Twin Peaks ACTUALLY EXPLAINED (No, Really)

February 1, 2022 8:48 PM

Look, I can't argue. This guy has done research far deeper than anything I'll ever do, and his arguments are pretty convincing. If you're up for it, here is Twin Peaks ACTUALLY EXPLAINED (No, Really), a 4h34m deep dive into the background of, development of, intent of, history of, plot of, symbols of, philosophy of, and generally everything else of Twin Peaks, and it ends with a sort of really messy bow like you'd get from a gift wrap counter in a second rate shopping mall anchor store. BUT IT'S PRETTY AND IT WORKS.

There is probably a way to extract a transcript from the captions, but this is something that probably needs to be watched.

posted by hippybear (18 comments total)

Watched Twin Peaks with friends when it first aired. We would all meet up at the same house. I remember the layout of the room. The week between each episode would be punctuated by our excited phone calls to each other with our fan theories. Twin Peaks Seasons 1 and 2 for me is inextricably tied up with where, how and with whom I watched it.

Life since then has since taken us to different places geographically, politically, spiritually, and mortally, so I watched the Return alone. I would have been very pleased if this video had tied up all my feelings about that, but I'll create a way to accept it on its own terms.

As this guy points out at the beginning of his video, Lynch prefers to communicate through cinema, not explanations. The map is not the territory. Here is a reaction one reviewer had to an interview of David Lynch on YouTube, where Lynch was asked about the theme of one of his movies. Spoilers for an interview of David Lynch on YouTube, where Lynch was asked about the theme of one of his movies.

That said, this is good map. I respect the creative work of finding closure. I am pleased when it can be found, and have been slowly developing a sense of humor when practically it won't be found.
posted by otherchaz at 1:52 AM on February 2, 2022 [5 favorites]

The top comment, though:

Imagine Lynch watching this whole thing all the way through and just saying “no” lol

One of the interesting things about Twin Peaks coming back in 2017, with two companion books written by Mark Frost, is that it revealed just how much the "weird conspiracy shit" that people kinda assumed Lynch was responsible for were in fact Frost's obsessions. And I'll forever be curious about their collaboration, but it's telling to me that the most explicit "this is the part about America" bit in the whole series, Episode 8, is also the one that Lynch handles in the most avant-garde manner, as if something that grounded in reality can only be handled with an equivalently unmoored approach as counterpoint.

If someone does find a transcript of this, I'd be curious to read it!
posted by rorgy at 2:35 AM on February 2, 2022 [8 favorites]

Twin Peaks on FanFare.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 3:41 AM on February 2, 2022

I've seen this before and watched all this person's stuff...absolutely incredible analysis and worth the long commitment to watching.
posted by tiny frying pan at 4:24 AM on February 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

I hear that show I like is coming back into style.
posted by my-username at 5:32 AM on February 2, 2022 [18 favorites]

otherchaz nails it above with "the map is not the territory"

"Who killed Laura Palmer?"

Lynch wanted to explore the question while everyone else wanted to find the answer.
posted by slimepuppy at 7:42 AM on February 2, 2022 [8 favorites]

I am watching this now and I love it but oh my god the guy's "David Lynch Voice" is like fingernails on a chalkboard. I get it! Lynch has a speech affectation! You can just read his stuff normal anyway!
posted by Shepherd at 8:53 AM on February 2, 2022

Really torn about this.

It's an impressive video; it's well put together, and issues with his David Lynch cosplay/performance notwithstanding, I actually really enjoyed it (when I watched it in 2019). However.

By my recollection, the creator essentially portrays Twin Peaks as a war between "good" and "evil", but the belligerents in this conflict are not the protagonists and antagonists in the show. Rather, they are David Lynch and... what, the emergent characteristics of modern television as a force to overawe viewers with mindless spectacle? And to wage this war, Lynch has constructed a vehicle of symbols and complexity in the form of Twin Peaks, because engaging with this requires thought and involvement from the viewer, rather than passive attention and simple reactive entertainment.

If this model is accurate, then the video creator has aligned himself with the forces of evil. By disassembling Lynch's engine of complexity and showing how it works, that complexity is undercut and replaced with awe at the creator's cleverness for figuring it out! If the model is correct, this video literally undoes the effort Lynch put into creating this in such a way as to render it pointless. The show is broken: a scattered diagram of components on the floor of this dude's studio. Way to kill the goose, jackass.
posted by jsnlxndrlv at 9:37 AM on February 2, 2022 [4 favorites]

Looks like this is substantially what I said in 2019, too:

"[D]on’t get me wrong: I enjoyed the video enough to watch the entire thing. I like this sort of thing! But he basically confirms right from the beginning that this video is completely against what he considers to be the purpose of Twin Peaks. There’s something a little slimy about purporting to love something so much that your expression of love is deleterious to that something’s ability to exist. And yeah, I agree that a rote recounting of symbols and meaning squeezes the depth out of the show and reduces what should be messy and real to a sterile, flattened silhouette."
posted by jsnlxndrlv at 9:48 AM on February 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

So, to begin the video, instead of a spoiler alert, what, he should have put an 'epistemological conflict' alert?

"Warning, this video may deprive you of the experience of knowing what it is to watch twin peaks"?
posted by eustatic at 11:41 AM on February 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Actually, the video author has written such an alert into this and his Mulholland Drive videos
posted by eustatic at 12:01 PM on February 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

There’s something a little slimy about purporting to love something so much that your expression of love is deleterious to that something’s ability to exist

Adding to my Pandemic Bingo Card. I predict Showtime and Disney+ will collaborate on "Creamed Corn" a new series set in the Twin Peaks Electric Multiverse. Each episode will be directed by a different famed director.
posted by otherchaz at 5:02 PM on February 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

tl;dw We're all just fish in a giant percolator?

Also, thanks, I love watching other people competently overthink things. It's a MeFi tradition!
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 6:19 PM on February 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

There is probably a way to extract a transcript from the captions

Here you go.
posted by Gerald Bostock at 8:18 PM on February 2, 2022

Anyway, this video doesn't explain much about why you would enjoy the show, why it's funny and emotional and cinematic.

I like the red-letter media explanations, which are all about the emotional moments that are enjoyable.

If you despair about what this nerdy video says about 2019, there's this one, which is all about enjoyment.
posted by eustatic at 4:35 AM on February 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

If this model is accurate, then the video creator has aligned himself with the forces of evil. By disassembling Lynch's engine of complexity and showing how it works, that complexity is undercut and replaced with awe at the creator's cleverness for figuring it out!

He addresses this very well within his videos. And he isn't bragging or gloating at all about his conclusions.

I don't agree with this stance either. These videos attempt to explain that Lynch isn't inscrutable. It's okay to glean his intent.
posted by tiny frying pan at 8:20 AM on February 5, 2022

Oh god his YouTube channel has another 1.5 and then another .5 hours of him doing more explanations, including a totally insane symbolic breakdown of the entire pilot plus the International Edition ending, and then more and more and more and more....

That was a lot. I might need some time to recover.
posted by hippybear at 12:58 PM on February 5, 2022

The latest installments of two 90's hits both came back recently and both addressed their fandom as part of the story. The Matrix did so explicitly, and Twin Peaks did it in Lynchian fashion. It seems like a gimmick now but give it a few years to see the influence it will have on the next generation of hitmakers.
posted by otherchaz at 5:14 AM on February 6, 2022