The late David Lynch loved how his early 1990s ABC drama “Twin Peaks” started. But the supernatural murder mystery’s sophomore run didn’t exactly qualify as “damn fine” in the legendary filmmaker’s opinion.
“The pilot is the only thing I am particularly, extremely proud of,” Lynch told TVLine back in 2017. “There were great moments along the way. The second season sucked.”
“Twin Peaks,” which Lynch co-created with Mark Frost, chronicles life in a sleepy small town after a teenage girl’s death rocks the community. The series is responsible for some of the scariest TV moments in the history of the medium and is beloved by fans to this day.
Like most of Lynch’s work, “Twin Peaks” is full of dark humor, but the first season is the most unsettling and boasts a tight, focused storyline. The second installment? Not so much. Season 2 often strays into goofy territory, which can be attributed to Lynch not overseeing some of the episodes, as well as network executives adding their opinions into the mix. However, Lynch didn’t allow the same mistakes to happen when he returned to helm the “Twin Peaks” revival series in 2017.
David Lynch was adamant to not repeat Twin Peaks Season 2’s mistakes with the revival series
The “Twin Peaks” revival series takes place 25 years after the events of the second season, with Agent Dale Cooper (played by Kyle MacLachlan) still trapped in the Black Lodge dimension while his evil doppelganger causes havoc in the real world. That’s the general gist of the story, but the series is full of bizarre subplots that showcase Lynchian weirdness at its fullest. In order to safeguard against what happened with Season 2, David Lynch directed every episode.
“I wanted it to hold together,” he told TVLine. “I see it as a film. [And you] don’t stop partway through [a film] and have someone else [direct]. It’s got to have a follow-through from the beginning to the end.”