How Twin Peaks Changed TV Forever Just by Mocking It

In the 90s, Lynch had already boasted eight Oscar nominations for the piercingly 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 – Hollywood-scale – image blunder, thanks to his disastrous adaptation of Dune. He truly was in the limelight. He shot whatever he wanted, how he wanted and spending as much as he pleased, although he also experienced many professional perturbations, disappointments and surprises.

So why did he end up shooting a TV show? And why was it so important to him to make this show go on and on – so important that he felt compelled to make that half-joking, half-serious appeal to Twin Peaks viewers at David Letterman's? Well, Lynch seemingly found a perfect reflection of his fantasies and nightmares in this work, created his own universe, even if he had to make some creative compromises in connection with his cooperation with ABC. These compromises turned Twin Peaks into a kitschy soap opera with a criminal flavor. They contributed to the show achieving a masterpiece status.

The ignoble roots of TV

The TV series as a pop-culture phenomenon worked hard and for a long time to become a full-fledged art form. In its early days, cinema was a "meager" attempt to copy the magic of theater, while the TV series was perceived for decades as a watered-down form of the 10th muse. The redefinition of "episodic movies" took place mainly at the turn of the century, when The Sopranos showed that Scorsese-esque creations could also be shown on the small screen, and Law of the Street managed to tackle almost all the problems America faced at that time in a few seasons. Then, as we already know, came the golden era, in which Breaking Bad was bravely leading the way. But the beginnings were hard.

The series, at its roots, didn't require much from 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's the Barthes' "Currency of gleaming vibration" foe heavens' sake? The series was primarily associated with a common object that was highly valued by the middle class – a TV set. You know – where there's a TV, there's home; where's home, there's the good ol' family circle. Television was supposed to glue people off their daily duties, swipe them into the current of the multimedia stream.

Twin Peaks, 1990–1991, dir. David Lynch, Mark Frost

So, it should come as no surprise that over time, mass-produced television shows started to become the most popular form of entertainment. The newly invented "TV show" was both about journalistic endeavors and the series. All kinds of late-night shows right next to soap operas and crime stories focused on great mystery. The TV series orbited these subgenres over the years. Before Twin Peaks, kitsch was elevated to exorbitantly calculated levels by the drama Dynasty. Those who didn't indulge in the utterly camp MacGyver in the 80s, let them throw the first stone.

So, the TV show never wanted to be too complicated. It could have been multi-season, it had to have many twists and turns, and were never short on marital infidelity and shocking murders. However, the addressee was always average, stereotypical audience – no offense intended. The audience that consumes content just for the sake of consumption, but is not particularly interested in analyzing its own involvement in the story. Twin Peaks was intended by ABC to be the quintessential show for the audiences at that time – enticing with a criminal puzzle, keeping them for longer with the dramatic dilemmas of exaggerated characters. And that's what it looked like on paper. But there was one "but" – and that was David f*ing Lynch.

Diane, 11:30 AM, February 24th. Entering the Town of Twin Peaks

Lynch is a warm, charming weirdo, and Twin Peaks is charming and warm weirdness – a faithful representation of the man's very soul. When he managed to catch the attention both in Hollywood and in the festival society, he still had one audience to conquer. And it was by far the most numerous. So, he introduced himself to all those families, TV geeks, housewives, and alpha males coming home after a hard day at work. He wanted to share his vision of the world – oneiric, surreal, but also painfully human – and try to get others hooked on it.

And while probably not everyone began practicing transcendental meditation after the screening, like him, but there were certainly many people, who began to see beauty in prosaic things, such as 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 up" in the sleepy main theme.

But just how a man known for breaking conventions, playing tricks on the form and using a very original approach to directing was supposed to create a smash-hit TV show that would not alienate the audience after the first episode with its slow pace and disturbing atmosphere that would be left smoldering somewhere inside the viewer? It's simple – he needed not so much a whip as a voice of reason. This was provided to him by Mark Frost, an experienced screenwriter and producer who was associated with TV shows from the beginning of his career – and simply had a deep understanding of this formula.

Twin Peaks, 1990–1991, dir. David Lynch, Mark Frost

When an eccentric person gets help from someone who's supposed to cool down their creative enthusiasm, there are usually misunderstandings, arguments, spats and split visions. Frost, however, had great respect for Lynch, so he served him primarily as a ghostwriter. Lynch tossed ideas around, while Frost wrote them down and matched them to specific threads, parts of lore and the entire mythology of Twin Peaks. He tried to enclose Lynch's magic in a logical and coherent framework, and himself mentioned in one of the archival interviews that the characters created by Lynch were fragments of his psyche. Frost noticed that these characters perfectly fit into the archetypes of small-town residents, and above all, were the perfect match for the expressive characters of the series, hiding the story, drama and symbolism that were instrumental for Twin Peaks.

Who Killed Laura Palmer?

Lynch and Frost thus became a harmonious team of chameleons. They were able to adapt the ambitious narrative, intriguing world-building and numerous meta-layers to the requirements of ABC as well as the expectations of ordinary viewers. Let's think about what did the audience get when they launched the pilot episode of Twin Peaks on TV? Well? Simple – a dead body. A dead body of a young, angelic, innocent girl. A dead body in a very peaceful (or so it seemed at the time) town. A dead body that shocked the local community. And where there's a dead body, there's also a mystery. And these are the core ingredients of a good crime drama.

Think that's it? Well, not really – because after Laura Palmer dies, the time comes to outline a whole host of crazy characters. They are rebellious, infatuated teenagers, strict parents, a handsome, composed but also kind of dumb sheriff, and there are also villains. Above all, there are dynamic interactions between them, problems characteristic of TV shows of that period. The foundations of a good soap opera.

The two faces of Twin Peaks are therefore constituted by classic genre tropes. ABC was happy, the viewers were happy, everything was in order. However, there's something that makes Twin Peaks not only great to watch (even today!), but also makes it a masterpiece and a groundbreaking achievement in TV series. Because if you look between the lines, listen closely to the soundtrack, try to get to know the magnetizing protagonist Dale Cooper, look Killer Bob in the eye – in other words: when you really feel Twin Peaks – you will be engrossed and hypnotized. At the same time, the viewer can derive innocent pleasure from the charming kitsch and be part of a nightmare-and-dream ecstasy.

Of course, not everyone has to go deep into this world. You can easily stay on the surface. Whatever floats your boat! Lynch and Frost, however, were not afraid to crush the ossified formula, while not entirely giving up on it. And this is perhaps the most important point supporting the thesis that Twin Peaks changed television forever. It showed a way to utilize all its cheesy faces, making them the core elements of one of the most avant-garde shows that have penetrated the mainstream culture. In entered the sacred grounds, where it wallowed in profane mud.

Karol Laska

Karol Laska

His adventure with journalism began with a personal blog, the name of which is no longer worth quoting. Then he interpreted Iranian dramas and the Joker, writing for cinematography journal, which, sadly, no longer exists. His writing credentials include a degree in film studies, but his thesis was strictly devoted to video games. He has been writing for Gamepressure since March 2020, first writing a lot about movies, then in the newsroom, and eventually, he became a specialist in everything. He currently edits and writes articles and features. A long-time enthusiast of the most bizarre indie games and arthouse cinema. He idolizes surrealism and postmodernism. He appreciates the power of absurdity. Which is probably why he also tried soccer refereeing for 2 years (with so-so results). He tends to over-philosophize, so watch out.