Twin Peaks: Definitive Gold Box Edition

Ever since the DVD format came out in 1997 there have been certain films and television series that the fans demanded on the media. Now, some ten years later, many of the most wanted titles have had their release on DVD. One television series has been frustrating for its fans, Twin Peaks. For years it seemed to be impossible to get the entire series on DVD. Although it ran for only 29 episodes over two seasons the quagmire of legal issues kept the fans from having the Holy Grail for David Lynch fans, the definitive Twin Speaks box set. The main difficulty to overcome was who owned the rights. The pilot episode was owned by Warner Brothers Home Video and various legal issues prevented this pilot from being distributed. The remainder of the first season was owned by Republic Pictures a subsidiary of Spelling Entertainment. They had a distribution arrangement with Artisan who released the first season through their company, Lion’s Gate. There were problems with the mastering that prevented the season set form working on all players and the title was soon discontinued. The rights for season two were owned by Paramount who did release that season to region one DVD in April of 2007. Now, only a few short months the hard working lawyers at Paramount have managed to straighten out this mess and the fans of the series are the beneficiaries. Yes fellow Twin Peaks fans the Holy Grail has been unearthed and everything you wanted is now in one massive DVD box set; ‘Twin Peaks: Definitive Gold Box Edition’. Okay, it’s missing the film ‘Fire Walk with Me’ but that is not considered part of the series by many and it is still available if you have to have it.

The chances are if you are interested in this set you know the story already so let’s get right to the marrow and look at just what is in the set. The terms ‘Gold Box’ and ‘Definitive’ are thrown around the DVD world like rice at a weeding. Most of the time the promise is not really fulfilled but this is far from the case with Paramount, they mean what they say. Their commitment to excellence starts with the packaging. Since a lot of the screeners I get are just discs in plain envelopes I’ve never been into fancy cases. I was impressed with this one. The gold color box slides out of its case and opens to ten sturdy plastic pages. In a little pocket there is a dozen postcards. All of the episodes have been completely re-mastered. The have never looked this good, ever. The colors are bright and capture the realistic. David Lynch’s renowned use of light and shadow is perfectly reflected here. The contrast holds up even in the scenes with light and dark juxtaposed. The original negatives were obtained and used to create the new video transfers so this is going to be a better view of the series than has been seen since the first airing. Not only has the video been given a fresh lease on life the audio was redone as well. You have a choice here as to how to listen to the series. You can go with the original Stereo mix which has been cleaned up to present a clean sound track with excellent channel separation. There is also a completely new Dolby 5.1 audio mix that was personally approved on by David Lynch. While flatter than a more recent series made for 5.1 audio it does give you a full sound stage with natural reverberation and depth added by the sub woofer.

The extras start right with the first disc. Not only do you get the original televised version of the pilot you get the international version which was intended more of a stand alone television movie than a series pilot. Before this release by Paramount you would have had to get a multi-region DVD player and video format converter to watch this international version. Seeing the U.S. version of the pilot was just about impossible before this release. Now most fans would be happy with just the pilot and two season episodes. The tenth disc in this truly golden set has a lot more than most have ever imagined.

A man sits at the bar; a waitress brings him a big slice of cherry pie. He looks up and says "DKL, this is the strangest thing". He sees several of the cast members sitting across from him and they all laugh. The man is none other than series creator, David Lynch. Sitting with him are Kyle MacLachlan, Mädchen Amick and John Wentworth, the post production coordinator. Lynch starts things off slowly introducing each person and telling them how they received the nick names he has assigned them. They sit, drinking their coffee and reminisce about just how the series came to be. Most of the talking is done by Lynch. There is a feeling of a grandfather surrounded by the grandkids telling them a family story. Every so often one of the others will come in, filling in the blanks to the story. They talk about how they became involved with the series and how they developed their roles.

This featurette is subdivided into four sections.

This section gives us a behind the scenes look at bringing a very odd series to television. The themes and imagery was like nothing the small screen had ever seen and it was a difficult time to sell the concept to the studio. Lynch was already known as an avant guard film director and many just weren’t sure how his unique style would translate to television.

The studios were intrigued by the pilot and gave them a provisional seven episode season. With all the strange characters, including an oddly dancing little person talking backwards, the studios didn’t quite know what to make of the series. When the fans gathered around and millions tuned in they knew they had a hit.

Angelo Badalamenti was responsible for the music of the series. In this section he talks about how his jazz inspired music became such an important part of the series. He had worked with Lynch on ‘Blue Velvet’ so they came into this with a great working relationship.

Here the focus was how to follow up on season one. This included the problems of resolving the mysteries and moving on to new territory. The cast and crew take a honest look at ‘how the wheels fell off the cart’. This was a more forced exercise in creativity and it was reflected in the series. The cast and crew were only given pieces of the script. Fake scenes were made to keep everybody in the dark as to what would happen next.

On September 29, 1990 Kyle MacLachlan appeared as the guest host for SNL. Included in this section are his opening monologue and the Twin Peaks skit. The monologue has a question and answer section where MacLachlan gives ridiculous secret information about the then up coming season two. He then puts on his persona from the series and makes fun of all the notable aspects of it.

This looks at the loyal fans as they gather to the original locations to celebrate the series. They discuss just why they fell in love with Twin Peaks.

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