Recently I finished watching Twin Peaks The Return (also known as season three). I won’t be doing a recommendation/review on season three as I’ve already got a general Twin Peaks recommendation, though I admit that was before The Return aired. But I will throw my two cents about it into a short blurb here and file it under Miscellaneous.

First you’ve really got to understand David Lynch’s work or at least his style. Though I admit I’m not overly familiar with all of his titles, from what I have seen he definitely shoots for the abstract and sometimes down right weird. While it’s not for everyone, his unique combination of stories, audio effects, memorable characters (for better or worse), and visuals give an interesting ride that you won’t really find in anyone else’s work and most people will find at least interesting. With that said, it’s no shocker that he wasn’t really basic cable friendly and always stuck to the big screen to have free reign with his creative process. So when Twin Peaks was aired on the mainstream airwaves, it seemed that Lynch was asked (or possibly forced) to dumb down the weird and appeal to a wider crowd.

However, this did not result in Lynch putting out a very simple murder mystery tailored for the basic cable viewer. He still managed to insert quirky characters, paranormal elements, confusing imagery and unsettling audio and visual effects. He kept all the elements that make his works unique, but tamed them down to be acceptable for the network. Because much of the story of Twin Peaks is hidden behind this curtain, it really did leave the typical viewer intrigued which I believe was a large factor to the popularity it achieved when it originally aired.

Now 25 years later, The Return was aired on a network that didn’t restrict Lynch and he took advantage of it. So fans of the original Twin Peaks that may not have enjoyed his other work, may not really enjoy The Return since it’s very different. Fans of Lynch’s stranger works though most likely loved the ride. Either way, The Return is not the Twin Peaks of old but it does have its own merits.

Well this short blurb that was supposed say The Return is weirder than the original run, turned into me ranting on a bit. Sorry about that. Anyways the main point I wanted to hit on, was that when Lynch does non basic cable work and gets a little weird, he churns out some crazy work in the visual department. And The Return is not an exception. Specifically, Episode 8 caught viewers off guard with a bit of a back story that heavily focused on visual story telling rather than dialogue. So I decided to take some screenshots of this visual trip because I thought they’d be great wallpapers or source material/textures to be used in something else. Enjoy!

This last one doesn’t really make for a great wallpaper nor texture use, but I thought it looked really damned creepy and I decided to throw it in.