When I watched Twin Peaks for the first time several years ago, I loved the first season and the first half of the second and could barely drag myself through the rest of episodes. When I re-watched both seasons before The Return, I actually loved every single episode - even when nothing interesting is happening, there's still that magical atmosphere, the cherry pies, and all the amazing characters.

The Return left me sad and disappointed, and if I were to collect all the scenes I loved, they wouldn't even make a full episode.

Season 3, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Season 1

Season 2, with most of the second half being the lowest ranked.

I enjoyed just about all of it.  There are some episodes or most of an episode from season 2 and 3 that I kind of questioned the value to, but then again, I enjoyed FWWM too.  Just enjoyed the setting and mystery that has been Twin Peaks.

Season 3 - loved it beyond measure. 

Season 1

Season 2

First Place: Season 3, The Return

First Place: Seasons 1 and 2 and FWWM

I love all of it and can't rate them against each other. 

But suffice to say that The Return is the greatest TV or film work I have ever seen. I doubt that anything will ever surpass it.

I don't  care how it ended. But I believe in time, the brilliance of the ending will become clear.

 My favorite to watch is FWWM, then Twin Peaks the return , then season 2 and at last season 1. The greatest about the return for me is the mystery. the fun, the shocking scenes, the goosebumps.... and an ending, even if you don't like it, it gives a lot of points to discuss. Maybe some questions will be answered overehere, some of them will be a mystery forever. I like that, never seen it before in a tv show. (Only with the other seasons, i remember there where a lot of people who hated the end of season 2 back in 1991)

Season 3:  The scale, scope and artistry is above and beyond seasons 1 and 2 as is the storytelling technique.

Season 1: will always be near and dear to my heart. The pilot was incredibly compelling. 

FWWM: has been one of my favorite films since it was released. Getting a chance to view the Missing Pieces all these years later improved its standing for me. 

Season 2: some of it is fast forward material, but the episodes that aren't are of an extremely high quality. I'll never forget my first viewings of the episodes leading up to Leland's death or the finale. 

I watched the first seasons at least 25 times, some episodes (Lonely Souls) 50 times. Probably more. 

There's so much light in those seasons. I'm one of the many who watched TP to get through hard times over the past two and a half decades: there was nothing more comforting than coming "home" to Twin Peaks.

Season 3 won't be like that. Part of it is that I'm older. I no longer have the life that allowed me to watch 6-12 hours of Twin Peaks on a rainy day.

But age aside, I don't think Season 3 will provide the same warm feelings. There's much less light.  One of the message I took away was: You can't ever go home again.

Season 3

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3.

I'm not as big a fan of the original series as some. I appreciate the innovative things it did, and I LOVE Cooper as a character. I realize much of how they played with soap opera conventions was tongue-in-cheek, but a lot of it veered too close to actual soap opera for my taste. I also know it's not their fault they had to get the scripts past risk-averse network execs in a less enlightened time for TV, but that dragged the show down too. And like many, I find most of Season 2 to be a train wreck.

Which is a long way of saying that I think The Return is a much, MUCH better show than the original ever was. Left to his own devices, Lynch can sometimes be self-indulgent, but his vision is cohesive and dazzling and really not like anything we've ever seen - so putting up with him is worth it.

I said this in another post, but I was also struck by how every actor seemed to be "all in." Original cast, new cast, big roles, small roles - no one phoned it in as if they wanted to cash in on Twin Peaks nostalgia and call it a day. Also credit Lynch's directing with inspiring that kind of commitment, but everyone in this season gave off a vibe of totally wanting to be part of this. (Again, Season 2 got a bit... perfunctory.)

I have my complaints, but overall I think The Return was an awesome achievement in some sort of TV alchemy where the best elements of the flawed source material were distilled into something new and crazy that was totally Twin Peaks, but better.