When I first heard the news two or three years ago that legendary Twin Peaks was going to make a comeback, I couldn't believe my luck. I never thought that I would live to see the day that my favourite TV show ever would return to television, so in a way it was a small miracle. But don't expect a nostalgic show that seeks to recreate the cozy and moody atmosphere of the original - Twin Peaks: The Return is pure Lynchian horror. Some were disappointed by the utter audacity of hardly giving the fans anything of what they loved about the show, but if you think about it Twin Peaks, like almost every movie David Lynch ever made, is really a horror show. Granted it hadn't always been the plan to go that way, that only happened after the studios forced David Lynch and Mark Frost to reveal who killed Laura Palmer, which they had actually never intended - that's when the show introduced all those outlandish supernatural aspects like otherworldly dimensions or aliens or demons, whatever you want to call it. Twin Peaks: The Return is, like the title, primarily about Dale Cooper's return from that other world called The Black Lodge, and it's just as weird and funny and scary and surreal as you'd imagine that would look like. Whatever you may think, there is nothing else out there like it. It's truly its own thing, its own marvelous, unforgettable thing.
GODLESS
Nothing beats a good western, and Netflix's Godless, written and directed by Scott Frank and exec-produced by Steven Soderbergh, is not just a good western, it's an amazing western. Not only does it have an original, smart and highly entertaining story (which is about a small mining town of almost only women that has to defend itself against an outlaw posse), and Jeff Daniels in one of his best performances ever as the villain - it also looks like a proper film. In short, a beautifully written, beautifully acted, and beautifully shot masterpiece.
THE DEFENDERS
A culmination of sorts to Netflix's and Marvel's collaboration, which has yielded so much quality, but fortunately not the last we will see of the heroes in question. Needless to say, if you have followed the separate adventures of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, you'll get a huge thrill from seeing them meet, get to know each other, squabble and fight each other and ultimately save New York City together. A bonus treat is seeing Sigourney Weaver, usually such a congenial presence with her warm voice, in a chilling role as the villainous leader of the Hand.
WORMWOOD
Master documentary filmmaker Errol Morris made a true crime show unlike any other for Netflix about the true story of Frank Olson, a scientist working for the CIA who fell or jumped out of a New York hotel window in 1953 and whose son Eric spent the rest of his life trying to find out the true story behind the apparent accident/suicide. Dynamically shot and edited interviews with real people like Eric Olson and others involved in the private investigation is interspersed with some very well-made reenactments of the events leading up to and including the night in question featuring proper actors (Peter Sarsgaard, Molly Parker, Tim Blake Nelson), and they all serve to make an excellent and unforgettable docudrama.
FIVE CAME BACK
Netflix's three-part documentary about the experiences and work of five legendary Hollywood directors (John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra and George Stevens) during WWII is the perfect marriage of film and history. The war propaganda that those five stalwarts of the golden age of Hollywood created are analyzed and honored by five modern filmmakers, including Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro, and the brilliance of Five Came Back is that it manages to provide an entirely new aspect to a subject matter that has been so thoroughly exhausted in countless documentaries and movies over the years.
THE VIETNAM WAR
Speaking of history, Ken Burns ten-hour documentary on the Vietnam war is perhaps the best history lesson ever made. It feels like enough time has now passed to give the subject the proper justice and objectivity needed for a thorough analysis, which this is, more than anything else. What led up to the war is equally as important as the horrors that took place during it and how it affected American society back home, thus changing history itself. Very informative, moving, troubling and impressively made, The Vietnam War is simply obligatory viewing.
THE KEEPERS
Netflix is not only the master of TV series, but of true crime as well, and the top show of 2017 in that regard was The Keepers. On paper it doesn't sound all that remarkable, simply telling the story of the unsolved murder of a young nun in Baltimore back in the early 1960's, investigated years later by her former alumni. At least not remarkable enough to warrant seven hour-long episodes. But once the mystery begins to unravel, a disgraceful conspiracy is revealed that has international religious repercussions, dramatic and outrageous enough to rival any of the many controversies in relation to the Catholic church that have surfaced over the past twenty-five years.
ALIAS GRACE
As Hulu's adaptation of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale lapped up every media's attention this year (rightfully so, of course), another Atwood book was brought to our television screens, on a slightly smaller scale, but with equal amounts of panache. It's been many years since I read the book, but I still remember it more strongly than the other Atwood novel I mentioned, as such an interesting little story, in Atwood's engaging and gripping writing, based on an actual case, that of a housekeeper called Grace Marks who was convicted of a double murder in 1843, apparently quite a notorious case in Canadian criminal history. Written by Sarah Polley (Take This Waltz) and directed by Mary Harron (American Psycho), starring Sarah Gadon (11.22.63), this excellent miniseries should not be overlooked.
FARGO
Noah Hawley's third iteration of Fargo, an in name only spin-off of the Coen brothers' 1995 film, on FX is slightly sharper, weirder, funnier, better, cooler, and more gross than the two previous seasons. I include it here freely because it is an anthology series, so each season is like a miniseries of its own, although all three stories share the same styles, themes and settings. This season has an excellent cast down the line, led by Ewan McGregor in a dual role as twin brothers Emmit and Ray Stussy, but it's David Thewlis' obnoxious and demonic villain Mr. Varga that will leave an indelible impression, especially if you're squeamish. If you unbelievably haven't already seen it, consider yourself warned!
PHILIP K. DICK'S ELECTRIC DREAMS
In the wake of Charlie Brooker's hit show Black Mirror, it is quite a formidable task to make an impression on the public with another clever and sometimes creepy science fiction anthology show. Channel 4 and Amazon Video have done their best to bring ten short stories by the late great Philip K. Dick to television and make them stand on their own. My verdict is they pulled it off. As with the aforementioned Black Mirror, the quality of the episodes vary, but the best ones (like The Commuter and Kill All Others) are so good that the lesser ones (like The Hood Maker and Autofac) are quite palatable as well when the show is consumed as a whole. After all, there would be no Black Mirror-style of intellectual sci-fi without Philip K. Dick, or at least he came first.
