Twin Peaks was the creative child of the twin talents of Nick Frost and David Lynch. They were the perfect combination to bring to life this bizarre, yet gripping story, of Agent Cooper’s (Kyle MacLachlan) investigation of who killed Laura Palmer.
Lynch’s career as a maverick film director (The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet) coupled with scriptwriter Frost’s TV experience, with shows like the groundbreaking Hill Street Blues on his CV, made them a dream team to create something unusual and challenging.
On its first release in 1990 it was an immediate hit with the critics and public. Like, Agent Cooper, we are fascinated by the characters who populate Twin Peaks and by the off-the-wall situations and dialogue. Agent Cooper asks, ‘Who’s the lady with the log?’ Answer from Sheriff Truman ‘We call her the Log Lady.’ On speaking to her she tells Cooper he should talk to the log, which even he finds discomfiting.
Twin Peaks was heavily promoted as a murder mystery so when the mystery was solved it lost its motive for viewing – much like the fate of the second series of Broadchurch. Yet, Twin Peaks was not about who killed Laura Palmer, instead it was an excuse to explore the psyche and mythology of small town USA. Agent Cooper is more of a shaman than lawman, who explores this psychological landscape through dreams, intuition and the paranormal. For mainstream audiences it just got too weird, and even those who stayed for the journey got lost in this mystical view of the world that the log Lady eloquently tells us is a ‘magical smoke screen’.
This book provides the origins of Twin Peaks, the main characters, the music, themes, timeline, episode guides, memorable moments, homages, and its subsequent impact on TV and other media. This comes at a time when a new series is being written by Frost and Lynch, and directed by Lynch, so a reappraisal (and re-viewing) of Twin Peaks is certainly worthwhile to appreciate returning to the odd/crazy/fascinating world of this Washington township.
TWIN PEAKS FAQ / AUTHOR: DAVID BUSHMAN AND ARTHUR SMITH / PUBLISHER: APPLAUSE THEATRE & CINEMA BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: 22 JULY 2016
