Now Peaking

SPOILER ALERT: This podcast contains detailed information about the 2017 Showtime Twin Peaks series as well as all previous Twin Peaks books, movies, and episodes.


This year's Twin Peaks: The Return revival polarized audiences and seemed to ask as many questions as it answered. With that series complete, series writer Mark Frost is free to discuss it all in Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier -- the intended final book based on Twin Peaks. Join Stuart and Arnie now to find out if Peaks goes out on a high note!

Before the new season of Twin Peaks started on Showtime, series co-creator Mark Frost wrote a book to tide over anxious fans. That book was The Secret History of Twin Peaks. An in-universe history of this fictional town finds its citizens have ties to Lewis & Clarke, the Masons, the Illuminati, and events at Rosewell and Area 51. Wait...isn't this a book about Twin Peaks? Maybe. Arnie and Stuart are here with a review to try and make sense of it all!

By the time Welcome to Twin Peaks was released ABC was already telling that town "Goodbye." The series' cancellation had been announced but the tie-in merchandising continued with this pamphlet that is a guidebook to the sights, places, flora, and fauna of Twin Peaks.  What does this book add to the mythology of the series? And does its fictitious maps and places match up with any of the real filming locations? Join Arnie and Stuart for this review for those answers!

Twin Peaks' cancellation was all but certain in May, 1991. Yet that is also when series writer Scott Frost's Agent Cooper book My Life, My Tapes was released. Unlike The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, Cooper's backstory was mostly unready by a waning fan base. Now the book commands top dollar on the secondary market. Is it worth the price?

Twin Peaks television ratings weren't enough for ABC to keep the show on the air. That cancellation left fans biting their nails with a cliffhanger that seemed would never be resolved. One year later Peaks was brought back to life, not on television but in theaters. But would this movie, a prequel chronicling Laura Palmer's last week, give the fans what it wanted? It was derided upon release, but with 25 years of distance is this film an underrated masterpiece?  

As Twin Peaks' second season began the merchandise machine was gaining speed.  First came Jennifer Lynch's Secret Diary of Laura Palmer.  Hot on its heels came "Diane..." - The Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper.  Combining TV-show audio with newly recorded bits this audiobook catches you up on the mystery, but are there new clues revealed in the tapes not seen on TV?

In the summer of 1990 everybody was discussing Twin Peaks - the television phenomenon that kept people in suspense during their season break. Tidbits were teased to fans, including that in Season 2 the secret diary of Laura Palmer would be found. What secrets would it hold? Would it reveal her killer? Viewers would find out, but fans didn't have to wait! Before Season 2 started The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer was released in full to bookstores!  Not only officially sanctioned, it was written by Jennifer Lynch, daughter of Peaks co-creator David Lynch.  Now Stuart and Arnie discuss all that was found, and how it was made so quickly!

On Friday, February 24th, 1989, a body washed up on shore in Twin Peaks, WA.  This, plus a beaten girl walking across the Washington state line, brings FBI Agent Cooper to the small town. Is the killer her cheating boyfriend Bobby? Her best friend Donna? Local drug dealer Leo? Join Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob as they follow the investigation, and the drama, that is Twin Peaks.

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