The announced return of Twin Peaks to TV was always going to feel a bit too good to be true.
It wasn't just that a show was coming back after 25 years, because quite a few shows do that nowadays. We live in an age where TV and film studios are risk averse and extremely aware of brand recognition as a way of guaranteeing some kind of a built-in audience, so pretty much any recognisable name from the past stands a chance of coming back in some form or another. Why, just this morning I watched the trailer for a new TV series based on Scream, which had the immediate effect of making me wish that I'd spent that two minutes doing absolutely anything other than watching the trailer for a new TV series based on Scream. Repeatedly stubbing my toe against a splintered wooden block, perhaps, or tripping and falling into a vat of human waste.
But I digress.
It wasn't the Twin Peaks comeback that was a surprise, necessarily; it was the little details. The fact that the initial show had actually set itself up to be continued 25 years later was a pretty major source of joy for me, certainly, but the really big one was the return of all the key players. The prospect was dangled that we were going to see a true continuation, with the full participation of all the people who had crafted the show in the first place.
And then, of course, the law of entropy kicked in, and things fell apart.
When David Lynch tweeted that negotiations had broken down and that he was walking away, I had a load of questions. The first thirty-seven of these questions all consisted of the word 'WHY?' screamed heavenwards at an uncaring God as I stood shirtless in a rainstorm. The thirty-eighth question was 'Well, what now?'
Would the remaining cast and crew remain attached to a Lynch-less product?
This question was addressed in rather lovely style with the release of a viral video last week, in which cast members tried to express how unsatisfactory the idea of Twin Peaks without David Lynch would be.
A couple of things struck me about this. Not just how great it was to see so many of the cast again, or how nice it was to see them in such an informal and off-the-cuff style, but also what a brilliant display of loyalty it was. Ultimately, the cast of Twin Peaks would have been fully aware that such a strong show of support for someone who had apparently left the project could potentially jeopardise their own place on it but they did it regardless. In an industry where the lure of professional progress can sometimes overpower personal loyalties, this struck me as a quietly awesome show of solidarity. The ever-engaging Sherilyn Fenn went one further and explicitly stated on the cast-run Peaks Facebook page that she wouldn't appear in a Lynchless Peaks anyway - posting "if DKL is NOT directing than Showtime can RECAST AUDREY HORNE... or say she DIED in the explosion".
It seems that Showtime are fighting to salvage the deal. It seems that all is not lost just yet.
Just once, it'd be great for entropy to reverse.
Just once, it'd be nice for loyalty and solidarity to make something awesome happen (and, as a die-hard fan of even the original show's wobbliest moments, I truly believe that a Lynch/Frost led continuation/conclusion could genuinely be just that).
Just once, it'd be nice for 'too good to be true' to be true after all.