How ‘Blue Velvet’ Foreshadowed ‘Twin Peaks’
Film and TV fans alike (as though there’s a difference anymore) are counting down to Twin Peaks’ return to television on Sunday, May 21. It is happening again, but this time, it’s airing on premium network Showtime. Director David Lynch has been his typical, secretive self about what we can expect, which only entices audiences to want to watch more.
Before “highbrow” TV was a thing, Lynch was bringing his surrealist sensibility to broadcast television. When it premiered in 1990, Twin Peaks felt like something entirely new and entirely strange, unlike anything else on the air then. Instead, the drama feels more at home with the auteur-driven shows that are praised today, like The Leftovers, American Gods, and Top of the Lake. Many of the series we endlessly obsess over wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Twin Peaks, but where would Twin Peaks be without Lynch’s 1986 film, Blue Velvet?
Though Blue Velvet is a bit more explicit at times (perhaps thanks to broadcast standards in the ‘90s), the show and the movie share a lot of DNA:
The Dark Underbelly of Small Towns (Especially Logging Ones)
Blue Velvet begins with what looks like a lovely day, but the picture-perfect facade of Lumberton, North Carolina, quickly devolves into ugliness. Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) is home from college when finds a human ear on what should have been an idyllic walk through a meadow. Instead of the quiet town he remembers, he discovers a disturbing criminal element when he begins investigating the disappearance of the husband of nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini).
For Twin Peaks, it’s the murder of teenager Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) that exposes that logging town Twin Peaks, Washington (population: 51,201), isn’t what it seems. As FBI Agent Dale Cooper (MacLachlan again) and Sheriff Harry S. Truman (Michael Ontkean) look into her death, they learn more about the town’s darker side.
Kyle MacLachlan
Blue Velvet wasn’t MacLachlan’s first partnership with Lynch; that was Dune in 1984. But the 1986 film cemented the connection between the actor and director in ways that prefigured Twin Peaks. While he was the wide-eyed innocent in Blue Velvet, his Agent Cooper was more used to seeing the darkness of humanity. The series also let the actor show more of his sense of humor–and a serious love of coffee and pie.
Amateur Detectives
Crime is at the heart of both the movie and the show, and while law enforcement is involved, students also take it upon themselves to investigate. In Blue Velvet, Sandy Williams (Laura Dern, who will appear in the Twin Peaks revival) joins Jeffrey in his search. Later in Twin Peaks, Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn), Donna Hayward (Lara Flynn Boyle) and James Hurley (James Marshall) dig into the death of their classmate.
Good Girls and Bad Girls
As a director, Lynch isn’t alone in his exploration of women that largely buckets them into the roles of good girls and bad girls–and these works aren’t even the only example in his filmography. See Mulholland Drive. (No, really. See it.) For Blue Velvet, it’s ingenue Sandy vs. Dorothy for Jeffrey’s attentions. In Twin Peaks, Laura Palmer herself contains multitudes, with her rebellious side remaining hidden to many people that knew her.
Angelo Badalamenti
Though Angelo Badalamenti went on to score Lynch’s Lost Highway, The Straight Story, and Mulholland Drive, it’s his early collaborations with the director that are the most iconic. More than plot or dialogue, Lynch’s films are about atmosphere and Badalamenti’s haunting songs (like Twin Peaks’ theme) add to that mood.
How are you prepping for the return of Twin Peaks? You can watch the original series, but we’d also recommend seeing (or revisiting) Lynch’s Blue Velvet, streaming free on Tubi now through May 31. It goes great with a damn fine cup of coffee and some cherry pie.
