Twin Peaks

Laura Palmer

Had Laura Palmer lived, she'd be in her late thirties; maybe married with a couple kids, maybe working in Washington state where she grew up, or maybe living somewhere less rustic and homespun. It's easy to imagine any number of scenarios for the lovely, popular, high school homecoming queen whose life was taken suddenly and brutally in the spring of 1990. When a person dies so young, the living are left to wonder who they might have grown up to be. Especially when the deceased is a work of fiction.

Twenty years have passed since Twin Peaks, the dramatic series created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, launched on ABC. In the pilot, the body of Laura Palmer, wrapped in a sheet of plastic, is found on the banks of a local river in Twin Peaks, Washington. The investigation of her murder, headed by FBI agent Dale Cooper, is a catalyst to uncovering the seedy underside of what seems at first, an idyllic town.

The show was a critical success and popular both nationally and internationally. It didn't look or sound like any other TV show; it had atmosphere, symbolism, homages to films, it revealed clues and characters and the occasional 'red herring' with slow intrigue. It was smart and radiant, especially so because of the achingly beautiful music by Angelo Badalamenti. The convoluted story was less memorable than the stable of oddball characters: Nadine with her eye patch, the dancing dwarf, the giant, Audrey in her tight sweaters and the pie-obsessed agent Cooper. Early on in the near-perfect first season, solving the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer was the hot topic for coffee klatches and cafeteria banter ( this was years before blogosphere news and Twitter!). The second year sputtered, revealing the killer midway in the season and flailing the many story lines for the remaining episodes. There are 30 episodes in total, available in a tidy boxed set. Twin Peaks has so many zany, indelible moments, most notably the dream sequences that take place in an unsettling red-curtained room. Equally haunting is the innocuous photo of Laura Palmer, shown at the end of each episode as the credits roll. Golden haired, with a sparkling tiara and beaming smile, you can't help wondering, "Who is she?"