The first episode of GameSpot Universe’s exciting new series, True Fiction, is now available. If you’re not aware of it, True Fiction is a show about the real-life inspirations behind some of the fantastical stories we’ve come to love. The line between fantasy and reality is much blurrier than most realize and this is a show about delving into the origins of pop culture’s most compelling movies, TV shows, and more.
The first episode is all about Twin Peaks. More specifically, the murder that inspired the creation of the beloved, weird, and utterly surreal TV show. You can check out True Fiction on the GameSpot Universe YouTube channel, where new episodes will be released every Sunday.
Along with the episode, we’ve got some insight from Kurt Indovina, who writes and presents True Fiction, about the process of creating the show and his love of Twin Peaks. Check it all out below.
Kurt: I was changed after I saw Twin Peaks. It reshaped my views on everything I watched after it. Twin Peaks taught me to revel in the thrill of a mystery, to cherish the unknown, and come to terms with the idea that not every question merits an answer.
It’s a show that’s so weird and perverse that I saw it as a reflection of the twisted minds of the show’s creators Mark Frost and David Lynch. Which is why it was so troubling and bizarre for me to learn that it was, in fact, inspired by something that really happened: a cold case from over a century ago, the murder of Hazel Drew.
To my surprise, when I learned about Hazel Drew and her mysterious death, I found myself conflicted. For a show that often never answered its own questions, learning that there was a definitive origin for Twin Peaks, and that it came from our reality, started to dispel the enigmatic nature of the show and its creators–the reality of Hazel’s case seemed to suddenly reveal too much.
But like all good mysteries, I couldn’t help but be mesmerized. And unlike the murder of Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks, Hazel’s murder remains unsolved.
Diving in and learning everything about Hazel’s complicated case, and the countless questions it raised, left me with the feeling that Twin Peaks wasn’t so strange after all, and that the truth behind its inspiration is more frightening, because it did happen.
And that’s what encapsulates what I love so much about True Fiction: It’s about showing that the inspirations for the pop-culture we adore is often darker, stranger, and even more interesting. My hope is that, in the same way that learning about Hazel Drew’s untimely and unsolved death forced me to look at Twin Peaks from a different perspective, you will walk away from each episode thinking about the movies, TV shows, and other subjects we cover in a different way.
So I’m not just proud and ecstatic for True Fiction’s premiere episode to be based on something near and dear to me like Twin Peaks, but to tell the real story of Hazel Drew, and allow her story to live on alongside one of the most iconic shows her sad case inspired.
Laura Palmer’s story–the murder of a picture perfect girl in a small town–has since become a trope so common in movies and television that it’s hard to ever disassociate it with Twin Peaks. But now, I may only think of Hazel Drew.
