The Blind Analysis of Three Critical Reviews

A Twin Peaks Writing Assignment

During and after our screening in class of the pilot of Twin Peaks, an American television
serial drama that follows an investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper into the
murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer, I really didnt think that there was anything special
or abnormal about the program. Why was it so well received by the common television literate
crowd of the United States? Wasnt it just a common detective narrative mixed with the emotion
and acting of an overly dramatic soap opera? These are the questions that went through my mind
when I was told how important this television program was for those that were consistent
viewers at the time and for future programs and narratives that are influenced from it. So, diving
into my Twin Peaks writing assignment of finding three different types of reviews for the show, I
stumbled upon something fascinating about this program that I thought little to nothing of: that it
has the potential of having multi-faceted meanings and purposes. While reading some of these
reviews, I became curious as to why David Lynch did the things that he did with this particular
show.
According to a Critique of Twin Peaks on the City of Absurdity website (a site dedicated
to specifically David Lynchs projects), the show started out as a simple detective narrative with
a satirical element of a soap opera, but slowly forms into an absurdist morality play with an
uncanny ability to both entertain and observe. A highly specialized article from a site that
seems to know Lynchs work well and meant clearly for an audience of other Lynch lovers, the
review focuses mainly on the shows purposes and deeper complexities. This includes the
meaning of the show as a whole, the creative decisions that Lynch made in order to instill

specific emotions into the viewers, and the moral alignment of various individual characters in
the show and what these characters represent. The language and content of this particular review
is dark, and is clearly written through the perceptions of a Lynch fan, taking every aspect of the
television program and analyzing it to fit the agenda that the author felt Lynch attempted to
portray. This is clearly expressed when the author chooses to use this statement to describe the
narrative: A tale rich in metaphor and motif that, in the end, was simply too good for its
audience. The author talks heavily about how Lynchs characters were agents of forces beyond
themselves, with driving forces being taboo social subjects like pornography, incest, and torture,
which are three important elements of Twin Peaks. All of this ties into clear distinctions of
morality that each character stood for, which happened to be something as simple as the clich of
good vs. evil. Virtually every character in the show was tainted with secrets as shameful as
Laura Palmers, the victim of the murder that the show is centered upon for the majority of the
series. And through this, the author of the review tells the reader that Lynch asks us to entertain
the possibility of pure evil and the tragedy that accompanies it.
Originally beginning as a detective fiction involving morally ambiguous characters, Twin
Peaks then takes a wide turn in a different direction and becomes something even more than a
story about Laura Palmers murder. This is what the academic review that I read was about. The
review is titled, Serial Detection and Serial Killers in Twin Peaks. I found the review in the
school librarys database and it definitely caught my interest. Well written and having a more
unbiased view of the show than the previous article, I found it to be more easily relatable having
this be my first exposure to David Lynch, and I feel that this is the audience that the review was
meant for. The articles focus is turned toward Agent Dale Cooper and his role in the series as
the clich heroic detective as an incorruptible agent of truth and justice Whose main

fascination besides pie and coffee is uncovering truth. Hes a relatively strange but simple man
in the first season of the show, but the author of the article seems to indicate that the show is not
necessarily about the murder of Laura Palmer, but more so how the murder is related to Agent
Coopers past. Twin Peaks becomes increasingly removed from the structure of a detective
novel and closer to a purely forward-moving serial narrative. And the key to this, it seems, is
the introduction of Coopers past. Early on, we see Coopers true morality and need to be a good
person through various means, and this includes his sexual morality. According to the article,
there seems to be a tense emotional relationship between Cooper and Audrey, a highschooler in
the show. Even though there is mutual infatuation, he refuses to take advantage of her youthful
naivety and explains to her that secrets are dangerous. Going on to explaining that he has no past
and no secrets, and the reason being is because his job is to figure out secrets and he knows that
they can do. However, it turns out that in the second season there is a shift of focus from Laura
Palmers past to Dale Coopers past, and it is clearly represented by Cooper uttering a line that
directly parallels the very first line in the series narrative which is an amazingly creative
decision by David Lynch, and the line is a simple Goin Fishing. And at this point, Cooper
contradicts what he had originally told Audrey and shares to her the skeleton in his closet: that a
woman he fell in love with that had been involved in a past case was targeted and murdered, and
he carries the burden and guilt of her death with him. The article then relates this situation to a
film, Roman Polanskis Chinatown and sees it as a reference, indicating that the past is
doomed to repeat itself. The author teaches how the shift is one of narrative structure. And
that, through a paradox, the more we learn about Agent Coopers past, the further the story
progresses which is described by the author as an important disruption of the paradigmatic
structure of a detective novel.

My third article has a much more general look on the series and its impact on the viewing
audience, future television narratives, and the actors that worked on the show. The article is on
the website for The Guardian, and its titled Twin Peaks: How Laura Palmer's death marked the
rebirth of TV drama. This review is a very simple mainstream article with an easy to
understand writing style that was a nice break from the complexities of the other two reviews
that I researched. This review could possibly be for people that are aware of the show but dont
necessarily know the type of impact that the show had. The author of this article is a firm
believer that Twin Peaks was a decisive turning point in U.S. television drama, and the major
vehicle for this is the very character-based nature of the narrative. By tearing up conventions of
characters and story, Twin Peaks became one of those moments when American popular culture
was worth paying attention to. The author goes on to state that Twin Peaks influenced the
characters of other television dramas. Without Agent Dale Cooper, the ultimate good guy whose
past eventually catches up to him, there wouldnt be a Jack Bauer in the popular television show
24. The article then goes to show quotes from the actors of the show expressing how Twin
Peaks has changed their lives through their careers, social interactions, and morals.
Definitely an interesting and appropriate assignment for Television in American Culture,
I learned so much more about this show and its widespread influence by researching articles and
reviews than watching the pilot of the show by itself. It helped me to potentially enter the mind
of David Lynch and see the creative genius that he applied to this American icon of a television
show. After learning so much about this show through different perceptions and the various
different types of reviews, one involving the morality of his characters, another focusing on the
demeanor and fall of one specific character, and the last explaining the major impact that all of

these elements had on the viewing populace, Ive found myself to be fascinated with the apparent
content of the show, and look forward to watching the entire series in the near future.

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&sid=31969aa3-729e-4b47-bc897798de9291e7%40sessionmgr115&hid=105&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db
=ufh&AN=9403213843
http://www.thecityofabsurdity.com/twinpeaks/tpreviews3.html
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2010/mar/21/twin-peaks-twenty-years-on