Lesli Linka Glatter knows how to make two people talking hold our attention. We rate her as a television director who serves actors and scripts without making the staging feel like an announcement of her presence.
Fi1m perspective
In Twin Peaks (1990), jealousy is funny until it hurts, and the strange things happening around it do not make that hurt any less recognisable. We were more moved than we expected by its soap-opera emotions, with Kyle MacLachlan’s steadiness giving us someone to hold on to. Lesli Linka Glatter directed four episodes under David Lynch, so it would be careless to hand her sole credit for the programme’s changes of mood. But it is a useful place to begin with a director who pays close attention to what characters want. We rate that skill, even when it is harder to isolate than an extravagant camera movement.
Her early television work included Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories (1985–87), before the features Now and Then (1995) and The Proposition (1998). Those films received mixed reviews, and further theatrical work did not follow. The more telling step was the pilot of Gilmore Girls (2000), made with creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, where Glatter helped establish the programme’s tone and style. That matters when judging her: she has helped decide how a series should work, as well as working within somebody else’s decisions.
The practical strengths are clearest in Homeland’s episode “Q&A” (2012), where simple framing sustains the pressure of an interrogation. Glatter’s preparation centres on what characters want and what they leave unsaid, and she remains open to collaborators changing the plan. Her dance background informs the blocking and camera movement, particularly when conversation has to keep moving. Across 25 episodes of Homeland, working with showrunner Alex Gansa, she had room to develop that attention over a longer stretch. We value that clarity, especially when the dialogue has to carry the scene.
In Love & Death (2023), Glatter directed five episodes, with the emphasis again on actors’ emotional depth and motivation. That is where we would look for her contribution; the programme need not resemble her previous work for the directing to be worth noticing. Our caveat about Twin Peaks concerns the series as a whole: its patience sometimes becomes drift. We would start there, provided a little wandering does not spoil an evening.
Biography
Lesli Linka Glatter is an American film and television director. Born in Dallas, Texas, she began her career as a dancer and choreographer before training through the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women.
Her first film, the short Tales of Meeting and Parting (1985), received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. She directed episodes of Twin Peaks (1990–1991), Freaks and Geeks (2000), The West Wing (1999–2006), Mad Men (2007–2015) and Homeland (2011–2020), on which she also served as executive producer. She has received multiple Primetime Emmy Award and Directors Guild of America Award nominations, winning the latter three times.
Glatter has also directed episodes of series including ER, NYPD Blue, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, House and The Walking Dead, as well as feature films such as Now and Then (1995).
