"Twin Peaks: The Return". The dawn of the mythology series

Abstract

After radically revolutionizing the generalist TV fiction system with the first two Twin Peaks seasons, inaugurating the supersoap or serialized series (which quickly became the reference model for the subsequent TV complex), David Lynch returns to propose an innovative form of storytelling, perfectly consistent with the most recent cable TV and OTT evolutions, and, at the same time, complementary and “antagonistic” with the other experiences of author fiction and anthology series. Twin Peaks: The Return can be considered the first example of a mythology series (partially anticipated by The Young Pope by Paolo Sorrentino, and immediately followed by Too Old to Die Young by Nicholas Winding Refn). The mythological series implies some essential characteristics: a radically new experience for the viewer, based on an immersive enjoyment and on the recognition and sharing of the starting mythology; the direct control by the director of all episodes; the presence of a previous world, coherent, indissoluble from its creator, which is poured entirely into a "long" product (different from the film object), that is to an exorbitance of content that cannot be enjoyed all together, but must be necessarily parceled out. In addition to defining the mythology series characteristics, the essay explores the functional evolutions within the TV fiction editorial and production system.