We recently pulled out the first season of Twin Peaks, the quirky, murder mystery, sex, intrigue show that ran for two seasons back in 1990 and was the work of mastermind of the weird, David Lynch, who did other crazy, weird movies like Blue Velvet.  I have to say, the show holds up for the most part too.  I remember being in high school when this show was playing, and being frustrated becaues I couldn’t always get the TV on the night it was on, so I kept missing episodes and never did find out who murdered Laura Palmer. 

Another thing I noticed about Twin Peaks is that the ill fated Laura Palmer, played by Sheryl Lee, the actress who played her has never gotten any really good parts after that movie.  Nor have the rest of the cast for that matter!  And although there were admittedly some mediocre actors in Twin Peaks, there were also some very talented actors.  One such talented actor that I’m surprised didn’t get more meaningful work after Twin Peaks was Dana Ashbrook, who played the smartass Bobby Briggs, or Madchen Amik, who played his adulterous girlfriend and wife of psycho Leo.

The biggest talent in this show though, is definitely Kyle McLachlan, who only really popped up here and there since Twin Peaks.  Although he seems only to work with David Lynch, he appeared in Sex and the City as a love interest of one of the girls, and he may have done broadway or something beyond that, but I’m surprised he’s never really shown up in any big roles after Twin Peaks, since he really was a talented guy in that show.  He played Agent Dale Cooper, with his quirky food tastes and zeal for life, along with a type of innocence and integrity that made him a likeable character to a T. 

And then there’s Peggy Lipton, who was in the Mod Squad in her younger years and still looked beautiful twenty some years later in the series.  There is such a huge ensemble cast, and the mysteries are intriguing.  Even after we find out who killed Laura Palmer, it evolves into a more and more interesting plot with supernatural things entering in. 

Some may think it got ridiculous, but really it was just sticking with the quirkiness that the directors are known for and it stuck out for not following convention.  It probably paved the way for later shows such as Picket Fences and X Files actually, so we should be grateful that any network agreed to pick it up, since it opened the doors for such unique and quirky programming.