Twin Peaks 1×08: The Last Evening

[Review by Jay Yencich]

[Writer: Mark Frost | Director: Mark Frost | Aired: 05/23/1990]

If a device has framed our early approach to Twin Peaks, it’s been a juxtaposition of the many-handed approach to direction with the few-penned take on scripts. Along the way, we’ve seen instances of the camera being especially complementary to the happenings and others where the two aren’t

Twin Peaks 1×07: Realization Time

[Review by Jay Yencich]

[Writer: Harley Peyton | Director: Caleb Deschanel | Aired: 05/17/1990]

Somewhere in the ill-defined research for the previous review, I came across an interview with Harley Peyton that attempted to describe how he came to be involved in Twin Peaks. The story goes that Peyton met Mark Frost in the industry, through fantasy baseball, and one day Frost called him

Twin Peaks 1×06: Cooper’s Dreams

[Review by Jay Yencich]

[Writer: Mark Frost | Director: Lesli Linka Glatter | Aired: 05/10/1990]

There’s something about the return to creator’s guidance after a layoff of a couple episodes. Not to degrade “Rest in Pain” or “The One-Armed Man” any, they’re fine episodes of the series if not television generally, but “Cooper’s Dreams” has a different feel watching it than other recent entries.

Twin Peaks 1×05: The One-Armed Man

[Review by Jay Yencich]

[Writer: Robert Engels | Director: Tim Hunter | Aired: 05/03/1990]

The addition of Robert Engels to the writing staff completes The High Triumvirate of Twin Peaks Scribes who, in and of themselves, were credited with all of season one and all but eight episodes of season two. The remaining eight were split amongst three other writers, whereas on the directing sid

Twin Peaks 1×04: Rest in Pain

[Review by Jay Yencich]

[Writer: Harley Peyton | Director: Tina Rathborne | Aired: 04/26/1990]

The good ship Twin Peaks Ship is now sailing out of the safe and coherent harbor of the first triptych of episodes, all penned and mostly directed by the Frost/Lynch team (with the exception of the more modest stewardship of Duwayne Dunham, but then what 90s kid would complain about the man

Twin Peaks 1×03: Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer

[Review by Jay Yencich]

[Writer: Mark Frost, David Lynch | Director: David Lynch | Aired: 04/19/1990]

[The Backbone]

Twin Peaks without its mythology is like Ben Horne without Jerry Horne, you know? (sighs) Fine, I’ll back up.

I enjoy the first two episodes of Twin Peaks, a lot actually. Reviewing them has helped me appreciate all the foundation they lay for character arcs, the surprising amount of forecasting

Twin Peaks 1×02: Traces to Nowhere

[Review by Jay Yencich]

[Writer: Mark Frost, David Lynch | Director: Duwayne Dunham | Aired: 04/12/1990]

Have there been many second episodes that were not fallings off from the excesses and intrigues of the original pilot? I’m not referring to second episodes of a season, which belong to a different branch of the taxonomy, I mean second episodes ever, or in the case of an opening arc, the first epis

Twin Peaks 1×01: Northwest Passage

[Review by Jay Yencich]

[Writer: Mark Frost, David Lynch | Director: David Lynch | Aired: 04/08/1990]

[Introduction]

When I’ve tried to explain Twin Peaks to people and its role in the furtherance of television as a medium, I’ve said it’s like the moldy bread left out next to the fruit bowl that yielded penicillin. But maybe that’s not wholly fair; maybe it’s more like discovering that alternating current