There were very few things my mother and I refused to talk about. While we shared many of the same ideas, we also were mature enough to converse about, debate and accept each other’s personal beliefs on multiple topics – religion, politics, whatever. However, I remember that there were two specific things that we dared not speak of; less we got into a heated argument and eventual fistfight. One was the two-part series finale of The Prisoner, and the other one was the merits of David Lynch, Twin Peaks. Oddly enough, I received the Definitive Gold Box Edition of Twin Peaks on the anniversary of my mother’s passing. Bittersweet? Maybe. I just like to think of that little coincidence as an indication that I won that argument, because for the most part, Twin Peaks was awesome. Victory dances and high fives all around!

It was pretty understandable where mom was coming from though, because up to its premiere, there was nothing on television like Twin Peaks – not just in genre-defying content that ranged from satirical sendups to creeping surrealism to slapstick comedy, but also in the technique of the show itself. Twin Peak’s thematic and cinematic elements are still felt today, even though technology, standards and practices, and the expanding audience of cable television have evolved since the show hit the airwaves in 1990. Now, thanks to the Gold Box Edition, we finally have the complete television series in a single release (minus the cinematic prequel Fire Walk With Me, which is owned by New Line anyway), including the much sought-after pilot episode, previously held up in rights hell and left off the previous, out-of-print Season One release.

It almost feels silly to give the rundown on such a landmark show with intentionally convoluted storylines and trademark Lynch themes that appear in basically everything he’s ever done, but here it is: In the small, woodsy population of Twin Peaks, the body of local teen queen Laura Palmer has washed up on shore; cold, blue and wrapped in plastic. Considering the small, near-incestuous nature of the town where everyone knows everyone and everything, this horrible news has flung the entire populace into a frenzy, eventually bringing the straight-laced FBI agent Dale Cooper in to investigate the death of Laura, which seems to be tied to a series of murders and assaults. However, things are not what they seem, because in the town of Twin Peaks, everyone holds a secret.

Of course, the mystery surrounding Laura Palmer’s murder was the holy MacGuffin, set in place to propel other points of intrigue in the series – in fact, the show was originally designed never to reveal the identity of the killer, we were simply supposed to be strung along, getting to know the cast of colorful characters as they all worked their way to this single, unachievable goal. And, of course, when the series picked up steam to the point of mass-hysteria, culminating in season one’s cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers, ABC demanded resolution, thus sinking the show halfway through season two.

Now, I’ve never actually seen any episode from Season two up until the release of this box set. And I must say, while not as bad as its reputation would lead you to believe, it certainly consists of far too many jump-the-shark moments, if I were to use a phrase I hated. Where should the series go when the killer is revealed? Concentrate on Sarah Palmer coping with so much loss? Offer touching character resolutions when nearly half the population is still comatose? Screw that – we’ve got four or five episodes of Ben Horne thinking he’s General Lee, ‘ol one-eye Nadine thinking she’s back in high school, James skipping town to no one’s interest, and, quite possibly the most ridiculous of all – Josie Packard’s soul getting trapped in a wooden armoire handle.

But, at the very least, Twin Peaks remained for the most part compulsively watchable, whether it was the organically strange first season, or the obvious weird-for-the-sake-of-weird tomfoolery of the second. Thankfully, the series hops back on the rails for the Lynch-directed series cliffhanger which manages to feel like an appropriate, though a dark and even mean-spirited ending without resolution. Did Dale Cooper ever escape The Black Lodge? Did Audrey Horne get blowed up real good?  These answers, and more, will never, ever, ever be revealed. Ever. Sorry.

Presentation

In addition to the strong visuals, we get a strong 5.1 surround sound track that really fills the room with Badalamenti’s ominous, beautiful, jazzy score, which is frequently mixed with the ambient drone Lynch is so in love with. If you’re a weirdo purist, the original 2.0 stereo track is also provided – it doesn’t pack the same punch, but it’s a welcome addition and adds to the strength of the overall presentation.

The only place one could complain about the audio presentation is that the DTS soundtrack included in Artisan’s release of Season One is nowhere to be found on this set. But that’s an entirely different company, and you can’t win ‘em all.

You won’t find much on the first eight discs, but starting at disc nine, we have a few handpicked deleted scenes. Considering most Lynch projects have hours upon hours of excised footage which is then lost, thrown away or burned in a garbage fire, the few scant minutes presented here in rough tape-transferred format are welcome. Disc nine wraps up with a few production stills.

So what do we have left? Disc ten, which is dedicated solely to extras, starting with Secrets from Another Place: Creating Twin Peaks, which might start off like masturbatory EPK material due to the love on display, but that’s simply because this four-part, feature length documentary is in chronological order – everyone involved is gushing because they start off talking about season one. By the time part four (Into The Night: Creating Season Two) rolls around, we really get some insight as the documentary starts focusing on what with wrong with the show, and really brings interesting material to the table.

One might wonder about the absence of David Lynch from Secrets From Another Place, Well, it turns out Lynch has his own feature dedicated to him, the wonderfully gimmicky, cinematic, shot in HD and presented in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen A Slice of Lynch. While notorious for not wanting to do commentaries, just hearing him talk about the project is always a quirky pleasure, and the mini-movie format involving Lynch, a slice of cherry pie and an electrical storm that magically conjures up Mädchen Amick, Kyle MacLachlan and John Wentworth makes what could have been a boring talking head interview into something worth checking out.

If you check out the Twin Peaks Festival section, you can explore the fan side of things with the twenty-minute Return To Twin Peaks. Concentrating on the Twin Peaks Festival, this love letter is a little fun and a little creepy. Also included in this section is an interactive map which is a little where-are-they-know segment, only it’s for shooting locations, which are immobile. The feature not only shows what these locations look like today, but also where you can find them if you want to go hunt down these places. Fans weird me out, man.

The rest of the material is for archival buffs, starting off with Kyle MacLachlan’s Saturday Night Live appearance, which includes both the spoiler-filled monologue, and a Twin Peaks spoof, which is slightly less ridiculous than the second season. Look out for Conan O’Brien as Officer Andy in the background.

The Black Lodge Archive digs deep into the show’s history, starting with the “Falling” Music Video and then delving into the super-obscure, including a narrative string of Japanese Georgia Coffee Commercials, a selection of On-Air Promos/Spots which includes commercials for the pilot, commercials including tons of media-quotes, and commercial especially shot (but apparently never aired) to promote new time changes, and T-Shirt sales. The 1-900 Hotline is roughly 20 minutes of highly exploitive moneymaking scheming – people were supposed to call for clues to unravel the mystery of the show, but instead got imaginative in-character radio plays recounting the previous episode, at the low, low price of two dollars a minute. It probably sucked if you bought into it at the time, but this stuff’s awesome as an after-the-fact DVD extra. And for completist, we have the Lucy Bumpers. How many times can you hear Lucy tell you that Twin Peaks will be right back? Six. Six times.

And, if you’re into hitting your skip button, we have the Twin Peaks Gallery, which features on-set, promo and the full set of Twin Peaks trading cards, which features screencaps, promo shots and character biographies, right down to the Log Lady’s log. It was around this time my head started to hurt from viewing all the extras in a row.

Technically, that’s not all, because if you’re one of the lucky ones who managed to pick up the box set in its first pressing, you’ve also received a collection of trading cards, roughly twelve out of over sixty. There have already been reports that some people have been receiving sets without the cards, so hang on if you have ‘em, they might actually be a rarity.