ABSTRACT
With an approach that combines narratology, intertextuality, and gender studies, this chapter revisits Twin Peaks (ABC, 1990–1991; Showtime, 2017) through the myth of the sacrificed movie star to reveal how the series ideologically and narratively interacts with the prequel film. If the Twin Peaks series broke with traditional television codes on the aesthetic and narrative levels, Lynch’s prequel film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), which dramatizes Laura’s very last days, innovated on the level of gender representation, as it denounced the mystifying screens created by the original series and its patriarchal ideology. Many series that have then been influenced by the seminal show, such as LOST (ABC, 2004–2010) or Carnivàle (HBO, 2003–2005), seem to have unfolded Lynch’s artistic project by developing, explicating, or diffracting it. Taking these shows into account helps build a unified theory on the Twin Peaks matrix (the series and the film), in which the cinematic theme of the sacrificed young female star meets a narrative of dreamlike, parallel worlds, which in the end interrogates the very fabric of fiction.
