Professor Paul Watkins
Class Hours: 1-4 pm on Wednesdays

“Where we’re from, the birds sing a pretty song and there’s always music in the air.” —Twin Peaks 1.2

On April 8th, 1990, some 35 million people tuned into some of the strangest television of their lives. Twin Peaks has gone on to inspire the mise-en-scène of multiple television programs, and the evocative music expanded the palette of sound far beyond the small town of Twin Peaks. Shows influenced by Twin Peaksinclude The X-Files, The Killing, Hannibal, Lost, Bates Motel, The Sopranos, Fargo, Stranger Things, Dark, Riverdale, Yellowjackets and Donald Glover said that with Atlanta he “just wanted to make Twin Peaks with rappers.” This course will focus on the six David Lynch directed episodes of the first two seasons (1990-1991) as well as select parts from the limited series (2017). We will also watch the film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). Beyond that we will watch a few episodes and scenes from shows influenced by Twin Peaks and discuss what makes something “Lynchian” and what constitutes as “Quality” TV. We will explore representations of violence, the connection between sound, word, and image, dreams and surrealism, gender and feminism, narrative structure, and more. Course evaluation will include a review of the pilot or episode two from the first season, a group presentation, a creative project, a full-length research paper, and a final exam. This course promises to be both wonderful and strange. 

Content Warning: Some of the content and discussion in this course will necessarily engage with representations of violence, sex/sexual abuse, and other mature themes.

Web pages of interest on Twin Peaks: 

Given the filmic quality of Twin Peaks, these free guides might be useful:

Books and Collections on Twin Peaks, David Lynch, and Television Narrative:

  • 1978 — Fiske, John and John Hartley. Reading Television. (1978; 2003). [eBook on VIU Library]
  • 1990 — Lynch, Jennifer. The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer.
  • 1994 — Lavery, David, ed. Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks.
  • 2005 — Chion, Michel. David Lynch.
  • 2005 — Rodley, Chris, ed. Lynch on Lynch.
  • 2014 — Dukes, Brad. Reflections: An Oral History of Twin Peaks.
  • 2015 — Halskov, Andreas. TV Peaks: Twin Peaks and Modern Television Drama.
  • 2015 — Burns, Andy. Wrapped in Plastic. [eBook on VIULearn]
  • 2015 — Lim, Dennis. David Lynch: The Man from Another Place.
  • 2016 — Thorne, John. The Essential Wrapped in Plastic: Pathways to Twin Peaks.
  • 2016 / 2017 — Frost, Mark. The Secret History of Twin Peaks and The Final Dossier.
  • 2017 — Norelli, Clare Nina. Soundtrack from Twin Peaks.
  • 2017 — Hoffman, Eric, ed. Approaching Twin Peaks: Critical Essays.
  • 2018 — Lynch, David and Kristine McKenna. Room to Dream.
  • 2019 — Nochimson, Martha P. Television Rewired: The Rise of the Auteur Series.
  • 2019 — Bushman, David, ed. The Women of David Lynch: A Collection of Essays.
  • 2019 — Biderman, Shai, ed. The Politics of Twin Peaks.
  • 2019 — Sanna, Antonio, ed. Critical Essays on Twin Peaks: The Return.
  • 2020 — Minton, J. B. A Skeleton Key to Twin Peaks – One Experience of The Return.
  • 2021 — Wissner, Reba, and Katherine Reed. Music in Twin Peaks – Listen to the Sounds.
  • 2021 — Boulègue, Franck. The Return of Twin Peaks: Squaring the Circle.
  • 2022 — Thorne, John. Ominous Whoosh: A Wandering Mind Returns to Twin Peaks
  • 2023 — Olson, Greg. Black Coffee Lightning: David Lynch Returns to Twin Peaks.
  • 2025 — Wood, Jeff. Movies Minute by Minute – Twin Peaks: The Return, Part 8.
  • 2025 — Scott, Ryan. Always Music in the Air: The Sounds of Twin Peaks.
  • 2025 — Scott, Ryan. Twin Peaks: Through the Red Curtain.

Schedule:
Please note that this schedule is subject to change as the term progresses. All Secondary readings are available on VIULearn (please print or download copies for class).

Jan 7               
Introduction to television and film analysis (scene from Blue Velvet); course outline; standards and expectations; Who was David Lynch and why does Twin Peaks matter?

  • Screening: Pilot episode (“Northwest Passage”)

After class reading: Stephen Lacey, “Just Plain Odd: Some Thoughts on Performance Styles in Twin Peaks”; Burns, “Introduction” and “Chapter 1” (1-14); Andreas Halskov, “Prologue: Welcome to Twin Peaks” (8-15); Dennis Lim, “Welcome to Twin Peaks” (83-104)

Jan 14              
Readings: John Fiske, Reading Television (“Reading Television” 1-7 and “The Signs of Television” 22-40); John Thorne, “Cult Buster” (from The Essential Wrapped in Plastic); Ross P. Garner, “‘The Series That Changed Television?’ Twin Peaks, ‘Classic” Status,’ and Temporal Capital”; Andreas Halskov, “Peaks and Waves in Television History” (20-28) and “Beyond the Wasteland: Twin Peaks and the Second Golden Age” (29-38); Andy Burns, “Chapter 6” (see 70-79)

Jan 21              
Readings: Lenora Ledwon, “Twin Peaks and the Television Gothic” (1993); Andreas Halskov, “Lynching Television: TV Auteurism and the Question of Legitimacy” (54-95);Lindsay Hallam, “May the Giant Be With You: Twin Peaks Season Two, Episode One and the Television Auteur” (available, here); Karla Loncar traces “Twin Peaks’ origins in surrealism.”

Jan 28              
Readings: Kathryn Kalinak, “‘Disturbing the Guests with This Racket’: Music and Twin Peaks” (1994); Paul Watkins, “Black Lodge Sonata” (DRAFT); Michael Goddard, Telephones, Voice Recorders, Microphones, Phonographs: A Media Archaeology of Sonic Technologies in Twin Peaks

  • Screening: 2.9 (“Coma”); Clips: The Return (3.5 and 3.13); Badalamenti on “Laura Palmer’s Theme”; Silencio scene from Mulholland Drive
    Discussion of Catching the Big Fish

Clips: The Return (3.5 and 3.13); Badalamenti on “Laura Palmer’s Theme”; Mulholland Drive, Silencio scene; Riverdale, 2.9; Fresh Prince/ Twin Peaks mash-up

Feb 4               
Readings: Sue Lafky, “Gender, Power, and Culture in the Televisual World of Twin Peaks: A Feminist Critique”; Smith et al., “The Knowing Spectator of Twin Peaks: Culture, Feminism, and Family Violence”; Diane Stevenson, “Romance, Family Violence, and the Fantastic in Twin Peaks” (1994);  Diana Hume George, “Lynching Women: A Feminist Reading of Twin Peaks” (1994); Andreas Halskov, “Incest for Millions”: Edginess as a Marker of Quality (96-111); Stacy Rusnak, “Violence, Representation, and Girl Power: Twin Peaks’  Female Characters and Third Wave Feminism” (2019); Hancock, “Gender, Twin peaks, and a Question of Agency”

  • Screening: 2.14 (“Lonely Souls”); Start Psych (“Dual Spires”)
    Discussion of Group Projects
  • David Griffith [responds to Hume George], Teaching Twin Peaks at Sweet Briar
  • Rashida Jones Checked Under Her Bed for Bob Every Night Until College

Feb 11             
Readings: Thorne, “Half the Man he Used to Be”; O’Connor, “Bourgeois Myth versus Media Poetry in Prime-time: Re-visiting Mark Frost and David Lynch’s Twin Peaks”; Martha P Nochimson, “David Lynch, Twin Peaks” (from Television Rewired)

  • Screening: 2.29 (“Beyond Life and Death”) and selected scenes from season 2; Psych (“Dual Spires”)
    Discussion of the first two seasons of Twin Peaks

and Part 3 of Phenomenon promo.

Feb 16, Week 7: No Class, Study Week

Feb 25              
Readings: John Thorne, “Critical Reaction to Fire Walk with Me (265-270) and “The Realization of Laura Palmer” (271-297); Rachel Joseph, “‘Eat My Fear’: Corpse and Text in the Films and Art of David Lynch”

  • Screening: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me [VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED]
    Discussion of Research Essay

[Recommend Home viewing: Mulholland Drive]

Video Essay 1: “How Lynch Manipulates You“
Video Essay 2: “Mulholland Drive Explained“

March 4          
Readings: David McAvoy, “‘Is It About the Bunny? No, It’s Not About the Bunny!’: David Lynch’s Fandom and Trolling of Peak TV Audiences”; Joel Hawkes, “Movement in the Box: The Production of Surreal Social Space and the Alienated Body” 

  • Screening: Selected scenes from The Return, Parts 1-4
  • Screening: Atlanta, “Teddy Perkins” (2.6)

March 11        
Readings: Monique Rooney, “Air-object: on Air Media and David Lynch’s ‘Gotta Light?’”; Ashlee Joyce, “The Nuclear Anxiety of Twin Peaks: The Return”   

  • Screening: The Return, Part 8 [200/203 for 2:30-4 pm]

Creative Interventions Due (including short presentations)
1-2:15 Creative Intervention Sharing
2:30-3:50 Screening in 200/203

March 18        
Readings: Ellis and Theus, “Is It Happening Again? Twin Peaks and ‘The Return’ of History”; Cobb and Potter, “Who is the Dreamer?”; Martha P Nochimson, “Coda: The Return of David Lynch (from Television Rewired); Amanda DiPaolo, “Is it Future or It Past?: The Politics and Use of Nostalgia in Twin Peaks”; Darci Doll, “Zen, or the Art of Being Agent Cooper”; Frank Guan for Vulture: “What Does David Lynch Have to Say About Race?”

  • Screening: The Return: selected scenes from parts 11, 15-18 and discussion
  • Screening: Fleabag, 2.1

March 25        
Group Presentations (1 pm—3 pm)

  • Screening: Pilot of The Killing 

April 1             
Readings: Dana Och, “All Laura Palmer’s Children: Twin Peaks and Gendering the Discourse of Influence”; Andreas Halskov, “Copies and Continuations: Final Remarks” (226-233)

  • Screening (class Vote): The X-Files, “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose;” I May Destroy You (pilot); Yellowjackets (pilot); Riverdale (pilot); Dark (pilot); The Leftovers, “International Assassin;” Fargo, “Who Rules the Land of Denial?”; or, the film, I Saw the TV Glow

April 8             
Reading: Hassler-Forest, Dan. “When You Get there, You Will Already be there: Stranger Things, Twin Peaks and the Nostalgia Industry.”

  • Screening: Stranger Things (Pilot); possible Scenes from Fargo, Bates Motel, Veronica Mars, The Sopranos, True Detective, Top of the Lake, and I Saw the TV Glow

Discussion: What makes something Twin-Peaks-like or “Lynchian”?
Exam review

  • Essay Due by 11:59 pm on VIULearn

Twin Peaks-themed potluck