SO LONG, DAVID LYNCH

You held a style that was all your own, as Eraserhead proved in spades, and that uniqueness, that defiance of artistic conformity with all of its weird, Wizard of Oz trim, carried throughout your specialized career. 

The Elephant Man, which became an irrefutable classic, sealed your status, followed by the epic, Dune (one that's aged far better than some, including yourself, dared predict), Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, The Straight Story, Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire and My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? (a collaboration, no less, with contemporary visionary, Werner Herzog). These features, in turn, were accompanied by your sporadic shorts and serialized experiments: Dumbland, Rabbits and On the Air (ah, such real, surreal stuff).  

Then there's Twin Peaks, the oddest of murder-mystery shows, which grew supernatural through its progression, only to deliver a science-fiction punch. Thereafter, its theatrical prequel, Fire Walk With Me, and Showtime's sequel series, The Return, drove home your saga's unconventional blend to brave, new, unexpected heights.  

You were a prolific voice actor (playing Gus the bartender for twenty-two episodes of The Cleveland Show) and an amazing, avant-garde painter, with the fruits of your labor spotlighted in David Lynch: The Art Life. (To hear you reflect and watch you create dispatches a sensation that's not been equaled anywhere else.) 

And as an actor, you went on to redefine your precious quirks, in particular as Twin Peaks' FBI Deputy Director Gordon Cole, but also in Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans (as the legendary John Ford), Lucky (with Wild at Heart/Twin Peaks/The Straight Story's Harry Dean Stanton), Zelly and Me (with Blue Velvet/Wild at Heart's Isabella Rossellini), Lumiere and Company, My Beautiful Broken Brain, Girlfriend's Day, European Nights, Barracuda, Heart Beat, Nadja ... and A Fall From Grace. 

You were a quiet yet forceful man of discerning taste, who took to Pennsylvanian texture and grave, factory grime. In other words, you invested your heart and soul into all that you touched, with a body of work that no one can ever emulate or top: a vast, unorthodox assemblage that will only grow greater over time.  

Twin Peaks: Enter Season 3

Somewhere between the romantic terror of "Dark Shadows" and the wry chicanery of "Fargo" lies David Lynch and Mark Frost's wickedly quirky "Twin Peaks": the tale of "defunct" Laura Palmer, a young lady who appeared wholesome on the surface, but whose dark secrets did her in and revealed so much more than anyone dared imagine. 

Just as fans demanded "Star Trek'"s return, lovers of the surreal soap opera have insisted on the same. Alas, the wait has taken far longer than it did Gene Roddenberry's science-fiction saga to resurface, though there was hope for a "Twin Peaks" continuation after the theatrical prequel/sequel, "Fire Come Walk With Me." (That should have spawned a series of offshoots, if only matters had gone accordingly.)

At least producer/creators Lynch and Frost are in charge of the new Showtime endeavor, despite a nearly three-decade hiatus (and an infuriatingly false start in '16). At least to sweeten the pot, our creators are accompanied by many of our original favorites, including our dimensionally anguished lead, F.B.I. Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan); Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook); Shelly Johnson (Madchen Amick); Big Ed Hurley (Everett McGill); Dr. Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn); Andy Brennan (Harry Goaz); Lucy Moran/Brennan (Kimmy Robertson); Sarah Palmer (Grace Zabriske); Leland Palmer (Ed Wise); and that not-to-be-forgotten daughter, Laura (Sheryl Lee). 

Others will make supporting manifestations of varying degrees, such as Sherilyn Fenn's Audrey Horne; Peggy Limpton's Norma Jennings; James Marshall's James Hurley; Richard Beymer's Ben Horne; David Patrick Kelly's Jerry Horne; Wendy Robie's Nadine Hurley; David Lynch's Gordon Cole; David Duchovny's Denise Bryson; Al Strobel's Phillip Michael Gerard; Michael Horse's Deputy Hawk; Catherine E. Coulson's Log Lady; and Miguel Ferrer's irascible Albert Rosenfeld. Carel Struycken's Giant will also revisit (hurrah!), but where oh, where is Michael J. Anderson's Dancing Dwarf/Man From Another Place? (Come now, there's no way he can't be shimmying and speaking in reverse behind some crimson curtain. If not, what a pity...)

We're at least guaranteed a faithful flow of wayward messages and cryptic codes. If it were any other way, it wouldn't be "Twin Peaks". For this particular saga, only slanted, slow-burn reveals will do. 

"Twin Peaks: The Return" enters our dimension Sunday, May 21 at 9 pm. Tune in and dream those wild dreams. Perhaps have a piece of pie while you're at it. Agent Cooper would respect you for that.