Thirty years ago, on April 8, 1990, one of television’s most influential series premiered: “Twin Peaks.” There’s something timeless about the series, which arrived at the cusp of one decade and channeled several others. With its combination of high-pitched soap opera and low-frequency supernatural hum, “Twin Peaks” was always bound to be one of the weirder shows ever to air on American television.

Until it came back, that is. Twenty-five years after ABC aired what was presumed to be the series’s final episode, Showtime brought it back for a run titled “Twin Peaks: The Return.” It’s a languorous, idiosyncratic and deeply bizarre television project. (Given the current state of the world, you would be forgiven for asking “What year is this?” and then screaming into infinity.) To celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Twin Peaks,” fire walk with us through some of The Times’s best writing on the series. (And, instead of making all that sourdough, you might try to make our recipe for a “Twin Peaks” cherry pie.)

Seasons One and Two

Interested in rewatching some of the first two seasons? Our TV critic Margaret Lyons broke down several scenarios for a rewatch of the first two seasons — if you only want to watch one episode, have time for three, or seven …

“Don’t just rewatch the pilot,” she wrote. “Instead, watch Episode 3, ‘Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer,’ which is a fuller representation of the show’s outlook. This is when the show’s more out-there ideas really emerge. The episode features Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) taking the Twin Peaks law enforcement officers out to the woods to try an unusual technique: throwing rocks at a glass bottle to determine which suspects to pursue for the murder of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). He also delivers a mini-lecture on Tibetan Buddhism.