Yesterday saw Showtime president David Nevins announce to the Television Critics Association 2017 Winter Press Tour that Twin Peaks would be premiering on Sunday, May 21 at 9pm with a double length episode before the next two instalments would be made available for streaming in the US from the Showtime streaming service.
Following this, Sky Atlantic in the UK have announced a simulcast of that first episode at 2am on Monday 22nd with a follow up screening at 9pm on the 23rd (apparently keeping the traditional Game of Thrones slot open for Monday nights). What is unclear at this stage for UK fans is whether all episodes will be simulcast on Sunday nights/Monday mornings as per Season 6 of Game of Thrones or just the first as Sky chose to do with earlier seasons of Thrones. Also unclear is whether episodes 3 and 4 (or 2 and 3 depending on the format of those initial 2 hours) will be available (legally) to UK fans at the same time as they are available on Showtime’s streaming service.
Other details have been released at the event, most significantly that season 3 will be 18 hours in length (I’m assuming 16 or 17 episodes with 1 or 2 at double length and the rest at 45 minutes rather than 60 minutes per episode, but this is also unclear). This is double the initially announced 9 hour run which is exciting news as even the deleted scenes from the previous seasons and movie were of an incredible standard. I have no fears about filler at all, even after the dodgy James Hurley plot-line at the end of Season 2- Don’t forget that Lynch and Frost had little to do with those painful 2nd and 3rd quarters of season 2 and that their segments in that season were some of the best material in the whole run.
Two other pieces of information were revealed at the event that are especially of interest to me following my previous article in anticipation of the show’s third season. The first involves the canonicity of the movie semi-prequel Fire Walk With Me and The Secret History of Twin Peaks novel that released last year. The latter is to do with the style we can expect from Lynch, a changeable and sometimes (at his most interesting and enjoyable) impenetrable filmmaker.
In terms of canonicity, the announcement has confirmed that Fire Walk With Me is entirely a part of the Twin Peaks official narrative (as it should be; despite its infamously poor Cannes reception in 1992, it’s a masterpiece and deserves far more critical recognition). Beyond accepting it as part of the story, Lynch’s response to the question of its place in Twin Peaks implies that it may in fact be quite significant to ongoing storylines in the new series (as predicted in my previous article with regards to the jade ring that the film places much significance on). He stated that it is, “the story of Laura Palmer’s last seven days. Very much important for this.” Clearly, despite her murder being resolved early in Season 2, Palmer is also going to be a significant narrative drive, possibly from “the other place.” The theatrical re-release in the US and parts of Europe also suggest a renewed interest in the title. The status of The Missing Pieces remains unclear.
Less clear is the canonicity of Mark Frost’s Secret History of Twin Peaks novel. Frost is the co-writer of Season 3, so there is no question that he would incorporate some ideas in to the new season, but Lynch revealed that, “[he hasn’t] read it. It’s [Frost’s] history of Twin Peaks.” Hopefully this is not a sign of any creative difference between the pair, but an indication of a shared collaborative set of influences that combine to make their shared vision. However, it does cause some doubt over potential revelations in the text.
Of most interest is the hint at the style we can expect in Season 3. As I wrote previously, Fire Walk With Me is more in Lynch’s cinematic style, unrestrained by television censorship and network interference. This is, perversely, the main cause of distaste from fans at the movie’s release in 1992: the film is darker, nastier and much more disturbing than it’s more light-hearted source, but in my mind all the better for it. On Showtime, Lynch is free to work in this style and Nevins’ response to the question of style implies that he has: “I think that the version of Twin Peaks you’re going to see is the pure heroin version of David Lynch.” This needs consideration on two levels. “Pure” suggests we will see quintessential Lynch; complex, surreal and dark. The “heroin” reference, to me, suggests a trippy, almost-psychodelic experience akin to Lynch’s Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway, both said to be set in the same universe as Twin Peaks (with Mulholland Drive also getting a theatrical rerelease this year and a 4K restored BluRay in the UK following the stunning Criterion release last year). The new season should be refined and distilled, giving Lynch fans something they’ll love and enjoy decoding (Nevins has said that, “It will really reward close watching and making sure you’re paying attention to close details“). For Twin Peaks purists who aren’t familiar with Lynch’s other work, this could be worrying news. Either way, as Lynch stated in his surprise appearance, “I hear heroin is a very popular drug these days.”
Only two other details emerged from the event. Nevins revealed that “It’s designed to be a closed-ended, one-time event,” hopefully sparing us from nearly 3 decades of torment from another devastating cliffhanger. On the subject of a fourth season, Lynch stated, “Well, before I said I wasn’t going to revisit it, and I did. So you never say no. but right now, there’s no plans for anything more.”
With that, the conference ended and Lynch left before attendees were, in true, surreal, Lynchian style, presented with a log each. So I’ll end with a video of Lynch, as Gordon Cole, eating a donut.
Get chatting about this in our forums and share your hype- We’d love to see what your logs have to say about this in the comments too!
