Twin Peaks – An Argument for a Postmodern Reality

By Llowell Williams

Although more than twenty years have passed, people are still watching and discussing
Mark Frost and David Lynch's early Nineties cult television drama, Twin Peaks. Its longevity and
timeless appeal can be attributed to the series' striking story and compelling filming style. The
immense popularity of Twin Peaks to this day is a testament to the power and appeal of the
multilayered and dense nature of the show's narrative and presentation. This is perhaps one of the
aspects that make the series most genius, by leaving a lot of interpretation and understanding of
the plot and characters up to the viewers themselves. Frost and Lynch also make an effort to
make sure the viewer was never too comfortable with any one character – their eccentricity and
elasticity make objective labels like “good” and “evil” irrelevant. Instead the viewer must make
up his or her own mind about Twin Peaks' characters and how they feel toward them. This
analysis intends to demonstrate how the use of such narrative techniques were used to
communicate an ideology grounded firmly in postmodernist values and ideas. (Lavery, 1995)
Airing for the first time in 1990 on ABC during primetime, Twin Peaks immediately
became a television hit all across the nation. The pilot episode begins with the discovery of a
young woman, soon identified as Laura Palmer, found murdered and disposed of in a river. Laura
was well liked throughout the small northeastern Washington town of Twin Peaks, and her death
sends shockwaves through the community. News of this murder sends protagonist FBI Agent
Dale Cooper to the mountain town, in search of someone he believes is a serial killer. Although
the mystery of Laura's murderer is a major component of the first half of the series, it is not the
true focus of Twin Peaks. Instead it is the aftermath of Laura's tragic death and the series of
events it gradually sets into motion that provide the central interest of the series.
What sets Twin Peaks apart from many other primetime dramas is the unique ideologies it
puts forth, challenging the viewer's own pattern of beliefs through which they interpret the world
around them. The most important ideology present in Twin Peaks by far is that of postmodern
subjectivism. (Rombes, 2004) This comes with a rejection of the notion of objective reality and
truth, notions that were and still are arguably dominate throughout the West since the
Enlightenment. The series posits, like postmodern theory, that reality is neither concrete nor
definitive – perspective and method, in a variety of context, are not static and actually differ
widely. Often there is duality and paradox present in the world and as such there can be no single
Truth (with a capital T) or perspective.
Frost and Lynch employ postmodern paradigms throughout Twin Peaks utilizing several
techniques. This is often done through the creation of eccentric characters. As the characters are
introduced, they appear on the surface to be generic stereotypes – the greedy cigar-puffing
businessman, the hunky biker guy, the arrogant high school jock and so on – and are gradually
twisted and stretched to hyperbolic levels. Many characters evolve over the course of the series,
their motivations and relationships changing. At many points viewers are forced to re-evaluate
their initial judgements of characters as they change and evolve, or more is revealed about them.
It is through drawing the viewer into the series as an active moral judge, that Frost and Lynch
work to disseminate their postmodern ideology in a profoundly effective manner through viewer
participation on an emotional and moral level. Forcing the viewer outside of zones of familiar
plots and predictable characters, Frost and Lynch make the viewer come to their own conclusions
about the nature of objective reality.
One of the best examples is the series' protagonist, FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper,
played by Kyle MacLachlan. Quickly the viewer realizes that despite Cooper's crisp appearance
and formal conversation style, he is very quirky and utilizes rather unconventional forensic
methods. In the second episode, Cooper has a bizarre dream in which, among other things, a
woman looking exactly like Laura Palmer reveals to him the name of her killer. Upon waking,
Cooper remembers all but the name spoken to him. However, he is convinced that it will be
revealed to him after decoding the meanings behind his unusual dream, whereas a more
“traditional” detective probably would not even the entertain Cooper's conclusions – even the
other characters in the show, like Sheriff Truman, who aid Cooper in his investigation of the
murder find Cooper's conclusions and methods to be absurd. However, this changes over the
course of the series as Cooper proves again and again the legitimacy of his techniques.
Another instance of Agent Cooper's eccentricity comes when he enlists members of the
local sheriff's department to assist him in a metaphysical exercise. Explaining that this forensic
“method” was revealed to him in a dream he'd had years ago, he takes the group into the woods
and assembles empty glass jars several yards from him. He then has one person stating suspects'
names aloud which he follows with the pitch of a rock at a glass bottle. Based on whether the
rock strikes the bottle after he throws it, Cooper will know which suspects were involved in
Laura's murder. At first the viewer is likely to see Cooper as an oddball who uses absurd methods
– ones that can't possible yield real answers. Cooper is an investigator who, far from his logical
and pragmatic peers a la Sherlock Holmes, achieves results doing virtually the opposite – quickly
proving to be a clever protagonist. Stepping outside of the characteristics of what most television
viewers have come to expect from such detective-type characters, Agent Cooper forces a
reevaluation of these assumptions. (Comfort, 2009) Of course, this is only one of many examples
of ways in which Frost and Lynch seek to push viewers outside of their comfort zones. By the
end of the series it is clear that Agent Cooper, despite his unusual nature, is highly effective and
skilled at what he does – and that there is no one specific way a competent sleuth must be, and
that in fact “competence” is a relative term which may mean one thing at one time and place and
mean something else in another. Reality is not static.
Twin Peaks also sets out to challenge other types of values, including gender. An example
of this is the character Dennis Bryson, played by David Duchovny, a cross-dressing DEA Agent
and long time friend of Agent Cooper's. She prefers to be known as Denise, which often throws
off or startles Twin Peaks locals, who have never encountered an individual who is biologically
male but prefers to dress in women's clothes. Bryson, when participating in a sting operation set
up by Cooper, dresses in a man's suite and refers to himself as Dennis. Not only does the
character Bryson illustrate more overtly than any other character his duality as a person, but s/he
also challenges the popular idea of what someone like a DEA agent should be. (Comfort, 2009)
Another character that plays with gender role expectations is Nadine Hurley. Early in the
series she attempts suicide by swallowing a number of sleeping pills but fails and is temporarily
put into a coma. After a short period she awakes, forgetting her current life and believing she is
an high school aged girl (when in reality is a middle aged woman). For unexplained reasons
Nadine has also been imbued with superhuman strength which lead to her accidentally ripping
doors from hinges and the like. Nadine develops into a rather humorous character, especially
when she is allowed to attend Twin Peaks High School. She quickly develops a crush on a boy at
the high school, and makes no effort to hide it, repeatedly making advances toward him despite
his rejection. In an effort to impress this boy Nadine joins his wrestling team. One scene takes
place during a wrestling practice when the coach pairs Nadine with her crush. Almost
immediately she picks him up over head and throws him to the other side of the mat in a
surprising display of her unusual strength. This only serves to irritate the object of her affection
further, but she persists until eventually he caves and they begin dating. Humorous as her
character is, Nadine's behavior is counter to traditional views of women and relationships – not
only are females not supposed to participate in sports like wrestling, but they're not supposed to
initiate relationships (this is what is expected of males) and especially so aggressively.
Perhaps the most concrete example of the ubiquitous subjective ideology present in Twin
Peaks lay in the unusual character of Mike. The series reveals gradually over the first season the
nature of Laura's murderer – a supernatural being known only as Bob has resided in the forests
near Twin Peaks, literally possessing the bodies of local humans and using them as vessels
through which to do his vile deeds. Mike is also another one of these entities. It's revealed that
Mike and Bob used to commit such heinous acts together, until some unknown event caused
Mike to reconsider his actions and to permanently disavow killing. Bob, however, would not join
him and instead chose to go on killing alone. Since parting ways Mike made a commitment to
tracking Bob down to stop him – something he has been doing for many years. Even though Bob
is arguably the closest any of Twin Peaks' characters gets to a static, polarized state, Mike, who is
an entity much like Bob who participated in such bloodlust, was able to evolve beyond this,
suggesting that even Bob need not be forever bound to commit his acts of violence. Essentially,
through this Frost and Lynch are arguing that there is not really such a thing as “pure evil”
because all individuals have the ability to move between both polar ends, even an entity as
destructive as Bob. Notions of moral absolutes are shown to be virtually irrelevant in Twin Peaks
and perhaps the rest of the world.
In the few examples provided, this analysis has shown the manner in which Frost and
Lynch use the characters in Twin Peaks to demonstrate and communicate their notion of
postmodern subjectivism, which is arguably one of the most important paradigms of our time.
Since the time of Twin Peaks television which incorporates such elements have become more
common and equally popular (such as The X-Files or Lost), demonstrating the powerful nature
and mass appeal of postmodernist and subjectivist perspectives.

Sources cited:

Comfort, Brian (2009). “Eccentricity and Masculinity in Twin Peaks.” Gender Forum Issue 29. Retrieved: 2 Oct.
2010

Lavery, David. (1995). Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks. Wayne State University Press.

Lynch, David & Frost, Mark. (1990) Twin Peaks. ABC: Television. Retrieved: 1 Sept. 2010.

Rombes, Nicholas. (2004) “Blue Velvet Underground: David Lynch’s Post-Punk Poetics.” The Cinema of David
Lynch. Eds. Erica Sheen and Annette Davison. London: Wallflower Press.