Who killed Twin Peaks?

“Who killed Laura Palmer?”

It was the unanswerable question that fuelled the world of Twin Peaks—the dark and dreamy 1990s drama about the death of a high school homecoming queen, and a television series that faced a premature ending of its own.

After being axed by ABC one and a half seasons in, the tension-filled mystery left the airwaves with viewers wondering how the critically acclaimed drama could disappear so quickly and unexpectedly.

But just as the show constantly surprised with unexpected mysteries and details, it continues to live up to its mindfucking legacy as it will be returning for a third season more than two decades later.

Twin Peaks will be returning as a nine-episode series on Showtime with show creators David Lynch and Mark Frost writing and producing. The revived series will make its official comeback in 2016, coinciding with the show’s 25th anniversary.

Thanks to the internet and its charming offspring Netflix, Twin Peaks has become an accessible and binge-able series. Its newfound availability has evolved its status from ABC’s rejected wild card to a certified cult classic with a renewed following and interest.

At the time of the show’s first airing, network television served the purpose of funneling the norm into households with three-camera sitcoms and artistically diluted programming. But when Twin Peaks ripped its way through TV guides, it brought artsy and weird to the front lines and set a new standard for primetime television.

Frost and Lynch were accredited with bringing “weirdness” to television with their groundbreaking dark humour and artistic and cinematic filming. Unlike anything else that was offered on network TV, Twin Peaks’ acceptance of the bizarre and questionable served the purpose of slowly euthanizing network television until normalcy would be no more.

Twin Peaks now has the chance to air alongside some of the series it has influenced and essentially made possible. Shows like American Horror Story, True Blood, and The Sopranos have brought oddities and unique visions to TV, but it’s hard to say if any of those styles would have ever been picked up had it not been for Twin Peaks’ initial introductions and scene setting. With complex characters, bold directorial choices, and non-linear plotlines, Twin Peaks changed the game for primetime TV.

Although it appeared to have met its end almost 25 years ago, Twin Peaks continues to surprise and thrive today. The revival will be set in the present, acknowledging the amount of time that has passed and the previous goings on of the fictional Washington town. The cast has yet to be revealed, but the show’s protagonist, Special Agent Dale Cooper (played by Kyle Maclachlan), is rumoured to be coming back.

We may never know who killed Laura Palmer, but we do know for sure that Twin Peaks lives on.