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

Authors

  • Andrea Bellavita Università dell'Insubria

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.

Author Biography

Andrea Bellavita, Università dell'Insubria

Andrea Bellavita è professore associato di Storytelling e fiction tv e Factual entertainment e scrittura della realtà, Vicedirettore del corso di laurea di Storia e storie del mondo contemporaneo presso l’Università dell’Insubria di Varese. Redattore di Segnocinema, collabora a Film TV con la rubrica Black Mirror, a cineforum.it8 e ½.. È autore di vari saggi sul rapporto tra cinema e psicoanalisi. È autore di Schermi perturbanti. Per un’applicazione del concetto di Unheimliche all’enunciazione filmica (Vita&Pensiero, Milano 2005), di una monografia su Kim Ki-duk (il Castoro, Milano 2006) e di una su Luchino Visconti (EDS, Roma, 2006). Con Leonardo Gandini ha curato 21x11. Fare cinema dopo l’11 settembre (Le Mani, Recco, 2008). La sua attività di ricerca oggi è focalizzata sulla fiction seriale, sulle strategie di adattamento transmediali e sul rapporto tra Storia e rappresentazione mediale.

Published

15-09-2020

How to Cite

Bellavita, A. (2020). "Twin Peaks: The Return". The dawn of the mythology series. Elephant & Castle, (23). Retrieved from https://elephantandcastle.unibg.it/index.php/eac/article/view/277