Twin Peaks

What comes across most potently is Lynch’s liberated artistry and style, allowed free reign and immediately making even the most bold of other TV series, from American Gods to The Americans, look timid and compromised in comparison to Lynch’s latest moondrunk flourish.

But the best stuff easily reminded true blue fans--and only true blue fans--why they loved this so deeply to begin with.

These episodes scattered a lot of fascinating imagery, disconnected story ideas, and inter-dimensional nightmare antics in front of its audience; it’s up to viewers to try and put the pieces together, or (my preferred method) simply soak in every bizarre tableau with glee. ... Twin Peaks (subtitled The Return) is a worthy new entry in his canon.

Its power comes from its electric inventiveness and gleeful inscrutability. An inimitable stew of the romantic and the demonic, the cartoonish and the crazy, it is, in the purest sense of the term, Lynchian. Peak TV, indeed.

I was riveted--I highly recommend watching this show on the largest screen possible, in dark room, with no interruptions. But I didn’t see much evidence that the new Twin Peaks is going to pivot anytime soon and turn into the show that people remember, or think they remember.

God what a good show this is. Who cares who killed who?

It was slow and strange in ways that felt like Lynch was deliberately baiting his audience to see how much they would tolerate--and how much they actually remembered about the old show--after so much time away. ... And yet I loved every plodding, baffling minute of it. ... I went into the night terrified that all the usual TV revival problems would become exponentially worse when filtered through Lynch’s own storytelling eccentricities, and I came out of it exhilarated. Baffled at times, but exhilarated.

The violence against women in the first two episodes, especially in comparison to what was experienced by men, stands out as perhaps the most antiquated element of the new series--a series we’re looking forward to following, but hoping that it remembers women deserve as much a chance to be heroes as men.

It is a splendid, focused and wholly assured resurrection.

For those who can get comfortable with all the director’s imponderables, the series’ spell soon becomes immersive. This may not be the Twin Peaks we grew up with, exactly, the show that changed television forever by proving how far the medium could reach. Instead, it’s the Twin Peaks we’ve grown into, the one we’re finally ready for, wherever it plans to take us.

The show immediately finds just the right balance between challenge and pleasure.

True to form, the complete picture remains an enigma and it may never be viewed with complete clarity, even by season’s end. If you can stomach the unknown and visual viciousness though, finding entertainment in the journey and joy in the minutiae, then strap yourself in for a wild ride. Conclusively, it's far too early to fall on either side of the fence, but from what we’ve seen of the show's return thus far, Lynch and company have set up what is sure to be a damn fine season.

Beautiful and puzzling, funny and exciting.

You got two hours that were often gorgeous, sometimes goofy, frequently disturbing and far more graphically violent than the original--filled with performances that ranged from amusing to disquieting to the flat-out amateurish.

Twin Peaks: The Return was creepy, surreal, bizarre, and often unintelligible. Just like its predecessor.

Very little of this re-entry into “Twin Peaks” makes any sense. Yet it’s admirable that the drama’s creators have found a way to update the universe without relinquishing its signature atmosphere. The story still wields the power to mystify and confuse, even 26 years after the original episodes ended.

It's too soon, ultimately, to conclude whether "Twin Peaks" will justify the investment or, like many a revival, should have stayed in limbo. The first two hours should, at least, pique any fan's curiosity.

The thing that struck me most immediately about the premiere is how relatively cogent it was, with a clear emphasis on "relatively." What premiered on Sunday was as accessibly scary, disturbing and audaciously funny as many of the best parts of the original Twin Peaks, and nowhere near as hallucinatory and subtextually distilled as the prequel film Fire Walk With Me. ... That does not mean that I could tell you in any linear description what happened in the two hours.

Twin Peaks: The Return is weird and creepy and slow. But it is interesting. The show is very stubbornly itself--not quite film and not quite TV, rejecting both standard storytelling and standard forms. It’s not especially fun to watch and it can be quite disturbing. But there is never a sense that you are watching something devoid of vision or intention. Lynch’s vision is so total and absolute that he can get away with what wouldn’t be otherwise acceptable.