Summary

• Twin Peaks blurred the lines between television and film, pioneering a cinematic approach that has become common in today's prestige dramas.
• The show introduced the concept of a mythology series, prioritizing worldbuilding and complex lore over solving a central mystery.
• Twin Peaks revolutionized TV by embracing eccentric characters in small town settings, leading to the popularity of shows with idiosyncratic ensembles and strange secrets.

The iconic ABC show Twin Peaks redefined television in such a way that its influence is still palpable over 30 years later. When the surreal serial drama first aired in 1990, viewers had never seen anything like creators David Lynch and Mark Frost's singular vision, which was a show inflected with horror, violence, and comedy all at once. Twin Peaks revolved around a single mystery of “Who killed Laura Palmer?" A mystery that grew stranger and more captivating every week. However, the show became as much about revealing the quirks of its unforgettable small town as it was about solving that central mystery.

With its emotional depth and artistic vision, Twin Peaks stunned the American media landscape into a new, more experimental era of television. Nothing about the show was superficial or fleeting, qualities some critics had previously attributed to the medium. In the decades since, the soapy romances, small-town mysteries, and prestige dramas which have arrived all owe a little to Frost and Lynch’s masterpiece. By trying out different elements that felt inspired and new, Twin Peaks inadvertently spawned an array of new TV subgenres. While there may have only been three seasons of Twin Peaks, its influences continue to reverberate over 30 years later.

10 Blurred The Lines Between Television And Film

Two mediums with shared elements

Twin Peaks was one of the first shows to blur the line between film and television. Creator David Lynch directed the series like a long movie, with striking cinematography, dream sequences, and a lush soundtrack that evoked his earlier cinema work. Lynch exercised a level of control over Twin Peaks that was unprecedented for television at the time. Today, the cinematic qualities pioneered by Twin Peaks, from visually distinct directing to complex, serialized storytelling, have become commonplace. But in the early 1990s, Twin Peaks demonstrated television's potential as a cinematic medium and paved the way for the production values and fandoms that define many of today's prestige dramas.

Before Twin Peaks, film and television occupied separate worlds, with little prestige or talent crossover between the mediums. It was revolutionary in 1990 for an acclaimed filmmaker like David Lynch to create a primetime drama series. Therefore, he brought his unconventional cinematic eye to the serialized format, demonstrating television's artistic potential, and the barriers between film and television have since dissolved. Prestigious directors like Ava DuVernay, Spike Lee, and Baz Luhrman now helm streaming dramas as cinema-quality storytelling floods the small screen. Additionally, big-name movie stars well-known in Hollywood have found fruitful opportunities on television. Twin Peaks initiated this migration of film talent and respect to the realm of TV.

9 The Mythology Series

Worldbuilding and lore are now the standard

Twin Peaks pioneered a new kind of mythology series that prioritizes worldbuilding over solving a central mystery. While ostensibly answering the question of who killed Laura Palmer, the show hooked viewers through unconventional storytelling techniques like dream sequences that suggested a deeper mythology with giants and dark spirits. This complexity and sense of a fully-realized universe became the blueprint for many serialized dramas that followed. Shows like Lost, Fringe, and Westworld exhibited strong Lynchian elements by tying mysterious occurrences to a dream-like plane that influences mundane reality. Before Twin Peaks, no series centered an entire season on building out a complex lore.

8 More Eccentric Characters

Small town, big personalities

Twin Peaks demonstrated that television audiences would embrace eccentric characters in offbeat small town settings. Soon after, Northern Exposure premiered on CBS, featuring a quirky cast of Alaskan locals that parodied the tone of Twin Peaks. When both shows became hits, this unique premise appeared in series like Picket Fences, Eerie, Indiana, and Gilmore Girls. While not as outright bizarre as Twin Peaks, these shows carried on its tradition of idiosyncratic characters with complicated backstories populating seemingly wholesome small towns. Now the notion of an eccentric ensemble harboring strange secrets is commonplace, from Sunnydale in Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Hawkins in Stranger Things.

7 The Importance Of Music

A great score to elevate the narrative

Prior to Twin Peaks, a compelling musical score was not considered an essential ingredient for most television series aside from the theme song. But Angelo Badalamenti's moody, jazz compositions for the show were unlike anything heard on mainstream television up to that point. The atmospheric, noir-inspired soundtrack went a long way towards establishing the show's dark, offbeat tone. In the years since, prestige dramas have followed Twin Peaks' lead in recognizing impactful scoring as a vital creative force rather than an afterthought.

6 The Introduction To Surrealism

Challenging the boundaries of reality

Twin Peaks was shockingly surreal for a television drama when it premiered in 1990. The cryptic dream logic, unhurried pacing, and magical realism were trademarks of co-creator David Lynch, who seamlessly blended the supernatural into the show’s Pacific Northwestern normality. Unlike the tidy episodic template common at the time, Twin Peaks built tension through a sprawling mystery filled with obscure symbols. It required viewing the full picture to unravel the secrets Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost dangled in front of audiences. This pioneering storytelling paved the way for shows like The X-Files, Black Mirror, and Sense8 to blend crime drama with strange and altered reality.

5 Big City Crime In A Small Town

Horrors existing behind the mundane

When Twin Peaks premiered in 1990, graphic depictions of violence, drug abuse, and sexual exploitation were typically reserved for urban crime dramas, often with racial undertones. But Twin Peaks shattered that mold by plunging a quaint Pacific Northwestern town into sordid mysteries involving murder, cocaine, and prostitution. This juxtaposition of charming Americana with grim criminality became a fixture of shows from Fargo to True Blood. By exposing the darkness lurking beneath the surface of small town life, Twin Peaks made these settings synonymous with shocking perils. It popularized the idea that evil can fester anywhere, regardless of appearances.

4 Introduced The “Prequel”

A now common practice in Hollywood

The term "prequel" wasn't part of the common lexicon until 1992's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Though earlier films like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly returned to chronologically earlier events, they weren't branded as prequels at the time. Fire Walk With Me, however, directly billed itself as a retrospective story set before the timeline of the original series. In directly labeling itself a prequel in this way, the Twin Peaks movie introduced the very notion into mainstream consciousness. Ever since, going back to fill in backstories about popular characters or settings through prequels has become common practice in Hollywood franchises.

3 Redefined Murder Mysteries

Turned the actual killing into a narrative device

The iconic image of Laura Palmer wrapped in plastic has become visual shorthand for a generation of murder mysteries. After that shocking opening introduction, Twin Peaks diverged from the procedural norm by letting one mystery unravel across an entire season of television. More importantly, it understood that the killing itself mattered far less than the lingering trauma, darkness, and unearthed town secrets left in its wake. Other mystery TV shows that have kept audiences guessing like Broadchurch and Big Little Lies prioritize exposing the underbelly of quiet towns over catching the killer.

2 Mixing Of Genres

Expanded the perceptions of what TV could be

When Twin Peaks first aired, most network series rigidly conformed to specific categories. Whether a police procedural, sitcom, or soap opera, shows stayed strictly within their own lanes in of format, tone and storytelling style. Twin Peaks came along and broke boundaries by combining elements of multiple genres, including police mystery, nighttime soap, supernatural horror, and absurdist humor, all within a single series. This mixing of ingredients opened doors for today's critically acclaimed shows that entwine comedy, drama, family sagas, and crime across episodes. In directly defying labels and old conventions to create something original, Twin Peaks paved the way for the experimental narrative spirit that now defines TV.

1 Inspired Some Of Television’s Most Highly Acclaimed Shows

Certain shows would not exist without the show’s influence

Though initially short-lived, Twin Peaks generated a cult following that exploded when the series reached DVD and streaming platforms. New generations embraced its unconventional mysteries, leading to openly inspired shows like The Sopranos, Top of the Lake, and True Detective. The auteur-driven creative framework of Mark Frost and David Lynch soon became commonplace. Like Lynch and Frost in Twin Peaks' first season, Lost’s J.J. Abrams and The Sopranos' David Chase became celebrity showrunners synonymous with their ambitious series. The singular vision that once unsettled network executives is now deemed a strength, proving that creator-led series like Twin Peaks could drive critical acclaim.