(They also draw markedly different crowds. HBO’s “Game of Thrones” set records this season at over 10 million viewers for its first airing; Showtime’s “Twin Peaks” premieres draw well under a million.)

But their biggest difference is the tempo. “Twin Peaks” is as narcotically slow as “Game of Thrones” has become hellbent and relentless. Watching one after the other is like stepping off a drifting log onto a speedboat.

The opening sequence of “Twin Peaks,” which airs first on Sundays, is a kind of yogic resetting. Before you watch, the show seems to be telling you, “you need to breathe deeply and slow your heart rate. Leave your phone in the basket by the door; light a candle.” Even in the early 1990s, a slower era of television, the original “Twin Peaks” was deliberate, holding pauses and transitions — like a traffic light swaying over an intersection — to test and shatter the rhythms of ad-based TV.

“The Return,” with 18 episodes and no commercial breaks, has tested those boundaries — and viewer patience — even further. Scenes have extended long past the expected cutaway point, as when a bar employee swept a floor — and swept and swept — for two and a half minutes. The spectacular eighth episode featured a slowly unfolding sound and light show, with primal evils emerging into the world from the inferno of the first nuclear explosion. Mr. Badalamenti’s score now often takes a back seat to David Lynch’s white-noise sound design, of electric hums and drones, a soundtrack of suspension and waiting.