Reviewing Peaks – Myles Callum’s Review of ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me’ For TV Guide in January 1993

David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was released on home video in the United States on January 6, 1993. Ten days later, a short review by Myles Callum was published in the January 16-22 issue of “TV Guide.” He said Lynch’s 1992 masterpiece was “weirder than ever.”

TV GUIDE FOR JANUARY 16-22, 1993 | COVER

The cover of the January 16-22, 1993 issue of TV Guide featured Dana Carvey as George H.W. Bush and Phil Hartman as Bill Clinton.

TV GUIDE FOR JANUARY 16-22, 1993 | PAGE 40 – VCR REPORT

Myles Callum’s “VCR Report” was published on page 40. David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me had been released on home video on January 6, 1993. Below is a transcript of Callum’s article.

‘Twin Peaks’ movie: Weirder than ever

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.
“This case gives me a strange feeling,” special agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) says into his trusty tape recorder. Well, me too, agent Cooper. But it’s just a tad beyond strange, isn’t it? There’s that little guy who keeps showing up in dream sequences, uttering nonsense words like “garmonbozia,” and the man who levitates, and all those dark hallucinations. In short, David Lynch is up to his old tricks in this “prequel” recounting the events that lead to the murder of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). As a TV series, Twin Peaks was fun for a while – original, full of surprises. Then it went way beyond weirdness. Peaks freaks may enjoy this story, but many viewers will find it too mystifying. If you ignore all the surrealistic stuff (a good plan), what’s left is a linear and too-lurid-for-TV soap opera of abuse, decadence, and drugs. Sherilyn Fenn, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Michael Ontkean (“Sheriff Truman”), among others, are not only missing but sorely missed, and Kyle MacLachlan’s scenes are few and brief. This is more than I wanted to know about Laura Palmer, but a Lynch fan tells me it’s a satisfying wrap-up, and the film could do well on video. Advice to others: get yourself a doughnut and a cup of damn fine coffee, and settle down with a straightforward, cozy homicide – the kind you get in Murder, She Wrote. (R 2:14 New Line; no suggested retail price).

There is a cropped publicity photo of Michael Anderson holding up the Owl Cave ring in the Red Room.

This is the original publicity photo with the Man From Another Place and Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) taken by the late on-set photographer Lorey Sebastian.

WHO IS MYLES CALLUM?

Myles Callum (April 4, 1934-April 21, 2022) was born in Lynn, Massachusetts to  Abraham Edward Callum and Ann Edith Caswell. He majored in English and journalism while attending the University of Connecticut and New York University. In 1954, Callum volunteered for the draft and attended Army Intelligence school in Fort Holabird, Maryland. Upon graduating, he served with the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) in Seoul, Korea.

By the age of 21, he sold his first freelance magazine article to Boys Life Magazine. He was eventually hired as an editor and staff writer at Good Housekeeping, where he wrote hundreds of nonfiction articles and was later promoted to Director of Special Publications. In 1970, he became managing editor of Better Homes and Gardens, in Des Moines, Iowa.

He then spent 20 years at TV Guide. For twelve years of those years, he wrote the Fall Television Preview issue, and for eight years he had his own column, the Videocassette Report, as movies were released onto home video.

After retiring from magazine journalism, he turned his love of crossword puzzles into a profitable hobby when he became a puzzle constructor. His hundreds of puzzles were published in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, L.A. Times, Washington Post, and syndicated in more than 150 other papers. He also wrote two books, “Body-Building and Self-Defense,” and “Body Talk,” a book on body language.

He passed away in Santa Rosa, California on April 21, 2022 at age 88.