Twin Beaks

As sure as the sun will rise, when a popular series reaches Netflix, each and every one of your stupid little friends and their stupid little dogs is watching it obsessively. They tweet spoilers, update their Facebooks about how they are skipping work/class to have a Netflix marathon, and ask what episode you are on.

I know because I am one of them.

It happened when Netflix got The Walking Dead, Portlandia, and Game of Thrones. Now, it is happening with David Lynch's surreal murder mystery Twin Peaks. For those of you who don't remember the series's initial run in the early 90s, Twin Peaks was a surprise phenomenon that had everyone wondering who killed Laura Palmer... as well as wondering: "what the hell drugs taking going on midget giant horse owl, wut?" Needless to say, the show was popular and is now seeing a resurgence thanks to DVD and streaming releases (finally).

This brings me to Sesame Street... weird transition, right? Well, Sesame Street has always been one for parodying and referencing media way over the average toddler's head, but the parent's were in the room, so may as well make them laugh, too. I recently rediscovered an old sketch from the recurring "Monsterpiece Theater" bit, an age-inappropriate joke in itself. In this skit, Cookie Monster plays Kyle Mcclaughlin's FBI agent Cooper as he investigates the town of "Twin Beaks" to figure out where the town got it's name. The clip is below, pending copyright yadda-yadda...

Having watched the series, I can now catch the references such as the tape recorder, the reference to Diane, and the "Log-Bird." I'm genuinely surprised the writers of this script went into that much detail. Now, even though kids wouldn't understand these in-jokes, they would still (being avid TV watchers) know OF Twin Peaks. They would know that it's a show about an investigator in a strange small town just as they would at least KNOW OF Masterpiece Theater. Thus proves my point, we don't give kids enough credit for what they do know.

And by the way, Sesame Street hasn't changed it's formula much. There is a recent sketch called "True Mud." Guess what that's a parody of.

PS: Apparently there is also an episode of Darkwing Duck called "Twin Beaks" which also contains references to the show. Damn, Twin Peaks took a hold on people's imaginations back then, eh?