10 Best TV Shows Of 2017 (So Far)

3. Twin Peaks: The Return

Dale Cooper twin peaks
Sky Atlantic

Twin Peaks: The Return is only halfway through its improbable 18-episode run on Showtime, and with a further nine episodes there's as much chance it could all fall apart as there is it'll reach the very top of this list.

While this year has thrown up some weird TV shows that play around with convention (looking at you, Legion and American Gods), they're nothing compared to the spectacle David Lynch and Mark Frost are delivering week-in, week-out. The Return doesn't merely play around with the rulebook, it tears it to shreds and then - after asking anyone if they've 'gotta light?' - sets fire to the pieces.

The show - especially its insane 8th episode - serve as much as an art installation as it does a TV series, and Lynch delivers something that is impossible to predict and equally hard to break down. It's a dizzying, discombobulating series that marches to its own rhythm, a "pure heroine" distillation of Lynch that assaults the senses like nothing else in the current TV landscape (or any TV landscape, for that matter).

The performance(s) of Kyle MacLachlan as GoodCoop and BadCoop are nothing short of remarkable, and the show is finding ways of blending the more experimental nature with that of the damn fine coffee and doughnuts Twin Peaks everyone knows to great effect. We don't know where it's headed, but it's already been one hell of a journey.

Best Episode: Part 8

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Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.