A lot of the parody elements have been lost to time due to the fading popularity of 80s primetime soaps and TV movies. I got really into old tv movies at the start of the pandemic and when I rewatched twin peaks I felt like I got a lot more of the humor. For example, in the pilot, they fade into their first commercial on Laura's mother crying, and after the break, she's still crying. That's STRAIGHT out of a tearjerker TV flick.

I definitely feel like he was doing a bit of the same thing in season 3, but with modern prestige television. (Spoiler) the arm wrestling scene is like a bizarro version of something from breaking bad