Kyle MacLachlan Tries To Settle The ‘Twin Peaks’ TV Show Vs. Movie Debate

The atomic bomb ain’t got nothing on Film Twitter.

Last week, the well-respected magazine Sight and Sound named Twin Peaks: The Return the second best movie of 2017, despite the fact that it aired on a television network in weekly installments. “David Lynch’s epic, mind-altering anti-detective TV series gave us exactly what we expected,” the publication explained, “by giving us nothing that we expected.” The TV vs. movie “debate” is a pointless argument (it also makes TV seem “less,” like it’s not as dignified an art form as The Cinema), but pointless arguments are why social media exists. Film Twitter had thoughts, TV Twitter had thoughts, and Sports Twitter breathed a sigh of relief that, for a brief moment, they weren’t the worst.

Entertainment Weekly asked actor and Golden Globe nominee Kyle MacLachlan for his thoughts on the matter. “I think it’s kind of both,” he answered, unhelpfully. But! “David [Lynch] was very specific about calling them hours and not episodes. So they’re 18 hours, and the way it was written and directed was if it were a long film. In other words, we didn’t break it into pieces when we were filming. So I think structurally, it is a film.”

Somewhere out there, our own Alan Sepinwall just smashed something.

“Obviously, it was broadcasted on television and intended for television, but I think you could make the argument that it also works as a film,” MacLachlan continued. “The very first one that we did was episodic, but when they screened Twin Peaks, the original pilot, at the Television Academy, it held up as a film, which makes complete sense to me because it’s directed by David Lynch. It just felt like it was a feature. And when they screened the first two episodes [of The Return] in Cannes this year, it had exactly the same results. It was seamless. The first two hours felt as if they were a film. So I think you could definitely make that argument.” I’d normally say MacLachlan should stay off Twitter for awhile, but nope: he’s busy living his best life. All the power (and pie) to him.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)