Armed with the familiar hashtag “#damngoodcoffee,” co-creator and director of the early 90s TV series “Twin Peaks” David Lynch announced via Twitter on Oct. 6 that the series will be returning to television for a limited run. Nine new episodes are set to air on the Showtime network in 2016. The show was cancelled by ABC in 1991, after a two-season run which lacked steady viewership and the resolution of the show’s central mystery: “Who killed Laura Palmer?”
Lynch’s tweet reads, “Dear Twitter Friends… it is happening again” and was accompanied by a minute-long video starting with a clip from the show’s final scene in which Laura Palmer, depicted as alive in one of the surreal scenes that is characteristic of the series, raises her arm and snaps, turning the screen black.
“25 years later” then appears in the signature font of the series, an unappealing brown outlined in neon green. Afterward comes a still of a sign reading “Welcome to Twin Peaks” is the backdrop for “2016,” followed by “SHOWTIME,” as the beloved theme song “Falling” begins to play.
This short video sent shivers through me, a casual fan, due in no small part to the haunting instrumental from “Falling.”
It may seem redundant to display “25 years later” and “2016” in the same short video, but the time elapsed since the last aired episode is important to the new series. Lynch and his co-creator Mark Frost may have known this even in 1991.
In a move conscious of the pioneering nature of their program they embedded plot points into the final episode that the new series will pick up, 25 years in the future. The “25 years” is also in direct reference to the final scene that the announcement video uses. In another part of the scene Laura Palmer says “I’ll see you in 25 years.”
While Frost and Lynch have to please their fans who have been salivating for this moment since 1991,they also want the new episodes to be accessible to people who have never seen the original series.
Showtime will be airing the original series before the new premiere for those who want to catch up, but with both seasons already on Netflix you could probably knock it out in a weekend or two.
There will also be a book titled The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks, written by Frost, which will explain what all of our favorite characters have been doing with their small town lives for all these years. It’s set to be released in 2015 for those fans who just can’t wait.
Although only nine episodes are planned, the new series may continue on if it’s well received.
Frost and Lynch have hinted that there are greater mysteries than Laura Palmer’s death in the town of “Twin Peaks.” This new series may solve some of those mysteries which original series was only able to hint at before it was cancelled.