Twin Peaks Flashcards
(30 cards)
Give a brief background.
First broadcast 1990s in US, became cult classic. New series coming out in 2016. Created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. Made The Times top 10 shows of all time.
Describe and analyse the opening credits.
Boring - nothing happens - series of 5(?) shots over 2 1/2 minutes with slow fade - slow, repetitive, sleepy music Establishes setting - sleepy and dull - rural/remote - separated with no preconceptions
Lacks any genre indication and doesn’t show any characters. The only hint to events we receive is a shot of the saw mill, although at the time of watching it doesn’t seem important despite it becoming a key location.
List the conventional and unconventional aspects in the pilot episode (crime genre).
Conventional
- murder/body/enigma
- typical sheriff/hero character (Harry) established early on (clothing, demeanour)
- panicking mum
- music
- narrative (body found, police arrive, enigmas about murder established)
Unconventional
- nothing is shown before the credits
- very little dialogue
- random camera shots (spinning fan in Palmer household)
- weird close-ups
- Lucy (receptionist) acts strange and unprofessional
- Andy at the crime scene, acts like a citizen that had come across the body (horrified, can’t stomach it, crying) and has to be sent off
- music
List the key characters and their soap opera type.
Sarah Palmer - distraught mother Sheriff Harry Truman - hero archetype Audrey Horne - rebel Donna Hayward - good girl Bobby Briggs - jock James Hurley - bad boy (motorbike) Special Agent Dale Cooper - FBI presence
Discuss Dale Cooper’s character.
- took a long time to introduce (30 minutes) despite being the main character
- clear he’s in charge (suit, clever, well spoken, neat appearance)
- intense attention to detail (recorder and speaking to ‘Dianne’)
- enjoying the case, but almost enjoying it too much: a girl is dead
- focusses on random things (cherry pie, trees, coffee)
Discuss contrasting scenes, how and why they are used. Give examples. (Pilot episode)
They can be used with a scene (during Bobby Briggs’ interrogation Cooper smiles despite the serious atmosphere) or between scenes (‘the Norwegians are leaving! is followed by a sombre crime scene). This confuses the audience and plays with their emotions.
- Stag head on the table during a serious scene about evidence for the case
- Bar room fight has the theme music (unusual choice) in the background as diegetic sound, creating a strange and inappropriate atmosphere
Give two examples of postmodernism in the pilot.
- the “policeman’s dream” of piles of donuts on the table is an exaggerated stereotype, used to mock the crime genre. This becomes a running joke for the series
- James being taken to the jail cell. Bobby and Mike act animalistic, snarling and stalking James through the bars
What enigmas are created at the end of the pilot episode?
- Who killed Laura Palmer? (the long running enigma through to halfway through series 2, revealed to be her father Leland)
- Why was Mrs Palmer screaming? (she had a vision of Bob)
- Who took the necklace that James and Donna buried? (Doctor Jacoby)
Describe the closing credits.
Simply a picture of Laura as prom queen with the closing music and credits rolling over. This draws the audience back to the main enigma which can sometimes be forgotten due to the soap opera nature of the show.
Describe the opening scene of episode 1.
Opens to Cooper handing upside down from the rafters talking to Dianne. At first the scene appears serious before panning over to Cooper, and then become even more ridiculous when he begins to discuss Marilyn Monroe at the end of the scene. This shows that the show has now been funded, and Lynch can be as weird as he wants.
What is the first hint towards who killed Laura?
It cuts from a discussion about suspects to Leo Johnson suggesting he killed her, especially since he has a violent nature and intimidating appearance and demeanour.
What strange additions were made in episode 1?
- Nadine “yep, she’s quite a character” (James, making a postmodernist comment)
- Log lady (when the series was syndicated to Bravo log lady intros were created for each episode, adding to the surreal nature)
- One armed man (Mike)
How is music and sound used in an interesting way in episode 1?
- the end of Laura’s tape that Jacoby is listening to gets cut off, creating another enigma
- Audrey is dancing in the middle of the room to music used often in the show assumed to be non-diegetic until her father (Ben) comes in and turns it off suddenly making is diegetic sound
- the scene where Leo beats Shelly (a particularly violent and loud scene) is sandwiched between two quiet ones
What enigmas does episode 1 create and answer?
Answer:
- Doctor Jacoby took the necklace
- Sarah was scared of a man at the end of the sofa
Create:
- how did Jacoby know where the necklace was?
- who is the man that Sarah saw?
- what was in Laura’s tape that Jacoby was listening to?
Describe the opening scene of episode 2.
Introduces a new character, Ben Horne’s brother Jerry, who comes in ranting about brie baguettes from Paris. Ben creates a strange feeling by announcing that Jerry was back from Paris, something people don’t do, but gave the audience context.
What intertextual references are used in the beginning of episode 2?
- The Shining (“all work and no play…”)
- Ben and Jerry (ice-cream). They were famed for being obsessed with food, and the first scene with the two brother in involves them getting excited over a baguette
What three characters are named for and modelled after famous people?
Harry S. Truman - Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of America
James Hurley - James Dean character
Dale Bartholomew Cooper - D.B. Cooper, a wanted man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft. His composite sketch is similar to the design of Agent Cooper.
What is the juxtaposing scene in episode 2, centred around relationships?
Ben and the girl from One Eyed Jacks was very seedy and felt wrong and dirty. [Before/After] the scene with James and Donna that was very pure and good.
Discuss the stone throwing scene in episode 2.
The set was highly unrealistic: blackboard and map of Tibet, chairs laid out like a classroom, table covered in donuts (continuation of the policeman’s dream), in the middle of a forest seemingly nowhere significant.
Conventional aspects: following clues, ‘J’ from the diary, looking through the suspects.
Unconventional: throwing stones at a bottle, got the idea in a dream.
The purpose of this scene is to remind the audience of the characters and their relationship to Laura. It was twisted and exaggerated in a style clearly typical to this show (postmodernism).
Describe the character Albert and his role in the postmodernism.
Albert is the arrogant forensics expert from the city who is rude to and annoys Harry. During the scene Cooper is stood there grinning as if he gets he’s on TV and sees the stereotype.
Discuss the dream sequence at the end of episode 2.
The dream sequence was very surreal and strange, even for Twin Peaks. Speech was distorted and given subtitles, Cooper appeared aged, Laura was there, and so was a dwarf. At the end the dwarf began to dance to the [theme music? which carried through the credits?]
As such it became a water cooler moment with people who had seen the show, and perhaps not seen the show, talking about it. It was something not seen in TV drama before.
What enigmas did episode 2 create and answer?
Answer:
???
Create:
- Was that Laura in Cooper’s dream?
- Why did Cooper look older?
- Who was the dancing man?
- Who is Bob? Did he kill her? (revealed to be: yes)
- Where is the room in Coopers dream?
- What was the shadow ?????/
Discuss the funeral scene in episode 3.
Everyone was present, contributing to the narrative. It was a cliché peaceful funeral until Bobby caused a scene and attempted to fight James. Leland jumped onto the coffin causing the mechanism to break and continuously move up and down. The following scene is of Shelly in the diner talking about what happened and laughing with customers.
This was Lynch speaking through the characters: “you’re gonna have to go along with this, even if it sounds a bit weird” and “Twin Peaks is different”.
What became of Coopers dream? (episode 3)
She whispered the killers name into Coopers ear but he forgot. “Break the code, solve the murder”. This is telling the audience how and what to think.
