The original Twin Peaks series really was original — one of the most inventive, unprecedented, sometimes thrillingly unique TV series ever presented. David Lynch directed several episodes, including the very best ones: the mood-establishing pilot and the dreamy and nightmarish third episode with the Tibetan rock toss and the dancing, backwards-talking dwarf in the Red Room.
In 1990, Lynch and his fellow creator, writer and producer Mark Frost, premiered their show about the death of a small-town high school girl named Laura Palmer. The first season of episodes was unforgettable. The second season, with Lynch mostly off making movies, was much more incoherent and unsatisfying, but it still had moments, scenes and subplots that stood out from everything else on TV.
A quarter of a century later, the original Twin Peaks is still being imitated. In all that time, the closest TV has come to the original is the just-concluded first season of FX’s Legion, by gifted TV producer Noah Hawley.
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