Man, the episodes look really, really, really good. Better than Season 1’s DVD release - just cleaner and clearer, and the audio is pristine. I was skeptical when I heard that they were going to clean them up, but this is an outstanding job.
The case looks like a bad Chinese bootleg, and the DVD menus have a really embarrassing Matrix-y techno presentation, but other than that it’s solid. I could care less about the extras, but I really wish that they had made some effort to match the volume of the Log Lady intros to the episodes - you really have to crank it to hear what she’s saying, and then BOOM-BUM-BUM-BUM the theme song kicks in, leaving you scrambling for the volume button.
I really think that Season 2 is better than Season 1 in spite of the changes (i miss “invitation to love” the most). But some of the Bob stuff in the first two episodes alone is pants-shitting in its intensity. And “just you and I” is my favorite moment of the entire series. I forgot how funny Senor Droolcup’s interaction with Cooper is in the very first episode - the thumbs-up, the wink, and so on.
Considering Target has it for $34.99 right now, an excellent buy all around.
Bonus anecdote: my wife and I walked down the aisle to a string quartet playing the “Twin Peaks” theme.
I love Twin Peaks - my roommie and I used to watch the whole series on laserdisc about once a year - but “Just You and I”? Please. It made me want to jab icepicks into my ears. I was always of two minds about James… on the one hand, in every scene he was in I wanted to punch him in the mouth. On the other hand, strangling him would have been satisfying as well. I was very torn.
I’m assuming mine is waiting for me in my PO box, which I’ll be visiting in two days. My friend and I are watching season 1 together (she’s never seen it before) and we’ll be watching episodes 5 and 6 tonight. I was under the impression that the set was coming out later in the month so I’ve been tormenting her that she’ll have to wait for the resolution of the season-ending cliffhangers (without telling her what they are of course). I haven’t decided whether to tell her S2 is here. Plus I can finally sell my old VHS box set and free up some valuable shelf space.
I realize you don’t care about the extras, but what are they?
James Hurley - the most misunderstood character in Twin Peaks. I firmly believe that James’s character is intended as a send-up of the one-dimensional characters from soap operas that were so popular at the time, and not to be taken seriously. I think the banality of James is meant to contrast with the weirdness of everyone else, and make the whole show more surreal. His scenes are supposed to be stupid. You may still want to punch him in the mouth, but I think he is supposed to make you feel that way.
Beats me, but I’m looking at my Netflix queue right now. Season 1 is in my saved section with an unknown availability date while season 2 in in my queue with an availability date of now.
Regarding Season 1, they might be doing you a favor.
When I rented season 1, it was the release that omitted the pilot episode. So it was like trying to start a series with the second episode (even though it was the first episode of the “regular” season). Maybe there are plans to re-release season 1 with the pilot included and they just don’t have it yet?
Probably not- IIRC, the series is owned by Viacom but the pilot is owned by Warner Bros. (The pilot was released on DVD in other regions, but I am unsure if it was in the United States.)
The pilot as it appeared on American TV was not released on any home video format in the United States because the rights to the pilot are not owned by the same entity as owned the rights to the rest of the series. About 90% of the pilot plus another about 10-15 minutes of footage was shown in Europe as a TV movie and that was released at least on VHS in the US. The TV movie and the pilot are identical until those last 10-15 minutes, which include footage from Cooper’s dream, a bit from Gerard’s explanation of who BOB is and a scene of Andy and Lucy together doing something that I can’t quite recall. There may be a few other shots I’m not remembering. It concludes IIRC with a short gun battle at the train car in which BOB is killed. Why two things that substantially identical can be considered separate works for copyright purposes, I don’t quite get. Lynch was so pleased with the material that he incorporated it into the series proper.
The pilot exists on DVD through another (foreign) company (bootlegged?)-- it’s not terrible. Someone I know has a copy and I’ve no idea where she got it, but there is a bit of Chinese on the poorly done cover, but the DVD is fine. It can be found.
Looks like it’s out of print; Amazon’s only offering it through the third-party sellers (for an insane amount of money, more than for the entire rest of the series). IIRC it was a Korean import. The picture’s good but the sound seems to have been raised slightly in pitch. Very noticeable during the opening theme song but nothing that interferes with the enjoyment.
I showed the final three episodes of season 1 to my friend last night. She demanded that I reveal spoilers for season 2, so I acted out a few seconds from “Cooper meets Senor Droolcup.”
My brother rented Season 1 from NetFlix…