I just finished season two.
Like many here, I originally couldn't get through season 1. I gave up 1,5 episodes in. Back then, the show felt like one of those terrible Stephen King adaptations, and on top of that a complete ripoff of Les Revenants. I just couldn't get interested and didn't think much of it. (I can't be arsed to check, but I guess the book was written before Les Revenants was even made, but this was just my personal experience as a big Les Revenants fan.)
Now with all my regular circulation shows on break I somehow stumbled upon rave reviews of season 2 and decided to give it a shot. And holy ****, I would rank that in the top 20 seasons of any television show ever. Just amazing. It was also quite a nice sweat to not know if there would be a season 3, I just finished reading the thread and fistpumped quite hard when I learned that there will be.
Something I didn't see mentioned ITT is that this show is VERY Lynchian. Especially the scenes early into the season with just bare jazz drums in the background (Mulholland Drive), the whole purgatory episode, and especially the purgatory karaoke in E10. There were like 50 other small moments along the way where I thought this is exactly like out of a Lynch movie... which is a great thing because I love David Lynch.
I also found it interesting that this show was really tough to marathon. Usually when I have a show that I like but haven't seen, I watch 3-4 eps every night at the very least. But I just couldn't watch this more than an episode per night. It was just so very sad and emotional that I felt it affect my mood too much. I'm not saying it's a bad thing at all, just interesting. The only other "GOAT" show I've had this problem with was Hannibal. That one was just so damn grim that it got into my psyche.
As others have mentioned, the music especially is amazing. I love that little piano thingy that plays in the background in most episodes. Actors are amazing too.
My favourite episode was International Assassin aka the purgatory episode. I watched it late at night before going to sleep and had some ****ed up dreams afterwards
I was really stunned after watching it, mad props for having the guts to do something like that.
tl;dr can't wait for S3, and I'm really glad I'll get to watch it one episode a week.