The Secret History of Twin Peaks- Book Review (No Spoilers)

Mark Frost, co-creator and executive producer (alongside David Lynch) of the legendary series Twin Peaks, has been teasing the book The Secret History of Twin Peaks for a while now. When it was first announced a few months ago I, like many Twin Peaks fans I'm sure, promptly per-ordered it to find out the fate of the characters and delve deeper into the world. Well I waited with bated breath to receive my copy and it was delivered a week ago. I read it between my other commitments and I finally finished reading it yesterday and these are my thoughts. I won't spoil it for you so please be aware that this is spoiler free territory.

First of all I should state that rather than a novel this is a beautifully produced dossier of faux historical documents, newspaper clippings and articles, revealing a series of historical events and conspiracies about the town of Twin Peaks and the Washington area over a period of over 200 years. For those expecting a more linear narrative this may prove to be disappointing as I know fans are looking for detailed account of what happened to the characters after the events of the cliffhanger in season 2. However what this dossier does provide is immersive and rich resources which are clearly designed to show how paranormal activity has been surrounding Twin Peaks for hundreds of years; this deepens and broadens the scope of the series and gives the events of the series much more context.

The book starts off with a letter from FBI Deputy Director Gordon Cole, who was played by Lynch in the original TV series, asking an agent to go over the contents of a box found at a crime scene that “appears to have a relationship to an investigation conducted in northwest Washington State many moons ago.”

The mysterious Archivist, who produced the dossier contained inside the box, has been carrying out research on strange phenomena and the history of Twin Peaks. The dossier starts with the taking of the land that would become Twin Peaks from the indigenous Indians and moves over to prospector gold rush times to the rise of the logging mills at the turn of the 20th century. It then moves into X-Files territory with reports throughout concerning Roswell, UFOs, Nixon, the Freemasons, the Illuminati, Project Blue Book, the Majestic 12, Alistair Crowley, L. Ron Hubbard, Jack Parsons... and Jackie Gleeson (of Honeymooners fame). All pretty heavy stuff full of intrigue and mystery but probably not what fans of the series were expecting when they purchased this novel.

The dossier provides the history of a few of the prominent families and individuals and it does reveal the fates of a few of Twin Peaks character's from the cliffhanger in season 2 but the majority of this patchwork dossier focuses on the relatively obscure character of Mayor Milford's brother Douglas, who emerges as the closest thing to a 'lead'. This proves to be a little disorientating but I have found it incredibly enthralling and have been carrying out research on the prospectors of the time, D.B. Cooper and Project Blue Book. The last time a TV series made me do this was Lost or even Evangelion, so that is high praise indeed! The book is similar in style to House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, not in content or style but the feelings it evokes... A sense of mystery and unease, very much like the show itself.

The book doesn't initially seem to give too much away about the mysteries of Twin Peaks as I'm sure they're leaving that up to the upcoming season 3 but I think that the book merits repeat readings as I feel that throughout there were hidden meanings and secrets waiting to be discovered. The plethora of diagrams, photographs and sketches draw you in and make the whole dossier feel 'real'.

Overall I'd say the book was not what I expected but it took me on a journey that was both strange and wonderful. There are a lot of profound truths about the human condition contained within and there were moments of revelation that left me questioning our place in this world.

Well worth a read with a cup of coffee and a piece of cherry pie!

The Secret History of Twin Peaks is a beautifully presented book ©Macmillan/ Mark Frost

Gravity Fall Complete Series Review- No Spoilers

Gravity Falls is a special place—a town that feels like it's just a stones throw from Twin Peaks and a hop skip and a jump from the island in Lost. In this land oddities including rainbow vomiting gnomes, mermen and ghosts roam free. The series involves twins Dipper and Mable, who are sent to stay for the duration of the summer holidays, with their Uncle Stan (Grunkle Stan) at the Mystery Shack, a ramshackle building housing fake phenomena. There's no Log Lady but there are a stereotypical miner Old Man McGucket, Lazy Susan and manchild Soos; a colourful range of characters that give Gravity Falls a wonderful eclectic cast that brings the place alive.

The series is 39 episodes long and is similar to The X-Files in structure in that there is a story arc, as well as a monster of the week. The central mystery is where the monsters are coming from and who is the author of the 3 tomes that Dipper discovers which describes the phenomena in the town in great detail? Over the course of the 39 episodes many questions and mysteries arise. The cliffhanger at the end of series one was reminiscent of the end of series one cliffhanger in Lost but this one had the writing chops to pull it through to the second series and continue wonderfully through the second series to a satisfying conclusion.

Gravity Falls is a Disney production, surprisingly so, as it does feel like it would feel more at home on the Cartoon Network alongside Adventure Time, Over the Garden Wall or Stephen Universe. It feels edgy and on the nose, especially when you consider the age of its target audience but there is a definite heart and maturity to it that has led to a larger adult and maturer teen fanbase who enjoy the cryptography and codes that litter the episodes, but without excluding the younger viewers. During the course of the show over 3 years, thousands of fan theories abound, each week after each show discussion boards would be ablaze dissecting the details in intricate and exacting detail. The last time I saw this kind of clamouring around a series was with Lost when it was at its prime and in gaming when Bioshock Infinite wowed/ confused us with it's ending.

The final episode of Gravity Falls was on earlier this week and I won't spoil it here but I will say that the ending was a wonderful way to tie up the series and had a huge emotional punch. The character arc is beautifully realised here and unlike Lost, the ending was worth the many years of waiting and delivered. The pure wonderful weirdness of the final arc, the 3 part Weirdmegeddon, truly encapsulated what made Gravity Falls such a pleasure for its fans. The stakes were high and it didn't patronise its audience, there was real danger and real cost and true character development, something a lot of animation has lost today.

There are very few series that are as well conceived, written and executed as Gravity Falls and when an animated series leaves you thinking about parallel dimensions, alternate universes and man's place in the cosmos then you know there's something special. There are few shows that quote or are influences by Satre, H.P. Lovecraft or Danielkewski.

Gravity Falls is the perfect example of what other kid shows should strive to achieve. If you haven't watched Gravity Falls yet, look it up. You'll be glad you did.