I imagine you've heard/read about this already, but I just saw an article on Twin Peaks returning for a short run in 2016... seemed relevant to your interests! :) Also, I have never seen the show (mostly know about it through your blog, actually) and am considering watching some of it (at least start the series and see what I think) - what would be the main reasons you'd recommend watching it? Thanks!
(apologies for the delay in my response, it’s been a super busy time in LoriLand)
Hmm. The main reasons. Well, how long do you have?
Let me ask you a question first. Do you like shows such as Lost? The Killing? Broadchurch? Deadwood? Breaking Bad? Walking Dead? American Horror Story? Any show with cinema-quality production values that tells multi-episode or season-long stories with large ensemble casts?
If the answer is yes, then you have “Twin Peaks” to thank for it. ”Twin Peaks” is the reason those shows exist. And yet it still transcends any of them, and despite having birthed a whole new generation of television, remains totally and utterly unique and unreplicated. Twin Peaks did not so much spawn imitators (although it did that, too) as it made people rethink what was possible for a television program, what could be achieved in this medium that couldn’t be done in film.
"Twin Peaks" aired in 1989-90, and the television landscape was pretty bleak. There wasn’t nearly as much basic cable then as there is now, and what there was sure wasn’t producing original programming the way AMC and TNT do now. Primetime was a wasteland of derivative sitcoms, formulaic procedurals, and prime time soaps - a genre that was so cheesy it is now dead, although a lot of folks of my generation sure have nostalgia for Dynasty and Falcon Crest. The mid to late 80s was in some ways a bridge between the awkward adolescence of TV in the 1970s and the quality upswing of the 90s. One of the shows that ushered in that upswing was TNG, which premiered in 1987, but aired in syndication. The schedule was rife with middling fare like "Father Dowling Mysteries" and "The Young Riders" (which I adored, don’t get me wrong, but groundbreaking television it ain’t). Still not convinced? There were TWO HOURS of Shatner’s "Rescue 911" on the schedule.
Into all this mediocrity sailed the weirdest, creepiest, most captivating show anyone had ever seen. Nobody knew what to make of it. The third episode featured a feverish dream of a red-suited dancing dwarf who talked backwards. The FBI agent protagonist likes to solve crimes by tossing rocks at bottles. There are so many donuts and so much coffee. Things are inexplicable, things are random.
On its face, it was one of the first extended single-plot murder mystery shows ever made. Who killed Laura Palmer, the homecoming queen with the dark double life? Lots of suspects. Good investigating. But as the show went on, it was clear that not everything in Twin Peaks is of this world. Some of it is very much not.
It was all anybody could talk about.
It was strange. It was surreal. It did not pander to its audience - it might or might not tell you what something meant, or if it meant anything at all. It was doing its own thing, and you would either come along or you wouldn’t. You never knew what to expect, or who was safe, or what might happen next.
It got weirder and weirder as it went on, which turned some people off, but the weirder it got, the better I liked it.
In some ways, TP is like the Matrix - nobody can be told what it is. You have to experience it for yourself.