My List of the Top 10 Television Series of 2017

Continuing the tradition - just started two years ago - here is my Top 10 list for 2017,  from who knows how many series I've seen this past year on network television, cable, and streaming (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Acorn):

Honorable mention (narrowly not making the list, for a variety of reasons):  On the list last year: Vikings was on my Top 10 list last year (that would be season 3).  Season 4 was excellent, but not quite as good in previous seasons.  (Season 5 has just begun, and I'm already liking it a little more than Season 4.) Returning in honorable mention: Chicago Fire is still superb, but still suffers from the limitations of network television.   Apples and oranges: Veep is still hilarious, but it's impossible to rank a comedy with dramas, so I put it here in honorable mentions. Same for the return of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is in an hilarious class of its own. Closest runners-up: Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime): sequels, especially broadcast years later, are always a difficult proposition, but Twin Peaks did this insanely well, literally;  Game of Thrones (Season 7) (HBO): best season so far, we finally got to see the dragons in action; Ozark (Netflix): an original, engrossing crime drama in an unlikely place; The Break (Netflix): top-notch Belgian noir, The Crown (Netflix): peerless drama of the first years of Queen Elizabeth II;  Mindhunter (Netflix) think Criminal Minds, unhindered by network mores

-> 17 December 2017 shoutout to Erased, a charming, very different kind of time travel series on Netflix, which I just saw last night.  It will definitely be on my Top 10 list next year.

-> 28 December 2017 I just finished streaming Travelers 2 - the first season was on my Top 10 list last year (2016) - Travelers 2 will surely be on my Top 10 list next year.

And now the Top 10:

10. 19-2 (final season, Acorn): back on the list from last year, one of the best cop shows ever on television; sorry to see it conclude

9. The Deuce (HBO): a gritty, in-your-face look at prostitution and the dawn of the porn industry in 1970s New York City, as only HBO can do it

8. Big Little Lies (HBO): sly, well-acted, delicious, brutal, and criminal

7. Four Seasons in Havana (Netflix): Cuban noir, based on four novels, about the exploits of detective with a secret life as a writer - you can't go wrong with this gem

6. Narcos (Season 3) (Netflix): 3rd year in a row on my Top 10 list, you can't beat the pace, the realism, and the sarcasm of the DEA-agent narrator

5. Dark (Netflix): there was a lot of time-travel on television in 2017 (12 Monkeys, Timeless, Time After Time, Somewhere Between, Outlander), but this German outing was the best, and wove at least half a dozen major paradoxes into the story

4. The Orville (Fox): the closest thing ever on television to the original Star Trek series, with some of The Next Generation on board with equivalent characters; and The Orville is often laugh-out-loud funny

3. Fauda (Netflix): a brilliant, riveting Mossad spy story, swat-team narrative, which treats Israelis and Arabs with almost equal sensitivity

2. Longmire (final season, 6) Netflix: this series just got better and better every every season, and saved the best for last with a truly satisfying story that tied up most of the loose ends

1. Sense8 (season 2) Netflix: telepathy is a relative rarity in science fiction, and Sense8 did it masterfully and memorably; destined to become a classic which will be watched for decades to come

See also My List of the Top Ten Television Series of 2015 and My List of the Top Ten Television Series of 2016

Gypsy: Beyond Treatment

Binge-watch Gypsy on Netflix in you're in the mood for a highly original, riveting, erotic, New York-based, not quite a thriller in the conventional sense but it has a a lot of that too, and a tour-de-force performance by Naomi Watts.

It was especially good to see Watts after her necessarily gonzo, unidimensional performance in the alter-dimensional Twin Peaks: The Return, which was excellent in a very different way.  In Gypsy, she plays psychologist Jean Holloway, who has at least two identities and numerous looks and attitudes.  Watts plays them all to perfection.

The set-up is she's a shrink who crosses the line and gets involved - literally, in at least one case - with the close relations of her patients.   Though her motives could be magnanimous, i.e., born of a desire to better help her patients, we soon learn, at least in one case, that Holloway is doing this much more for her own gratification.  Further, she doesn't even struggle with this - it's as natural to her as stopping by the coffee shop where her main infatuation (or maybe it's true love), the ex-girlfriend of one of her patients, works as a barista. In other words, this is no In Treatment. Now, New York's a pretty big town, and we have to suspend our disbelief that she is constantly in danger of her patients running into her when she is seeing or doing more with one of their loved ones.  That's where the thriller part comes in, and Holloway loves the adrenalin rush.  I liked it, too.

There are good performances everywhere, especially by Melanie Liburd, who plays Alexis, secretary to Holloway's husband Michael, a lawyer, played by Billy Crudup, who does what's needed in portraying a well-meaning character who's usually behind the eight ball about his wife's activities, but gradually gets the picture.  In the end, this first season of a series that so evocatively calls for more is an ode to feminine sexual power, as typified by a scene in which Jean and Alexis each have sexual encounters, against most odds, and Michael, of his own choosing, has none.

Highly recommended for a few late summer evenings, or, I'd bet, a few evenings any time of year.

Twin Peaks: The Return Finale: The Beginning

Well, Twin Peaks: The Return went out the way it all came in: at the beginning.

As usual in The Return, that little man who told Cooper early on to "Wake up!" and last week, when Cooper got back his senses (to the extent that anyone has senses or sense in this multiple inside-out reality) after far too long, intoned "Finally!," tonight spoke truth when he asked of Cooper the question, "is it the future or the past?" in that slo-mo way that folks speak in the alter-dimension.

And the answer turned out to be the latter as Cooper drove with someone who seemed to be Laura Palmer 25 years later:  it was the past.   So maybe this whole Return was another prequel, which happened even earlier than the first prequel, which we saw a year after the original Twin Peaks series back when.

There were plenty of nice touches in this double-hour finale prelude, such as -

• the man the Palmer house in the past being heard but not seen, which suggests he may be a character in the original Twin Peaks and perhaps The Return
• the stuporous Cooper is back with his "family" - i.e., Dougie's family - just as the newly re-sentient Cooper promised them last week.  Except ... who is he?   Maybe bad Cooper, except now his mind is scrambled, taken over by good Cooper in a stupor?  I don't know ... maybe.
• the Cooper in possession of his faculties sleeps with Diane - or, she sleeps with him - which was good at least insofar as the bad Diane who was killed last week doesn't get the last word
• Gordon told his team the truth - well, ok, that wasn't all that nice a touch or important, but it gave Gordon a chance to get off a line about hard and soft, and Albert to make a crack about the Marx Bros, and you don't get that every day in a television series, so I wanted to give it a shout-out

Some excellent B-movie cheesy science fiction visuals in this finale/beginning, and I've got to say I enjoyed The Return, and would definitely watch more.

So I'll say ... see you last week.

See also Twin Peaks: The Return 1.1-2: Superluminal Sans Cherry Pie ... 1.3-4: Coffee and Cole ... 1.5: The Mod Squad Meets Big Love in the Diner ... 1.6: Red Door and Childish Scribbles ... 1.7: Lost and Not Lost ... 1.8: Atom Bomb and Mr. Homn ... 1.9: "I Don't See No Hidden Buttons" ... 1.10: "No Stars" ... 1.11: Double Cherry Pie and Viva Las Vegas ... 1.12: No Song - Slim Hope of Deliverance ... 1.13: Humor ...1.14: Painstaking Progress ... 1.15: Meditation on a Gas Station ... 1.16: Finally

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Twin Peaks: The Return 1.16: Finally!

Well, by the far the best episode of Twin Peaks: The Return - 1.16 - with the two-hour finale on tap for next week (though the inside the atom bomb episode was a nonpareil story in itself).  But tonight -

1. As I (sarcastically) said I was hoping last week - because I'd just about given up hope - that near electrocution indeed brought the good Cooper back to life on Earth, totally woken out of his stupor.  I couldn't agree more with that little man from the other dimension, Cooper's (and our) guide of sorts, who said "Finally". Yes, indeed.   It was great to Cooper back to his old, so deeply decent self, and my favorite line was when he said "I am FBI."  Close seconds were the Twin Peaks theme playing as good Cooper moved back into play, and Cooper saying goodbye to Janey-E, and she realizing that he was something different from her Dougie, and something very good to her and their boy.

2. The shoot-out in front of Dougie's house was also top-notch Lynch, also reminiscent of the Cohen Brothers.  (As I think I mentioned in an earlier review, Fargo the television series is certainly deeply indebted to Twin Peaks.)  But every single character in that shoot-out was perfectly played, especially by Tim Roth (who just played one character, but he was just right in a deadpan way.)

3. Jim Belushi, who's been just outstanding all season in one of his finest comedic roles, was also just right tonight.  I read somewhere that David Lynch was unhappy with some or one or whatever of Belushi's ad libs - I don't know what the ad lib was, but what was on the screen tonight was high camp deluxe.  (And Robert Knepper as his brother was 100%, too.)

4. Even the ending was the best so far: a double-ending, with Eddie Vedder (Edward Louis Severson II) doing an acoustic-guitar concluding song, unexpectedly followed by Audrey dancing and clearly awakening from a nightmare herself.

In fact, this whole Return could be seen as awakening from a nightmare, because that's what it is. And now I'm feeling a little bad that it all be over next week (and hoping our Cooper will indeed come back to Janey-E).  See ya next week.

See also Twin Peaks: The Return 1.1-2: Superluminal Sans Cherry Pie ... 1.3-4: Coffee and Cole ... 1.5: The Mod Squad Meets Big Love in the Diner ... 1.6: Red Door and Childish Scribbles ... 1.7: Lost and Not Lost ... 1.8: Atom Bomb and Mr. Homn ... 1.9: "I Don't See No Hidden Buttons" ... 1.10: "No Stars" ... 1.11: Double Cherry Pie and Viva Las Vegas ... 1.12: No Song - Slim Hope of Deliverance ... 1.13: Humor ...1.14: Painstaking Progress ... 1.15: Meditation on a Gas Station

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Twin Peaks 1.15: Meditation on a Gas Station

I guess that was a gas station in Twin Peaks: The Return 1.15 tonight - whatever exactly that was in the forest, where bad Cooper arrived in his vehicle.  The structure behind it look a little like, I don't know, some kind of room and board, or maybe some kind of lodge, yeah that was more likely it.  And someone very family offered to unlock the door for him, in that other-dimensionally super-slow distorted voice.

Anyway, I think that scene was very effective, especially the way it all faded back into the forest when the action was over.  Like it's always there, if the right person, or right un-person, to use the Alice in Wonderland construction (always appropriate for Twin Peaks) happens to drive up.

Other good scenes include the couple with the guy with the gun in the forest, leaning against the mossy tree, she trying to seduce him out of not using the gun on himself, but getting uneasy, to say the least, when she starts to succeed.   Something about that scene made a little more sense than usual, though I couldn't tell you exactly what.

And the good Cooper, still in a stupor, putting the right end of his metal fork into that electrical outlet. Good thing for the story it wasn't a plastic utensil.  This definitely has to move the story along.  I mean, either this will electrocute Cooper and send him back to the lodge, or it will literally shock him out of his stupor - I keep hoping.

I find the scene in jail - the combination of the guy with the beaten face and the woman with I don't know what kind of face - too unpleasant to talk about, so I won't.

Ok, there was one happy ending at the very beginning of the episode, but that's not all that much for 15 episodes in and not many more to go.  See you here next week.

See also Twin Peaks: The Return 1.1-2: Superluminal Sans Cherry Pie ... 1.3-4: Coffee and Cole ... 1.5: The Mod Squad Meets Big Love in the Diner ... 1.6: Red Door and Childish Scribbles ... 1.7: Lost and Not Lost ... 1.8: Atom Bomb and Mr. Homn ... 1.9: "I Don't See No Hidden Buttons" ... 1.10: "No Stars" ... 1.11: Double Cherry Pie and Viva Las Vegas ... 1.12: No Song - Slim Hope of Deliverance ... 1.13: Humor ... 1.14: Painstaking Progress

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Twin Peaks 1.14: Painstaking Progress

Hey, it's tough to make progress when your adversary is from/in another dimension and an evil one at that, and one with the power to snap up good people and return them with an evil twin.  Not to mention that the FBI agent in charge of the case can't speak softly and carry a big stick, because he's hard of hearing (proof - he was a hearing aid).  But the forces of good made a small amount of painstaking, painful progress in Twin Peaks 1.14 nonetheless.

Truman finally managed to convey to Cole that there may be two Coopers afoot.   It's especially appropriate that Truman was the conveyor of this news, seeing as how he's the brother of the original Sheriff Truman - Harry Truman - who likely has no relationship to the U. S. President who dropped the atom bombs on Japan, though, come to think of it, you never know, given the almost entire hour devoted to inside an atomic explosion on the Return a few episodes ago.  David Lynch again shows a knack for being uncannily in synch with what's happening in the real world, given the concern about nuclear warheads and North Korea these days, though maybe that's too serious to even slightly joke about (but probably not).

But, anyway, the two true Trumans in Twin Peaks are not twins but brothers, and they don't even look all that much alike, but being a bro on this show is good enough.  Our heroes are also beginning to close in the E's - Janey-E and Doug E - and I'm wondering if these E's have any connection to E=mc-square (that's what Elvis may have said to himself about Ed Sullivan, i.e.,  E[d] = mc-square - those these types of puns ain't E-asy).

Meanwhile, back at the end of the episode, we once again have a great musical performance by Lissie - especially appropriate (memorable music) given the appearance of David Bowie in vintage Twin Peaks aka dream sequence footage.

See ya next time.

See also Twin Peaks: The Return 1.1-2: Superluminal Sans Cherry Pie ... 1.3-4: Coffee and Cole ... 1.5: The Mod Squad Meets Big Love in the Diner ... 1.6: Red Door and Childish Scribbles ... 1.7: Lost and Not Lost ... 1.8: Atom Bomb and Mr. Homn ... 1.9: "I Don't See No Hidden Buttons" ... 1.10: "No Stars" ... 1.11: Double Cherry Pie and Viva Las Vegas ... 1.12: No Song - Slim Hope of Deliverance ... 1.13: Humor

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Twin Peaks 1.13: Humor

Twin Peaks may not always be comprehensible or comprehendible (well, almost never), but it's always good for a laugh, with a variety of visual, acoustic, and linguistic punchlines, and just some good old-fashioned gags (and I don't just mean scenes that make you feel like gagging).

For example, in tonight's episode 1.13, we get the following: Anthony Sinclair (played by Tom Sizemore, who looks like Michael Madsen, you get a lot of that in Twin Peaks, too) can't bring himself to kill good Cooper (still mostly in a stupor) via poisoning his beloved coffee.   So Sinclair takes the tainted coffee to the men's room, pours it in down a urinal, and the guy standing in front of the next urinal comments, "that bad, huh?"  To me, that's really funny.  (Marshall McLuhan always liked to say that behind every joke is a grievance.  The grievance in Twin Peaks is that it makes no sense - i.e., is not a linear narrative.)

This episode had other good news for good Cooper tonight.  In the same scene as above, he gets a piece of cherry pie along with his coffee!  It may not be the diner's patented cherry pie and coffee, but hey.

And bad Cooper has a good night by his standards, too.  He not only bests mean Mr. Clean in an arm wrestle, but kills him with just one punch.  He also (unknowingly) sends that green ring back to the other dimension where it surely belongs.

And the song - well, tonight we do get a complete song.  James Hurley is back with the worst singing of the season, including two women who can barely (I almost spelled this bearly) hit a note in the background.  But this is a definite improvement over last week, when we got no song at all - and it was nice to see that woman in the venue so moved by the performance.

And in another departure, we got a little action after the end of the song - barely, but it was a new scene.  But here's a question: who owned the hand in the other dimension that received that little green ring?  Just asking.

See also Twin Peaks: The Return 1.1-2: Superluminal Sans Cherry Pie ... 1.3-4: Coffee and Cole ... 1.5: The Mod Squad Meets Big Love in the Diner ... 1.6: Red Door and Childish Scribbles ... 1.7: Lost and Not Lost ... 1.8: Atom Bomb and Mr. Homn ... 1.9: "I Don't See No Hidden Buttons" ... 1.10: "No Stars" ... 1.11: Double Cherry Pie and Viva Las Vegas ... 1.12: No Song - Slim Hope of Deliverance

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Twin Peaks: The Return 1.12: No Song - Slim Hope of Deliverance

A slightly subdued Twin Peaks: The Return 1.12 last night, with no song at the end.  I mean, there was a three-piece band on the stage at the end, as the credits eventually rolled, and they were playing something, but it wasn't a song.  It could have been the beginning of a song which never actually started (uh oh).  It could have been accompaniment to something.  But I don't think it was a song.  I don't think it was an instrumental - certainly no "Green Onions" or "Flying".

There were some nice touches in the episode, most involving loud-spoken hard-of-hearing Gordon, who was trying to consummate something with what passes for a hot chick for someone his age.  But Albert had some important interrupting business for Gordon.

That included a little explanation of Blue Rose, its connection to Project Blue Book, and the toll it's taken on its elite team, especially Dale Cooper (whom we saw almost nothing of in this episode, also much like the song). And it also included the induction of Tammy into the team.   (I wonder, if Cooper ever recovers his mind, if he and Tammy might get together?)

So is it all of this quiet before the storm?   On Twin Peaks, everything is always quiet and always storm, so it's hard to say.  Anyhow, here's the song I was hoping to hear at the end of this episode - McCartney's "Hope of Deliverance".



See also Twin Peaks: The Return 1.1-2: Superluminal Sans Cherry Pie ... 1.3-4: Coffee and Cole ... 1.5: The Mod Squad Meets Big Love in the Diner ... 1.6: Red Door and Childish Scribbles ... 1.7: Lost and Not Lost ... 1.8: Atom Bomb and Mr. Homn ... 1.9: "I Don't See No Hidden Buttons" ... 1.10: "No Stars" ... 1.11: Double Cherry Pie and Viva Las Vegas

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Twin Peaks: The Return 1.11: Double Cherry Pie and Viva Las Vegas

Well, Agent Cooper finally got a piece of cherry pie in Twin Peaks: The Return 1.11 last night - in fact, two slices! - as well as his life being spared by Jim Belushi's character and his dream.  But, alas, even this double cherry pie is not enough to rouse Cooper out of his stupor.  He needs to "wake up!" as that little man from the other dimension told him now some number of episodes ago.

Because there's a lot happening.   Cole was nearly sucked up into an alternate dimension wormhole in the sky or whatever that was.   I was glad to see he emerged unscathed, his too-loud voice intact.  For some reason, I really like that loud voice.   I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean or lampoon - maybe the hard of hearing, which is not nice - but for some reason it strikes me as especially funny.

The scene with Truman and his deputy was also interesting.  Like the FBI, they seem to be beginning to close in on the truth of what is happening here.  But their progress is so slow it's unclear if they'll make it by the end of this season.

The music, like the cherry pie, was doubly good in this episode.  First, I've always really liked Shawn Colvin's rendition of "Viva Las Vegas" (I'm listening to the long version right now.)  I just wish they'd played a little more of it.  Second, was that Burt Bacharach at the piano at the very end? Tough to tell and probably not - I'm sure someone reading this will let me know - but it was fun to see even someone looking like Burt on the screen last night.

And I'll be back here with another short review after the next episode next week.

See also Twin Peaks: The Return 1.1-2: Superluminal Sans Cherry Pie ... 1.3-4: Coffee and Cole ... 1.5: The Mod Squad Meets Big Love in the Diner ... 1.6: Red Door and Childish Scribbles ... 1.7: Lost and Not Lost ... 1.8: Atom Bomb and Mr. Homn ... 1.9: "I Don't See No Hidden Buttons" ... 1.10: "No Stars"


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Twin Peaks: The Return 1.10: "No Stars"

Twin Peaks: The Return 1.10 tonight concluded with a better than usual song, which is saying a lot, since those concluding songs are often the best part of the episode.  Tonight's song, sung by Rebekah Del Rio - who, I don't know, reminds me a little of Monica Lewinsky, was entitled "No Stars," a nice touch, since the episode has even more stars than usual, but who's counting.

One of those stars, Harry Dean Stanton, even sung a song himself, "Red River Valley," as one of our psycho bad guys left a river of blood in a nearby trailer.   There's no end to the evil on Twin Peaks, every bit as prevalent as the inscrutable.

As to the central plot, we're making maybe a little bit of progress with good Cooper recovering his identity.  At very least, coming with Jones' beautiful wife leaves him with a big grin on his face, which is the most emotion by far we've seen from this zombie in the past nine episodes.

The FBI is also making some small painstaking progress in getting on top or to the bottom of this, getting a crucial photograph of bad Cooper at the scene of a New York crime.   But the question still remains of when someone will make a breakthrough in either putting this all together, or, in good Cooper's case, realizing who he is.

I've been assuming all along that before The Return concludes, we'll have that epiphany, but for some reason, after tonight's episode, I'm not so sure.  No matter, as the long as the episodes keep concluding with outstanding songs in front of that red curtain.

See also Twin Peaks: The Return 1.1-2: Superluminal Sans Cherry Pie ... 1.3-4: Coffee and Cole ... 1.5: The Mod Squad Meets Big Love in the Diner ... 1.6: Red Door and Childish Scribbles ... 1.7: Lost and Not Lost ... 1.8: Atom Bomb and Mr. Homn ... 1.9: "I Don't See No Hidden Buttons"


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Twin Peaks: The Return 1.9: "I Don't See No Hidden Buttons"

That was the best line in Twin Peaks: The Return 1.9 tonight - "I Don't See No Hidden Buttons" (said by the sheriff) - because, of course he sees no hidden buttons, how could he, if they're hidden, and somehow that deeply obvious statement about what can't be seen is symptomatic of the entire Twin Peaks: The Return story, right?

And it was a pretty good story, too, tonight, with at least one other outstanding line, "I am not your foot," said by a foot, and somehow reminiscent of Donovan's "I Love My Shirt," though there's nothing fruit case about that, as Rosenfeld (kudos to the late, great Miguel Ferrer) says about that poor blogger who is actually one of the few people who is not insane in this warped gem of a series returned.

Because that blogger has seen the alternate dimension, the one that spawned the bad Cooper and somehow Dougie too.  But the good news is that word of the two Coopers is now beginning to leak out.   To show you how far gone I am, by the way, our neighbors have a little dog named Cooper, I've known that since they bought the house next door about a year ago, but it just today occurred to me that maybe they named the dog after Cooper from Twin Peaks, as the lady of the house was calling after the dog to stop furiously barking, probably about a rabbit, but who knows.  (I'm pretty sure she doesn't read this blog.)

But if that is true - that the dog next door was named after our Cooper - the question is which one, the good one or the bad one, and why?

Possibly the tormented blogger would know - leave it to Lynch to put the truth in the mouth of a blogger - and I'm glad that someone, some living breathing being from this, our, dimension, has seen some of what is actually going on, because that provides hope for the rest of us.

Hey, I just wanted to also mention that, in addition to Lost,  I'd say Fargo (the TV series), Heroes, and lots of Tarantino's work is inspired by Twin Peaks, and that's nothing to sneeze at, but worth pointing out in someone's blog.

See also Twin Peaks: The Return 1.1-2: Superluminal Sans Cherry Pie ... 1.3-4: Coffee and Cole ... 1.5: The Mod Squad Meets Big Love in the Diner ... 1.6: Red Door and Childish Scribbles ... 1.7: Lost and Not Lost ... 1.8: Atom Bomb and Mr. Homn


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Twin Peaks: The Return 1.8: Atom Bomb and Mr. Homn

Anyone who doubted that Twin Peaks is one bizarre science fiction horror story of a story got their answer tonight in episode 1.8: it is, with a vengeance, spun of gut-wrenching, stomach-churning, searingly mind-blowing wordless narrative the likes of which you don't often see on any television, unless you're maybe watching Donnie Darko someplace the 20th time.

Also - I'm pretty sure we got an answer of sorts to what brought the alternate reality or realities into being: the first atom bomb test in White Sands, New Mexico in 1945.  This indeed was first atom bomb ever exploded (as far as I know) on this Earth, and who knows about the universe.  If I'm getting the silent movie correctly, which was the most powerful part of tonight's extraordinary episode, that first atom bomb brought into being the alternate reality or alternate universe and all the insanity it's brought us in all the Twin Peaks stories.  You could almost hear the atoms crying in anguish as they were torn apart - more than enough to create an alternate reality.  (Come to think of it, that's how Bizarro Superman was brought into being.)

At very least, we saw Laura Palmer's iconic young face in the little globe that was one of the products of what the blast wrought.  Also spawned tonight and a decade after the blast was a homicidal maniac - the woodsman - who only wants a light, but kills the receptionist and dj at the radio station playing The Platters' "My Prayer," and whose talking into the microphone (the woodsman's, that is) in turn kills more people, including a teenager who was just kissed but later has some grotesque insect with maybe human legs crawl into her sleeping or dead mouth (I told you this was horror - of the classic 1950s variety, raised or razed up a notch, to be more precise).

The one thing we can't be sure of is whether the atom bomb brought into being the alternate reality, or whether the alternate world already existed but was understandably agitated and aggravated by the bomb.  Doesn't ultimately matter, though, because it probably all amounts to the same thing.

None of this has any discernible connection to our 2017 story - though, hey, an atom bomb creating an alternate monstrous world should be enough of a story for one hour.  But we do get a significant step forward anyway in that 2017 story, at the beginning, when evil Cooper is killed, but monsters from the alternate world bring him back to life.  It's tough indeed to get rid of bad guys in this nightmare.

I was hoping against hope that the atom bomb would waken good Cooper from his stupor, but I guess it's still too early in our story at this point for that to happen, and since the atom bomb was already exploded in 1945, long before Cooper was put in his stupor, it wouldn't make sense for that same bomb to now bring him out of his stupor.  (There is some underlying logic in this story - at least, I hope so.)  But it was great to see Mr. Homn aka Carel Struycken again, from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

I'll tell you one thing: I'm glad I've been listening these days to Sirius/XM's Beatles channel in my car and not any broadcast radio.   That atom bomb couldn't have an effect on satellite radio - uh, could it??

See also Twin Peaks: The Return 1.1-2: Superluminal Sans Cherry Pie ... 1.3-4: Coffee and Cole ... 1.5: The Mod Squad Meets Big Love in the Diner ... 1.6: Red Door and Childish Scribbles ... 1.7: Lost and Not Lost


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Twin Peaks: The Return 1.7: Lost and Not Lost

First, let me mention that Twin Peaks, especially The Return, has a resemblance to Lost.  If you don't know what that means, I can't help you.

Meanwhile, episode 1.7 is the most informative so far in The Return, so much so that I'm beginning to feel a little non-lost, at last.

The FBI and the Sheriff are both beginning to - slowly - close in on finding good Agent Cooper, still, mostly, in a stupor. But he had great moves in stopping the midget alter-dimensional psycho, and he also continued his rehabilitation by responding well to "Agent" - bringing the total of words he's now responded to, showing an awareness of his true identity, to I think three now, right?

And speaking of the FBI and the Sheriff, this episode had three stand-out performances by old white guys - David Lynch at his stentorian best as the FBI honcho, Robert Forster as the deadpan local sheriff, and James Morrison (not Jim) as the warden.  (Morrison, by the way, was last seen to great effect in 24, which, believe it or not, at least to me, also has some indefinable connection to Twin Peaks).

Also noticeable in this episode is no band performing at the end, or anywhere in the episode.  Instead, we get a great scene with the instrumental "Green Onions" playing as someone sweeps the floor - I mean, sweeps up the entire floor - of a bar, with the attention to task that one would find in a scene with someone sweeping the floor of a barber shop. Maybe this was in lieu of barbershop harmony? Or, more likely, you didn't need a song with words in this episode, because so many of the words in the hour added up to some kind of sense, a high-point for the series return so far.  And, as if to underscore this point, we also have an instrumental ending - Santo & Johnny's "Sleep Walk" - which is so obviously relevant to Twin Peaks it's ridiculous though it still worked beautifully.

And I'll see you again next week.

See also Twin Peaks: The Return 1.1-2: Superluminal Sans Cherry Pie ... 1.3-4: Coffee and Cole ... 1.5: The Mod Squad Meets Big Love in the Diner ... 1.6: Red Door and Childish Scribbles


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Twin Peaks: The Return: 1.6: Red Door and Childish Scribbles

Among the scenes I most enjoyed or found most worthy of remark in last night's episode 1.6 of Twin Peaks, still all-but-incomprehensible in the main, were -

• the red door to Dougie aka Agent Cooper's home: I have a front door exactly the same color, so I could relate
• Dougie's boss getting the "childish scribbles" Dougie had drawn on the forms - this was sheer genius, though I'm not sure if this was an emperor's new clothes message or something more profound
• the scene between the guy who looked and was acting like a young Dennis Weaver and the guy who looked and was acting like a young Christopher Walken: with all the decoys and doppels in this story, there was something about this scene which rang very true
• the short guy from the other dimensions urging the still largely stupefied Cooper to wake up - this plea had a real poignance, which cut across and through all the fog in Twin Peaks
• always welcome to hear talk of cherry pie in that diner

Scenes I could have lived without: I don't like seeing children killed, and I'm no fan of homicidal maniacs, either.

But the ending was good with a good song by the girl group, and I'll be back with more random but with any luck at least minimally coherent thoughts next week.

See also Twin Peaks: The Return 1.1-2: Superluminal Sans Cherry Pie ... 1.3-4: Coffee and Cole ... 1.5: The Mod Squad Meets Big Love in the Diner



FREE on Amazon Prime

Available on Prime