Twin Peaks: Agent Cooper, A Hero For All Times

When FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper first drove into the small, secret-laden town of Twin Peaks, it set viewers off on a wild adventure for two short seasons of a truly special show.

Coop quickly became more than simply a quirky, fun to watch, interesting character: he became a television hero, and one whose impact can still be felt throughout the television universe.

Played perfectly by Kyle MacLachlan, Agent Cooper quickly became a TV favorite in the early 1990s. His oddball detective style, his quiet genius, his philosophical musings, life lessons, and fascination with the Tibetan monks immediately made him a crowd favorite.

Oh, and coffee. Boy, did Coop ever love his coffee.

And cherry pie.

But Agent Cooper was more than a well-drawn character. He was also more than the archetypal “good cop”, of which the 90′s television landscape was littered. He was a return to the truly good human being, one whose morality served as a strong, and never-breaking basis for his decision making. Coop held the best interests of others at heart, and due to past incidences in his life, he would never put others in harm’s way. He would take risks, but they were risks that he had to take. He would never willingly put someone else in danger.

Enjoying a deeper philosophical understanding of the world around him, it was the randomness and the musings brought to us by Coop that has made him impossibly endearing. His one-sided conversations with the never-seen “Diane”, hanging upside down in his hotel room, his ideas of giving yourself a surprise gift every day, his rock throwing crime solving techniques…all of these things brought him beyond the hard-nosed and intelligent cop, and made him so much more to us.

As the outsider, Cooper was our guide to the town of Twin Peaks. It was his uncanny observations, and unraveling of the secrets within the town, that brought him closer to solving the murder of Laura Palmer, bringing him closer to the townsfolk, finding love, and uncovering the secrets of the nefarious Black Lodge.

Over the run of Twin Peaks, Dale Cooper made us smile, made us wonder, had us laughing, had us feeling his pain, and had us cheering for him every step of the way. He was a lovable hero, opening the doors for the philosopher hero that became more common after his appearances on the small screen. Think of brilliant radio DJ Chris from Northern Exposure, a man cut from the same cloth as Cooper, and beloved by audiences in the same way.

Seeing a hero like Coop made us want more from our television characters. It wasn’t good enough that someone was smart or good-looking. They had to be clever, and witty, and kind-hearted. They had to have depth, and Coop represented an ushering in of a hero that was more than one-dimensional.

Twin Peaks transformed television in innumerable ways. One of them was by providing us with a protagonist that offered depth, humanity, and a love of diners that is second-to-none in TV history. I think on behalf of all Twin Peaks fans, it is a simple and true statement to say that we are all looking forward to the return of Dale Cooper in 2017. Two years was not enough of this complex, enduring, and endearing character.

We want more Coop.