![]() ![]() ![]() What’s the deal with David Lynch? David Lynch at the 2017 Television Critics Association winter press tour Frederick M. Without it, the show would’ve careened over the edge much sooner into frantically strange melodrama.īut more on that later. The humor is sharp and specific, not to mention integral to Twin Peaks’ success. The Twin Peaks locals cover a vast range, from femme fatale Audrey (who usually enters a scene to her own slinky theme music) to lovable doof Officer Andy. MacLachlan is a pure delight as Agent Cooper, the Type A FBI agent whose greatest loves are a cup of damn good and/or fine coffee and a fervent dedication to his job. There’s some lady who walks around town holding a log for seemingly no reason fans know her, fittingly enough, as “Log Lady.” There are hallucinations that may or may not be hallucinations, an infamous red room in which the dead come back to life (or DO THEY?), and even, eventually, literal demons.īut focusing on the “weird” of Twin Peaks ignores much of what the show actually is: a sardonic twist on the usual murder mystery procedural with a real sense of humor, besides. The world of Twin Peaks is as lush as it is stark, its inhabitants prone to talking in clipped monosyllables, tossed-off non sequiturs, or tangents whose points don’t reveal themselves until their very end, if at all. There was really no other way for Twin Peaks to go, given that it’s the product of Lynch - a notoriously surrealist director - funneling his sensibilities through a broadcast network filter. The series was full of actors who have since gone on to long-ranging careers - from MacLachlan to Ray Wise to Madchen Amick - and has inspired a fiercely devoted cult of fan followers who have made a sport of dissecting every shot for the potential secrets therein. ![]() The deeper he and the show got into the mystery, the stranger Twin Peaks revealed itself to be. Special Agent Dale Cooper (the best Kyle MacLachlan there is) investigated the murder with Eagle Scout levels of enthusiasm and dedication that only felt more incongruous the darker Twin Peaks got (and whew, did it get dark). It dove full force into a small-town whodunit: Murder victim Laura Palmer was (naturally) the town’s most prized blonde teen, and she (naturally) turned out to be hiding some terrible secrets.įrom there, things got a whole lot less typical. In its first life, Twin Peaks was a murder mystery primetime soap from the minds of Mark Frost and David Lynch that aired on ABC for two seasons, from 1990 to 1991. So please indulge us by allowing us to ruminate on some of the questions you might’ve been too embarrassed to ask, or that have piqued your curiosity about one of TV’s most fascinating experiments. No matter your level of Twin Peaks expertise, there’s always more to learn about this infamously intricate show. Can Twin Peaks thrive in a world where it’s not the oddball? Or did it gain so much of its power from the simple fact that it aired in 1990, on ABC, where no one would have ever thought to look for it? It’s weird, sure, but it’s also basically a primetime soap with a huge heart.Īnd now it’s coming back - or, if you’re a Twin Peaks fan, it is “happening again.” But it’s returning as a series that has so successfully permeated the culture that virtually every TV show on the air owes some debt to it. It’s one of the greatest TV series ever made, but also way more approachable than you might expect it to be from the years of hype. Twin Peaks changed television history, but almost had to die to do so. It’s the surface of Twin Peaks, but not the core. It misses what made the show such a critical and (brief) ratings sensation, what garnered it tons of Emmy nominations. Above all, it’s super weird, right? Too weird for network TV, and even too weird for many of its die-hard fans.īut all of the above misses what made Twin Peaks such a lightning bolt when it debuted on ABC - a big, big broadcast network - in the spring of 1990. It’s the body of a beautiful young woman wrapped in plastic, or an FBI agent coolly dictating memos to an unseen “Diane” on a miniature cassette recorder. It’s “damn fine coffee” or a dwarf dancing in a red room. ![]() The show seems to have been filtered down to an essence of weird catchphrases and images over the 26 years it has been off the air. If you’ve never seen it, Twin Peaks isn’t what you think it is. ![]()
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