2x03 The Man Behind the Glass

[4.1/10] More Twin Peaks! More wobbly, shaggy storytelling! More hit-or-miss at best scenes and sequences! Let’s take them one by one.

The highlight of this episode was, unexpectedly, Donna’s story. Her interactions with Harold Smith had some real juice to them, both for the fact that they felt somewhat like kindred spirits and because the two young actors gave performances that made them seem like human beings. There’s pathos in Harold being an agoraphobic, and some meaning in Donna wanting to get out of the shadow of Laura. It’s not perfect -- the scene with Donna at Laura’s grave is overdone like everything is, and the way the show piles on more and more characters and connections to Laura and the town feels implausible -- but there’s at least the germ of a good thing there.

The same can’t be said for the reveal that Lucy is actually pregnant from her sleazy, effete boyfriend from before Andy, Dick Tremayne. Tremayne is a cad, apparently, and his unctuous exchanges with the innocent-sounding Lucy should have some verve from the contrast. But this mostly feels like a pointless detour that should have been quickly resolved rather than taking away time from the main mystery.

Thankfully, we do get some meaningful progress on that front. Cooper & Co. seem to be closing in on Bob, with details like Leland’s memory of him, and the one-armed man freaking out and having an episode at seeing his picture making it seem as though there’s real progress on that front. I do appreciate the notion that there’s some kind of supernaturally evil force acting here, channeled through the one-armed man in some way. That said, there’s still a good chunk of exposition and repeating story beats to make sure the audience is up to speed which quickly grows tiresome.

We also get our first glimpse of Nadine since the S1 finale. I don’t know where they’re going with her super strength routine (something we got a glimpse of when she bent her exercise machine), but there is something freaky about her breaking out of her chains, clapping frantically, and talking about cheerleader try-outs after Ed sings to her. I’ll say this for Twin Peaks, 95% percent of the time it bores me to death, but in that last 5% it knows how to provoke a reaction.

We also get a new development in the Audrey storyline, where Blackie and the dept. Store guy figure out who she is and decide to hold her for ransom. For the love of god why? Why have they taken one of the best characters on the show and mired her in this neverending sideshow? Something about Audrey’s schoolgirl crush on Cooper and misguided investigation of her own gave the character momentum and something to do, but this, again, feels like Twin Peaks spinning his wheels

Still! It’s Michael Parks! And it’s never a bad thing to have Michael Parks in your movie or television show. I’d be lying if I said I was particularly compelled by his meh French accent and tranquilizer candy routine, but his presence alone is promising. What’s less promising is the fact that he’s Jacques Renault’s brother and that his partner is Blackie’s sister. Every new character being related or connected to some old character creates cheesy, small universe problems and that doesn’t help a storyline that already feels like a misfire in the early going.

The show also belabors the point that Bobby is falling for Maddy and Donna is insecure about it. Again, the show writes it all on the screen when it has Maddy go “everyone thinks I’m Laura but I’m not!” with more eye-roll worthy comments about this whole thing seeming like a dream. (We get it David Lynch & Co.! There’s a dreamlike quality to Twin Peaks! You can stop hammering that same damn point over and over again!) It at least seems to sever the ties between Bobby and Donna sending her into the far more interesting connection with Harold. But who knows with this show.

There’s also some mostly tedious interactions between Cooper and Ben Horne. There’s the usual “stay away from my daughter” “I meant no disrespect” routine between the two of them. Ben’s really a terrible character, so outsized and stock as the sleazy businessman that even Cooper, who knows how to channel this show’s energy into something that works, can’t drag much of a decent performance out of the character when they’re paired up. It’s a real indictment of the character of Ben Horne and the actor who plays him.

We also get an interminable sequence from Dr. Jacoby being hypnotized and ferreting out who the killer is or something. It’s another heap of junk, one that dances around this or that but never really advances the story, the characters, or the mystery. Everything revolves around Bob -- we get that -- and just adding more miscellaneous people saying there’s some vague, ethereal connection to him doesn’t progress things in a significant way.

And that’s pretty much it. I’ll be frank, I’m pretty much just in this to see how the mystery turns out. My impression is that as the show went on, Lynch & Frost were less and less interested in paying off the central mystery of the show, and more and more interested in just offering little slices of the world of Twin Peaks. But so far, most of those slices are dull or eye-roll worthy.

I’m beyond caring about what happens with Lucy’s pregnancy. I could do without byzantine blackmail schemes involving Audrey and new characters who are suspiciously related to current ones. Shelly Johnson’s desire to keep Leo’s disability insurance isn’t a compelling reason to check in with her on a weekly basis. Hell, they even disposed of the “Bobby’s in trouble after being caught with cocaine” business rather summarily. I like the quick reveal of Alfred's non-violent ethos with Sheriff Truman, but it's a mild bright spot amid a lot of dim stuff.

It all feels extraneous. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Some of my favorite parts of my favorite shows are little side stories that don’t advance major arcs but tell compelling little stories or develop the characters. But damnit, for that to work, the stories have to be good, not the dull crapshow Twin Peaks keeps serving up.