Today, today, today!!!

From AICN, "The long-awaited second-season “Twin Peaks” DVD (revealing, among many other things, who wrapped Laura Palmer in all that plastic) finally hits DVD today.

One forgets how huge “Twin Peaks” was at the beginning its second season. David Letterman interviewed Kyle McLachlan between seasons one and two, and told McLachlan he believed McLachlan’s character, FBI man Dale Cooper, killed Laura. On “Saturday Night Live” during the same hiatus, guest-host McLachlan reveals in his monologue Q&A that Shelley the waitress killed Laura, then is taken aback when he finds himself on the receiving end of a telephone tirade from “David Lynch.” In the SNL sketch that followed, Sheriff Harry S. Truman (Kevin Nealon) reveals that Leo (Chris Farley) killed Laura. Conan O’Brien plays Deputy Andy. Victoria Jackson play Audrey Horne. Jan Hooks plays both Nadine Hurley and the Log Lady. Phil Hartman plays a hilariously grief-stricken Leland Palmer. Mike Myers concludes the sketch with as the backwards-talking dwarf. One doesn’t expect any of this stuff will be on the DVD, but it’s fun to remember.

The second season was much longer than the first - 22 episodes versus eight. It begins with the aftermath of Cooper’s shooting. Hilarious and mesmerizing, the first, very long scene of the season, directed by Lynch, spotlights a very elderly Great Northern Hotel employee FBI agent Albert Rosenfield will refer to as “Senor Droolcup.” Droolcup delivers warm milk to Cooper, even as Cooper lies in a rapidly expanding pool of his own blood. With words and action, Lynch wonderfully underscores the enduring appeal of Cooper, still one of the most memorable characters in TV history.

Near the end of Lynch’s two-hour premiere, Alicia Witt makes her second onscreen appearance anywhere (the first was as Paul’s baby sister in “Dune”) as Donna and Harriett Hayward’s kid sister, playing piano in a fairy costume as Leland Palmer undergoes an emotional implosion.
In 2.2, we meet a kid who can teleport creamed corn. And we learn that Margaret the log lady never stops cradling her timber (IF you know what I mean), even when she sits at the diner counter to enjoy a bear claw. Michael Parks (the lawman from “From Dusk Till Dawn” and “Kill Bill”) turns up as the sinister French-Canadian Jean Reneault, who menaces Audrey Horne and wishes Cooper dead.

In 2.3 Big Ed’s wife loses a huge chunk of her memory and gains superhuman strength.

In 2.4 Royal Dano offers a winning turn as avuncular traveling judge Clinton Sternwood. The judge shares his Winnebago with his impossibly hot law clerk Sid (played by runway model and 6’1” “Xena” icon Claire Stansfield in her first filmed appearance).

In 2.5, Cooper and Truman get to rough up some bad guys in a bid to liberate Audrey. Donna and Maddie betray a very unstable young man in bid to liberate Laura’s “secret” diary.

In 2.6 David Lynch himself begins to steal the show as Cooper’s nearly deaf boss, FBI regional director Gordon Cole. One of the series’ – indeed, television’s - finest moments comes in 2.19 when Cole shares a scene with gorgeous Shelly Johnson and her sulky teen dirtbag boyfriend Bobby Briggs. Cole’s concluding line, “TAKE A LOOK, SONNY, IT’S GONNA HAPPEN AGAIN!!” is inspiration itself.

Because of this thousand-dollar chunk of dialogue and the many others like it, I was among the very few who never lost any enthusiasm for the series. Laura’s murderer was revealed in 2.7, yes, but her strange end turned out to be a tiny component of a much larger story.
In my view one of the two best TV series ever forged, “Peaks” is the only show I ever tried to save by writing into a TV network. The cliffhanger series finale was a typically thrilling and fascinating Lynch-directed installment, and one that made too bitter the news of the show’s demise. (It also stung that Lynch decided to make “Peaks’” wildly uneven theatrical version a prequel – and a prequel that made little effort to further explore the town’s bigger mysteries. Though I couldn’t help but love the FBI stuff with the new Keifer Sutherland, Chris Isaak and David Bowie characters.)

Here’s how Amazon describes the new set’s extras:

Extras include an “Interactive Interview Grid,” “Behind the Scenes with Kyle MacLachlan, Madchen Amick, Sherilyn Fenn, David Duchovny, and more,” “Season 2 Log Lady Introductions," and “insights by” “Peaks” directors Caleb Deschanel (who sired Zooey and Emily), Stephen Gyllenhaal (who sired Jake and Maggie), Duwayne Dunham (who went on to direct “Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey” and a lot of TV movies), Todd Holland {who went on to direct 52 episodes of “The Larry Sanders Show”), Tim Hunter (who came out of “River’s Edge” and went on to lots of episodic TV), and Jennifer Lynch (who never directed a “Twin Peaks” episode but was sired by David Lynch).

Which begs the question: Why interview the actors and directors and David Lynch’s daughter but not the series’ writers? It’s frustrating that Lynch doesn’t further participate, but is co-creator/co-showrunner Mark Frost not on this set? That’s crazy!