David Lynch makes ordinary wants and jealousies unsettling, then asks us to take the people feeling them seriously. We admire that generosity, especially in Twin Peaks, though his patience with mystery can outlast ours.
Fi1m perspective
The jealousies in Twin Peaks (1990) are familiar; the behaviour they provoke is harder to place. David Lynch and Mark Frost build their rural soap around people with things to hide, but the hiding is only part of the attraction. We were moved by the way the programme takes their feelings seriously even when their behaviour is ridiculous. That care is why its mysteries matter to us, and why we recommend it despite stretches we would shorten.
The early features help explain how he reached that mixture. The industrial strangeness of Eraserhead (1977) was followed by the wider recognition of The Elephant Man (1980). By Blue Velvet (1986), the familiar American setting with something violent beneath it had become a defining habit. On television, Twin Peaks gave that unease a place in a rural soap, where jealousy could sustain a story and peculiar behaviour could be funny. It also gave Lynch room to linger, sometimes longer than the material needed.
Kyle MacLachlan gives Twin Peaks a steady centre, which matters when so much around him threatens to become merely peculiar. His presence lets us stay with the programme without requiring every oddity to make immediate sense. Music is just as important to Lynch's work: composer Angelo Badalamenti's blend of jazz, ambient and industrial sounds helps make the ordinary feel unsafe. That attention to sound gives both Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive (2001) much of their unsettling force.
Some critics found Inland Empire (2006) and parts of Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) self-indulgent. Our objection to the original series is more specific: sometimes it drifts, and affection for these people does not make every pause worthwhile. We do not need every mystery solved, but we do need a reason to remain interested in the people living with it. Start with Twin Peaks, and give its people at least as much attention as its puzzles.
Biography
David Lynch was an American filmmaker, visual artist and musician. He was born in Missoula, Montana, on 20 January 1946 and died on 16 January 2025.
Lynch studied painting before turning to film in the late 1960s. His first feature, Eraserhead (1977), became a cult success. He directed and co-wrote Twin Peaks (1990) with Mark Frost. Other notable films include The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), Wild at Heart (1990), Lost Highway (1997), The Straight Story (1999), Mulholland Drive (2001) and Inland Empire (2006). He also directed Dune (1984) and the 2017 revival of Twin Peaks.
