“It is happening again.” These are the words that accompanied much of the publicity for Twin Peaks season three, 27 years in the works. These are the words that shocked us to our core as we watched in terror at that fateful moment when Laura Palmer’s killer was revealed. These are words that do not bode well for the residents of Twin Peaks. These are the words that effectively sum up the mood of the first two episodes of the new season.

“The way the camera creeps slowly through corridors or down dimly lit back roads will have you wanting to cover your eyes.”

In its original run, Twin Peaks was always quirky, with a lurking feeling of dread. Towards the end of season 2 it took a turn for the dark and concluded with one of the most remarkably surreal final 20 minutes of any TV series before or since. It didn’t leave much room for optimism, and the unfairly maligned spin-off film Fire Walk With Me only created more questions, as well as ratcheting up the dread. The series creators, Mark Frost and David Lynch, aren’t in any hurry to provide easy answers if the first two hours of the 18 episode season are anything to go by.

There will be surely be those who are deeply disappointed by just how bizarre these two episodes were. That’s fair enough: very little time is spent in the title town, moving focus away from well-loved characters and onto strange plots involving a murder in humble Buckhorn, where everyone talks like they are in Fargo, and the supernatural killing of a man paid to watch a huge glass box in New York. There are points when it’s frustrating, not least because we are given glimpses of fan favourites: The Log Lady phoning up Hawk to give cryptic clues, Lucy being her ditsy self, Shelley meeting eyes with James across a crowded bar. These moments of levity remind us that we’re still watching the show that we waited so long for.

Frustrating as it might be, patience is a key part in any Lynch project. Let us not forget that it was network impatience that led to the debacle which resulted in the discontinuing of the show after season 2 in the first place. The first two episodes are deeply reminiscent of some of Lynch’s more recent films, specifically the labyrinthine terror of Lost Highway and Inland Empire, and much like those films, the first two episodes are so effortlessly frightening purely because so many of the events aren’t tangible. The way the camera creeps slowly through corridors or down dimly lit back roads will have you wanting to cover your eyes to protect you from the terrors that Lynch has up his sleeve.

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Ultimately these new episodes are wonderfully cerebral and among the boldest two hours of television you are likely to see for a long while. Its tone is very different to the original run, which means that it doesn’t have the same whimsical magic that the first two seasons had, but its foreboding sense of terror and mystery works rather well. Of course these narrative threads aren’t related now; we’re but a ninth of the way through what promises to be a thrilling and unique season. There’s an evil in these woods, and it’s more powerful than ever