Looking for original Twin Peaks reviews from 1990

March 3, 2017 5:14 PM

Are there any reviews from 1990 online from the original airing of Twin Peaks? I'm particularly interested in reviews of the second episode, the one with Dale Cooper's dream. I am trying to remember what the reaction was like at the time.

Twin Peaks is often discussed as a series that changed television. I'd really like to read contemporary reviews from when the series first aired. I'd love it if there was an archive somewhere, although critics probably weren't reviewing the show every episode/every week like online critics seem to do these days.

I remember watching the show when it originally aired (in Australia in 1991) and it already had cemented its reputation as charming and weird. And I know the pilot got amazing reviews, but how did the critical reception evolve? And what did they make of Cooper's dream?

posted by crossoverman to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Here's a review of the first two episodes from the Chicago Tribune. (Click "View Story Jump" for the conclusion.) The same reviewer wrote this of the first season finale: "The dizzyingly satisfying hour was typically thought-provoking, quirky, sexy, intricately plotted and violent."
posted by Knappster at 5:47 PM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

People were talking about this in Usenet newsgroups at the time.

Here’s an article i found: Twin Peaks on the Internet...in 1990 (an alt.tv.twin-peaks archive)
posted by D.C. at 7:08 PM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I remember my Mom reading Tom Shales review to me while I cooked but I can't find more than this.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 9:09 PM on March 3, 2017

Here is a link from The Guardian (UK) of a review of only the first episode when it was screened for the first time here in October 1990 - I think this was a year or so after it first aired in the US.

I’m inclined to think Twin Peaks is about Marilyn Monroe. David Lynch and Mark Frost, who wrote it together, met when they collaborated on a script about the death of Monroe called Goddess. They could not find a producer, but no writer throws anything away.

Interesting...
posted by multivalent at 3:11 PM on March 4, 2017

Here is the New York Times' preview of the first episode. Regarding the second episode, they make reference to it here but it's not a full-blown review but more about how the show is performing in the ratings and how people & networks were reacting to how unusual the show was. Here's the main review-like bit:

Last week's episode ended with a bizarre dream sequence that may have offended some viewers; it included a dancing midget speaking in a strangely elongated dialect as eerie music played in the background. No problem in Boise. Some viewers were, however, disturbed by a scene in which two brothers took unseemly pleasure in sandwiches brought fresh from Paris.

posted by mhum at 9:53 AM on March 6, 2017 [1 favorite]