Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks is a mystery drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost that aired on ABC from April 1990 to June 1991, with a third season broadcast on Showtime in 2017, centered on an FBI investigation into the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer in a small Pacific Northwest town. Its blend of soap opera plotting, surreal imagery and Lynch's distinctive directorial style, brought to television with production values aimed at film standards, made it what critics have since called the beginning of auteur-driven prestige television. The original series generated intense audience discussion the day after each broadcast, a phenomenon later described as the water cooler effect, and its pilot drew the highest ratings of the 1989 to 1990 television season; it remains consistently ranked among the most influential dramas in television history.