Opinion Piece - Has Twin Peaks: The Return Ruined TV?

Well, here we are. It's been just about a year now since David Lynch graced the world with the final two hours of his game changing Twin Peaks: The Return and back then, it felt like nothing would ever be the same again. I even wrote as much in a blog about a month later. The funny (and actually very depressing) thing is that that was around a month before the whole #metoo movement and I still think that Twin Peaks has had more of an effect on the entertainment industry than that. I'm showing my cards a little too soon though, this is meant to be a debate and even a year on, it'll be too soon to say for sure. Ideally, my aim with this piece is to discuss how, one year on, the third season of Twin Peaks has affected the shows I've watched, the films I've watched and me and whether the world is in a better place because of it or not. I know this all sounds very grand about a season of a TV show that had been cancelled for 25 years but you only think that because you haven't seen it. Trust me.

I'll start with the biggest effect for me, which is that pretty much all TV has felt like a letdown since. That sounds like an exaggeration but the last few years gave me so much great TV that I fell entirely in love with, Legion and Westworld as prime examples. Their debut seasons blew me away and cemented them as early favourites in my head but in their seasons post-Twin Peaks, I've been a tad let down. I'll admit, Westworld isn't the greatest example here because pretty much everyone is going to tell you that the second season just isn't that well made but in the wake of Peaks, the inconsistencies of the plot and the unnecessary complications of story telling really shone. Legion is a much better example as the second season is pretty much up there with the original but what made that first season so dazzling was the originality in story telling and how it deconstructed many of the narrative conventions of TV. Season 2 did that too, setting one episode inside a character's memory loop and another in a world full of alternative Davids but once you've seen what David Lynch can do with a black and white camera and one hour of your life, nothing else is quite the same.

What gets brought up a lot in the modern era is the power of nostalgia and toxic fanboy culture and The Return addresses that like no other. After all, that's the only reason it exists, when anything and everything that used to be popular is getting brought back. Full House, X-Files, Roseanne, all used to be huge and were brought back in the hope of cashing in on that. Many were hoping for that with Twin Peaks, a show that never got the conclusion many wanted and honestly, I would have been happy with that. David Lynch did what we all should have expected though by doing the unexpected. We were promised the return of old characters and we got them. We were promised we'd see the old locations again and we did. We were promised Dale goddamn Cooper and he turned up. Eventually. The Coop we know and love didn't turn up until around episode 15, characters like Norma, Bobby and Audrey (kind of) had their moments but moments they were and at least half the season wasn't even set in Twin Peaks. All of that should have been immensely frustrating and for a little while it almost was but eventually, the payoffs started coming and getting to see The Log Lady one last time and the romantic reunion of Big Ed and Norma were two of the most emotional moments I've ever experienced on TV. Unlike, say, The Last Jedi, which completely threw out what many fans wanted, Lynch gave us just enough of what we wanted to make us realise how powerful our hunger for nostalgia is, a critique that was only so effective because the rest of the show was still so good.

I've spent two (or three if you're picky) paragraphs praising the show but it is worth considering the possibility that it might not have changed anything. Looking out into the wider world of pop culture instead of in my narrow, insular, quite nerdy world, Twin Peaks has become far too weird for most. As I mentioned earlier, the show almost became frustrating and for many people who were casual fans, it just wasn't worth bearing with, especially when it's the golden age of TV and if you don't like one show, there's always another to check out instead. Not that it really matters but awards shows have also largely passed it over, in particular Kyle MacLachlan who played multiple roles brilliantly. The original show also had a mixed performance at award shows but many had hoped that with a perceived rise in quality, there would have been greater recognition but no. I wasn't alive at the time but it's very well documented that when Twin Peaks first premiered in 1990, it was a huge cultural phenomenon with everyone asking "Who killed Laura Palmer?". In 2017, there was no cultural conversation, no mass adoration, no central question other than "What is happening?". I suppose it's just because the show has become much too Lynchian for mainstream audiences.

For culture at large, Twin Peaks: The Return seemingly hasn't changed much yet. Maybe I'll do another one of these in 2027, ten years down the line, but currently it's still something of a cult oddity with huge critical acclaim. As far as my life is concerned however, The Return has been a revelation. I have been unable to watch TV in the same way, I have considered in much greater detail how I look at and anticipate entertainment and I have been pretty bummed out by the fact that I may never see something like it again. Most people will disagree I'm sure but for me, Twin Peaks: The Return has genuinely ruined TV.