Twenty Years of Twin Peaks

Warning – here be spoilers.

It’s hard to imagine people not loving Twin Peaks. However, when ABC cancelled the show in 1991, people were ready to see it disappear.

The second season lacked the excitement of the first and fans were getting bored. Nowadays, dropping the name Twin Peaks in a conversation seems to immediately suggest that you love great art. Whenever a new TV show comes along that seems fresh or inventive, the comparisons are bound to happen. However, by the end of the show’s initial run, fans were indifferent to the program. Ratings declined, time slots were switched up, and everything fans loved about the show fell apart. Why is it then that twenty years later, fans are still rediscovering Twin Peaks? More importantly, what caused fans to lose interest in the early 1990s?

David Lynch was already an established avant-garde director by the time he created Twin Peaks. With art-house hits like Eraserhead and Blue Velvet under his belt, Lynch was one of the brightest young directors in America. When Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost announced that they were transitioning to television, die-hard fans were skeptical. Eraserhead was cool and all, but could network TV really understand Lynch? More importantly, would an average TV audience understand Lynch? The answer to both was yes, at least in the beginning.

Twin Peaks premiered in 1990 and became an instant success. People across the country were analysing the show seconds after each episode’s conclusion, and the program even featured wrap-up specials (hosted by Alan Thicke) where the complex plot lines were dissected. People invested time and energy into the new show in ways that network TV hadn’t seen since the 1970s. Even Saturday Night Live took notice and began to parody the show. Granted, other TV shows like M*A*S*H and Dallas were runaway hits for American TV, but never before had a show as different as Twin Peaks appealed to such a large audience.

Unlike many shows on TV at the time, Twin Peaks required you to think critically both during and after the show. Throughout a season, new characters emerged and each became involved in a dozen other storylines. Some fans even created pen-and-paper spreadsheets to keep track of characters and their stories. The show had “water-cooler value”, meaning that everyone went to work the day after watching an episode and discussed it. ABC was not prepared for this kind of response because, simply put, Twin Peaks was weird.

We had seen weird shows before. Some could argue that Star Trek had its weird points, or even Quantum Leap. But, with Twin Peaks, its characters were like nothing American audiences had ever seen. For instance, there was a woman, known simply as Log Lady, whose main characteristic was that she talked to her pet log and it shared secrets with her. Or Nadine Hurley, the middle aged housewife who woke up from a coma after a suicide attempt and thought she was a teenager. Nadine went through the rest of the series acting like a child, while inexplicably developing superhuman strength. Yes, that all happened with one character. Imagine pitching that character to an audience that just finished watching Big Brother Jake.

Despite its eccentric characters, Twin Peaks did have a normal premise. Federal agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) traveled to a rural logging town to investigate the death of the homecoming queen Laura Palmer, alongside Sheriff Harry S. Truman (Michael Ontkean). What initially seemed like an average murder case quickly turned into something quite stranger for Cooper. One of the brilliant things about the first season of Twin Peaks was its ability grow outward, while still focusing on Laura Palmer’s death. Every episode ended with a still photo of Laura as prom queen, acting as a constant reminder to fans everywhere of what started all the chaos in the town.

Laura Palmer: pale

The storytelling was both its greatest strength and heaviest burden. Twin Peaks told everybody’s stories, not just those of the main characters. Through his intense investigations, Cooper soon realised that nearly every citizen in the town was living a double life (including Laura Palmer). Every person in Twin Peaks, from a receptionist to the owner of a diner, became focal points of episodes. With each episode, viewers slowly learned that nobody in the town was wholesome and nearly everyone had secrets to hide.

The show itself was far more than a typical crime show. It blended supernatural elements with police drama like none had done before. Dale Cooper shifted into bizarre hallucinations and then seamlessly continued to investigate the murder. As a result, it appealed to fans of crime and mystery programmes, while also tapping into sci-fi markets by introducing paranormal elements. Imagine watching a detective analyse what spirit was occupying a body during the time of a murder and then begin studying blood samples? These shifts between the ordinary and the paranormal were groundbreaking in 1990s television.

As Lynch pushed viewers further into his strange world, Laura’s killer was no longer the main theme. Soon, new problems arose that seemed only vaguely related to Palmer’s death, yet were treated with equal importance. Twin Peaks began small by focusing on Laura’s death, before rapidly expanded outwards. The show was full of complex storylines with characters connected on numerous levels of debauchery. But, with all of these storylines, viewers still wanted to know about Laura. When Dale Cooper had surreal dreams about dancing midgets who spoke backwards and giants who used a coded language, viewers were curious but still asked: who killed Laura Palmer?

Today, David Lynch admits that he wanted Laura’s murderer to remain a mystery throughout the series. The murder was an invitation for viewers to enter the strange world of Twin Peaks and was secondary to all the other illicit activity in the town. The show itself became more focused on how truly messed up its townspeople were than who killed the homecoming queen. David Lynch and Frost wanted the show to function as a portrait of an absurd place filled with beautiful scenery, whimsical music and wholesome people, who all hid devastating secrets.

Kyle MacLachlan as Special Agent Dale Cooper

Despite Lynch’s protests, viewers didn’t have to wait long to find out who killed Laura Palmer. To date, Lynch blames pressure from the network to reveal Laura’s killer. By halfway through season two, viewers got their answer with little build-up. While the reveal was still surprising, it initially fell flat with viewers. If the central question of the entire series was now answered, was there a reason to tune in to the rest of the season? Why did we wait this long in the first place?

Many consider the second season to be a travesty. By most accounts, it was a great season of TV. However, having to follow up the perfect first season was no easy task. Lynch was under pressure to deliver the same groundbreaking episodes in season two that characterised the first year. To be fair, one could argue that Lynch was destined for failure. No matter what he did, many fans would have argued that it lacked the suspense of season one for a huge reason: we already knew who killed Laura. Whenever we met a character in season one, we analysed and asked: did they kill Laura? By season two, fans already knew the killer’s identity and saw supporting actors as clutter. It was hard to focus on Ben Horne’s financial problems when Laura’s murder was taken out of the equation. Slowly, all other problems in the town seemed less important once the identity of a brutal murderer was revealed.

Lynch suggested that he knew from the beginning who killed Laura, but didn’t want the audience to realise this. He wanted the show to exist with that question lingering forever. It’s not hard to imagine a show on HBO or Showtime today with a plot device of the kind Lynch wanted for Twin Peaks. However, in 1991, network television was less willing to take risks and Lynch was seen as a liability. Many felt the show lost its edge and began pandering to the network by season two. Fans felt that characters quickly became less unique and more like those on a soap opera. The addition of a hasty love interest for Cooper seemed misplaced for many. The show even began to look different by season two. Lynch handpicked directors for the first season, often using friends from the AFI, or recommendations from other colleagues. However, by season two, Frost and Lynch lost much of their control over specific directors. Lynch did not forget the effect network TV had on his precious show. Years later, Lynch would create Mulholland Drive as a network mini-series, only to have the plans abruptly scrapped. He declared then to never work in TV again.

Twin Peaks began with a bang and then soon fizzled. To date, I can’t think of another TV show that began on such a high and then plummeted. The two-hour pilot episode was the highest rated television movie for the 89-90 TV season and the series was one of the most watched programmes in the United States for 1990. It had the unfortunate honour of going against the most popular sitcom at the time, Cheers. While Twin Peaks actually defeated Cheers in the ratings at first, eventually Lynch’s series was no match for bartenders in Boston where everybody knew their name.

I feel that season two deserves a bit more respect. Despite the awkward presentation of Laura’s killer, we still got many solid episodes. Remember, this wasn’t just an average murder case. Twin Peaks lost the most popular and beautiful girl in the town. Viewers still had to understand how the whole town was going to deal with her passing and come to accept who the murderer was.

Two of the finest characters in the show, Donna Hayward (Lara Flynn Boyle) and James Hurley (James Marshall), were Laura’s best friends and had to spend the remainder of season two figuring out how to begin a new life without their pal. These characters acted like sleuths and tried to investigate Laura’s death during seasons one and two. But, upon learning whom Laura’s murderer was, they were left depressed teenagers with no purpose. The way Lynch handled those two is utterly fascinating. Likewise, the surreal and paranormal elements became more intriguing following the reveal of Laura’s murderer.

The Giant

My favourite scene in the entire series occurs in season two when Dale Cooper hallucinates and sees a giant figure during the middle of Julee Cruise’s performance of Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart in a bar. Twin Peaks thrived on showing two worlds: an ordinary town and a paranormal fantasyland. Dale worked in the ordinary town and hallucinated in his fantasy world. The scene in question combines those two worlds. Dale Cooper enters a bar and sits down for a drink with Log Lady. On the other side of the bar, we see Donna and James trying to have fun and forget the chaos of the town. In seconds, both worlds collide. Suddenly, we see Donna and James crumble and begin to sob. Both have realized that they can’t exist in this world without their best friend. At the same time, on the other end of the bar, we saw something far less normal happening when Dale Cooper began hallucinating the answers to Laura’s murder. This single scene may not seem important. However, it combines the sci-fi and drama elements of the entire programme in a very concise way.

Why do fans continue to return to the show after all these years? More than anything, it remains the watermark for brilliant television. Recently, American Horror Story has taken the US TV market by storm. It’s being touted as the most progressive and unique programme in years. Whenever a critic decides to analyse American Horror Story, they inevitably wind up at Twin Peaks. It’s difficult for most journalists to discuss innovative television without even giving a slight nod to the series and its rich cult history. I’ve met more people who have been meaning to watch Twin Peaks, or at least watch the pilot, than any other programme on TV. There’s almost an aura about the show where people who have seen it become instantly obsessed, while others are immediately turned off. This kind of division is intriguing to anyone who loves great art.

Beyond the show’s rich history, the minor elements make it worthwhile. The classical soundtrack by composer Angelo Badalamenti is astounding. There’s no stock muzak or 1960s rock songs playing in the background. During a time when focusing on music in a TV episode was an after-thought, Lynch went all out. The setting, in the wooded towns of rural Washington (and some in California), featured breathtaking views and greenery. Fans never felt like they were watching a sound stage in Los Angeles. Instead, it seemed like a documentary of a murder investigation in a sleepy town. Likewise, the cinematography was unlike most in television at that time, and truly seemed cinematic. Combined, these elements helped remove viewers from their homes and transport them to this strange town filled with lunatics who looked like ordinary citizens.

The show urged people to wonder what secrets and lies their neighbours were hiding, since in Twin Peaks, everybody was leading a double-life. More than anything, the show tapped into our curiosity and made us interrogate the ordinary.