Why The ‘Twin Peaks’ Emmys Shut Out Hurts So Much

I was starting to get worried a few weeks ago. It was a dull dread, buzzing in the back of my mind. Emmy nominations were coming up and I was starting to suspect that Twin Peaks: The Return would be slighted by the Academy. Yeah, the series was still in most pundits’ pools for Best Limited Series, and sure, people were including Kyle MacLachlan’s name in the Best Actor race. But I just had a feeling, a fuzzy feeling that knotted in my stomach, that justice wouldn’t be served.

And I was sadly correct.

Twin Peaks wasn’t completely shut out of the Emmys, but it was shut out of the major races that really counted. MacLachlan was shunted out of the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie category to make way for Antonio Banderas’s take on Pablo Picasso, and John Legend’s work in NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert. It was a blow, to be sure. Especially considering the tour de force MacLachlan put forth. He gave us the zany brilliance of Dougie Jones, the black hole of menace that was Cooper’s doppelganger, and the sad, chivalric beauty of Agent Cooper returned. But sure, as Hannah Gadsby pointed out in Nanette, Pablo Picasso’s legacy must be honored at all cost. 

So Kyle MacLachlan missed out on an acting nomination. So did the rest of Twin Peaks‘ ensemble. (I think Naomi Watts should be canonized for that desperate speech in a Las Vegas playground, but that’s just me.) I could make sense of that. But what I still can’t fathom is the fact that Twin Peaks: The Return was denied an Outstanding Limited Series nomination, but The Alienist, a pretty and pulpy murder mystery that’s easier to swallow, wasn’t. (I like The Alienist, but really?) The insult is almost too much to bear, and frequent Decider contributor Sean T. Collins probably put best the reasons why:

Now, you might be thinking, isn’t this all just a matter of taste? And I would usually agree. I don’t put much store in awards shows outside of the savage joy I find in watching art pitted against art in a glittery gladiatorial event. They don’t really matter, but then, they do. They’re a popularity contest, sure, but they also reflect what we as a culture deem valuable. To win one of these spiky, shiny statues is to receive the thumbs up from the community.

The community in question — The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences — knows that Twin Peaks: The Return was technically good. That’s why its eight nominations are a technical sweep. What’s being snubbed is the emotional artistry held within that technically sublime season of television. That’s why this particular shut out feels like a punishment to the Twin Peaks crowd for pushing audiences into uncomfortable emotional situations. The show was rejected for being so daring. 

Twin Peaks: The Return will continue to inspire artists. Its legacy will be in the future series that draw upon its influence, and in the writing it inspires. It’s a show that will move people for decades to come. It is immortal. And that’s why it’s so shocking that the Academy decided it just wasn’t one of the five or six best limited series that came out this year.

(And if you are looking for some great writing on the subject, might I point you to Decider’s own Evan Davis’s sublime weekly dispatches on the show.)

Where to Stream Twin Peaks