I recently finished rewatching the first two seasons of Lynch and Frost’s cult and phenomenal TV show Twin Peaks. The first time I watched it, aged 16, before I’d ever really considered ‘critical’ viewing, I fell for the gorgeous scenery, the fun and colourful characters, and general sense of the uncanny and unsettling that lurked in the background. I enjoyed the surrealism (both horror and humour) but I didn’t quite understand it. I knew it was a trademark of David Lynch and was aware of his other works, like Rabbits (2002) and Eraserhead (1977) but I knew that I was only scraping the veneer of genius Lynch had created. I am a fan of the type of horror that comes from over-reading and overthinking things. The horror of Twin Peaks is buried in the sudden unnerving and unexpected horror sequences, the jarring silences in scenes, and strange mannerisms and visuals. The truest discomfort comes from the afterthought - from the moments you spend post-credits thinking ‘Now, was that particular moment funny, weird, or darkly horrifying?’ Sometimes it is all three. Through your bafflement, your nervous gigglings at the abstract, you work towards a realisation that what you are watching is in fact, deeply disturbing - but also hilarious.
I am going to ATTEMPT to briefly talk about the true mechanisms at play beneath its cheesy front and gently persuade you all to give Twin Peaks a go. It’s not an easy watch - it requires a lot of concentration, as will be explained, but the pure genius and beauty of the series are well worth committing to. I’ll be discussing the classic 90s series (Seasons 1 & 2) because I feel like season 3 The Return is an entirely different ballpark, Anyway, strap in and let your brain be turned into a Lynchian mush for a few paragraphs.
Set between 1989 - 1991, Twin Peaks takes place in the eponymous lumber town. Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) is sent by the FBI to investigate the murder of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), the beautiful and universally loved prom queen. The town is filled with faux-retro aestheticism, harking back to a shared cultural nostalgia of Americana iconography: cherry pies, diners, smoldering cigarettes, the highschool archetypes, and ‘perfect’ small-town life. But in true Lynchian style, it is a creation of a falsely perfect world; there is his perverse fascination with the corruption that exists just below the surface. It is a world of duality, where bad guys do good things and good guys do bad things. Humour curtails horror, laughter becomes something to fear and screams become comical. Nearly everyone in Twin Peaks is harbouring some sort of awful secret or vice despite their cleanly scrubbed appearances. As Sheriff Truman (Michael Ontkean) himself says in S1 Ep 3:
‘Twin Peaks is different. A long way from the world, you’ve noticed that. And that’s exactly the way we like it. But there’s a back end to that that’s kind of different too. Maybe that’s the price we pay for all the good things.’
Truman, in-universe, admits that the world shown in Twin Peaks is different from the rest of the contemporary world, addressing the strange anachronisms of 50s style, Americana and the archaic small-town camaraderie. But, he then goes on to explain the darkness that shrouds the town, atoning for its idyllic appearance:
‘There's a sort of evil out there. Something very, very strange in these old woods. Call it what you want. A darkness, a presence.’
It exists as a vehicle for Lynch to explore duality and corruption. Not only are we watching the surface-level story of a quirky FBI agent navigating the kooky, soap-operatic lives of the townspeople whilst investigating a murder, but also an inquiry into the fine lines of horror/comedy/drama. It is indeed a soap opera complete with a whole host of interconnecting and overlapping affairs with its fair share of mundane drama, but the often stilted/intentionally cringey dialogue highlights the artificiality of it all. You’ll be watching a rather docile conversation between a pair of lovers, and then out of nowhere be bombarded by low, humming tones and frightening flashing imagery or a strange, tonally opposite moment. It is a soap opera poking fun at soap operas, but is still very proudly a soap opera. It is a masterpiece of mimicry and subversion.
Twin Peaks requires active participation from the watcher. Lynch’s sound arrangement - whether it be from its early 90s production or an artistic choice - causes all dialogue to be gently blended into a single level of sound. Therefore, the watcher must remain engaged at all times to ensure no important details slip through your concentration. Single-camera scenes that take place within one long shot remind us that we are watching something staged; which is precisely what Lynch wants us to remember. These characters are not real, and their intricate lives and plot lines solely rely on the understanding between us, the audience, and the characters themselves. In parts, it’s rather difficult to navigate and understand as characters offload strange folklore and metaphysical quips amidst their mundane conversations. It is only through intense, undivided attention, can we pick up the golden threads of understanding the turbulent and rich world of Twin Peaks.
I was only really able to fully unlock the intricacies of Twin Peaks after watching the fantastically, almost clinically detailed Youtube Video by user Twin Perfect - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AYnF5hOhuM ‘Twin Peaks ACTUALLY EXPLAINED (No, Really)’. Yes it's 4 hours long and YES I have sat down and watched the entire thing. And how glad I am to have done that. I’m not suggesting that everyone goes out and watches hours worth of analytical ramblings - it's not necessary. But I do recommend just reaching a little further into the critical sphere of Twin Peaks! Or even read a couple of articles on typical Lynchian themes in his creations. Enjoy Twin Peaks as a quirky, funny, strange murder mystery. Enjoy it as something that's massively tongue in cheek but also earnest, enjoy it as a criticism of formulaic television, and giving in to audience demand. With its smooth, sweeping jazz scores, surrealism, tender love stories and laugh-out-loud moments of offbeat wackiness, it is some of the most perfect television I’ve ever watched. In being perfect it's so obviously imperfect - and with that, I simply urge you to give it a try.
I mentioned in a previous post that I’d rank all the characters - that’s a task that really outweighs my abilities. Instead, I’ve decided to write a quick review of my five top characters (attempting to be spoiler free) to give a taste of the hilarious, complicated and wonderful inhabitants of Twin Peaks.
1) Deputy Andy Brennan (Harry Goaz) - Andy provides a lot of comic relief in an often tonally dark show and I just think he’s hilarious. He’s a little stupid, a little easily swayed and cries a little too much, but he’s definitely one of the most lighthearted characters. He has a lot of entertaining side plots going on involving his on-off girlfriend Lucy and is just generally a sweetie (and also becomes a badass)
2) Leland Palmer (Ray Wise) - Laura’s equally troubled and duplicitous father. Like his daughter, Leland is both a victim, a monster, full of kindness and horror, love and hate. Ray Wise is captivating as a grieving father slowly slipping towards a complete mental collapse (and he’s so incredibly hammy it’s fantastic. He’ll either make you wee yourself laughing or watch in disbelieving cringe. I’ve never been so entertained and so
uncomfortable in my life)
3) Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) - It's sort of hard not to fall a little bit in love with Coop’s endless sensitivity, kindness, and general lust for life and nature. He’s a lovely mix of kindness and moralistic determination, creating one of the most lawful characters in the show - with enough genuine weirdness and unorthodox investigative techniques to avoid slipping into being boringly perfect. He is a (debatably) sane man to all the whackos he’s surrounded by - still managing to come off as quite the endearing weirdo.
4) Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn) - DREAM GIRL !! DREAM GIRL!! Sherilyn Fenn’s performance as the airheaded femme fatale vastly outweighs any of her female castmates. She lacks the childishness of Donna or the grittiness of Shelley. She’s strong, kickass, kind of a brat at first, but trust me, she’ll end up seducing you too with her deep heart and smoldering grin. Particularly when she does her little dreamy dances and sultry smirks - BE STILL MY BEATING HEART.
5) Ben Horne (Richard Beymer) - Maybe a weird choice for a most favourite character but I love literally any scene of Ben’s - he’s a smarmy, capitalist villain, always puffing away on a cigar. He’s also intelligent, torn and sort of wants to do the right-ish things but for the wrong reasons but also sort of the right reasons and to do the wrong thing entirely? I just think he is immensely entertaining to watch and his affable persona and big baddie boss characterisation are never boring.
Finally, I just want to finish with a 30-second clip of my absolute favourite scene of all time. One of the weirdest and the funniest - and in retrospect, one of the creepiest too!
(Images from https://twinpeakscaptioned.tumblr.com)