Dream of the Red Room

First thing's first, ya'll: Twin Peaks has released a first featurette. Dale, Andy, James, Bobby, Wendy, Albert, Jerry—they're all coming home. There are shots of the Northwestern, undying mists, and yes, the town sign. I got hot all over and teared up. This is the closest we can ever come to a prophecy being fulfilled: a television show saying, "I'll see you in twenty-five years," and meaning it.  

As much as I want to, I won't go into great detail here—but Twin Peaks is the reason your favorite TV show is on. Its impact on popular culture far outreached its initial audience, and it has shaped television in its image for decades. This is undoubtably due to the skill and imagination of David Lynch and his cast and crew, but we've also got to give credit where it's due: CBS aired this amazing, unforgettable, unbelievable and yet somehow so candidly plainly simply obviously real and daffy as fuck show. C. B. S. The edgiest thing they're airing now has Lucy Liu solving crimes with a recovering addict. Twin Peaks had whole plotlines rotating around cocaine (not to mention a certain white horse in season 2), abusive husbands, organized prostitution, unfathomable uncreatures named Mike and Bob who came out of the forest only they didn't... and it made it all seem so wholesome. It certainly was fun. Unless it was horrifying.

Anyways, go get hot all over and tear up. The rest of this post can wait until you get back from watching that video, because there is plenty of speculation across the web about tomorrow night's American Horror Story twist.  

Back? Good. Like a dream come true, right? Or maybe like a dream become another dream...

Speaking of which. 

Maybe it's the Lynch in the air, or maybe it's because I've been trying to get Jazra Jaban to watch Mulholland Drive (calling you OUT, JJ NAY-BRAMS), but American Horror Story's first arc this season feels like the first part of Mulholland Drive: carefully constructed, elaborately escalated, and ending before it's finished. And, like Mulholland Drive, what would make most sense is for us to awaken from that quaint dream into a prosaic but equally dysfunctional reality. It's a fun form. Zachary Osgood used it in The Graceful Leap (a continuation of the Rosewire series). I've played with it myself. But if tomorrow's twist is that "my Roanoke nightmare" was meant to be literal, and we wake up, then it's possible no one has made it quite as clean as AHS. 

I'll totally admit that I'd love the full execution of this twist to involve Billie Dean: we wake up from her Roanoke nightmare into production of her show. We know already that actors will be switching parts halfway through the season: Ryan Murphy said that in particular of Sarah Paulson and Kathy Bates. Know what makes me even happier about this idea? Mulholland Drive was originally meant to be a television series. That would keep the television/reality motif of the season intact. 

Well, I know that was probably a few notches short of the target, but we get to find out tomorrow night. Stay tuned here, too—can't wait to make an informed analysis of Roanoke in a few weeks.