I was really upset to learn that David Lynch, the film maker, had died. Even though I haven’t seen one of his movies for decades. And, if I’m honest, I barely knew the man.

But anyone who watched every single one of the… 36? 49? 123??? episodes of Twin Peaks, when it came out, has a part of them that forever belongs to David Lynch. (I’ll make the assumption that anyone who really hated it, and I can get that too, didn’t qualify as watching all the episodes).

Yet the man started with pure film. Elephant Man was the first one I remember. And it was basically a beautiful and beautifully produced, black’n’white, true-life bio-pic of a ‘bit of a freak’. He then followed that with a series of films of seemingly increasing levels of weirdness. Of strangeness. Oddness. From Blue Velvet with its ‘dark side of the American dream, suburban world’, to Wild at Heart, the dark side of redemption. Always a darkness lurking somewhere. And after Twin Peaks came the awesome Mulholland Drive.

But film is limiting. You got 2 hours. Possibly 3 if you’re really pushing it. Whereas a tv series gave the man time to expand his horizons in all directions. And Twin Peaks expanded everything, to everyone, all at once. It was a thriller, it was a comedy, it was noire, it was light, it was bizarre, it was fabulously non-linear, it had horror, paranormal and sci-fi. And confusion. Lots of confusion. The most surreal viewing I’d ever seen. But, in common with his films, it had loads of stunningly beautiful women. To hold your interest whilst your brain was trying to make sense of it all. The music was ‘haunting’ and when the first 4 notes played on episode 1 I was hooked for the duration. And even beyond that as I went to the cinema to see the ‘prequel’, Fire Walk with Me. Which took the ‘confusion’ level to a degree further. Into ‘WTF???’

Safe to say: there’s never been anything like it since.

RIP David Lynch, you brought a lot of people immense pleasure.

Happy Friday

A xxxx