Twin Peaks came along during a renaissance in the television industry. Starting with Hill Street Blues, through St. Elsewhere, thirtysomething and Moonlighting, the medium that was once considered a “vast wasteland” proved it could deliver intelligent, quality storytelling. It was within that euphoric environment that Twin Peaks was unleashed, and no series better encompasses the good and the bad of that period than this David Lynch creation.
Because of his time as a film auteur, Lynch brought a stylistic approach to the show as opposed to the static direction television had experienced up to that point. And although humor and quirky had already been seen – mainly on such shows as Moonlighting and St. Elsewhere – Twin Peaks took it to a whole new level while likewise mixing genres from comedy to crime drama to horror to a philosophical consideration of good and evil.
The series was larger-than-life storytelling, as that final description can attest. Because of this, its billing and promotion as a “Who killed Laura Palmer” mystery was both a curse and a blessing. The simplicity of such a one-sentence tagline attracted a large initial audience that might not have been drawn to the unique “weirdness” of the series. But as the story continued, and the murder was left unresolved, the audience dwindled, unable to appreciate (and yes, comprehend) the larger picture being painted.
Twin Peaks was in reality about how evil exists beneath even the most tranquil of facades. The town of Twin Peaks is small town America at its finest, a picturesque setting with good-hearted people and the best damn pies ever baked. It’s the type of place were the high school homecoming queen volunteers with the local Meals-On-Wheels and tutors the mentally challenged, the kind of town that exudes a simplistic beauty and awe.
But no matter how perfect, evil still lurks in the shadows. Laura Palmer, the homecoming queen whose murder kicks off the series, personifies that contradiction, as underneath her sweetheart exterior are “secrets” that are slowly revealed as the investigation into her death unfolds. She was, in fact, a tortured soul, haunted by evil, with drug and sexual addictions and a manipulative personality. But it’s not just her, but the town itself that has greater mysteries, and one soon discovers that there’s very little about this small enclave that resembles how it initially appears.
Twin Peaks, however, takes such a concept further, adding the metaphorical twist that the battle between good and evil actually takes place in a mystical parallel universe consisting of dancing dwarfs, gentle giants and possessing entities named “Bob.” It’s a town where the residents have regular visions of this evil, the woods have a supernatural aura and a lady with a log serves as the local shaman. This analogical interpretation is so dense and layered that even now, years later, fans are still debating the philosophical implications.
Although coming from a motion picture background, David Lynch was still able to craft a television series that both learned from and paid homage to the shows that came before it. There was a large ensemble cast, just like Hill Street Blues. Quirky humor as seen on Moonlighting and St. Elsewhere. There was even a one-armed man named “Gerard.”
More significantly, it was the soap operas of the times that Twin Peaks most borrowed from. The rich and powerful of the town wheel-and-deal, sleep-with-and-backstab each other on a regular basis. Characters thought long dead turn out to have been alive all along, and even the smallest of roles have enough drama in their lives to fuel numerous spin-offs.
But despite its large supporting cast and multiple storylines, Twin Peaks still found a way to give them all their proper due and screen time. The show was also fortunate to have Kyle MacLachlan in the role of FBI Agent Dale Cooper, one of television’s truly iconic characters. In one of those rare moments when the perfect actor was cast in the right part with exceptional dialogue to recite, MacLachlan, in an Emmy-winning performance, brought the proper balance of wild-eyed wonder and steely-eyed determination to Agent Cooper.
But it wasn’t just Kyle MacLachlan that stood out, but the cast in general. From Michael Ontkean (Sheriff Truman) to Jack Nance (Pete Martell), Kimmy Robertson (Lucy Moran) to Harry Goaz (Deputy Andy), Twin Peaks added a perfect blend of young and veteran actors into the mix. As a testament to the level of the show’s thespian pedigree, the cast included Russ Tamblyn (Dr. Jacoby), father of Amber Tamblyn, and Mary Jo Deschanel (Eileen Hayward), mother of Bones actress Emily Deschanel.
The 1980s have often been considered the Second Golden Age of Television. When the decade began, both cable and HBO were in a position to start significantly cutting into the viewership that the three networks (no FOX yet) had exclusively enjoyed. Sensing the fraying to come, television executives decided to cater to the demographic that advertisers were most willing to pay top dollar for, and since such an audience was both sophisticated and intelligent, high-concept creators like Steven Bochco, Glenn Gordon Caron and Lynch were enlisted and given creative freedom.
But like all good things, this experiment wouldn’t last. Some of those creators and showrunners had no previous experience producing a television series and were obsessed with expensive visions, often causing production costs to run over budget. Creative control could also lead to creative missteps, resulting with ratings taking a downward tumble virtually overnight. And once “quality” started to equal less revenue, it was pretty much over – by the end of the decade, the networks reestablished control over the shows they were, after all, paying for.
In this sense, Twin Peaks was both the defining achievement of its era, as well as major contributor to its demise. It was monumental television at its best, and left behind a legacy of mixed-genres, quirky-humor and philosophical-musings, while taking the intelligent storytelling started by other shows of the 1980s to an even higher level: that of “art.” But its ultimate failure and quick cancellation also meant that it would be half a decade before any network would be willing to take such a risk again.
Hill Street Blues may be considered the granddaddy of quality television, but an entire generation of shows owes more to Twin Peaks than any other. From Lost to Mad Men, Veronica Mars to The West Wing, it’s hard to imagine any of them if Laura Palmer hadn’t been found on a beach, wrapped in plastic, one eerie night way back in April 1990.
Anthony Letizia