Entry Two Hundred Six.
Sunday, 2017.05.21, 11:23 AM CST.
Tonight, "Twin Peaks" returns... after 26 years.
Current Mood:  Excited.  Aces all around.
Current Scent:  Vanille Coco by Comptoir Sud Pacifique.

Hello again, everyone.

Tonight, history will be made on the Showtime cable network.  "Twin Peaks," my favourite television series of all time, will return for its third season, twenty-six years after the original show ended.

I don't remember ever being as excited for a television episode as I am right now.

Back when "Twin Peaks" first aired in April 1990, I have to admit - I avoided it.  I liked some of David Lynch's work (especially Blue Velvet), but I didn't see how a show by David Lynch could be all that good considering network television's restrictions.  It just sounded like a boring series about small-town America.

I was so wrong.

When the third episode aired, I caught a few scenes.  I was enthralled.  Here was this FBI agent - Special Agent Dale Cooper, expertly portrayed by the treat Kyle Maclachlan - and he was throwing rocks at bottles in an attempt to use a "Tibetan" technique to narrow down the suspects for the murder of Laura Palmer.

This was also the episode in which the "Little Man from Another Place" was introduced in one of Cooper's dreams.

I caught up.  When the series re-ran, I watched them in order, taping them all, occasionally discussing them with my mom, who was also following this weird little "soap opera with supernatural elements," as I've often described it.

I found myself closely identifying with Agent Cooper.  Not in the "I have to be just like this guy and emulate everything he does" kind of way... but more in the "this character is super-cool and I know it's influencing me a little" kind of way.  If you've ever had me give you a "thumbs-up" to a good idea or heard me say "Aces" when things were going well... then you've witnessed the effect that the Agent Cooper character had on me.

My love of the occasional black coffee?  I started trying it black because of Agent Cooper.

My adoration of suits and neckties?  Well, that comes from numerous influences, I'm sure... but Cooper was one of them.

Here was a character who was quirky but meant well.  He was a "weirdo," but he kept his integrity and always tried to do the right thing, even when the bizarre occurences in his life caused him pain and frustration.  People accepted his differences and respected him - even loved him.

My life was always a bit "odd" (in the past several years, I have even seriously considered the possibility that I could have a mild case of Asperger's Syndrome, but there's no way to test me for it at this age), and I know that I was always an unusual person - "quirky" is indeed a good word, but I'm sure many would have just said "weird," and they would have had every right to do so.  The character of Special Agent Dale Cooper made me feel more acceptable.

Well, I followed the series as it went on until June of 1991.  It was one of my escapes from the tormenting pressures of my first year of college at the University of Tulsa.  I didn't party or do any drugs or even drink at the time... but I found my recreations in music, movies, books, and television - and "Twin Peaks" was already my favourite series by a long shot.

Then... as the series ended, and the plotlines admittedly became a little more ridiculous, I wondered how the series would end.  For those of you who haven't seen the series, I won't spoil it with any specific details other than to say that David Lynch decided to give the ultimate "f-you" to the network, as well as his fans, by ending the second season - and thus the entire story - with a set of cliffhangers.  Some characters, you didn't know if they were still "alive" or "dead."  And all of the fans had to accept that we would never know.  It was horrible, and it was hurtful, and it sucked.  Frankly, it was a shitty ending.

But then... Lynch came back and said that there was a "Twin Peaks" movie in the works!  Yes - finally some resolution!  However, the film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, was (mainly) a prequel, detailing the last seven days of Laura Palmer's life, and it did not give much of an answer for any of the cliffhangers with which we had been presented.

So, that was it.  No more "Twin Peaks."  Some of the actors eventually died, and many of the others went on to several other projects, of course... but the rabid fans never got a resolution.

And then... Ray Wise, one of the actors, let it slip at a convention that they were going to work on bringing "Twin Peaks" back.  Fans took it with a HUGE grain of salt; I remember reading something like, "Ray Wise lives in his own world, and we should let him believe what he wants."  But he mentioned it again, if I remember correctly, and maybe a third or fourth time.

And David Lynch himself denied it.  No way.  Wasn't going to happen.

But then... Lynch was heard at some gathering saying something like, "You know, the town is still there..." and going on to say that the characters would still be living their lives, and it might be fun to bring it back.

In 2015, it was revealed that it was indeed a legitimate project, and that there was a plan with Showtime.  Then, there was a negotiation issue, and David Lynch allegedly dropped out of the project, and many of the fans (as well as some of the actors) said that it just couldn't happen without him.

Finally, Lynch came back on board, and it was eventually revealed that we were indeed getting at least a third season, that eighteen new episodes had been filmed, and that the series would answer at least some of the questions that the fans had chewed on for over half  a century.

Jubilation.   Absolute jubilation.

"Twin Peaks" was a major factor in my life.  I own all three DVD sets, as well as the ten-disc Blu-Ray set, along with posters, numerous T-shirts, the books (including the quite-rare My Life, My Tapes - an "autobiography" of Agent Cooper), the soundtracks to the series and the film on "damn fine coffee" and "cherry pie" coloured vinyl, a strictly-limited silkscreened art print that hangs on my wall at my "day job," and even a fan-designed "Black Lodge Coffee" travel mug.

[Okay, so she was a year off.  I'm not going to gripe about it.]

I never drink black coffee or eat cherry pie without thinking of this wonderfully bizarre, campy, beautiful series, and the character of Agent Cooper, who made me feel like a bit less of an outcast, a bit less hopeless in my "quirkiness."  I can legitimately say that I love "Twin Peaks."

And tonight, after twenty-six looooong years of waiting and two years of eagerly knowing that "it's happening again," I will finally be able to watch the first episode (actually, the first two!) of season three of "Twin Peaks."

Aces.

Badger