This master’s thesis examines the critical approach to nostalgia in Twin Peaks: The Return. It focuses on how the series, as an example of a television revival, engages with its own canon, audience expectations, and the contemporary production context, which increasingly favours less complex and more comfortable nostalgic revivals of established television series, films, and franchises. The theoretical section traces the understanding of nostalgia from its initial understanding as an individual’s sentiment towards one’s past, before considering it as a broader social and cultural phenomenon and as a significant production strategy within contemporary film and television culture. The empirical section contains an analysis of selected stylistic and narrative devices through which The Return articulates its critical stance towards nostalgia. Particular attention is paid to “fan-service” and how the series subverts the predominant understanding of it, thereby reevaluating the audience’s relationship with the original series. Additionally, a significant part of the chapter is devoted to a character analysis of the series’ protagonist. This section also includes literary parallels, with the aim to contextualise the series within the broader context of European literary history. The thesis concludes that The Return is not anti-nostalgia as much as it’s pro-growth. By using nostalgia as a starting point for critical reflection on one’s engagement with its past, and the very act of returning to it, the series reveals itself to be not just an unique artistic achievement, but also a rare example of how a television revival can critically interrogate the very cultural and production system that made its own return possible.
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