N.B. This article contains SPOILERS relating to the FIRST FOUR EPISODES OF THE NEW SERIES OF TWIN PEAKS. Do not read this if you haven’t seen these and want to remain unspoilt.

Ross Garner

> **N.B. This article contains SPOILERS relating to the FIRST FOUR
> EPISODES OF THE NEW SERIES OF *TWIN PEAKS.* Do not read this if you
> haven't seen these and want to remain unspoilt.**

A few years ago, whilst I was a PhD student, I remember persuading one
of my non-UK housemates to join me on a Saturday evening to watch the
broadcast of a new episode of *Doctor Who* (BBC 2005- ). It was
definitely a Tennant-era one -- my instincts tell me 'Forest of the
Dead' (2008) -- but that's not as important as what they said fifty
minutes later. As the credits rolled I tentatively asked 'So, what did
you think?' Their response was ambivalent but the comment that has stuck
with me concerned how *I* watched the episode:  affectionately-toned,
but words to the effect of 'Dude, I don't think you blinked for the
duration of the entire episode! You were sat so far on the edge of the
sofa that at one point I thought you were going to fall off!' Aca-fan
behaviour 101: deep absorption in a new instalment of a favourite
series, blocking out immediate distractions and transfixed on the
onscreen events (Brooker 2007).

I begin by recounting this anecdote because in the small hours of this
Monday morning, as my partner and I huddled around our laptop with mugs
of tea in hand, I was acutely aware that this mode of viewing was
'happening again' whilst the first two episodes of the new *Twin Peaks*
aired. There I sat engrossed and desperately trying to take in every
aspect of dialogue, *mise-en-scene*, aesthetics etc. and connect these
with either fannish intra-textual knowledge, academic discourses within
Television Studies, or (more frequently) both. I kept chewing over one
question in my mind: how 'new' is new *Twin Peaks*? Can we still think
of it as 'the series that changed television'? Having [blogged last week
in anticipation of the first
episodes](http://www.jomec.co.uk/blog/what-might-we-expect-from-the-return-of-twin-peaks/){target="_blank"}
arriving, this post offers reflections on these questions with regard to
discourses of 'quality' television.

As expected, *Twin Peaks* began with minimal orientation for both new
and non-fan audiences. Yes, Laura Palmer's (Sheryl Lee) comments to
Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) concerning seeing him again
in '25 years' provided the initial context but that was it. Instead we
were thrust into an unidentified monochrome-tinted location (the White
Lodge?) where an aged Cooper (connoting the passing of time if not
necessarily the '25 years later' frame) enigmatically conversed with The
Giant (Carel Struycken) about the significance of the number 430 and
'Richard and Linda'. Needless to say, we haven't encountered either of
these individuals, or the required number (we have seen 15, 3 and 315
though), in the near-240 minutes of screen-time since.

::: {#attachment_3980 .wp-caption .alignnone style="width: 460px"}
[![Figure 1: Recapping Past
Peaks](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-1-450x292.jpg){.size-large
.wp-image-3980 loading="lazy" decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3980" width="450" height="292"
srcset="https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-1-450x292.jpg.webp 450w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-1-300x195.jpg.webp 300w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-1-140x91.jpg.webp 140w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-1-768x498.jpg 768w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-1.jpg 942w"
sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px"}](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-1.jpg)

Figure 1: Recapping Past Peaks
:::

Instead, the first major narrative incident of new *Twin Peaks*
introduced us for the first time to Sam (Ben Rosenfield). Sam worked for
an unnamed and unseen billionaire in a skyscraper high above the
(beautifully-shot) city of New York and had been assigned two seemingly
mind-numbing tasks. These were: a) observing a strange glass box
featuring a circular hole which looks out over the city's metropolitan
vistas and b) replacing and storing memory cards for a multitude of
digital cameras which were filming the box. However, in a
(re-)demonstration of Lynch's abilities as a director to invest everyday
inanimate objects with sinister connotations, the long, unflinching
shots of cameras staring out of the screen towards us as an audience
created an unnerving atmosphere that recalled lingering shots of ceiling
fans and record players in the original 'Pilot' (1990) episode.

::: {#attachment_3981 .wp-caption .alignnone style="width: 460px"}
[![Figure 2: The Glass Box as
pseudo-screen](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-2-450x225.jpg){.size-large
.wp-image-3981 loading="lazy" decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3981" width="450" height="225"
srcset="https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-2-450x225.jpg.webp 450w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-2-300x150.jpg.webp 300w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-2-140x70.jpg.webp 140w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-2-768x384.jpg 768w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-2-1080x540.jpg.webp 1080w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-2.jpg 1200w"
sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px"}](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-2.jpg)

Figure 2: The Glass Box as pseudo-screen
:::

The only respite from Sam's heavily guarded, and monotonous, tasks came
via frequent visits from Tracey (Madeline Zima) who supplied Sam with
coffee and unrequited romantic advances. However, during Tracey's second
visit, when the security worker guarding the entrance to the room
housing the box had mysteriously vanished, Sam allowed Tracey in and
they begin to initiate a sexual relationship. Here new *Twin Peaks*'s
distinguishing of itself its former incarnation began: firstly, in line
with 'quality' TV drama's culturally-masculine tendencies, we get
graphic, primarily female, nudity as Tracey removed her clothing. The
couple's amorous relations were violently interrupted in a bloody and
brutal manner, however, as they had their heads burrowed into by a
ghost-like figure who appeared in the glass box (and looked reminiscent
of the creature which intruded into Agent Hawk's (Michael Horse)
pre-publicity video last December). Here it was: new *Twin Peaks*'s
first unnerving sequence and it was undeniably affective in achieving
its goals.

::: {#attachment_3982 .wp-caption .alignnone style="width: 460px"}
[![Figure 3: Sam (Ben Rosenfield) and Tracey (Madeline Zima) as
pseudo-viewers in Twin Peaks
(2017)](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-3-450x270.jpg){.size-large
.wp-image-3982 loading="lazy" decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3982" width="450" height="270"
srcset="https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-3-450x270.jpg.webp 450w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-3-300x180.jpg.webp 300w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-3-140x84.jpg.webp 140w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-3-627x376.jpg.webp 627w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-3-440x264.jpg.webp 440w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-3.jpg 740w"
sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px"}](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-3.jpg)

Figure 3: Sam (Ben Rosenfield) and Tracey (Madeline Zima) as
pseudo-viewers in Twin Peaks (2017)
:::

However, if our encounter with Sam and Tracey drew a symbolic line
between *Twin Peaks* 'then' and 'now' (given its home on ABC and FCC
guidelines in the early 1990s, there was never any nudity at One Eyed
Jack's), this incident (and subsequent others such as meeting Jade
(Nafessa Williams) in episode 3) felt like more of the same in US
'quality' TV drama. As Janet McCabe and Kim Akass argued in 2007, HBO
has generated the distinctiveness of its original programming by using
the "discourse of the illicit" constructed around network US TV and
using its status as outside of regulatory control to offer frank
representations of nudity, sex and violence.  Whilst this imagery was
'new' for *Twin Peaks*, it also felt like the series negotiating its
institutional context by intertextually locating itself within
long-established trends via shows like *The Sopranos* (HBO 1999-2007)
and *Sex and the City* (HBO 1998-2004). The message communicated was
'It's not old *Twin Peaks*, its *Showtime*'s *Twin Peaks*'.

What's more, the graphic body horror of Sam and Tracey's demise also
symbolically demarcated between network-orientated 90s 'quality' TV and
contemporary, premium-subscription equivalents: where the original
brought us the brutalisation of the human body in a deeply unsettling
and unrelenting manner when we learnt who killed Laura (Sheryl Lee),
there was always a restrained use of blood in the original. New *Twin
Peaks* quickly defies this trend by sending the red stuff flying freely
but, through doing this, again intertextually locates itself amongst its
'quality' contemporaries like *Game of Thrones* (HBO 2011- ),
*Daredevil* (Netflix 2015- ) and *Hannibal* (NBC 2013-15) rather than
furthering TV drama's representational and generic parametres.

Moreover, the way in which the first unnerving attack of new *Twin
Peaks* despatched its victims further aligned itself with trends within
contemporary 'quality' television. Doing this involves reading Sam's
character as a substitute for ourselves-as-viewers and that the
transparent, technologically-advanced glass box that he stares intently
is a substitute for the television/viewing screen. Sam, and his ongoing
obligation to digitally-document everything, can therefore be read as an
example of what Jason Mittell (2015: 52) has named "forensic fandom"
where "contemporary programs ...\[demand\] detailed dissection ...\[of\]
plotting and enigmatic events in addition to storyworld and characters."
Understood from this perspective, Sam and Tracey's decision to neglect
the task set and turn away from 'watching the screen' breeds negative
consequences (here graphic death) as, by breaking your attention, you
miss something which has disastrous implications for your status as a
viewer.

Whilst the trope of monitoring and surveillance has arisen in Lynch's
previous cinematic outings such as *Inland Empire* (2008) and *Lost
Highway* (1996), the emerging threat through the pseudo-screen also
opens itself up to being read through discourses of the horror genre
such as the fear of 'monsters in the static' which Jeffery Sconce (2000)
has noted dates back to interference on wireless radios is recalled and
reconfigured here. Alternatively, as Matt Hills (2012) writes,
[diegetically-inscribing a hyper-attentive viewer is a recurrent trope
of 'quality' dramas as Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) of *Homeland*
(Showtime 2011-
)](https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/culture/tv-review-homeland/419049.article){target="_blank"}
demonstrates. This is something that the original *Twin Peaks* arguably
helped initiate by foregrounding Agent Cooper's attention to onscreen
details and having the character reveal the reflection of James Hurley's
(James Marshall) motorcycle in Laura Palmer's eye whilst watching the
video of hers and Donna Hayward's (Lara Flynn Boyle) picnic. 'New' *Twin
Peaks* therefore reworks this idea, albeit in an alternative
institutional context where greater violence towards the (naked) human
body is permitted, but the message remains the same: don't let your
attention wander.

Reading these comments may suggest discontent with what I've seen from
the new *Twin Peaks*. The truth couldn't be farther from this, however.
Despite the first episode's intertextual alignments with both
established trends in 'quality' TV drama and Lynch's *oeuvre*, the
experience of watching the return has, for me as both a fan and TV
scholar, been intense and quite emotional. As someone who was 'late to
the party' with *Twin Peaks*, encountering it first on DVD in the
mid-2000s, the experience of watching the show unfold as it is aired is
exhilarating. Moreover, despite the show's alignment with the trends
mentioned here, the re-filtering of *Twin Peaks*'s iconography into a
different institutional and technological context fascinates. Pacey
shots across an endless black and white chevroned floor and the use of
CGI to meet hitherto unseen characters such as the (frankly terrifying)
Evolution of the Arm exemplify this point well.

::: {#attachment_3983 .wp-caption .alignnone style="width: 460px"}
[![Figure 4: The Evolution of the
Arm](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-4-450x253.jpg){.wp-image-3983
.size-large loading="lazy" decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3983" width="450" height="253"
srcset="https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-4-450x253.jpg.webp 450w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-4-300x169.jpg.webp 300w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-4-140x79.jpg.webp 140w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-4.jpg 768w"
sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px"}](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-4.jpg)

Figure 4: The Evolution of the Arm
:::

What's more, despite the critiques raised, there are other ways that
*Twin Peaks* is differentiating itself from contemporary 'quality' TV
tropes. These include the slow, at some points almost glacial, pacing of
the narrative, the use of sound including long stretches devoid of
dialogue and the lack of non-diegetic music or recognisable *leitmotifs*
from the previous series (we have to wait until episode 4 to finally
hear *Laura Palmer's Theme* (Badalamenti 1990)), and the disorientating,
staccato use of editing during episode 3 when Cooper arrives at his
location following expulsion from the Lodges. Finally, a special mention
should be made regarding the new *Twin Peaks* and performance --
especially with regard to MacLachlan and how he has portrayed the 'Good
Cooper' moving from 'Empty Shell Dale' through to 'Mr. Jackpots' and
then 'Dougie Jones'. All of this points different towards multiple
scholarly areas where the new *Twin Peaks* can be discussed and analysed
by others (and I look forward to reading these).

In conclusion, then, I hope that this post has summarised a few key
areas for thinking about the emotional and interpretive experience of
watching a returned favourite text: the feelings and type of viewing
experience this can inspire as you shuttle from fannish-to-academic
readings; a critical glance towards the cultural value that we align
with the notion of 'innovation' against 'repetitiveness' when discussing
'quality' TV drama; allusions towards the ongoing need for reflexivity
to be demonstrated towards the taste preferences of different
interpretive communities for 'quality' TV drama, perhaps. One thing
remains, however: learn from Sam and Tracey and keep watching the box.

::: {#attachment_3984 .wp-caption .alignnone style="width: 460px"}
[![Figure 5: Keep watching the
screen!](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-5-450x248.jpg){.size-large
.wp-image-3984 loading="lazy" decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3984" width="450" height="248"
srcset="https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-5-450x248.jpg.webp 450w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-5-300x165.jpg.webp 300w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-5-140x77.jpg.webp 140w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-5-768x424.jpg 768w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-5-1080x596.jpg.webp 1080w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-5.jpg 1378w"
sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px"}](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/garner-twinpeaks-5.jpg)

Figure 5: Keep watching the screen!
:::

 

#### **References:**

Brooker, W. (2007) 'A Sort of Homecoming: Fan Viewing and Symbolic
Pilgrimage', in C L Harrington, J Gray and C Sandvoss (eds.) *Fandom:
Identities and Communities in a Mediated World*. New York: New York
University Press.

Hills, M. (2012) 'TV Review: Homeland'. *Times Higher Education*,
16/02/12,
[https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/culture/tv-review-homeland/419049.article](https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/culture/tv-review-homeland/419049.article){target="_blank"}.
\[Accessed 24/05/17\].

McCabe, J. and Akass, K. (2007) 'Sex, Swearing and Respectability:
Courting Controversy, HBO's Original Programming and Producing Quality
TV', in J McCabe and K Akass (eds.) *Quality TV: Contemporary American
Television and Beyond.* London: I.B. Tauris. pp.

Mittell, J. (2015) *Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary TV
Storytelling*. New York: New York University Press.

Sconce, J. (2000) *Haunted Media: Electronic Presence from Telegraphy to
Television*. Durham: Duke University Press.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Ross Garner** is a lecturer in TV Studies in the School of Journalism,
Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University. His research interests
cover cult TV, paratextuality, branding and debates concerning mediated
space and TV-derived tourism. He has recently published articles
exploring these issues in [*Popular
Communication*](http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15405702.2016.1153101){target="_blank"},
[*Series: The International Journal of Serial
Narratives*](https://series.unibo.it/article/view/6590/6385){target="_blank"}
and [*Tourist
Studies*](http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1468797616680851)
and is currently working on the monograph *Nostalgia, Digital Television
and Transmediality* (Bloomsbury)


A few years ago, whilst I was a PhD student, I remember persuading one of my non-UK housemates to join me on a Saturday evening to watch the broadcast of a new episode of
<em>
 Doctor Who
</em>
(BBC 2005- ). It was definitely a Tennant-era one – my instincts tell me ‘Forest of the Dead’ (2008) – but that’s not as important as what they said fifty minutes later.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

WHAT WE LEARNT FROM SAM AND TRACEY: DOES THE NEW TWIN PEAKS DIFFER TO CONTEMPORARY ‘QUALITY TV’?