Wonderful and strange

By Jason Davis     January 16, 2006

In the summer of 1994, I took the advice of someone--I've forgotten who it was--and watched a rerun of THE X-FILES. I was hooked almost instantly and set about finding anything I could on the show. This being before I had the Internet and before Mulder and Scully were a hit, it was not easy to find information on the series. Then I remembered something. I'd seen a magazine featuring the two FBI agents on the cover at my local comic store--it was a magazine I'd not heard of before and had a vaguely perverse sounding title.

The magazine was Wrapped in Plastic and I had unknowingly stepped into the outskirts of TWIN PEAKS. While the detailed X-FILES episode guide helped me get a grip on what was soon to become Fox's signature drama, the remaining pages piqued (or perhaps "peaked") my interest in a water cooler phenomenon of the recent past. I started keeping an eye out for PEAKS whenever I ventured into a video retail or rental shop. I eventually got my hands on the pilot, more properly the European cut of the pilot with a cobbled together conclusion co-creator Lynch was contractually required to deliver. The pilot captured my imagination and eventually led to a friend who loaned me recordings of the entire series. I remember the entire summer of 1996 by the episodes of TWIN PEAKS that punctuated them: the first day of shooting on my first short film, my first date with a friend, and the removal of my wisdom teeth. The final event no-doubt blurred my critical faculties enough to excuse some of the worst aspects of season two as later viewings have revealed.

Along the way, I became an avid reader of Wrapped in Plastic and found it to be an excellent gateway to some other televisual delights I might not have otherwise discovered. "What does this have to do with anything," you may well ask? Well, Wrapped in Plastic concluded it's 13-year run last Wednesday with the publication of its seventy-fifth issue. For the last few years, the magazine's publication had become somewhat erratic (it's equally brilliant sister magazine SPECTRUM hasn't published in at least a year or two) and it was with a strange degree of synchronicity that its final issue arrived on a most unusual day for me.

Having long since grown tired of the wait for TWIN PEAKS season two on DVD (and knowing that this sort of frustrated behavior often results in the DVDs being rapidly released), I had embarked on a viewing of the entire 30-episode series (the last 22 on my prized laserdiscs). I watched the series finale Tuesday night only to walk into the store Wednesday afternoon to find the final issue. In itself, this is not an astonishing coincidence. What is more uncanny is a question asked to two PEAKS writers interviewed for the final issue...

Let me jump back to a DOCTOR WHO convention last year where a friend and I, deep in a discussion of the current state of TV noted a distinct similarity between TWIN PEAKS and LOST. Both shows, we felt, had been massively successful in their first seasons for carefully straddling the line between mainstream drama and speculative fiction. In both cases, there was suggestion of the supernatural, but never out-right confirmation. My associate and I hypothesized that eventually LOST would have to come down on one side of the fence or the other, as TWIN PEAKS had, and alienate half its audience. This theory was echoed in an essay printed in Wrapped in Plastic a few months later, but the final issue actually posed the conundrum to PEAKS co-creator Mark Frost and producer Bob Engels, both of whom noted the dangers of LOST's predicament. No sooner had I read the interviews than I sat down to watch LOST. There was the monster in all its SF glory and the review posted here has attracted a substantial amount of displeasure with the turn of events.

So, "What's all this have to do with anything?" you reiterate. Who knows? But as Agent Dale Cooper once said, "Gentlemen, when two separate events occur simultaneously pertaining to the same object of inquiry, we must always pay strict attention." So, there you are.

MONDAY, JANUARY 16

SURFACE (8 PM PST, NBC) "Episode 105" You gotta respect a writing staff that doesn't waste time coming up with clever titles for each episode-- kind of like TWIN PEAKS.

24 (8 PM PST, Fox) Inexcusably forgotten on last night's listings, the third and fourth hours of Day 5 air tonight.


TUESDAY, JANUARY 17

SURFACE (7 PM PST, NBC) "Episodes 110-112" Catch up with the riveting Episode 110, the unforgettable Episode 111, and the astonishing Episode 112...okay, I'll stop now...it probably wasn't funny on Monday either.

SCRUBS (9 PM PST, NBC) "My New God" & "My Missed Perception" Dr. Cox's religious sister--that's all I need to hear about the first half of NBC's hour of medical hilarity. Why is it that all my favorite American sitcoms involve doctors?

SUPERNATURAL (9 PM PST, WB) "Faith" Julie Benz guest stars as Layla... Darla's twin sister perhaps?

THE SHIELD (10 PM PST, FX) "Enemy of Good" Is everyone else enjoying the blood splattered Mackie image FX is using to advertise season five?

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18

LOST (8 PM PST, ABC) "The 23rd Psalm" The monster makes its appearance--and the ratings take a sharp decline...

LOST (9 PM PST, ABC) "The Hunting Party" Has LOST jumped the shark...or, rather the smoke? You be the judge.

VERONICA MARS (9 PM PST, UPN) "Donut Run" Kristen Bell in an episode with donuts in the title... I can get behind that.

INVASION (10 PM PST, ABC) "Power" If LOST goes down in the wake of the smoke, INVASION is gonna go with it.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19

MY NAME IS EARL (9:00 PM PST, NBC) "Cubicle Life" Earl's stealing titles from THE OFFICE and guest stars from FRIENDS with Giovanni Ribisi guesting.

THE OFFICE (9:30 PM PST, NBC) "The Secret" Hooters anybody?

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20

STARGATE: SG-1 (8 PM PST, Sci Fi Channel) "Ripple Effect" A bit of parallel reality fun for SG-1.

BOOK OF DANIEL (10 PM PST, NBC) "Revelations" I keep missing this one, but it looks intriguing and Aidan Quinn is always worth a watch.

MONK (10 PM PST, USA) "Mr. Monk Bumps His Head" I seem to have forgotten what this episode is about... for that matter, who am I and why am I typing this?

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (10 PM PST, Sci Fi Channel) "Epiphanies" Roslin inches ever nearer oblivion... how cool would it be if she died and woke up in a new Cylon body?

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21

HU$TLE (10 PM PST, AMC) The third episode of this excellent BBC series from the people who brought you MI-5 (aka SPOOKS) follows a group of criminals in complicated scams that make the average MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE episode look like a walk in the park. Robert (THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.) Vaughn stars.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22

GREY'S ANATOMY (10 PM PST, ABC) I've just watched the entire first season of this show in one sitting and I've fallen in love...my highest recommendation to anyone who hasn't had a dose of this pill yet.