I loved the first series, never seen the film. From the moment Dale Cooper did a strange monologue into his recorder to (Dana was it) as he made his way to the town, think he became became my sister and I's favorite character. Sometimes the story could be a tad confusing but they generally pulled off the storyline idea's, were inventive and knew how to do a cliffhanger. Despite the difficulty of having so many characters, it usually managed to give them all enough screen time, they were an intresting (sometimes quite eccentric bunch), enjoyable romances and rivalries, a dose of humor. The show had an enjoyable strangeness to it from the start and anything could make perfect sense. The mystical element and the atmosphere of the strange was pretty awesome, anything could happen and it was intresting to see what they did with the freedom it provided.
The problem was the first half of the second series. My sister and I had loved the series finale, looking forward to seeing how the mystery would play out, rooting for certain relationships and innocently unaware (despite watching this years after it's release) of how various pressures had been brought on the writers. Seemed we spent half of the series wondering why one of our favorite romances had suddenly vanished and was treated as if it had never ever happened. Ever. I wanted to slap one or two characters, the main stories just didn't interest me but glad we kept going. Second half was much more like its old self with characters+their relationships, entertaining mystery and stories and a strong finale.
