This is what happens when an old senile film maker meditates himself into a black hole, and gets a huge budget with no restrictions. I'm fine with it being weird, challenging, experimental and slow... if only it was interesting to watch, but unfortunately it is quite dull. A more descriptive title for this season would be "The David Lynch Show - a collage of random ideas". But the magic touch of Lynch is gone.

Later seasons of tv shows often fail to capture what made the first seasons good, especially after a break of several years. However, when viewed as stand alone works they can be great, though perhaps have quite a different tone and themes than the original seasons. One would expect a great many changes after 25 years, and perhaps the only fair criteria would be that the show take place in its titular town and revolve around existing and new characters.

In many projects studio interference can harm the artistic vision of a writer or director, but an artist with too much freedom can also dilute their vision through lack of discipline. In my opinion, The Return fails as a third season of Twin Peaks, but also as a stand alone project. Luckily, I can always rewatch the original series or his older films to get a taste of that Lynch magic.

I wonder what Kyle MacLachlan's reaction was when he read most of the scripts and realized Dale Cooper had morphed into an autistic type character.

"Man, this material sucks big time but I'll stay quiet cos Showtime is paying me crazy money per episode!"

Wise decision, Kyle!