Twin Peaks was broadcasted from 1990-1991 having 2 seasons. It is commonly said that it was created by David Lynch but it was also created by TV crime genre writer mark Frost for ABC Network.
How can we define experimental?
- Challenges and/or subverts genre codes and conventions
- Innovations in stylistic presentation (mise en scene, editing, etc.)
- Innovations in narrative (how the story is told: structure and time)
Conventional:
- Linear narrative
- Episodic series or continuous serial
- Genre-specific codes and conventions (crime, sci-fi, medical, etc.)
- Formal 'Holywood' style (mise en scene, continuity, editing, etc.)
- Classic stereotypical or archetypal
Experimental
- Non-linear or fractured
- Hybrid format
- Hybrid or multi-genre
- Innovative or unusual visual and audio techniques (breaking the forth wall)
- Unconventional characters or do not relate to specific genre expectations of behaviour
Conventional narrative formats
- Episodic series - usually long-running (13 or more series), primetime, self-contained storylines and closed resolutions within each show (doctor who)
- Continuous serial (soap opera) - traditionally daytime, open-ended storylines with cliffhangers
- Episodic serial (miniseries) - short running drama (more than six hours or in two parts or more parts) which combine the closed resolution of the episodic series with the ongoing multi-arc strands of the soap opera)
- Sequential series (hill street blues, miami vice) - development of the episodic series format which run narrative arcs throughout the series and end season with cliffhangers
Twin Peaks narrative format
- First series was short eight hour run, similar to episodic serial or miniseries
- Episodically threaded narrative and cliffhanger final of the sequential series
- Open ended multi character/multi-plotlines of the continuous serial or soap opera
Genre hybridity
crime genre:
- Episodic
- Forensic rationality
- Central detective character
- Crime resolution and narrative closure
Soap genre
- Continuing
- Emotional melodrama
- Multiple character arcs
- Crime may take weeks, months or years to be resolved
Postmodernism
- Ideologically disruptive
- Deconstructs form, often in playful way
- May use elements of high and low culture (usually through homage or pastiche)
- Meta-references or self- reflexivity (intersexuality, self- referentiality)
Mise en Scene Twin Peaks
- Pacific North-west smalltown setting
- costume, make-up and set design evoke 1950
- Unconventional lighting and staging
Camerawork and Editing
- Scenes filmed in wide and/or long shots
- Action held longer in the frame than usual
Sound and music
- Heavy use of both original soundtrack music and surreal ambient sounds
- Music is used for heightened emotional effect
- Use of dialogue and non-diegetic leitmotifs associated with specific characters
Extra-diegetic dramatic elements
- The Red Room - extra - dimensional location first seen in agent coopers dream
- BOB - Demonic entity
- 'Invitation to Love' - fake soap opera seen briefly in every episode of the first season
Influence on other TV Dramas
- Northern Exposure
- The X Files
- Lost and Fringe
- The Sopranos
- The Killing (US Remake)
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