Find THREE different reviews of TWIN PEAKS online, and compare the ways in which the three different critical styles discuss the series.
The three different kinds of reviews you need to find:
1. One Scholarly or Academic Review (may be a review, an essay, or a monograph)
2. One Mainstream Review (from a major newspaper or online magazine such as Newsweek, The Atlantic Monthly, Entertainment Weekly, etc.)
3. One genre review from a specialized website such as one for horror film, cult TV, David Lynch fans, etc.
This essay should be about 1000-1200 words in length. You may list your sources in a bibliography at the end, and refer to them directly in your essay(footnotes or endnotes are not required in this assignment).
There are a variety of critical approaches seen in the vast body of criticism and analysis of TWIN PEAKS, because the show itself was so iconic and influential. Some are from major newspapers such as The New York Times or The Guardian. Many articles online were written when the DVD set was finally released, twenty years after the series premiered, and so reflect the passage of time and the evolution of television storytelling over two decades. Many genre-based websites and blogs also feature reviews: the quality of writing and aptitude of the criticism may cover a wide continuum from inept to mediocre to brilliant. Some specialized horror genre blogs like Bloody Disgusting might showcase some interesting approaches to talking about the show.
Do some searching around for a wide variety of sources for your assignment; consider factors such as popularity of a given source, or the appeal of one particular writing style over another, in choosing the best examples of criticism.
Here are some links to help you find academic sources for this assignment, which is due next week. As we demonstrated in class, the library website has an online database that is very effective for finding scholarly source material. If you look under letter 'C' for 'Communication and Mass Media Complete' and then do a search on Twin Peaks you will find a great many articles.
This website from UC Berkeley has some very helpful tips for finding scholarly sources of film and television reviews, plus many useful links. This page from the University of Connecticut links to some good databases; you should be able to access them as an enrolled student.
Finally, this article from FlowTV is a very insightful and effective explanation of how television criticism works and what its implications are. All of you should read it to better understand the context of criticism as it relates to this course.
Feel free to ask any questions here in the comments section.
