One of the best TV series ever, Twin Peaks, will finally be released on Blu-Ray in the United States this July 29.
Created, produced, and written in significant part by David Lynch and Mark Frost (whose importance to the show’s success has been vastly underrated), Twin Peaks told the story of a murder in a small town in the idyllic Pacific Northwest, presenting quirky but plausible characters, strange and exceedingly puzzling situations and events, and a compelling central mystery with a focus on how the victim’s life led to her death. The show quickly engaged the nation’s attention and suffused the popular culture with references through countless articles and in allusions in other TV shows, movies, and books and stories.
An element of the show that was implicit in the series and made explicit in the prequel film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, was the theme of demonic possession and the horrific consequences of the phenomenon (regardless of whether one considers it a psychological condition or a spiritual one). Prominent critics hated Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, but I thought it an excellent film, utterly terrifying in its depiction of the horrors of what people can do to one another and its refusal to explain away atrocities by use of psychological jargon.
Some critics specifically derided the film for depicting the motivation for the crimes shown in the series as being of spiritual origin, calling it a cop-out, but I think it a bold and effective choice in both dramatic and logical terms. Critics accustomed to and comfortable with simplistic psychological explanations for horrific crimes (meaning nearly all critics of the time) disliked the film for its boldness in suggesting that some things people do are simply inhuman.
The movie will be made available in the Blu-Ray release so that viewers will be able to judge for themselves.
Details on the Blu-Ray release here.
Thomas–I greatly prefer Blu-Ray to DVD. The video quality is full HD, and if you’re watching on a large-screen TV the difference is immense. Moreover, a show that is so visually interesting as Twin Peaks must really benefit from the higher video quality. That’s my opinion, anyway.
I already have the Gold Box DVD edition of Twin Peaks. Is there any point in upgrading to Blu-Ray? Is it that much better than regular DVD?
I began buying Beta tapes 30 years ago. I bought an S-VHS player in the 1990s, and began buying VHS tapes. I began buying DVDs about a decade ago. I’m so sick of buying movies and show I already own.
Is a Blu-Ray Twin Peaks THAT much better than the regular DVD?