Was Twin Peaks: The Return worth the 25-year wait?

After more than 25 years, TV's surreal crime drama Twin Peaks is back - and it is proving to be as weird and wonderful as the original.

Last night saw the double-episode premiere of Twin Peaks: The Return on Sky Atlantic, a fresh take on David Lynch's iconic series, which set the pattern for a new type of television show when it premiered in April 1990 and became one of the highest rating shows of that year.

Falling ratings led to it being cancelled after the second season in 1991, but many critics still regard it to be one of the best TV dramas ever made.

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It followed a murder investigation led by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), who was trying to find out who killed teenager Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) in the fictional Washington town of Twin Peaks.

While essentially a crime drama, it broke new ground with its eerie supernatural feel and use of horror and soap opera elements.

Twin Peaks: The Return picked up where the last series left off, with Agent Cooper entering the Black Lodge, where he meets his evil doppelganger and Palmer, who says she will see him "in 25 years".

Since then, Cooper has not been seen, although his evil doppelganger is stirring up trouble.

Mayer Nissim in Digital Spy offers fans a "health warning", saying Twin Peaks: The Return is "very, very different" and is "no nostalgia trip reunion tour". But was it worth the wait? "Absolutely."

Nissim hails The Return as a "twisted, triumphant" comeback that successfully melds the past world of Twin Peaks with the future "to make a truly modern, cinematic, 21st century TV show".

Sean T Collins on Rolling Stone says the revival is much more of "a plunge into magic and madness", with a greater emphasis on the dark supernatural elements of the Black Lodge.

It's "slower, sadder and far scarier" than before, he adds, but it reminds us that there "are still good-hearted people out there", waiting for us to know them once more.

Mark Lawson in The Guardian agrees that "true believers" will "raise their mugs gladly" at the return of old favourites the Log Lady and Tommy "Hawk" Hill.

But by the end of the opening two episodes, "both veterans and newbies will have been huddled together in Camp Bafflement".

Lynch must "entice a new crowd" while also satisfying the superfans, adds the critics, and the strangeness of The Return may prompt some to switch it off.

But for a show that has so radically raised the creative ambitions of TV, he urges, "we should give it time to reveal if it can be a game-changer again".

The Twin Peaks: The Return premiere airs again on Sky Atlantic at 9pm on Tuesday 23 May and is available on Sky On Demand.