Co-creator talks revival: it’s been 3 years in the making

Oct 8, 2014 17:49 GMT  ·  By
The character of Laura Palmer promising Agent Cooper they will be reunited in the future – in 2016, when the revival airs on Showtime
   The character of Laura Palmer promising Agent Cooper they will be reunited in the future – in 2016, when the revival airs on Showtime

The most unexpected and amazing thing happened yesterday, when Showtime announced that it would air season 3 of the cult series “Twin Peaks” in 2016, 25 years to the day after it was canceled by ABC, at the end of season 2. Co-creators David Lynch and Mark Frost will return, with the latter talking to BuzzFeed about the much anticipated project in a new interview.

If you’re younger than 30, chances are you have no idea how major “Twin Peaks” was: its premiere episode got over 34.6 million viewers tuning in and it spanned a beautiful and weird mythology that also included books and a feature film serving as prequel, “Fire Walk with Me.”

The show lost many of those viewers in its second season, when Laura Palmer’s murder was solved, but what it won instead was millions of fans who have spent the last 2 and a half decades hoping Lynch and Frost would return to wrap up the story.

They’re getting their wish… in 2016, but Frost won’t say what is the direction in which it will go.

“It’s like I’m having the most beautiful dream and the most terrible nightmare all at once.”

This is actually a line from the original series, as said by Donna Hayward (Lara Flynn Boyle). Frost tells BuzzFeed that this is their goal in making this revival series: they’re not trying to capitalize on the original show by beating on a dead (and buried) horse, but they’re trying to bring back some of that magic, in order to finish what they had started.

He and Lynch started “Twin Peaks” as a labor of love, he goes on to say: for them, it was never perceived as business, it was their way of trying to bring a story into the world and of inviting as many people possible to join them on this journey.

Oh, he’s fully aware that much of the appeal of the original series resided in the atmosphere and the timing (there’s something deeply nostalgic inherent in most ‘90s releases), but he believes the world of “Twin Peaks” can survive even removed from this context.

He stops short of saying that the people of this isolated town will have cell phones and spend most of their time on Twitter and Facebook, checking in and offering useless updates every few minutes, but that goes without saying. If the story picks up 25 years after Laura Palmer’s death, which occurred before the original “Twin Peaks” started, this is what we should expect.

Asked if the revival is a continuation or a standalone series that will offer a better understanding of the original, Frost tries to play it coy. “It’s kind of all of those things. It’s different and yet the same. It’s reassuring, and yet, I hope, equally startling and unsettling. And, more than anything it does, Twin Peaks is kind of a way to look at the world. And this is a chance to refine that vision, so many years later. As you say, it’s a very unique opportunity,” he explains.

The new “Twin Peaks” will tackle themes as the passage of time and, of course, the mysteries out there, which many of us can’t understand. In doing so, it will bring back some key members of the original cast and, Frost hopes, composer Angelo Badalamenti as well. You simply can’t have “Twin Peaks” without the iconic “Twin Peaks” music, he smiles.

“I think what we’re gonna do is take the whole mythology that we’ve created into consideration, and do the best we can to be faithful to the things that are out there, that, after all, we originally had a lot to do with. Everything’s on the table,” Frost adds.

Was this planned 25 years ago, or is the revival fulfilling a prophecy?

Since the Showtime announcement, fans have been wondering: was this revival planned 25 years ago, or is the show fulfilling a prophecy with it?

As you can see in the video below, in the season 2 finale, Laura Palmer tells Special Agent Dale Cooper in the Red Room that she’ll be seeing him in 25 years. Not few were those to jump to the conclusion that Lynch and Frost had planned this from the get-go, but that implies they knew the series would be canceled.

If they didn’t plan it, then the show must be fulfilling the prophecy with the revival, others responded.

Or maybe Lynch and Frost are just making full use of an opportunity that came their way (as also is Showtime), all with the purpose of getting to tell their story until the end.

Either way, it’s a good thing it’s happening at long last.