Auteurism, Fan/Actor Campaigns and the Challenges of Twin Peaks' Return(S)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
NARRATIVES / AESTHETICS / CRITICISM “NO LYNCH, NO PEAKS!”: AUTEURISM, FAN/ACTOR CAMPAIGNS AND THE CHALLENGES OF TWIN PEAKS’ RETURN(S) REBECCA WILLIAMS Name Rebecca Williams presents the opportunity to re-visit favourite characters. Academic centre University of South Wales, UK This paper firstly explores how Twin Peaks’ resurrection E-mail address [email protected] allows consideration of fan responses to the continuation of an assumed dormant textual world by exploring the KEYWORDS potential impact of the return of original actors and Fandom; authorship; celebrity; David Lynch; Twin Peaks; fan the series’ creators.Secondly, the paper considers the campaigns. impact of Lynch’s temporary departure from the series in April 2015 and the subsequent actor-led campaign to ABSTRACT encourage his return. The “No Lynch, No Peaks” campaign This article explores the return of Twin Peaks in 2017, allows exploration of how the actors involved positioned exploring how the series’ revival may threaten fans’ sense themselves as both fans and potential employees. The of trust in the text and their own fan identity (Williams, paper thus analyses David Lynch’s enduring position as 2015). Many fans welcome the return of beloved shows the auteur of Twin Peaks and how the campaign allows such as Twin Peaks and the involvement of original consideration of the actors as media professionals, fans creators Mark Frost and David Lynch offers aʻ guaranteeʼ of Lynch, and figures who display forms of cultural and of authenticity, whilst the return of cast members symbolic capital (Bourdieu. 1984).. 55 SERIES VOLUME II, Nº 1, SPRING 2016: 05-19 DOI 10.6092/issn.2421-454X/6160 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TV SERIAL NARRATIVES ISSN 2421-454X PARATEXTS, FANDOMS AND THE PERSISTENCE OF TWIN PEAKS CULTURE / RECEPTION / CONSUMPTION > REBECCA WILLIAMS “NO LYNCH, NO PEAKS!”: AUTEURISM, FAN/ACTOR CAMPAIGNS AND THE CHALLENGES OF TWIN PEAKS’ RETURN(S) This article explores Twin Peaks’ return on the American these resurrections can allow fans to maintain or renegotiate cable network Showtime in 2017 in terms of debates around their fandom, and their often complex responses to the re- returning television series, potential fan reactions to these vival of Twin Peaks, by focusing on returning actors and the and the possible threat they pose to fans sense of self-identi- roles of creators David Lynch and Mark Frost. As the revival ty and trust in the fan object, and the blurring of boundaries of TV texts becomes more common, consideration of how between actors/celebrities and fans. It argues that fandom fans may respond to these – and how they may try to reassure allows fans to maintain a sense of connection to the series, themselves that the returning text will be ʻgoodʼ – is crucial their associated self-identity as a fan, and a sense of “ontolog- for scholars of television and audiences/fans. ical security” (Giddens, 1990). It thus explores how the return Secondly, and related to the importance of the return of the series may threaten this sense of trust in the text and of author figures, the article will consider debates around one’s own fan identity. Henry Jenkins argues that Twin Peaks celebrities-as-fans, seeking to challenge “the otherwise “re- was one of the first TV shows to attract a dedicated online strictive categories” of pure celebrity and fan, where media fan audience who developed specific “reading practices and production and consumption are neatly carved apart” (Hills, interpretive strategies (their fixation on resolving narrative 2006:103). Whilst much work in Fan and Television Studies enigmas, their development of multiple alterative restagings has focussed on the tensions between fans/audiences and of the core plotline, their complex relationship to Lynch as creators or producers (see Hadas and Shifman, 2013, Johnson, author, their appeal to extratextual discourse and intertex- 2007, Williams, 2010), this article explores the triad of fans/ tual linkages)” (1995: 53). Since the programme first aired in actors/showrunners to consider how those involved in mak- 1990 and 1991 the online presence surrounding the show has ing media texts can be viewed as, or position themselves as, not abated and, with the advent of social media, has actually fans (see Jones 2016). The article thus considers the (tem - proliferated (see Williams, 2016). More widely the series has porary) departure of series creator David Lynch from Twin enjoyed “a high level of cultural penetration several decades Peaks in April 2015 and the subsequent “No Lynch, No Peaks” after its release” (Howe, 2013: 41) and continued to infiltrate campaign to encourage his return. Featuring stars from the and influence popular culture (see Jowett, 2015). original series such as Sherilyn Fenn, Sheryl Lee and Dana Furthermore, as the series is now to return in 2017, its Ashbrook, the campaign relied heavily on the “subcultural fandom has seen radically different periods in its history since celebrity” (Hills, 2003) of these figures who functioned as the series was first cancelled.This period between its original guarantors of authenticity for those who recognised them. ending in 1991 and its return can be viewed as a form of “in- The paper argues that this campaign allows exploration of terim fandom”, a period where fans assume that their fan ob- how the actors involved positioned themselves as fans of the ject is dormant without knowing when – or if – itwill return. series and Lynch to appeal to fans and inspire them to join the Many fans welcome the return of beloved shows such as Twin cause. However, this necessitates a dual position-taking since Peaks and the involvement of original creators Mark Frost the Twin Peaks actors occupy insider positions and possess and David Lynch offers aʻ guaranteeʼ of authenticity whilst the levels of authenticity that everyday fans cannot (e.g. having return of cast members such as Kyle MacLachlan presents the direct access to Lynch himself). Thus, the paper argues that opportunity to re-visit favourite characters. However, some the campaign makes visible the work of the celebrity since fans remain ambivalent about accepting such resurrections the actors operated as potential employees of the revived and reject such texts as commercial and inferior. What fans show who displayed “deference or respect which reflects pro- construct or perceive as second-rate versions of beloved fan fessional necessity and [their] place within the production objects can undermine their self-identities since they threat- hierarchy” (Hills and Williams, 2005: 357). en to dilute aspects of the series that the fan was originally attracted to. Inauthentic or inferior copies of a fan object can endanger fan attachments both by highlighting the commer- FANDOM, ONTOLOGICAL SECURITY AND cial nature of fandom, and threatening to ʻbetrayʼ the original TELEVISUAL RESURRECTIONS characters and narrative worlds. Considering this moment in Twin Peaks’ history allows consideration of potential fan Media texts are often crucial to helping fans formulate a responses (both positive and negative) to the continuation of sense of self-identity and security or “trust” (see Williams, an assumed dormant textual world. The article explores how 2015). Such objects can provide fans with a sense of what 56 SERIES VOLUME II, Nº 2, WINTER 2016: 55-66 DOI 10.6092/issn.2421-454X/6591 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TV SERIAL NARRATIVES ISSN 2421-454X PARATEXTS, FANDOMS AND THE PERSISTENCE OF TWIN PEAKS CULTURE / RECEPTION / CONSUMPTION > REBECCA WILLIAMS “NO LYNCH, NO PEAKS!”: AUTEURISM, FAN/ACTOR CAMPAIGNS AND THE CHALLENGES OF TWIN PEAKS’ RETURN(S) sociologist Anthony Giddens calls “ontological security” (Costello and Moore, 2007: 135). However, in a contemporary which refers to “a comfortable mental state in which actors media landscape littered with remakes, reboots, and resurrec- engage in taken for granted activities in familiar surroundings tions, fan reactions to these returns are also worthy of study. and in the company of unthreatening others” (Cohen, 2008: Indeed, the return of television programmes across a range 328). Ontological security is closely linked to the “basic trust” of genres is becoming increasingly common. As Harrington in the world established in early childhood (see Winnicott, notes, the television “industry itself aims for the profit po- 1964). Those who fail to develop such basic trust are inher- tential of narrative immortality and/ or resurrection (in syndi- ently “ontologically insecure” (Laing, 1960:39) and do not cation, in another medium, etc.)” (2013: 584) and “wish[es] for properly develop a sense of self-identity (Layder, 1997:67). the profitability of immortality (or resurrection/afterlife in Ontological security also presupposes a “shared – but unprov- syndication or other platforms)” (2013: 588). Examples include en and unprovable – framework of reality” (Giddens, 1991:36) the return of science-fiction seriesDoctor Who, the various in- and when unforeseen events suggest that this “framework carnations of Star Trek, the return of soap opera Dallas, and re- of reality” is not universal our ontological security is under- cent revivals of cult shows such as The X-Files,, 24, and Heroes. mined. This is linked to the fact that “the routinisation of Jason Mittell refers to these as examples of TV resurrections day-to-day life […] is the single most important source of where “an already concluded series returns, either on televi- ontological security” (Giddens, 1981:37), enabling