I was advised by Devtesla not to approach this show with ironic detachment, and to view it as an extremely genuine show.

I finished Season 1 with this different vantage point. For basically all of my life, soap operas and their distinctive dramatic style were a point of light humor. Soap operas like "General Hospital" "The Young and the Restless" were relics of the 60s and 70s reserved entirely for people who got into it when it first started and now feel like they're in too deep to stop now.

Of course, Twin Peak ran for only two seasons, while these soap operas ran for... Holy shit, until 2010? 2018?! I thought these must have ended in the 2000s!

Anyways, just like Homestuck, this show has a huge cast of characters with very distinct quirks. These quirks almost come to an extreme of... Simplification? But with episodes about 1.5hr long, there's plenty of time to make them seem real and interesting.

The characters here are all linked to the central storyline: The murder of a highschool girl named Laura Palmer. I went into Twin Peaks expecting a "Case of the Week" style show, a-la any of the CSIs, Fringe, House, etc. And I was expecting Laura to be just one "case of the week".

This central storyline allows all these various side storylines to intersect: That whole thing with the mill and the insurance fraud, a drug trafficking ring, highschool teenage dating drama, the FBI agent (naturally, an international man of mystery and intrigue), and a whole lot more. Some of which I'd rather not mention. (Content warning!!)

Of course, I'm watching this as someone on the internet in the 2020s rather than someone in the 1990s. (I understand that, in the 1990s, The Internet was regarded with the same suspicion one might have regarded The Juicero.) I have instant access to every episode, to Twin Peaks fan communities, and synopses and whatnot about things I might have missed.

Every few minutes you'll run into an interaction or quote that is just acted over-the-top. Cutting out all the weird or ironic interactions into a supercut would be pretty much half the show.

The weirdness makes the show interesting. If it weren't weird, I probably wouldn't watch it. I like that it's weird. I don't even mean the slightly-paranormal stuff. I mean "everyone uncomfortable and almost sobbing while an old gentleman sings 'get happy' with an increasing ferver." Most characters seem uncomfortable most of the time, to be honest. Except for Agent Cooper, the coffee-loving doughnut dude from the FBI who inserts himself into the community of Twin Peaks, and has a ridiculously forward attitude.

It's probably regrettable that this is background noise for me while I desperately attempt to focus on getting real work done.