![[box cover]](../../reviewimgs/t/twinpeaks.season01.jpg)
Twin Peaks: The First Season
David Lynch's first foray into television may not have gained an audience to match the fervor of its many admirers, but, at least in a small way, Twin Peaks changed television forever. In many ways similar to Lynch's masterful Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks digs away at the pervasive savagery and evil lurking in the shadows of a seemingly normal, wholesome small town. When homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) is found murdered, wide-eyed FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) is called to investigate and all of Twin Peaks' darkest secrets are rustled from cover. Twin Peaks' sordid plot lines involving hard ore drug use, sexual perversion, and a malevolent supernatural force shocked the television system and attracted an addicted fanbase still active today. Although Artisan's four-disc DVD set does not include the two-hour season opener due to rights restrictions, each of the seven episodes featured is by turns funny, eerie, dreamy and captivating. Even though it was relentlessly copied throughout the 1990s, Twin Peaks is a unique and uniquely entertaining event, even without a beginning (or much of an end). Fans of Twin Peaks will love this set, with its attractive packaging, eerie menus, digitally remastered high-definition full-frame transfers and DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 representations of Angelo Badalamenti's dreamy score, but newcomers may want to seek out the VHS rental (or region-free Taiwanese DVD import) of the pilot episode before jumping into Artisan's box. Every episode features a commentary track with the segment's director or writer, or with other crew members. Each episode also features a handful of optional "Script Notes," which offer behind-the-scenes insights and an optional introduction by the ambiguous Log Lady (Catherine Coulson). Also, on Disc Four, there are four featurettes: Mark Frost Telephone Interview, Learning to Speak in the Red Room, An Introduction to David Lynch, and 17 Pieces of Pie, plus The Twin Peaks Directory, which connects all of the series' characters and features some cast bios, filmographies and interviews. Four-DVD digipak with plastic slipcase.
—Gregory P. Dorr
