Peak of perfection:
The return of Twin Peaks.
It has been ranked as one of the greatest television dramas ever made, and now Twin Peaks is returning to SoHo, but in quite what form remains to be seen.
Who killed Laura Palmer? It was the question TV viewers wanted answered when Twin
Peaks premiered in 1990. The naked corpse of the homecoming queen was found wrapped in plastic on the river bank outside the Washington town that gave the show its name, setting the scene for a series of supernatural events, wild dream sequences and lots of oddball characters.
At the height of its success, Twin Peaks attracted audiences of 34 million in the States and, although it lost its way once the killer was identified and was canned after its second season, it has remained a cult favourite.
And now the show, which is credited with paving the way for provocative serialised drama, is back – although in a continuation
of the story or as something new altogether remains to be seen. Co-creator/writer/director David Lynch is keeping his cards close to his chest, but we do know Kyle MacLachlan is reprising his role as coffee-drinking FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper. Almost everyone who appeared in the original series is also back – including Madchen Amick, Peggy Lipton (of The Mod Squad fame), and David Duchovny, as the Drug Enforcement agent Dennis/Denise Bryson. Also appearing are Laura Dern (Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart),
and Robert Forster (Jackie
Brown), who is said to be playing Sheriff Harry S. Truman in place of the retired Michael Ontkean.
Lynch knows there are big expectations for Twin Peaks.
“This word ‘expect’ is a magical word,” he tells
TV Guide. “And people expect things and that their expectations are met, hopefully, when they see the thing.”
But surely he is worried about disappointing the show’s legion of fans?
“Always, we are filled with doubts,” he says, admitting that the series never really left his mind throughout the years.
“I often just remembered the beautiful world and the beautiful characters,” he says.
Lynch’s relationship with the original run of Twin Peaks is a complicated one. He has spoken in the past of his dissatisfaction with the divisive second season.
“I’ll tell you what I loved: the pilot of Twin Peaks. That, for me, set the tone and made the world and the characters for me. That started the thing and I felt really good about that – that story, those characters. (I) just fell in deep, deep love.”
According to Lynch, it was network pressure to solve the show’s mystery that led to its demise. “What killed Twin
Peaks originally?” he asks. “‘Who killed Laura Palmer’ was a question that we did not ever really want to answer. And at a certain point we were told we needed to wrap that up and it never really got going again after that.” Lynch is conscious that the new season of Twin Peaks is coming into a very different TV landscape than the one that met the original show. “It’s a very beautiful time now for cable television and the idea of a continuing story is something I’ve always loved – going into a world and seeing how it pulls you in this way or that. Ideas come along the way and it’s so beautiful and exciting,” says Lynch. With its stellar production values, cinematic tone, and blood-curdling violence, there is a strong argument to be made for the notion that Twin Peaks helped create the modern prestige TV environment. “I can’t believe we had the freedom to do the things that we did (in the original series),” says Lynch. “If you look back, it’s quite amazing. I’ve been so lucky, I got green lights all along the way, so go figure.” Although Lynch is very much the public face of Twin Peaks, he is only one half of the creative team behind the show – the other half being co-creator Mark Frost. “Mark is very smart. I think we’re both strong but both different. We bring to the table different things but we each understand the other’s thing. It’s just a good combo for Twin Peaks. It really is a good combo.”