Not sure if there is enough interest in threads but I will give a mostly spoiler free review of the first two episodes that dropped yesterday.
The first is about a comedian played by Kumail Najiani. It wasn’t bad but once you know what the supernatural element is the rest of the episode kind of writes itself but it takes forever for it to get where you know where it is going. It would have been better if it were twenty minutes shorter.
The second episode is an interesting remake of the classic Nightmare at 20,000 feet (now 30,000) feet. It was an interesting very 2019 take on the TZ but the episode feels like it pulls its punches at the end which makes it kind of weaker than it could have been.
Not the best of starts but I like Jordan Peele and I love the TZ so I will come back for more.
I’ve only seen The Comedian so far, and my thoughts mirror Quimby’s.
I don’t recall an episode with a premise exactly like this one from the original TZ, yet I thought this meshed in very well with the tone of the old series. It was definitely too long. Or maybe I actually mean too much time was spent on each performance. Tracy Morgan was a nice touch and a surprise, to me at least since I hadn’t read much about the series. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more.
I thought the first episode was pretty standard TZ fare. Nothing special, but typical of the old series, which means compared to most other things on TV is excellent.
The second one, the update of Nightmare at 20,000 feet was, IMHO, an absolutely excellent remake and in many ways better than the original and the 1983 update. I was on the edge of my seat through that one.
Agreed, very imaginative and fun to see it set in modern (future)times. At the same time, it still had the old TZ “feel”. I loved when he wakes up on the beach and sees the doll that is a replica of the gremlin from the original episode.
I was vague in the OP to avoid spoilers but my issue with the second episode was
Having the little tag at the end that everyone was fine except Adam Scott was a little cowardly. The creators seemed afraid to have a dark ending. The show should have ended with the plane going down and it would have been at an A- or at least a B+ in my book. With that ending it gets a C. The Gremlin cameo was nice though.
I felt the first two episodes were pretty good. I liked the plot line in 30,000 feet and how it varied from the originals. But I felt the comedian was the better episode. I didn’t see the ending of 30,000 coming, but I did forsee the ‘twist’ about the pilot coming pretty early.
If these are the weakest episodes they have, then the rest of the season should be great. Because I felt those 2 episodes were above average for a sci fi anthology. And I watch a lot of sci fi and horror anthology. Original twilight zone, 80s twilight zone, outer limits, masters of horror, amazing stories, night gallery, tales from the crypt, tales from the darkside, fear itself, etc. etc.
I’d put the new twilight zone in the top 1/3 of anthology shows. Maybe its just excitement and I"ll get bored with time but so far its a good show.
After a second viewing, I have a few questions about the ending:
[Spoiler] So, Joe with an “e” is a crazy follower of the protagonist and hijacks the airplane, passes out in the cockpit and the plane nosedives.
How did anyone survive?
If by some miracle they did, why did the passengers and crew want to kill the protagonist? From their perspective, he was a bit of a nut going around trying to stop the plane from crashing, but in the end he was right. Joe caused the plane to crash, yet we hear no mention of him not surviving (everyone survived but the protagonist) Why not kill Joe, if anyone?
Where is this island in the north atlantic which seems like a tropical paradise for the months from October 15 to February 15?
It makes me think that at least part of this was all in his head [/spoiler]
Agreed. I thought “Replay” was the weakest episode of the series so far. Just far too over the top with the racist cop harassing those two for no reason at all.
I thought episode 3 was great! It was a clever way to present the social commentary and completely what I expect from Jordan Peele.
Maybe some of it was heavy handed but I feel that’s because it’s a CBS product too.
As for why the cop was following them that is literally the premise of the show. Weird shit happens in The Twilight Zone. It’s just as plausible as a guy wanting to take down a plane of strangers, a guy finding a podcast from the future or a camcorder that can rewind time.
Well, I don’t want to hijack the thread into a political debate, but my takeaway from the show was that the rewinding camera was the “Twilight Zone” part of the show and the protagonist was using it to fight real word problems like racism.
Now, of course, I am not saying that racism doesn’t exist, nor am I saying that there are no bad cops, but does this really happen to black people in America? I was under the impression that the issue was that cops see young black males as criminals when they are doing otherwise innocent things because of their choice of dress, choice of music, or other things typically associated with the black community.
Is it really a thing where a middle aged black woman who drives a nice car and is taking her well-dressed, well behaved black son, near a historically black school is simply screwed with by a Virginia State Trooper (and I’ll bet Virginia is pissed about that)? Even after she buys him a piece of pie and is nice to him?
I mean, how did all of those other black students make it to the school?
Even in Mississippi in 1964, in Neshoba County, I cannot imagine that the police would have screwed with those two. The social commentary seemed exaggerated and really out of place.
Rod Serling could do it without beating you over the head with it.
You verbalized it much better than I did. I’m not black so I don’t know what black people go through, but a well dressed and polite black man with his middle aged mother going to college shouldn’t get this level of hostility. But maybe that is the point, it ‘shouldn’t’ but it can. I feel it was a little over the top to the point where it became unrealistic. Virginia is 20% black, I doubt the cops have the time to harass every middle aged mother and her polite son who drives into town.
I think it’s true that the cop seemed a cartoon villain. Especially the go around where she sat and shared a meal with him. But at the same time there are terrible people out there. I had a friend of my family who had to change his commute because he was being pulled over consonantly by a particular cop every single day (and to avoid derailing the thread just take my word that it was not with cause).
So what does everyone think about Episode 4: A Traveler? My thoughts:
I thought it was very average. I don’t understand why the aliens needed to cut the power at the shed in order to take over, to sow discord in a very small town, or attempt to get on the female police officer’s good side and take down Greg Kinnear’s character. They had extremely advanced technology. I also thought, again, that Jordan Peele was taking unnecessary pot shots at Christianity by calling it a “myth” and implying that the alien takeover was possibly a good thing.
I guess I’m the only one still interested in this new series and if so, I’ll let the thread die, but until then…
Episode 5: The Wunderkind
They did a bit of a remake of the one about the kid who wished people into the cornfield. It has a lot of potential, but I thought it really missed the mark. I know it is the Twilight Zone and anything can happen, but the rules of the TZ are self contained in the world in which it portrays. This was supposed to be real world and everything was just so zany. This kid had no special powers like in the original. No reason to be scared of him. I can’t help but think that this was crafted to make some sort of point about Trump. Jordan Peele needs to realize that this is the Twilight Zone, not his personal stage to make social commentary. Episodes 3, 4, and 5 were all about him pissing his worldview all over the screen, not in a subtle way like Serling, but with his own sledgehammer. I’ll keep watching, but am very disappointed after a very TZ-like episode 1 and an excellent episode 2