Visiting Twin Peaks

Last Monday, I sat down for the first time to watch the pilot episode of what is arguably one of the most memorable shows in TV history. Twin Peaks, which aired from 1990-1991, probably wouldn't be considered one of the best shows of all time, but anyone who happened to see it might remember how this campy, bizarre, unconventional show changed television expectations

I decided to watch Twin Peaks as part of my campaign to familiarize myself with well known stories; if I want to work with literature and fiction, there are some stories I should be acquainted with, and the TV medium is no exception. Although, I fully admit that the reason I started with Twin Peaks, instead of something else on our Netflix queue, was to prepare for the Psych season 5 tribute episode.

While cleaning my room the other day, however, I found a list of 'things to watch' that I'd written months ago; Twin Peaks, as you might be able to guess, was on that list. Obviously it had been on my mind for a while anyways, and now that I've finished it, a week and a half later, I'm glad that I finally made the time to watch through it all.

The portrait of Laura Palmer.

Twin Peaks, for those who don't know, is a murder mystery drama that takes place in a small town of the same name, "five miles south of the Canadian border, twelve miles west of the state line." It starts with the discovery of the body of a young woman, Laura Palmer, wrapped in plastic at the edge of the lake, and as we try to find out who killed her and why, more of the town's secrets are brought to light.

Twin Peaks is also a comedy, I would say, or at least has a lot of comedic elements. It pretends at times to be a soap opera, but the soapy subplots are so ridiculous it comes off as more of a satire, and even when they are focusing on trying to solve the murder, the characters don't act like serious detectives. Probably my favorite scene comes from the third episode, when Special Agent Dale Cooper tries to find suspects by listing names on a chalkboard, then throwing rocks at a glass jar in the woods as each name is read. Throughout the entire scene, I waited for someone to turn to Dale and say "You're not seriously doing this, are you?"

Sheriff Truman and Agent Cooper, and the donuts.

The show just grows more strange from there. Because of a bad time-slot change, the show got low ratings during their second season, prompting the network to force David Lynch and Mark Frost (the creators) to reveal who killed Laura Palmer within the first ten episodes. By then, however, something deeper and darker was already starting to be revealed, which kept Dale Cooper in town to investigate the supernatural mysteries of the surrounding woodland.

Lost could be considered a direct spiritual descendant of Twin Peaks. Both shows start with a relatively realistic situation - being stuck on an island, or investigating a girl's murder - and sprinkle it with abnormal conditions. As I got further into Twin Peaks, I had to come to terms with the fact that there wasn't going to be a logical, real-world explanation to the increasingly unnatural occurrences.

The ironic Red Room from
Dale's dream.

Like Twin Peaks, Lost's audience diminished when the show started reverting to strange, bizarre behavior. I think everyone who watched Lost remembered there being a moment when they suddenly realized that the producers were making everything up as they went along. The Lost producers responded by smartening up, deciding on a complete story, and limiting the remaining years they used to tell that story.

Twin Peaks' producers only had the last half of their second season to try to regain ground, but they did it wonderfully. Sure, the last part of Twin Peaks was weird, and the show seemed to take a totally different turn, but I never felt lost or confused as to what was happening (except when the credits started to roll, and we saw Laura Palmer's portrait again. Didn't we already solve her murder?) In my opinion, they managed to keep the intrigue of the show without exhausting our interest.

If anyone hasn't seen the show yet, I recommend watching it. It's very much a late 80s-early 90s story - there were times when I wasn't sure if what I was laughing at was meant to be funny, or if I just found it funny because of the time difference - but it still speaks its message now, twenty years later. If the producers had been given more time, the story could have grown that much deeper, or it could have backfired on itself like Lost did. Maybe it's a good thing they left us with that haunting, open ending.

Dale Cooper and his
tape recorder.

There is one thing I would have liked to discover more about; in just about every episode, there's a scene of Dale Cooper recording a tape, addressed to someone named "Diane," during which he talks about whatever is going on in the case at the time, or anything else that happens to be on his mind. Who is Diane? I know these tapes to Diane are just a comical bit to add to Cooper's character, but the longer we go without even a hint as to who she is, the more I start to think she doesn't even exist - it's a remote possibility that everything is going on in Dale's mind!

I know that's not true, and that I'm reading too much into it, but perhaps it's just an indicator that I really did enjoy Twin Peaks (in any case, I've added The Autobiography of Dale Cooper, written from the transcripts of his tapes to Diane, to my list of 'books to read'). Twin Peaks was a fun ride, with a very entertaining story and lovable characters, and I'd certainly be willing to watch it again.