Twin Peaks Season 2: The Disappointing Sequel

In my first review of Twin Peaks, I, for whatever reason, entirely forgot it’s second season. Maybe my brain was just trying to repress the memory. You’ll see why soon enough.  This is the season of Twin Peaks that got the show cancelled. While maintaining a certain degree of similarity to the first season, there were certainly good reasons as to why ABC gave it the chopping block.

The first season was eight episodes in length. The second was twenty two. This obviously caused some issues. This is a familiar tale, where a TV series will have an excellent short first season only to be flustered by the demands of the network. Sometimes, a series will rise to the occasion. Twin Peaks does not do so. I think they tried their best, but you could tell by the end they really didn’t know what to do. They tried to develop some of the smaller characters in the show, but some of them didn’t really need development, and suffered with it. I liked Ben Horne as an unlikable, stingy man, not as a complex character. He works best when his own arrogance is being laughed at, not when it’s being developed.

Despite the fact that the season was twenty two episodes long, very little happened. Twin Peaks was the first series to have a serial narrative, yet it almost seemed not to, given how little changed throughout the length of the series. Sure, a few characters came and went, but other than that there was very little change.

This wasn’t entirely true of the beginning. This next part is a spoiler, so if you don’t like spoilers, please skip to the next paragraph. The nail in the coffin for Twin Peaks was the reveal of Laura’s killer. While there were still plenty of mysteries to solve in regards to her death, the reveal of the murderer definitely proved to be negative. The second season was as good as the first until this was revealed. There was something about knowing the killer, even without truly knowing his intentions, that allows you to feel as though the case had been solved. After the killer is revealed in the series, I highly suggest you stop watching, unless you’re really into the show. Twin Peaks just isn’t the same afterwards. The identity of Laura’s killer was supposed to be a mystery never solved, but understandably creator Mark Frost figured that he couldn’t keep the audience guessing forever. But, he also didn’t provide an interesting enough follow up to retain interest.