Twin Peaks: A Chronological Cut was made as a different, more streamlined way to watch the entire Twin Peaks series (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Twin Peaks Season 1+2 and Twin Peaks: The Return). I have taken all of Twin Peaks, trimmed it down and edited it into 18 different feature length “chapters”, between 1:34 - 2:03, all of which have an overarching theme, which I have given in the title of the chapter. What I have done with these chapters is give a chronological depiction of the Twin Peaks story. Season 1 + 2 are left generally in the same order, however Fire Walk with me is now before the main series, and The Return has been rearranged a whole lot, with events of ‘Part 8’ now at the very start.
The main things taken out of the new edit are the meandering subplots of season 2 (James & Evelyn, Nadine, John Justice Wheeler, Dick Tremayne etc.), some of the slow, and arduous parts of the Return, and much of the Laura storyline in Fire Walk With Me (I have only kept the Teresa Banks case part, and the final scenes of the movie). Roughly 25% of the series has been taken out. This is mainly the last half of season 2, the middle of Fire Walk with Me and the middle of The Return, however some parts of season 1 and the first half of season 2 have been taken out too (mainly the James, Harold and Nadine parts).
I would recommend watching this if you:
Have seen Twin Peaks and you want to re-watch it, but you don’t like the idea of reliving all the stupidity of Season 2, and sitting through those bits in the Return where it feels like nothing is happening. You also like the idea of being able to watch it all in chronological order, especially seeing how the Return plays out in order.
Have never seen Twin Peaks and like the weird style and mystery of it and want to see what all the fuss is about, but feel like you’ve heard it can be very boring and slow in parts, so you’d like to be able to watch it all but miss out all the worst aspects of it. You might like David Lynch’s films like Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive and you want to see Twin Peaks in a more cinematic fashion. If it is your first viewing, I would recommend watching chapters 2 to 11 first, then chapter 1, then 12 to 18. This is so the mystery of Laura’s palmer isn’t all revealed for you straight away. You could get away with watching chapter 1 after watching chapters 2 to 8 if you wish.
There are aspects of the series that made it difficult to edit, for example at the beginning of every episode of seasons 1 and 2 the credit text is shown on screen while the actual episode is playing out. This means some parts of chapters 2 - 11 have credit text on screen at points in the middle of the film. I apologize for this but I’m not good enough at editing to take these out, and I don’t want to get rid of important scenes because there is text on the screen. Also, with my previous Game of Thrones cut, I tended to end each chapter with a dramatic scene that ended an episode of the series, though with this one I haven’t done that as such, so sometimes it feels like it ends at unusual points. This is done intentionally, I have chosen to end at these points on purpose and it is keeping with the absurd style of the series. There are also parts of the last two episodes of The Return where they travel through to different time periods that are totally unknown, and travel back to the events of Laura’s death and afterwards. I have kept all these bits at the end because it serves as a fitting ending to the entire edit.
Here is an overview of the chapters:
Chapter 1: Creation – The Return (Part 8) + Fire Walk with Me (1:46)
Chapter 2: Mystery – Season 1 (1:55)
Chapter 3: Ideas – Season 1 (1:45)
Chapter 4: Rhythm – Season 1 (1:51)
Chapter 5: Questions – Season 2 (1:56)
Chapter 6: Two – Season 2 (1:41)
Chapter 7: Suffering – Season 2 (1:56)
Chapter 8: Revelations – Season 2 (2:03)
Chapter 9: Victims – Season 2 (1:50)
Chapter 10: Treasure – Season 2 (1:34)
Chapter 11: Reflection – Season 2 (1:48)
Chapter 12: Time – The Return (1:52)
Chapter 13: Memories – The Return (1:51)
Chapter 14: Bodies – The Return (1:42)
Chapter 15: Interrogation – The Return (2:01)
Chapter 16: Dreams – The Return (1:58)
Chapter 17: Fire – The Return (1:48)
Chapter 18: Judy – The Return (1:39)
There are three ways you can watch these chapters:
IN ORDER (Recommended for avid fans of the series, or for fans of the original series who weren’t as into the Return/never got round to watching it) - this way all the mystery of Laura Palmer’s death is revealed at the start, and you can watch it all knowing fully about what actually happened. This way you won’t let the mystery cloud your understanding of the larger forces at play in the series. However your enjoyment of chapters 2 to 8 might be a little stifled because so much of the intrigue of these chapters comes from wanting to find out what happened to Laura Palmer. Though watching the chapters in this order will definitely put you in a better frame of mind to enjoy the Return chapters.
CHAPTERS 2-11, CHAPTER 1, THEN CHAPTERS 12-18 (recommended for first-time viewers) – this way you are watching it the way it is intended to be viewed, and the order in which it was released. You don’t know the full story of Laura Palmer’s death until after watching season 2, and chapter 1 is a really strong set-up for the themes of chapters 12-18 (The Return). This way all the intrigue from the earlier chapters is still there, though it is still a much stronger, streamlined way of watching Twin Peaks as a series.
CHAPTERS 2-8, CHAPTER 1, THEN CHAPTERS 9-18 (for viewers of the original series, who got a little bored during season 2 and stopped watching) – this way as soon as the mystery of Laura Palmer’s killer is revealed, you can begin the larger story of Twin Peaks by watching chapter 1 before watching the rest of the Season 2 chapters. This way you can enjoy the first part of Twin Peaks the way it is meant to be enjoyed, and then see the rest of season 2 in a different light (bear in mind I have taken out all the worst parts of season 2 that might have bored you in the first place).
Please PM me for a link to the series, and please make sure you own a copy of the series yourself before asking to download!