Twin Peaks is my perpetual love. After another anniversary, we are once again remembered by the iconic voice of Kyle MacLachlan announcing the arrival in the iconic city. The city that rocked the world of TV shows.
If it’s going to end, so much the better. But if it doesn’t end, that’s even better. And I ask people to write to Bob Iger, the president of ABC. And if I could, I could give the address. Bob Iger. ABC TV. West 77th 66th Street, New York 10023. I don’t have his phone number. He’s a very nice guy. He is on my side. But you have to know some things about people.
David Lynch in “Late Show with David Letterman”
By the 90s, Lynch already had eight Oscar nominations for the penetrating and humanistic The Elephant Man, and with Blue Velvet and Eraserhead he was hailed as the king of cinematic surrealism, even managing to make a huge image mistake at the time. Hollywood scale, thank you. to its disastrous adaptation of Dune. He was really in the spotlight. He shot what he wanted, how he wanted and spent what he wanted, although he also experienced many professional upheavals, disappointments and surprises.
So why did he end up filming a TV show? And why was it so important to him to continue this show, so important that he felt compelled to make this half-joking, half-serious appeal to Twin Peaks viewers at David Letterman’s? Well, Lynch apparently found a perfect reflection of his fantasies and nightmares in this work, he created his own universe, even if he had to make some creative compromises in his cooperation with ABC. These commitments have become twin peaks in a kitsch soap opera with a crime flavor. They helped the show reach masterpiece status..
The ignoble roots of television
The TV series as a pop culture phenomenon has worked long and hard to become an art form in its own right. In its early days, the cinema was a “rare” attempt to copy the magic of the theater, while the television series was seen for decades as a diluted form of the tenth muse. The redefinition of “episodic films” took place mainly at the turn of the century, when The Sopranos proved that Scorsese-esque creations could also be released on the small screen, and Law of the Street managed to solve almost all the problems. that America was facing. at this time in certain seasons. Then, as we already know, came the Golden Age, in which Breaking Bad boldly led the way. But the beginnings were difficult.
The series, in its origins, did not ask much of the viewers. Where was the ritual of going to the cinema in good company? Where were the moments of delight with an image of the highest quality, consumed in the best possible conditions? Where is Barthes’ “Shiny Vibration Coin” for goodness sake? The series was primarily associated with a common object highly prized by the middle class: a television.. You know, where there is a television, there is a house; where the home is, there is the right family circle. Television was supposed to take people out of their daily chores and immerse them in the streaming media stream.
Twin Peaks, 1990–1991, director. David Lynch Mark Frost
It’s no surprise, then, that over time, mass-produced television shows have become the most popular form of entertainment. The newly coined “TV series” was as much about journalistic efforts as it was about the series. All kinds of late-night shows as well as soap operas and mystery novels focused on the big mystery. The TV series has orbited these subgenres over the years. Prior to Twin Peaks, kitsch was elevated to exorbitantly calculated levels by the drama Dynasty. Those who didn’t make it to Camp MacGyver in the 80s laid the foundation stone.
So, the TV show never wanted to be too complicated. It could have been several seasons, there had to be a lot of twists and turns, and it was never short of marital infidelities and shocking murders.. However, the intended audience was still an average, stereotypical audience, no offense intended. Audiences that consume content for the sake of consuming, but are not particularly interested in analyzing their own participation in the story. ABC wanted Twin Peaks to be the go-to show for audiences at the time: tantalizing with a crime puzzle, keeping them longer with the dramatic dilemmas of over-the-top characters. And that’s what it looked like on paper. But there was a “but”, and it was that fucking David Lynch.
Diane, 11:30 a.m., Feb. 24. Enter the town of Twin Peaks
Lynch is a warm and charming weirdo, and twin peaks is a charming and warm oddity: a faithful representation of the soul of man. When she managed to capture attention both in Hollywood and in festival society, she still had an audience to win over. And it was by far the most numerous. So he introduced himself to all those families, TV fans, housewives, and alpha males coming home from a hard day at work. He wanted to share his view of the world – dreamlike, surreal, but also painfully human – and try to engage others.
And while probably not everyone started practicing TM post-projection like him, there were certainly plenty of people who started to see the beauty in mundane things, like a simple declaration of love (cleverly obscured in the series by seemingly cheap lines of dialogue) or the sound of a waterfall surrounded by trees, all “wrapped” in the sleepy main theme.
But how was a man known for breaking convention, cheating, and using a highly original approach to directing supposed to create a hit TV show that wouldn’t distract audiences after the first episode with its sluggish, sluggish pace? that was brooding somewhere inside the viewer? It’s simple: he didn’t need a whip so much as a voice of reason. This was brought to you by Mark Frost.a seasoned writer and producer who was associated with TV shows early in his career and simply had a deep understanding of that formula.
Twin Peaks, 1990–1991, director. David Lynch Mark Frost
When an eccentric person receives help from someone who is supposed to dampen their creative enthusiasm, there are usually misunderstandings, arguments, arguments and divided opinions. Frost, however, had great respect for Lynch, thus serving him primarily as a ghostwriter. Lynch tossed around ideas, while Frost jotted them down and tied them to specific threads, chunks of lore, and all of Twin Peaks mythology. He tried to lock Lynch’s magic into a logical and coherent framework, and he himself mentioned in one of the archival interviews that the characters created by Lynch were fragments of his psyche. Frost noted that these characters fit perfectly into the small town archetypes and, most importantly, fit perfectly with the show’s expressive characters, hiding the history, drama, and symbolism that were central to Twin Peaks.
Who Killed Laura Palmer?
Lynch and Frost have thus become a harmonious team of chameleons. They were able to tailor the ambitious narrative, intriguing world-building, and numerous meta-layers to ABC’s demands, as well as the expectations of ordinary viewers.. Consider what audiences got when they aired the pilot episode of Twin Peaks on TV. GOOD? Simple: a corpse. The corpse of an angelic and innocent young girl. A corpse in a very quiet town (or so it seemed at the time). A corpse that shocked the local community. And where there is a corpse, there is also a mystery. And those are the basic ingredients of a good crime drama..
Do you think that’s all? Well, not really, because after the death of Laura Palmer, it’s time to draw a whole bunch of crazy characters. They are rebellious and loving teenagers, strict parents, a handsome, cool but also a bit silly sheriff, and there are also villains. Above all, there are dynamic interactions between them, problems characteristic of television programs of this period. The basics of a good soap opera.
So both sides of Twin Peaks are made up of classic genre tropes. ABC was happy, viewers were happy, everything was in order. However, there is something that makes Twin Peaks not only enjoyable to watch (even today!), but also makes it a masterpiece and a breakthrough achievement in TV series. Because if you look between the lines, listen carefully to the soundtrack, try to get to know the spellbinding leader Dale Cooper, look Killer Bob in the eye, in other words: when you really feel Twin Peaks, you’ll be captivated and mesmerized. At the same time, the viewer can derive innocent pleasure from the charming kitsch and take part in a nightmarish, dreamy ecstasy..
Of course, not everyone has to go to this world. You can easily stay on the surface. Whatever suits you! Lynch and Frost, however, weren’t afraid to crush the ossified formula, though they didn’t give up completely. And that’s perhaps the most important point that supports the thesis that Twin Peaks changed television forever. It showed a way to use all of their cute faces, making it the central elements of one of the most cutting-edge shows to break into mainstream culture. He entered the sacred grounds, where he wallowed in the unholy mud.