Franck Boulègue

In 2017, twenty-five years after its initial release, a new season of Twin Peaks shook the world of television. This new book is a detailed analysis of the third season of the television series and aims to elucidate some of the meanings of Twin Peaks: The Return and explain these in terms of philosophical, mythological and spiritual approaches. It focuses on the third season of Twin Peaks but also refers to the first two seasons, and to the film, Fire Walk with Me. Divided into three sections, the book first examines the third season as expanded storytelling through the lens of Gene Youngblood's theory of synesthetic cinema, intertextuality, integrationist, and segregationist approaches in the realm of fiction, and focuses on the role of audio and visual superimpositions in The Return. It goes on to question the nature of the reality depicted in the seasons via scientific approaches, such as electromagnetism, time theory, and multiverses. The third and final section aims to transcend this vision by exploring the role of theosophy, the occult, and other spiritual sources. The author’s focus on the role of spirituality and science in Twin Peaks is what distinguishes this book from other works on the famous television series. The work of a scholar who is also a fan, the book should appeal to any hard-core Twin Peaks viewer. Foreword by Matt Zoller Seitz, editor-at-large at RogerEbert.com, and the television critic for New York magazine. This will be essential reading for fans of Twin Peaks and academics writing about it. Also of interest for students with an interest in philosophy, religion, science or spiritualism in visual and popular culture.

In 2017, twenty-five years after its initial release, a new season of Twin Peaks shook the world of television. This new book is a detailed analysis of the third season of the television series and aims to elucidate some of the meanings of Twin Peaks: The Return and explain these in terms of philosophical, mythological and spiritual approaches. It focuses on the third season of Twin Peaks but also refers to the first two seasons, and to the film, Fire Walk with Me. Divided into three sections, the book first examines the third season as expanded storytelling through the lens of Gene Youngblood's theory of synesthetic cinema, intertextuality, integrationist, and segregationist approaches in the realm of fiction, and focuses on the role of audio and visual superimpositions in The Return. It goes on to question the nature of the reality depicted in the seasons via scientific approaches, such as electromagnetism, time theory, and multiverses. The third and final section aims to transcend this vision by exploring the role of theosophy, the occult, and other spiritual sources. The author’s focus on the role of spirituality and science in Twin Peaks is what distinguishes this book from other works on the famous television series. The work of a scholar who is also a fan, the book should appeal to any hard-core Twin Peaks viewer. Foreword by Matt Zoller Seitz, editor-at-large at RogerEbert.com, and the television critic for New York magazine. This will be essential reading for fans of Twin Peaks and academics writing about it. Also of interest for students with an interest in philosophy, religion, science or spiritualism in visual and popular culture.

Few contemporary television shows have been subjected to the critical scrutiny that has been brought to bear on David Lynch and Mark Frost's Twin Peaks since its debut in 1990. Yet the series, and the subsequent film, Fire Walk With Me, are sufficiently rich that it's always possible for a close analysis to offer something new – and that's what Franck Boulègue has done with Twin Peaks: Unwrapping the Plastic. Through Boulègue's eyes, we see for the first time the world of Twin Peaks as a coherent whole, one that draws on a wide range of cultural source material, including surrealism, transcendental meditation, Jungian psychoanalysis, mythology, fairy tales, and much, much more. The work of a scholar who is also a fan, the book should appeal to any hardcore Twin Peaks viewer.