Twin Peaks: Arbitrary Law

 "One chants out between two worlds... fire walk with me!"

Wow. This episode is a hugely satisfying resolution to the question of Laura's murder, but... we have twelve episodes to go.  How can this not be the end?

We knew it was Leland, possessed by Bob. But the way an admittedly clueless Agent Cooper finally solves the mystery by the use of visually awesome "magic", utilising all that imagery of not only his own dream, but those of Laura, is hugely satisfying. Bob's been possessing Leland, and using him to kill, for a long time. Yet Leland- even if Bob seemingly flies away as an owl(!) dies in peace at the end...

Well, as far as that may be said for one who has headbutted oneself to death on a cell door!

Laura accepted she had to die, in order to not herself be possessed. Wow. And the Major... he knows things. Also impressive is how Harry slowly, sort of, comes to terms with these supernatural things. Andthe shocking revelation that the old woman from a couple of episodes ago, with her eerie grandson, to whom Donna has been delivering meals for years, has been dead for years... brr!

Other things happen, too, of course- Catherine forces Ben to sign away his rights in return for nothing, and the saga of who is the father of Lucy's baby continues. But this episode is a massively satisfying conclusion to the central mystery.

So... what next.

Twin Peaks: Drive with a Dead Girl

 "Ben... as your attorney, your friend and your brother, I strongly suggest that you get yourself a better lawyer."

This episode, perhaps, may not stand out as much as some, but it's as engaging as ever as the many subplots continue to unfold. We see Leland's disturbing behaviour after last episode's events, but whenever he looks into the mirror... it's Bob. I love the many golf balls at the start! Still, those glances in the mirror aside, this episode is unusually devoid of the supernatural. Indeed, Harry even pushes back at Agent Cooper on this a little.

So much happens here, as ever. Hank's old cellmate Ernie marries Lorna's mother. Andy tells Lucy that he may be the baby's father. Ben is being set up by Catherine, unless he signs over all but the hotel. Both Harry and Pete are worried about what happened to Josie. Maddie's body is found. 

Interestingly, though, we're eight episodes into this season which, unlike the last one, has the then regulation 22 episodes expected by American network television, whereas last season was over at this point. There aren't clear signs of it yet, but I do hope this doesn't lead to unnecessary padding. Time will tell.

Twin Peaks: Demons

 "I find the adherence to fantasy troubling and unreasaonable."

Just when you think Twin Peaks can't get any more delightfully bonkers, it does. I mean, a guest role by David Lynch himself playing Agent Cooper's boss (how very meta) complete with comedy hearing aids...? Yes please.

Lots happens, of course, but it'sall so delightfully weird mixed with real feeling. Harold Smith generally is devastated at Donna's betrayal and what that says about human nature. The scenes between a recovering Audrey, who knows everything, and her slimy father are enormous fun. Yet again we have mutual respect between Cooper and Harry, despite their being pretty much total opposites. And we have the mutual blackmail between Josie and Ben, very nicely done, and Harry's desperate confession of love before Josie seemingly moves to Hong Kong. It's weird, but the characters feel real, even if the events quite pointedly don't.

Then there's the taunting of Leo, who deserves all he gets, and Ben's business dealings- he's essentially a properly moustache-twirling villain at this point. But things only get to maximum weirdness at the end, when the One Armed Man reveals that vhe has an inhabiting spirit called "Mike"... and "Bob" is another such spirit who can onky be seen by "the gifted and the damned".

Brr. That's creepy as hell. And gripping. Twin Peaks is now making what seems to be a more overt shift towards the fantastic. I love it.

Twin Peaks: The Orchid's Curse

 "I'm a whole damn town!"

Pretty much a bog standard episode here, with plot threads progressing and mysteries unfolding amidst a cornucopia of suspense, humour and pathos, but this is Twin Peaks and that's no bad thing. 

There's so much going on, The Judge does some pre-hearing stuff, granting Leland bail and deciding not to try Leo on account of his being a vegetable. There's some slapstic about installing the hoist for Leo as Shelley and Bobby make out, as no doubt they'll take pleasure in doing in front of Leo. Lucy is away for a bit. Andy's sperm count is suddenly back up... but is an abortion on the cards? 

But there are two particular areas of focus here. There's Donna and Maddy with their attempts to steal Laura's secret diary from Harold, despite the fact that Donna like him, weird though he is. There's this delightfully symbolic and highly sexual scene between the two of them with the orchids... "Too much moisture is an invitation to disease"? Well, that sentence is doing a lot of work, to put it mildly. But that ending... ouch.

Then there's Harry and Agent Cooper on theor weird but seemingly successful mission to rescue Audrey. During which we see some owls... are they what they seem? Why is the Judge emphasising the local forest to Agent Cooper? Who is Diane? We asak the questions but, well, the answers are not really the point, are they?

Twin Peaks: Laura's Secret Diary

 "He never exercises. He never washes his car. And he doesn't even own a sports coat!"

By Twin Peaks standards, this is a fairly par episode, despite the fascinatingly surreal opening. And yet there's so much happening.

Oh, there's plot. Harold Smith openly tells Donna about Laura's secret diary... and Donna confides in love rival Maddy of all people. Ben Horne persuades Agent Cooper to handle the ransom for poor Audrey, luring him to his death. We meet a delightfully eccentric judge. Josie is up to something with her cousin from Hong Kong. And then there's Hank abd the bizarre fight at the end.

But there's also pathos. Leland feeling such unbearable grief that he killed Jacques Renault, who wasn't even Laura's killer. There's weirdness, with Audrey's only scene being shot very trippily, with Jean shooting his colleague suddenly. Jean is quite the character, to put it mildly.

Yet what lingers in the mind is the humour, the subtlety of it. Lucy's love troubles with Andy and Dick, our twoabsurd comedy characters, are quietly hilarious. And then there's the little sub-plot of the secret restaurant critic. 

I very much suspect we're not exactly going to see all the threads drawn together. But I'm still loving this.

Twin Peaks: The Man Behind the Glass

 "I love you, Sheriff Truman."

Less weirdness this week, possibly not unconnected to the fact that David Lynch doesn't direct.  Instead we have a series of events, clues and plot developments. However, it's amusing to see Agent Cooper matter-og-factly tell both the bluthely accepting Harry Truman and the ever-cynical Albert about the giant. And the confrontation between the Sheriff and Albert may itself count as weird.

Elsewhere, a song raises Nadine from her coma, but she thinks she's eighteen.because this is the Twin Peaks definition of "not weird". There's a bizarre triangle developing between Donna, James and Maddy. We meet Harold Smith, much younger than expected although asweird aswe might expect... and his house is full of orchids, symbolising beauty and fertility so, yeah, "not weird"...

In other developments, Leland is arrested for Jacques' murder. Audrey is being filmed in a plot to blackmail Ben... and kill Cooper. Lucy has a very pretentious and odd boyfriend, Ben, who seems to be the father of the child growing in her belly. And Harold seems to have known Laura well, we (and Donna) think at first... until we see that he has her diary in his possession...!

Even without the direct Lynchian stuff, this is gripping, and just weird enough. I don't know where it's going... but that's not the point at all. I'm loving this.

Twin Peaks: Coma

 "I do not introduce the log..."

A lot of plot stuff happens here, pertaining to what happened witrh Lauraand all the many plot threads. Leo is in a coma and may be brain damaged. Audrey, it seems, is in lots of trouble. But, well the surrealness quotient has just increased here, hasn't it. And i'm so here for it. I strongly suspect that it's about symbolism rather than things that will literally be explained, but it's all so wonderfully... Lynchian.

So Donna does her meals on wheels thing and finds a decidedly weird old lady with a tuxedo clad grandson who can do magic, and the magnificent weirdness is all in the direction, the acting, and most of all the slow, lingering pace, all deliberately made to feel a bit "off". And so we, and Donna, learn of the mysterious Mr Smith. 

Then there's the reactions of various people tothe figure in the wanted poster. The paradoxical reasoning of Ben and Jerry as they ponder whether to burn the real ledger for the mill or the forged one. And, indeed, the somewhat kinky circumstances in which Audrey finds out the full extent of what her old man has been up to.

But the stuff with Major briggs tops everything. The Log Lady delivers a message from the log, which of course he immediately understands. So he tells Agent Cooper a snippet of what he knows from his top secret job... a message from another galaxy, that "the owls are not what they seem"....

This is utterly, utterly mad. And magnificent.

Twin Peaks: Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer

"Fire, walk with me..."

This, if you'll recall, is the third episode, and the one I inadvertentle skipped, having watched and blogged Episode Five. Now, thankfully, linear chronology is restored. And gosh... it would have been damned useful to have watched this episode in its proper place.

It is, perhaps, my favourite thus far, dreamlike from the very first scene in which Ben's brother Jerry (ha!) returns from Paris to interrupt an awkward, silent dinner where the wine is served from a decanter and a Native American bloke in full headdress just happens to be sitting at table, saying and doing nothing. We then proceed to learn of One Eyed Jack's.

We learn much more, too. How increasingly suspicious Leo is becoming. Jocelyn's discovery of the two sets of accounts.We meet Albert, FBI forensic genius and the rudestv man in America. And Agent Cooper's bizarre thing with the bottle, arising from dreams and Tibet, which both functions as a rather nice bit of exposition and actually gets Sheriff Truman to think more highly of him.

But then we get to the drewam itself and... oh my.This is peak David Lynch. It is a thing of beauty. I'm sure it all means something, if not necessarily in a linear way, which, i Suppose, makres it rather appropriate that I've inadvertently made a non-linear mishap. I shall endeavour not to do it again.

Twin Peaks: The One-Armed Man

 "In real life, there is no algebra..."

Bums. Just belatedly realised that, because of how the episodes are displayed on the DVD, I inadvertently missed the third episode, so the last one I blogged was ion fact the fourth. Aaaargh. That's incredibly annoying. I'll blog the third one next, then onwards.

Anyway...

I think, given how damned complicated things are getting- although, I'll note, it's not that hard to follow, which is a triumph of storytelling- I'm not going to be too thorough about discussing plot developments in these blog posts. So many characters, so many connections between them, so many secrets... and the point is not so much the endless mystery as the mood, in any case. And plenty of it.

Leland's chat with Leo is a surprise, though. And it's interesting how multiple characters are now having seemingly precognitive dreams. There's feeling here, too: Shelly's domestic abuse by Leo isn't treated lightly. We meet Hank, unexpectedly successful in his parole hearing, which is going to cause problems.. 

But mostly this is where the weirdness creeps in a little more. The goings-on are becoming more and more absurd. I'm minded of how the investigation takes a turn towards parrots and mynah birds. The absurdity, of course, is by no means a bad thing. This is the world of David Lynch. So much weirdness, so many symbols. Does any of it mean anything? Does it matter? I'm engrossed.

Twin Peaks: Rest in Pain

 "Twin Peaks is weird..."

You don't say.

This is the episode of Laura Palmer's funeral, and inevitably there's drama, with Bobby calling out the town's hypocrisy and getting in to an altercation with James, no doubt to the intense displeasure of his authoritarian but oddly philosophical father. Poor Leland Palmer makes a spectacle of himself too, showing us the things that grief can do.

Meanwhile, Agent Cooper is puyrsuing the investigation by... analysing a dream he has, which is accepted by all and sundry, including the viewer. In any other show, this would be absurd, but this is the David Lynch dimension.

Various weird plot points advanve a little and, the findings of FBI pathologist Albert aside, the focus moves slightly away from Laura's murder to the town itself, with Albert snobbishly dismissing it as a place full of hicks while Cooper increasing feels affection for its charm and decency. It therefore feels natural when, at the end of the episode, Sheriff Truman includes him in a kind of secret society that exists to combat the, er, "evil" in the woods. 

Thing is, writing it out like that makes it seem silly. But, watching the episode, it works. And that, perhaps, is the key point. We accept and revel in the weirdness. This is oddly compelling television, and unlike pretty much anything else.

Swamp Thing (1982)

"Some of the men say it was one of those abdominal snowmen or something."

I came to this film, in spite of Wes Craven helming it, expecting a so-bad-it's-good B movie. Instead I find a film that's genuinely brilliant- pacy, stylishly shot and very well acted.  I really wasn't expecting that.

The South Carolina location looks amazing; it may not be Louisiana, but the swampy landscape certainly looks like it and fills the production with a great deal of atmosphere throughout. At the start it feels like an early '80s horror film, but it isn't; it's very much its own beast. We're introduced to Alice, the genius Alec Holland and the rest of the crew who will shortly die. We quickly get to know the witty, driven, flirty Holland and his invention, a plant/animal hybrid formula. And then, suddenly, they are all shockingly killed, aside from the captured Alice, by the thugs of the sinister Arcane. Already the characterisation, dialogue and direction are far above B movie standard.

There are little oddities- why is the bloke in charge of Alec and his mates a Yorkshireman? And yes, the Swamp Thing costume indeed looks very obviously latex, as such costumes always do and as is always priced in. I'm also inevitably reminded of The Creature from the Black Lagoon. None of this is a problem.Nor is Arcane's delightful moustache-twirling evil. Sometimes it's fun for a baddie just to be bad for the sake of it, and Louis Jourdan is brilliant; fun but stopping short of being hammy.

I think the moment I fell in love with this film was the slow-motion boat attack, which felt completely A-Team. It's a genuine classic that rises far above B movie status.

Marvel's Agent Carter: The Atomic Job

"I like pie. Pie is good."

This could be the best episode yet. The decision to up the comedy quotient for themselves season is really paying dividends, and it's mostly down to both the superb scripting and the excellent comedy acting from all involved.

We begin with the suggestion that possessing Jane Scott's body could help make him tangible and, given that we end with him less tangible than ever, I suspect that's where the next episode is headed.

This episode, though, begins with a rather sweet scene in which Sousa proposes to Violet- and she says yes. Which makes things rather bittersweet when she realises, at the end, that he moved to LA to get away from his feelings for Peggy. What will they do now?

But the episode, mostly, is a brilliantly designed and executed farce where Team Whitney and Team Peggy both race to get to some nukes, with the stakes being somewhat high. Along the way we get a nice bit of feminism from Peggy, showing that Rose, being fully trained, is better used in the field than as a receptionist. And the rather amusing trope of lab scientists with chips on shoulders continues. The best scene, though, involves Peggy, a memory inhibitor and a creepy old lecher.

The development of Whitney is interesting too; the dramatic showdown between her and Peggy makes clear that she doesn't want to be "cured", and her bullying of Cal begins to tip over into domestic abuse. Here we have an increasingly violent reaction against the tyranny of patriarchy. The themes add an extra level to an extraordinary series.