"But Who Is The Dreamer?" Twin Peaks: The Return

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In a summer where blockbusters felt stale and indie films became rote, cinephilia thrived every Sunday night as David Lynch put on an 18-hour spectacle on primetime television. Twin Peaks: The Return saw the filmmaker behind Blue Velvet and Mulholland Dr. return to the soap opera that would in part define two decades of serialized television. He created not just a new spin on the story of Dale Cooper and Laura Palmer, but instead delved into a mystery that felt more aesthetically, narratively, and emotionally involved than any other visual story this year. As the boundaries between cinema, television, streaming, and other categories have become less defined, Twin Peaks: The Return lept past these debates to simply create an utterly singular work about the never ending battle between good and evil. To celebrate the show's culmination (and perhaps the capstone of Lynch's career), Peter invites a Roadhouse worthy group of  guests—Alison Herman of The Ringer, Scott Nye of Battleship Pretension and Criterion Cast, and Nate Fisher of Mubi Notebook—to dissect the show's use of nostalgic devices, moral dichotomies, and employment of experimental cinema techniques. Grab a coffee, watch out for the tulpas, and don't give anyone a light, we're all Twin Peaks this week on the podcast.

0:00-4:16 Opening
4:16-46:35 Discussing Twin Peaks: The Return
47:05-49:44 Sponsorship Section
50:36-1:3019 More on The Return

1:31:14-1:34:19 Close / Outtake

Notes and Links from the Conversation

—Read Alison Herman on The Ringer and follow her on Twitter
—Read Scott Nye at Battleship Pretension and Criterion Cast and follow him on Twitter
—Read Nate Fisher at Mubi Notebook and follow him on Twitter
—Peter spoke about Twin Peaks's pilot and final episode of Season 2 on the podcast
—Dennis Lim's David Lynch: The Man From Another Place
—Peter and Blake Williams discuss INLAND EMPIRE
—Watch the original Twin Peaks on Netflix
—A guide to watching Twin Peaks (and which episodes to skip)
—David Lynch on watching films on iPhones
—Alison on MacLachlan's performance as Dougie Jones
—David Lynch's Duran Duran: Unstaged
—Keith Uhlich on the finale
—Mervyn LeRoy's The FBI Story (1959) with Jimmy Stewart, and the poster that inspired the statue 
—Alex Jones interviews David Lynch

Theme Music: “Forward” by Northbound

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