That Gum You Like Is Going To Come Back In Style. Ludic Storytelling and Participatory Spectatorship between Twin Peaks and '00s Complex TV

Abstract

The paper focuses on the legacy of two central elements in the structure of Twin Peaks (1990-1991) within the context of contemporary television seriality. The first is what we can call “Playful Storytelling”, a structure with which we can identify a kind of diegesis that challenges the viewer not only to find the killer but also to decipher the complex identity of the series. The second element is what we can call “Active Spectatoriality”. Twin Peaks is in fact also remembered for its aggregative nature. The audience followed the investigations of Dale Cooper and shared its feelings and theories on what it was seeing with the help of fanzines and first internet forums. Rooted in the tradition of fandom and television studies the essay focuses on the evolutions of these two elements which, over time, have shaped the television seriality of the last twenty years. The paper will analyze the presence and the characteristics of these two structures in four TV series aired between 2016 and 2019: Legion by Noah Hawley, Westworld by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, Dark by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese and The OA by Britt Marling and Zal Batmanglij.