The essential dreaminess of "Twin Peaks: The Return"

Abstract

This article reviews and analyzes the multiplicity of roles that dreams and dreaming play across the television series “Twin Peaks: The Return” (2017), a follow-up to the original “Twin Peaks” series (1992), directed by David Lynch. Dreaming is at least as important in the new series as in the original. Elements of dreaming appear in all aspects of the story, in ways both small and large, clear and obscure, hopeful and terrifying. The present article has three aims: 1) to highlight the most prominent dream elements in “Twin Peaks: The Return” and discuss their relevance to the overall story; 2) to examine the creative methods and techniques used to represent various qualities of dreaming; and 3) to reflect on the many philosophical issues that arise regarding the metaphysics, and meta-ethics, of dreaming. Considered as an aesthetic whole, “Twin Peaks: The Return” sets a very high artistic standard for dream-infused creativity in the 21^st century.