That show you like is going to come back in style

With the recent announcement that, after 25 years, the beloved, and bazar, David Lynch TV series, Twin peaks will return I thought it was only appropriate to post about the show. The cult show which ran for only two seasons and revolved around the murder of a young high school girl, Laura Palmer, and the mysterious story behind the magic of the town Twin Peaks. The show is going to pick up where it left off on ShoTime. The show was canceled because of its gradual decline in ratings, however in the years since it went off the air it gained a cult following. Other television shows began to barrow from the innovative shows format, including Lost, and perhaps most obviously The Killing, the Simpsons spoofed it, and the cast was reunited in an episode of Psych. However Twin Peaks strongly affected the music industry as well.

Many bands have been inspired by the strange show. The title of Sky Ferreira’s album Night Time, My Time, is a quote taken from the shows main character Laura Plamer.  El-P DJ Shaddow, and Mout Eefie all use parts of the shows dialogue in their work. Perhaps the most wildly known use of the show in music is by the British band Bastille, they have a song called Laura Plamer. There is also a band called “Twin Peaks”.

But why did all these musical artists find inspiration in the show? First of all the show was like nothing else on TV at that time. It was terrifying, filled with jump scares, and twisted plot lines that left you up at night. It was however also very funny, and paced with witty and quirky humor. This, I think drew the artists to the show. With so many boring or cliché shows out there it makes sense that the music industry would be drawn to one that totally broke the mold.

I think the artists were also drawn to the main character of the show, who we rarely see alive. Laura Plamer, quite like the show, she counterattacks cauterization. She is seen by her parents and the perfect Homecoming queen seen at the end of most episodes, wile she is really a cocaine abuser, slept around, and depreciated her fiends behind their backs.

Finally I think the music industry was drawn to Twin Peaks because of the music in the show. From the iconic opening song, to the music the little man dances too in the red room, the music is as strange and intriguing as the show itself. It is, in my opinion one of the best sored TV shows.   

Twin Peaks

David Lynch, of Eraser Head fame, made a very strange TV show in the 90's. Trying to explain what twin peaks is to someone who's never watched it is very difficult but I'll try my best. The show at first seems like a soap opera about a detective. It's melodramatic, slow paced, just like the opening credits. Then the plot.. thickens. Twin Peaks is not what it seems, almost nothing is what it seems, as log lady will tell you:

Characters like Log Lady (heres a funny buzzfeed list about her) are what make Twin Peaks so enamoring. Lynch and Frost create a town so small, and so weird, that you cant look away. One of the huge parts of the show is the sound and the score. Though at first it feels cheesy, accept the weirdness David Lynch is throwing your way and you will not regret it.

(Agent Cooper and his best friend)

(Audrey Horne, her hair is full of secrets)

First there's Agent Dale Cooper, an FBI agent sent to town to investigate the murder of Laura Palmer. He loves nothing better than an incredible piece of pie and a damn good cup of coffee.

(Bobby and Shelly)

Next is Audrey Horne, seductress, misunderstood, and written off by her father and many others as a silly teenage girl. She is strong willed and goes to extreme lengths to prove she's not a bratty airhead teenager, as she first seems.

Benjamin Horne, Audrey's father, mostly ignores her and treats her like a little girl. He is a twisted man, which I won't explain. Watch the show to find out just how awful a person he is.

(Leo & Shelly = creepy)

Bobby Briggs is the first suspect in Laura's murder, he was her boyfriend, and is a very 90s-grunge, angsty teenager. He is a smart ass, and as other rebellious teens before him, is the polar opposite of his military man father.

Bobby, however, was seeing Shelly Johnson behind Laura's back. Shelly is married to Leo Johnson but is very obviously scared of him. Shelly's relationship with Leo is more similar to an abusive father-daughter relationship than husband and wife.

(Donna Hayward on life post Laura Palmer)

Leo Johnson is a scary guy. There's something off about him, and he's somehow connected to the drugs that Laura was addicted to before her death.

Donna Hayward, the deceased Laura Palmer's best friend is devastated by her death. Donna is left questioning why Laura died, and why she hid so much of her life from Donna. She's also struggling with her feelings for James Hurley, who Laura was seeing behind Bobby's back.

(James' reaction to Laura's death)

James Hurley is arguable the worst character on the show. His character is weak, uninteresting, and his reactions are unbelievable. It's a wonder he was able to get Laura or Donna to give him the time of day.

There are many other interesting characters on the show I could continue to go on about forever but these few are the most important. You'll just have to watch the show to find all the other weird people.

Coincidentally it was just announced that Lynch and Frost will be writing an directing a continuation of the series to air in 2016.

Twin Peaks: Something to Watch

             So as always, I was scrolling through Netflix the other week looking for something to watch, and I came across Twin Peaks. I had heard about the show before, but all I knew was that it was very strange. It had always in the back on my mind to watch, so I finally decided to watch it. I am so sad that this show is only two seasons, because I honestly don’t know what I will do with myself once it is over. I will agree that this show is a bit strange, even corny, but it is extremely interesting, and I have always been one to enjoy a good dream sequence. I won’t go into to much detail about the plot of this show because honestly, it is a bit hard to describe, but ultimately it is a murder mystery that from beginning to end, keeps you guessing.

            Like I mentioned, the dream sequences in this show are one of my favorite aspects. There are many of these dreams shown through the point of the lead detective Agent Cooper, and at first glance, they seem to make zero sense. But what is truly fascinating about this show is that each dream holds a series of riddles that lead to specific clues pertaining to the murder trying to be solved. I think they are extremely creative and interesting. They are very strange, but intelligent at the same time. Here is an example:

Twin Peaks is a great show, but definitely an acquired taste (like most of the things I watch). Nonetheless, I definitely recommend that you give this show a chance. 

Music in The Sopranos: Offering Humanity in a Show Absent of It

                If you’re looking for a show that explores the kindness and generosity of the human spirit, than The Sopranos is not your best option. David Chase's television classic focuses on the anxieties and personal struggles of middle aged mobster Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini, as he goes through therapy. The show's viewpoint of people and the psychological makeup that makes them tick is deeply pessimistic. Everyone is selfish and self-serving. Conversations are not exchanges of thoughts and ideas as much as a series of thoughts spoken aloud to one another with little to no value given to what the other participant says. Characters store emotions up inside of them for years until they explode, often at the expense of people entirely uninvolved with the situation. And by the end of the show, many characters who claimed to have changed themselves and their evil ways find themselves in a far worse place than they ever started. There are moments of empathy and humanity, and these scenes are indeed powerful, but they are few and far between, more often the exception to the rule. Basically, the show seems to believe that people are often no good. This is such a deeply pessimistic viewpoint runs the danger of being far too oppressive viewpoint. But it never does, in no small part thanks to the music.

                The use of licensed music in film and television is nothing new. Ever since movies like Mean Streets, Easy Rider and American Graffiti, licensed music has become a means of accentuating and commenting upon the emotional core of any scene in a variety of films and television shows. And certain television shows, such as LOST, Twin Peaks and Breaking Bad, have used music to great effect. But The Sopranos truly stands out amongst them all with the strength of aural landscape. Songs are deftly utilized to convey any number of sentiments. Sometimes they will be an indicator of the times or a character’s interest, such as when Britney Spears plays in the background of a fast food restaurant. Often the music is used as a means of getting into a character’s head, such as at the end of the episode Blue Comet, when a sparse piano piece lays as Tony sits on a bed alone holding onto a machine gun, his friends either fatally injured or killed. Sometimes it serves as a means of juxtaposition, such as in the pilot when a Doo-Wop song plays as Tony beats a man so he can get his money. One of the most notable uses of music is the montage that begins season two, which plays to Frank Sinatra’s “It Was A Very Good Year.”

                As we watch the characters live their everyday lives, Frank sings nostalgically about his days of youth. But intertwined with this nostalgia is a sense of melancholy. As each verse passes, the character gets older and older, yet he still finds himself dwelling on the past. The song ends in the autumn, with the character reflecting on all the good times. Autumn, the season where the weather gets colder and the plants and trees start to die. The brutal winter is not here yet, but it is on its way. But these are the good times. This may be as good as it ever gets. Revel in it, enjoy it. Because it may not always be this way. And so as we watch these characters live their everyday life, there a combined sense of comfort at how things are and one of dread for what is to come. I was able to articulate this by analyzing the song, but it is understood on an emotional level as soon as one watches it. That the show could conjure such a complex emotion out of a short three minute montage is laudable. Magical moments like this are strewn all over The Sopranos seven year run, to the point where it makes the perfect mesh of song and image seem easy.

                There is such a consistency to the one of the music, with much of the selections being a heavy dose of classic rocks songs such as The Rolling Stones and The Kings mixed with a hint of deeply humanistic, sometimes spiritual songs. The music landscape almost becomes, if not another character, than an entirely different viewpoint for the show to articulate and further its overall perspective. A song does not only comment and accentuate the single scene it plays against; it works alongside the established musical palette  and deepens our understanding of the overall show. The song selections come together and form a shading of the show’s viewpoint as important and tangible as the writing, acting and cinematography. And whereas the other shadings of this perspective typically work to further the show’s pessimistic declaration of humanity, the music instead offers with a deeply emotional and sentimental tone that allows us to enjoy the characters and occasionally empathize with them. This is not the only aspect of the show to make these characters and the shows viewpoint tolerable, humor also being quite important to what makes the show work, but it may be the most affective one.