Whether you’re watching for the bizarre mystery, perfect soundtrack, a hit of nostalgia, or simply Kyle MacLachlan’s good looks, the Twin Peaks franchise’s odd yet potent fire burns bright.
David Lynch, recently deceased creator of Twin Peaks, opened doors that other directors were too hesitant to. So legendary for his time, having such an independent style that (I believe) only he could execute masterfully. Lynch’s technique cannot be recreated, and isn’t accommodated by any amount of modern technology.
To contextualize without spoiling, Twin Peaks’ plot revolves around the devastating murder of seventeen-year-old Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). Isolating Laura’s character, there’s a lot to unpack. A girl of many faces – a homecoming queen, a daughter, a friend, a lover, a client (among other things best excluded from the school paper), yet with her unpredictable nature, she casts a mystifying and cryptic shadow that transcends it all.
To go on a tangent, Lynch tends to characterize the women in his media in a certain way. These Lynch Ladies, if you will (I’m coining the term), always have that same brooding resonance and semi-seductive voice; their mannerisms act contemporarily. Always very troubled, with their emotions keeping them (im)balanced on a tightrope between sullen misery and disturbed fits of screaming. If not that, they are nude, or at least halfway there. Sometimes they are all of these things at once. I mean, we all love a good femme fatale, but I’ll let you interpret this your own way.
The Twin Peaks 1990 television series is a more diluted example of Lynch’s art, a collaboration with Mark Frost, which I like in its subtlety (if you can call it subtle). It’s during specific moments in the show – whether it be the cinematography, atypical editing, or outlandish line deliveries, that Lynch’s characteristics begin to show through the haze. It’s the humor of the show, exhibited through awkward quotes, inexplicable by any context whatsoever:
Fellas, don’t drink that coffee! You’d never guess. There was a fiiiish… in the percolator!
Lynch has a very odd sense of humor, if humor be the right word. At certain points in the show, I’m not sure whether I should laugh or fall apart. Laura’s dad is a perfect example — after her death, he seems to crack and has arbitrary meltdowns throughout the show, just totally unhinged. I catch myself laughing in a genuine yet uncomfortable way. That aside, it’s one of the most dreadful and unsettling depictions of grief’s process I’ve seen.
It’s like that thing people say: art disturbs the comfortable and comforts the disturbed. It serves as a fan-given slogan for Lynch – among many other unconventional artists. Many artists can resonate with that — art sees art, whether said art be talking in reverse or not.
Meanwhile, in 1992’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, the “Lynch factor” is much more concentrated in its experimental eccentricity. Watching his chaotic nonlinear films, such as Eraserhead (1977), I’ve noticed something within the classic Lynchian nonlinearity. Despite the confusion you experience while watching, the scattered puzzle pieces remain in your subconscious. One day you wake up and the puzzle is solved — you gain more clarity and begin to understand as you look at it retrospectively.
If there’s a score in television that can provoke tears in just about anyone, it’s Twin Peaks’. “Laura Palmer’s Theme” captures such a vivid and difficult-to-describe emotion. It hits you bluntly, and passes through you like a cloud with that dreamlike resonance. The chords are so hopeful, yet the combination creates an underlying despairing spirit. The classic “Twin Peaks Theme” is brilliant, when I hear it I immediately visualize the first opening shot — that bird. It evokes an image of the early morning — fog and mist, clouded mind, on the way to school, complete dreadful serenity. Great work done by Angelo Badalamenti, who also wrote scores for Blue Velvet (1986), The Straight Story (1999), and Mulholland Drive (2001).
Kyle MacLachlan is very active when it comes to fanbase interactions, becoming an icon for multiple generations. You can’t look up “Twin Peaks” on social media without seeing some product of MacLachlan-hysteria. Fan-made edits are definitely prevalent among this generation’s fans.
On February 24 last year, MacLachlan made a special appearance for fans. In honor of Twin Peaks Day, he drove through Snoqualmie Valley, Washington, where the series was filmed. A big part of me wishes he did the same this year, after the passing of Lynch, in memory. He’s become one of those iconic former Gen X movie stars, like the ones that rock ironic tees.
Diane, 11:30 a.m., February 24. Entering The Town of Twin Peaks.
Shift your eyes to the TV screen, and allow yourself to be brainwashed by the art of Lynch. I’ll be waiting in purgatory with the dancing Little Man …
