What I’m Watching: Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks: Season 3, Episode 5 “The Return – Part 5” (B-)

At least things are getting a little more focused now and not nearly as much time and attention are being devoted to the usual disorienting and infuriating tangents this show tends to feature. As has been the case with every episode thus far, we’re introduced to new characters played by familiar TV faces, led here by Robert Knepper of “Prison Break” and “iZombie” and Jim Belushi as two very intimidating men who were none too happy with Brett Gelman’s hapless casino manager, who has now been beaten and replaced by someone with considerably less personality. The man everyone thinks is Dougie continues to walk around not being a human being, and I like that he drank and loved the coffee, then taken from someone else, and that the blurted out that a man in the room was lying – to his face. He also knows exactly what to do when he needs to pee, look panicked and grab his crotch, but he hasn’t figured out the routine of actually going into the bathroom just yet. I guess it’s not in the cards on this show for anyone to point out that he’s not functioning at full capacity, or really any capacity. I’m not fresh enough on who the characters I’m supposed to recognize are, especially now that they’re twenty-five years older, but I did see a throwback to unfortunate themes of abuse in an unsettling scene in this hour. This show has lost its signature soapy nature, but at least we’re also getting away from the excessively supernatural and completely unexplainable elements as well.