Interesting.
First of all, I mistimed the whole breakfast thing by not realizing the pilot is like a 1h and a half movie in itself. Had to watch the last 30 minutes on my way to school.
At first level, it was real nice to finally experience a lot of the iconic cues I was familiar with, from a distance. The music (even if "LP's Theme" was overused at times). LP's dead face. LP's portrait face. And such.
Plus, damn, this has all the 90s babes. Amick. Boyle. Fenn. Hnnnng. Lynch, ya dog you.
Right, let me bring it back to slightly more academic levels of discussion. I guess that, out of your formula INH, this episode covered 1 and 2 (and may do for a while during this season). The first 30 minutes were so soapy and I got the irony of it. The fact that two or three characters went in mucus & wailing mode even before the Sheriff said a word about what happened felt so weird; I mean I literally chucked at people crying, wot - and made me wonder if said characters aren't meant, thus, to be put in the pool of suspects, in a they-knew-what-had-happened way, or if it's an (intentional) false lead. Even so, Cooper brought a whole new fresh air, once the procedural bit proceeded. I could say I love this character already. A prototype of cuckoo lead figure that's nevertheless quite sharp and one-step-ahead-of-you badass at his tasks, that we're seeing countless times in today's TV dramas/dramedies, it seems? I also liked the chemistry (or rather the off-chemistry?) of slick, spontaneous Cooper and stiff as a plank Truman (seriously, does that actor even emote with his face).
Truman: "Do you think they spotted us?"
Cooper: "Gimme a doughnut."
WAT
I suppose there is already a sense of weirdness and oddball, even to these expositional conventional soap & murder plot tropes, that stems from Lynch's particular handle of language. I assume anyone not familiar with this would have a "these people aren't acting very well, do they" reaction to all that mucus filled anguish and wailing. For instance, I didn't get the point of showing Josie Packard doing her eyelines and gazing slowly at Pete leaving the house, during a set piece that was clear "Pete leaves the house to find LP dead", but mixed with the music, it gave me subtle chills.
If I'd single stronger scenes from this ep, it would probably be the Donna and James meetup in the dark. I also liked the cheap texture of some of the décor, like the
scene in what I assume was the town hall - as faithful as literally going up in the Carpathians at any village's cabin or restaurant. It's all shitty white drywall and shitty lumber wood.
Finally, the pool of suspects lottery - might surprise you, but even if I prepped myself on some of the weirder elements of the show when I wanted to pull a faux-Mulholland/Twin Peaks move in Triskaidekaphobia, I never happened to stumble upon the answer to "who dun it"; of course, in my great wisdom, I have already figured it out, but just to humor anyone here:
Bobby - my brain texted "HE DID NOT DO IT" way faster than Cooper typed it to Truman
James - gut tells me second hubby isn't prime candidate material either, although that "LP told me Bobby told her he killed a guy" story sounded like concocted bull
everyone who gave cried about as fake ass as Melania moans in bed... except the mother I guess
Good start, overall.