David Lynch's Iconic 35-Year-Old Crime Horror Show Is Perfect To Watch Alongside Severance Season 2’s Mind-Blowing Mystery

Severanceis the most mind-blowing ongoing show available, and it's the perfect reminder to check out this classic David Lynch mystery series. Lynch, who recently passed away, is considered among the greatest filmmakers of all time for his work on esoteric classics like Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive. However, decades later, there's no project of his that's built up more of a dedicated cult following than Twin Peaks, and it's arguably the best introduction to his filmography. Apple TV+'s hit series, Severance, is just one of many shows that wouldn't exist without Twin Peaks.

Severance season 2 is taking the film and television world by storm, returning after a three-year absence and fulfilling the long-awaited desire for more mind-bending mysteries to theorize about. Be it Lost, Westworld, or Severance, there's nothing like a TV series that passionate viewers can truly sink their teeth into, examining every detail for clues regarding the show's deeper meaning. Thirty-five years after its release on ABC, Twin Peaks still has fans poring it over for ideas, and the prequel movie and 2017's The Return season only add to the intrigue.

Severance Season 2 Draws Heavily From David Lynch's Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks Is The Original Mind-Bending Mystery Serial

The influences of Twin Peaks are all over Severance, particularly in season 2. Severance's new season 2 intro, in and of itself, owes some aesthetic credit to Twin Peaks, with its bizarrely compelling imagery. David Lynch's masterpiece expanded the television medium as one of the first shows to bring film-like imagery, blend genres, create its own mythology, and keep an ongoing mystery over time, laying the foundation for what modern viewers experience as typical television. Severance, in particular, offers a similar blend of absurd humor, suspense, and a healthy dose of surrealism.

Severance, in particular, offers a similar blend of absurd humor, suspense, and a healthy dose of surrealism.

Importantly, Severance is a series that explores the duality of human beings, examining the similarities and differences between the innies and outies. With the absence of memories, these characters still maintain crucial, innate traits. Duality is a common theme of David Lynch's work, with Laura Palmer's double life being a central narrative thread in Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks: The Return and other Lynch movies like Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive explore duality through doppelgangers, or alternate versions of people who exist in different dimensions. The ideas are very similar, but Apple TV's show offers an enthralling, original spin on it.

Severance star Patricia Arquette played a lead role in David Lynch's 1997film Lost Highway.

Twin Peaks Inspired Many Of The Best TV Shows Of The Century

Twin Peaks Is At The Roots Of Lost, The Sopranos, Mad Men, & Many More

Twin Peaks inspired not only Severance but also many of the best TV shows of all time. Damon Lindelof, one of the creators of Lost and The Leftovers, once described the series as "the greatest piece of art ever to be broadcast on a television screen" (via Variety). In an interview with Vulture, The Sopranos creator David Chase spoke about how Twin Peaks inspired his writing process and his show's dream sequences. Fargo creator Noah Hawley wrote a piece for TV Insider about Twin Peaks being inspiration for his work, even featuring homages to it in his beloved crime show.

The list goes on and on, be it Mad Men, True Detective, or The X-Files. In the Golden Age of television on streaming services, with platforms like HBO and Apple TV+ producing high-quality prestige television, it's hard to find a title that doesn't owe some of its success to David Lynch and Mark Frost's influence. Twin Peaks is still arguably the most astounding artwork to utilize the television medium, with season 3, in particular, being an extraordinarily unique and mystifying piece.

Severance Needs To Follow Through With David Lynch's Main Filmmaking Philosophy

Severance Doesn't Need To Solve All Its Mysteries

Gemma morphing into Helly in the testing floor elevator in Severance season 2's intro

David Lynch's primary philosophy, which made his works timelessly captivating, was the notion that art speaks for itself. The director famously never talked about the themes of his films or provided any insight into the mysteries, believing that by answering those questions for the audience, they would be robbed of the option to decide for themselves. By allowing audiences to view his work without knowing his opinion, he welcomed them to engage with their own creativity and perspective, fully immersing them in the process.

Severance has a web of mystery to unravel, and doing so will be a delicate process for its writers. While some viewers will want to know every detail about Lumon's lore and the meaning behind every aspect of the show, answering every question will devalue the essence of what makes the series so fascinating in the first place. Severance's main goal should be to provide readers with a beautiful story about humanity and to leave behind an intricate puzzle for its fans to piece together as they see fit. Solving it for them would close the mystery forever.

Sources: Variety, Vulture, TV Insider