This Week in Retro: Twin Peaks (Patreon)

"Diane, April 8th, 1990. Entering town of Twin Peaks."

by Diamond Feit

"The movie is weird for weird's sake and just doesn't make sense. Everyone who loves it is trying to save face and pretend like they 'get' it."

The above quote is from my very own IMDb review of Mulholland Drive, a motion picture directed by David Lynch in 2001 which garnered near-universal praise. I saw it the following year based on said praise and, as my review shows, I did not get it, and I was pretty upset about the whole thing. I lead with this shamefully spite-filled quote to demonstrate that I was never a huge David Lynch fan, and I am generally not impressed by "weird" fiction that leaves seemingly all questions unanswered.

And yet, having missed its initial premiere 30 years ago this week and never actually watching it until 2018 when I took in the entire series... I love Twin Peaks. I love the performances in Twin Peaks. I love the music in Twin Peaks. I love not being able to summarize Twin Peaks beyond "murder mystery in a small town leads to larger mystery which is never, ever, ever solved."

Twin Peaks first aired in the United States on ABC on April 8, 1990, with a feature-length pilot that sets up all the most relevant players and stakes: In the remote town of Twin Peaks, Washington, the body of prom queen Laura Palmer is found one morning. Everyone is devastated by the news, and FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper comes to town to lead the investigation, immediately linking it with another case and making it clear that this was not an isolated act of violence. As the shockwaves of the case ripple outwards, we the viewers (often alongside Agent Cooper) are introduced to a variety of Twin Peaks' residents, some of whom are suspects, some of whom are hiding something, and some of whom are just strange.

From the start, it is made clear to the audience that Twin Peaks is not a mystery-of-the-week detective show or crime drama. While the authorities identify and question suspects for Laura Palmer's murder, the show frames them as unlikely killers at best. There are entire scenes with characters discussing matters wholly unrelated to Laura Palmer, many of them caught up in romantic entanglements with one another. Watching the pilot again recently after having seen the entire series and the 1992 prequel movie Fire Walk With Me, I'm not sure anything in the pilot constitutes a "clue" as to who/what killed Laura Palmer, but it remains a captivating introduction nonetheless.

Indeed, one of the strengths of Twin Peaks is its willingness to forgo the "whodunnit" aspect in favor of telling stories about the townspeople at large. Yes, the murder of Laura Palmer is important, but so are the situations over at the Packard Sawmill, the Great Northern Hotel, and even Big Ed's Gas Farm. By spreading the screen time around and showing the audience more than just immediately relevant crime leads or the police making deductions, Twin Peaks makes Twin Peaks—all of it—the central character of the show.

But of course, if Twin Peaks was really just about a small-town and its lone murder mystery, I doubt it would have garnered the attention that it did. No, Twin Peaks veers hard into the surreal at the end of the third episode when Agent Cooper has an extended dream sequence in a red room where everyone, including a dead ringer for the late Laura Palmer herself, speaks backwards. The scene became instant parody fodder (most notably in The Simpsons), but it also was a bold note to hand the audience to let them know that all the usual rules for television were going out the window.

Twin Peaks garnered much attention in 1990, but by 1991, ratings were down, and even die-hard fans will admit the quality of the show had taken a hit once the Laura Palmer culprit had been revealed. The second-season finale ended on a bizarre cliffhanger, but ultimately, Twin Peaks was not renewed. In any other era, that 30th episode would have been the end. But cancellation couldn't end Twin Peaks. One year later there was a movie, Fire Walk With Me, which depicted the last few days of Laura Palmer's life along with plenty of head-scratching new material about who or what killed her. The movie bombed, and again, in any other era that would have been the end.

Luckily for fans (and for everyone) who missed it the first time around, Twin Peaks found a second life on cable reruns, and then on DVD. Its cult following grew, and in 2017, a third season premiered on Showtime. Unlike the original run which aired on commercial television and was subject to interruptions and standards & practices, the third season was essentially one long story with no breaks and no rules. Decapitations? Sure thing. Nudity? Fine. An entire episode in black & white? Go for it. Naturally, the third season ended without a firm resolution, and series co-creators David Lynch and Mark Frost have both expressed interest in revisiting Twin Peaks.

There's something else about Twin Peaks that makes it extra-special to me: Its influence on the world of video games, especially in Japan. The series first aired in Japan in 1991 on a premium channel, but it proved to be such a hit it was rebroadcast on commercial television. Tour groups from Japan flooded Washington state. Exclusive Twin Peaks-style Japanese coffee commercials were directed by David Lynch and starred many members of the original cast. And Japanese video game developers were among those who took notice.

There have been Japanese video games with direct ties to Twin Peaks, such as a 1998 PlayStation adventure game called Mizzurna Falls and, of course, Deadly Premonition, but there are far more projects that took the "idea" of Twin Peaks and just ran with it in their own ways. Silent Hill strikes me as Twin Peaks minus the lighthearted elements. Shenmue doesn't have the otherworldly surreality, but it does make sure to focus the player's attention on a town full of people. And Takashi Tezuka, the director of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, specifically cited Twin Peaks as an influence upon that game where Link is trapped on a weird island full of unusual characters.

(I would also be remiss if I didn't point out that "murder mystery in a small town" is the general plot of part 4 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, which began in 1992, at the apex of Twin Peaks mania in Japan.)

For me, discovering Twin Peaks many years after the fact has been an exciting revelation, from spotting its DNA in subsequent media, understanding the sudden rise of its stars in other projects, and coming to terms with embracing the unknown and absurd in fiction. As indicated above, I wasn't always willing to give confusing stories a chance; I liked straightforward narratives, and when I enjoyed a series, I wanted to devour it whole and familiarize myself with every aspect. Twin Peaks defies this urge, and it may very well be weird for weird's sake... but if so, it is uniquely weird and compelling in ways I appreciate. And yes, I am aware there is a four-hour-long YouTube video that purports to actually explain Twin Peaks, but I'm not interested. I love it just the way it is: Inscrutable to the end—if indeed it ever ends.