Showtime rolls out revived Twin Peaks tonight

Here’s a quick housekeeping note: The broadcast networks held their upfront presentations May 15-18 and it’s already general knowledge which shows lived or died.

However, because of editing and deadline constraints, The TV Column won’t be able to tackle that mountain of information until Thursday. By then, I hope to have it all sorted out for you. Thank you for your patience.

Meanwhile, let’s take a look at something weird and wonderful — Twin Peaks has been revived and debuts with a two-hour premiere at 8 p.m. today on Showtime.

This is a convoluted rollout for the 18-hour limited series. Immediately following tonight’s premiere, Showtime subscribers will have access to the third and fourth hours on the Showtime streaming service or Showtime On Demand.

So, you can binge into the wee hours if you like.

Or, don’t binge. On May 28, Showtime will air the third and fourth hours back to back on the regular cable network, starting at 8 p.m.

Thereafter, Twin Peaks will be one-hour episodes each Sunday.

Revived is the right word for the series because the action picks up 25 years after the original, with many familiar faces still around. They include Kyle MacLachlan, reprising his role as FBI Agent Dale Cooper; Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer); Ray Wise (Leland Palmer); Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey Horne); David Duchovny (transgender Agent Denise Bryson); and Peggy Lipton (Norma Jennings).

“There’s nothing like it,” MacLachlan told Showtime. “There’s a freshness to it; a lightness. We knew it was going to be something special, we just didn’t know in what form or how.”

Joining the cast for Season 3 will be, among others, Amanda Seyfried, Michael Cera, Naomi Watts, Laura Dern, Ernie Hudson, Ashley Judd, Tim Roth and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The full cast list is extensive and indicative of how influential the series has become over the years.

The tagline for Season 3 is “It is happening again.” Again? Here’s a reminder of what, exactly, is happening again. It’s weird, weird stuff.

If you look up “cult series” in the Big Book of TV Stuff, there will be a photo of the Twin Peaks road sign (Population 51,201). The series, created by Mark Frost and David Lynch, ran for two seasons, 1990-91, on ABC.

The plot centered on Cooper’s investigation of the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) in the fictional Washington town.

The first season was an unqualified success, earning 14 Emmy nominations. However, declining ratings and multiple time slots killed it after the second season.

The cult following, however, continued to grow and critics now include Twin Peaks among television’s most innovative and influential dramas.

It was frequently difficult to say whether the show was a crime drama or supernatural thriller. It had elements of both and it was disorienting to many. That unusual combination no doubt confused viewers and contributed to the dropoff in ratings following the solving of the murder in the middle of Season 2.

Twin Peaks was surreal and did not lack for eccentric characters and mysterious objects. They included the Log Lady, a dancing, backward-talking dwarf in a red business suit, the demon-possessed one-armed shoe salesman, a giant, Killer Bob, the Double R Diner and a “damn fine cup of coffee.”

And don’t forget, “The owls are not what they seem.”

The series was deliciously baffling and ahead of its time, and ended in a massive unresolved cliffhanger. Agent Cooper seemed to have escaped from the Black Lodge, but then it’s revealed that he was still trapped there and his Killer Bob-possessed doppelganger was loose upon the world. Yikes. What now? The best news is that the revival was written by Lynch and Frost, with Lynch directing each hour.

The inscrutable Lynch dropped in on the TV Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Los Angeles in January and was cryptic, as expected, about plot and character details.

According to the Los Angeles Times, his biggest clue came when he referenced his 1992 Twin Peaks prequel, Fire Walk With Me, by saying, “The story of Laura Palmer’s last seven days [are] very much important for this.”

Lynch also referred to the work as “a feature film in 18 parts.”

That’s precious little up front, but it promises to be a wild ride.

Welcome back. Showtime has revived the cult classic series Twin Peaks and it debuts at 8 p.m. today.