Abstract
Even though this is one of the first books to read Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) against the first two series and the film, it is initially difficult to see how Julie Grossman and Will Scheibel could bring any new insights to the existing canon of publications in the Twin Peaks universe. TV Milestones are difficult to get right. Impossibly short – the haiku of academic books – they ask authors to provide ‘a comprehensive account of a particular television show…placing it in the context of the history of television and broader cultural history’ while also including analyses of ‘representative episodes of the show in detail’ (p. 20). All in 25–30,000 words. That Twin Peaks (2020) manages to do just that while successfully incorporating fresh insights into the series’ latest incarnation, Twin Peaks: The Return, is no mean feat.
The book is split into five Chapters, each summarising areas of enquiry that have dogged the Twin Peaks Universe since the series screened in 1990. The first chapter looks at questions of authorship and focuses on the thorny question of who exactly is the author of Twin Peaks. Taking up the argument laid out by Lyndsay Hallam – that many prefer to attribute Twin Peaks to Lynch alone – the authors argue that this is a misconception. Despite the undeniably Lynchian look and feel to the series and the fact that Lynch’s name was overtly utilised to add a ‘prestige factor’ (p. 18), Grossman and Scheibel successfully argue that without Mark Frost’s collaboration Twin Peaks may never have been admitted into the canon of Quality Television (p. 19).
Chapter 2 interrogates genre and intertextuality, mapping out the intersection between the melodramatic field, soap opera and realism. The authors point out the seeming incompatibility of soap and melodrama as an ‘inferior culture’ with the ‘highbrow reading strategies’ of the Lynchian model (p. 25). What follows is a fascinating discussion of Lynch’s view of soap opera and his admiration for the genre coupled with a discussion of Twin Peaks’ various influences including the police procedural, mystery series and film noir. In this chapter the authors persuasively contend that the series’ major influence is melodrama by discussing the genre’s tropes and acting styles (particularly ‘the scream’) in relation to their place within the Lynchian world.
Chapter 3, ‘Femmes Fatales and the Women of Twin Peaks’, reclaims the women of Twin Peaks for film noir arguing that none of the women are victims but, as femme fatales, they ‘emphasize women’s desire for liberation’ critiquing ‘the dynamic in which men project ideation onto women’ (p. 44). The world of Twin Peaks may well critique the positioning of women as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ within a patriarchal world but I wonder if it is enough to posit the idea that Twin Peaks ‘adapts the woman-as-picture motif to explore the potential for a macabre objectification of women, whose performances as sexual provocateurs are a means of survival as well as a form of rebellion against being controlled by men’ (p. 43). This may well be true (and I am still pondering this argument) but I wonder if this understanding of the series’ central women depends upon a reading of the text informed by knowledge of the tropes of melodrama and film noir, an in-depth knowledge that may elude a general viewer. The fact that Twin Peaks in all its iterations has been accused of misogyny – a charge levelled towards David Lynch in particular – is swept aside here in the authors’ spirited defence of its female stars.
Chapter 4 is a detailed consideration of three performances: Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), Leland Palmer (Ray Wise) and Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). All three characters are read through the prism of film noir and the authors argue that they, amongst others, populate the world of Twin Peaks as ‘US social types’ even as they ‘transcend, subvert, or at least problematize the types the series self-consciously deploys’ (p. 68). The chapter successfully argues that acting style and character are inextricably linked in Twin Peaks and demonstrate ‘modernist fragmentation and a melodramatic affect’ (p. 59). Looking closely at all three actors, their previous screen incarnations and their performances in the series and the film, Grossman and Scheibel argue that Twin Peaks allows them to develop opposing acting styles within a character or through the existence of a döppelganger.
Chapter 5, ‘Peaks Paratexts’, focuses on adaptation, remediation and transmedia storytelling and, through an ‘art-of-pie’ metaphor, argues that Lynch and Frost’s uneasiness and ‘ambivalence’ towards the ‘idea of Twin Peaks becoming a franchise’ is directly linked to a desire on the part of the creators to ‘maintain artistic control over The Return within the context of corporate hierarchies’ (p. 75). This chapter persuasively argues that, through the linking of evil with the döppelgangers in The Return, the series functions as a ‘critique of imitation and copying’ by offering us an ‘ethics of uniqueness’ associated with ‘individual identity’ (pp. 75–76). This final chapter argues that the Twin Peaks: The Return ‘has resisted ameliorative nostalgia’ (p. 77) and methodically builds upon past works that discuss the paratexts associated with the world of Twin Peaks.
The final paragraph of this thought-provoking book suggests that its aim has been to function ‘as paratextual prodding, giving us and hopefully our readers the opportunity to revisit, rethink, and reimagine a blended universe that continually reshapes our affective and critical responses to and interpretations of what we have watched’ (p. 89). That this reader was prompted to do just that attests to its value and, like a damn fine cup of coffee, this short volume is a welcome addition deserving to be part of the ‘continuing echoic dynamic, conversations among paratexts that build meaning [and] are constructed by viewers’ (p. 87). I am still questioning many of my initial opinions and assumptions about Twin Peaks, particularly the treatment of women and accusations of misogyny. That the authors have found a fresh approach to a series that is 30 years old is noteworthy and prompts a reappraisal of, not only the much derided season two of Twin Peaks, but the critically scorned Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.