RETURN TO TWIN PEAKS

Sixteen years since it premiered on ABC, David Lynch's short-lived TV show Twin Peaks still has thousands of devoted fans craving the cherry pie and piping hot coffee served at the RR Diner. Every summer devotees flock to North Bend, Washington (where parts of the series were filmed) for the Twin Peaks Festival, and people have been petitioning for the release of Season Two on DVD for years. Paramount Home Video has finally taken pity on us, and will release the second season on April 10.

Just hearing about this Twin Peaks renaissance reminded me of my high school addiction to the show, when I traded plot theories during physics with my friend Kim, and nearly died of disappointment the night my parents forgot to tape a key episode for me. I bought the soundtrack by Angelo Badalamenti, of course, and pounced on Jennifer Lynch's sucky Secret Diary of Laura Palmer when it hit bookstores. And even though the second season was inferior to the first, I was devastated when ABC pulled the plug on the show in 1991.

Lynch's prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me followed in 1992, flopping undoubtedly because mainstream audiences had no appetite for an unflinching and terrifying portrayal of the ravages of incest and sex abuse. Like the show, however, the film has a solid cult following that's campaigning for a new DVD edition that would include several scenes deleted from the theatrical release.

This past week I rented the brilliant pilot episode and borrowed a neighbor's copy of Season One. It was great to revisit a world where placid 1950s Americana meets violence and surrealism, and where FBI Agent Cooper bases his investigation on the wisdom that secrets are dangerous, and that dreams and intuition are as important and reliable as logic.

So even though I favor the first season, I can't wait to further immerse myself in the spooky Northwest lumber town when season two springs forth in April.