Everyone has their preferred approach when it comes to parsing David Lynch’s enigmatic work. The miraculous new 2017 revival of his landmark 1990 TV series Twin Peaks has seen critics studying each hour from every conceivable angle. Plenty of writers take the traditional road and attempt to divine a plot from what can feel like arbitrarily arranged scenes. Others prefer a formal, more academic analysis. Some read the show through the context of Lynch’s career. And I’m sure someone, somewhere believes they’ve cracked the show’s code though tea leaves. I’ve found it most natural to interpret Twin Peaks on a conceptual level, tracking Lynch’s pet themes as nebulously defined forces that he’s constantly reconfiguring and evolving.
Through...
