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Twenty five years later, give or take, cult ABC drama-mystery show Twin Peaks is back with both David Lynch and Mark Frost back at the helm. This premiere is made up of two parts and is two hours long. Three and four are also available via streaming platforms but let’s not get a head of ourselves.

This sorta thing doesn’t happen often, a show coming back so many years later, with many of the original cast members returning. Even with the huge gap between air dates this is in no way meant to be accessible for new viewers. David Lynch has said you will need to have watched Fire Walk With Me before going into this new Twin Peaks.

And watching these first two episodes I can see why. Despite new characters and settings, you are thrown into the deep end from the get go. The very first sequence is The Giant (curiously named ?????????? in the credits) talking in riddles to the real Cooper. There’s a lot of these types of sequences, more so than original Peaks.

Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) is still trapped inside the Black Lodge (the room with the zig zags and the red curtains), with demonic spirit BOB having taken over his body, like he did with Leland Palmer. I mean just look at the way Coop dresses, and his shoulder length hair. But I could be wrong. Like everything in older Twin Peaks, sometimes you just have to fumble your way through. Doppelgänger Coop sure does have a mean streak.

This season is different already. We travel outside of the town of Twin Peaks, Washington. In fact we’re barely even in Twin Peaks in these two episodes.

In New York we see a young man watching a curious empty glass box. Lynch sure takes the time in lingering on the box, excruciatingly so. Cos boy does Lynch like to mess with us and watch us squirm through our televisions.

In South Dakota a woman is found murdered in her apartment. A school principal is fingered for the crime. His fingerprints found in the apartment.

As for original cast members, we also get to see Dr. Jacoby, and the Horne brothers Jerry and Ben at the Great Northern with a new herbal drug business. Hawk, Lucy, and Andy and all still working for the Sheriff’s department. Margaret the log lady is still taking messages from her log. As much as things have changed, much has stayed the same. We meet an older Laura Palmer in the Black Lodge. And The Bang Bang Bar is still going strong with musical acts and familiar faces Shelly Johnson and James Hurly.

The graphic violence in this new incarnation did take me by surprise, especially against women. Twin Peaks aired on ABC back in the day and was restricted in what they could show. Now on Showtime, it is more like Fire Walk With Me in its depictions of violence. Viewer discretion advised.

The new Twin Peaks is weird, wacky, and dark as hell. There’s a new murder and the mystical is out in full force. It’s yet to be seen if Twin Peaks will return to the town-based soap opera it once was.