of the show has been meticulously restored and presented here. The episodes themselves look finer than ever; the audio is as sharp as a tack, and the extra featurettes are utterly enjoyable to behold. Twin Peaks Fire Walk with Me along with The Missing Pieces and the new retrospectives are also a thing of genuine beauty.

Start the coffee and warm up the cherry pie.

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Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery - Blu-ray Review

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - July 29, 2014
Screen Formats: 1.33:1
Subtitles
: English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, German, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit); English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (192kbps)
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Ten-disc set (10 BDs)
Region Encoding: Regon-free

Visually, the show itself has never looked better than here in its remastered 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation. The colors are more vibrant and the sound quality (in true 7.1 DTS-HD) is sharper than ever before. 24 years ago, given the state of cable broadcasting and tube televisions, it stands to reason that most fans have never seen the show look as sharp is it does presented here. Like Laura Palmer, the packaging for is also full of secrets. Presented in a beautiful hardbound box that opens like a music box, with stunning visuals derivative of the show, the purchaser can marvel at flipping through the ten disc set until getting to the bottom of the box. There, under a graphic of dirt, is a hidden clue that fans of the show will certainly not be surprised by.

Supplements:

Commentary:

  • None

Special Features:

I must say that the extras on this set have probably the most detailed and direct insight into the mysterious process of David Lynch as a director and filmmaker than ever before. Through candid chat with close folks, it paints a picture on a previously blank canvas where the wizard of weird refused to divulge anything about his wild world. Of course, the proposed 90 minutes 'The Missing Pieces' featuring Extended and Deleted scenes from "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me" is the king of this royal set. Lovingly cut and pasted by Lynch himself, fans get more Palmer family madness, David Bowie insight and glimpses beyond Season 2’s abrupt ending. Mecca for the Lynch fan – period; a “holy grail” to fans who speculated that they would make the critically derided prequel better fit into the Peaks oeuvre - and they may have been right. In the candid doc on Fire Walk With Me titled ‘Moving Through Time: Fire Walk With Me Memories’ everyone is talking the unknown oddity of Lynch. From Jacques Renault actor Walter Olkewicz confronting Lynch about meanings (and getting no answers!) to First Assistant Director Deepak Nayar talking the zany request of a monkey on set, this is a reveling look at Lynch behind the scenes. The featurette ‘Reflections on the Phenomenon Of Twin Peaks’ has quick cutting camera chats with a ton of cast members all taking Peaks years later – interesting indeed. This set has every episode of the series that comes complete (if you want it!) with an ominous Log Lady intro to get you in a Peaks mood. 'Between Two Worlds' has Lynch interviewing the Palmer family members Ray Wise, Grace Zabriskie and Sheryl Lee as both actors and their respective characters – very eerie stuff!

  • Log Lady Intros
  • Episode Previews and Recaps
  • Two Versions of Series Pilot
  • Season One Image Gallery
  • Twin Peaks Sneak Peaks
  • Season Two Image Gallery
  • Original Promos
  • New and Previously Released Deleted Scenes (14 min)
  • Outtakes (2 min)
  • The Glastonbury Archives (75 min)
  • Return to Twin Peaks (20 min)
  • Location Guide (8 min)
  • Postcards from the Cast (59 min)
  • Twin Peaks Promos (I min)
  • Cast and Crew Interviews (66 min)
  • Secrets From Another Place: Creating Twin Peaks (106 minutes)
  • Fire Walk with Me: The Missing Pieces (91 min)
  • Fire Walk with Me: Archival Interviews (5 min)
  • Between Two Worlds (38 min)
  • Moving Through Time: Fire Walk with Me Memories (30 min)
  • Reflections on the Phenomenon of Twin Peaks (31 min)
  • Atmospherics (13 min)
  • Trailers (5 min)
  • Fire Walk with Me Photo Gallery

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