Reason for the Season- Twilight Zone (2019), Season 2

       Alright, Season 2 of the 3rd reboot Twilight Zone. Just a reminder that these are not traditional reviews, but stream-of-consciousness reviews where I just ramble off immediate thoughts on a show, and don't really have any recommendations on whether to do it or not. Anyway, let's gooooo.

         Alright in 1963, for the 4th season of the original Twilight Zone, Rod Serling tried an experiment where he would expand the stories out from a half-hour to one hour (with commercials). This turned out to be a failure, with the 4th season being regarded as the worst, even by Serling himself and the half-hour restored. I bring this up because a huge problem with the first season was that the episodes were all too long. The structure of a Twilight Zone episode necessitates a half-hour structure, and an hour just feels too long and the story overstays its welcome. Unfortunately, for this season, the problem persists. There are several episodes that are too long and have very superfluous elements to them. The first episode, "Meet in the Middle", is a prime example, with its premise being stretched out far beyond its breaking point. Ditto "Who of You", which has an interesting body switching element, but drags on with this really odd chase element to it. If you can get over the lengths, overall, this season is actually a lot better than the first. My biggest problem with the first season was that it was trying way too hard to be too contemporary, so we had episodes like "Kid Trump" and "Not All Men", which fell flat in execution despite promising premises. Here, all episodes do work, and while not as political, manage to have their own commentary on society or individuals, which makes the season as a whole a lot stronger. The individual episodes, while starting off slow, do have good pay-offs and at least interesting endings. My favorites of this bunch are probably the aforementioned season premiere; "8", about an Antarctic research station terrorized by an intelligent octopus; and "A Small Town", which was the closest this series gets to feeling like a classic Twilight Zone episode. The other ones vary in quality, but none of them were bad in the way "Kid Trump" was last season. My least favorites are probably "Among the Downtrodden" (which took an interesting premise, but stretched to a 40 minute length, making it kind of boring. However, Sophia Macy, daughter of William Macy and Felicity Huffman, is quite good in, and I hope she does other things and shakes off the whole college admissions scandal thing.), and "You Will Also Like," which had the potentially interesting concept of creating a sequel to the classic episode "To Serve Man", but got caught up in its own satire and was also just boring. Really, if there is one big problem with the bad episodes this season, it's that they are boring, which is exacerbated by the long lengths. This is true of "Try, Try", which takes a horror riff on the "Groundhog Day" formula, milks it, and ends up with Topher Grace just spouting Gamergate propaganda out of basically nowhere. Again, though, as an overall season, it  works better than the first season. Hopefully, they can continue this trend into the next season.

Alright, there's the review for you. If you like my work, you can see my Ko-Fi page. Not anything there right now, but I will start posting exclusive content for those interested: https://ko-fi.com/rohithc. And in a few days, I will start my Summer of Terror annual horror reviews, and with the new decade coming up, I will be looking at a diverse range of films about Gods.... and Monsters.

Reason for the Season- Twilight Zone (2019)

    A couple years ago, I did a piece on this very blog lamenting that science fiction anthologies were not as common (relegated to season long anthologies at that time). In that piece, I mentioned that they shouldn't do another *Twilight Zone*, because there were at least two others before it. Well, they went and did it anyway, so that's why I decided to review it: to see if this lives up to any of the previous incarnations and to see how the anthology format holds up now. Just a reminder, these are more free-form, stream of consciousness than my typical reviews, and I include spoilers with abandon.  Also, I want to make this an official series, so there's a title. (Get it? Because TV series are organized into seasons and... you get it.)


    Okay, of the three version of this show, this is easily worst. I've said this for weeks as it has been released. For a long time, I regarded the 2002 version as the weakest one. Even that had some highlights and some good episodes (especially the sequel to "It's a Good Life," with Bill Mumy himself). This, however, has the weakest set of episodes so far. And it starts off fine. The Comedian episode with Kumail Nanjiani was pretty good, with a Twilight Zone-esque twist and very universal themes. It goes downhill from that almost immediately with the second episode, a very loose remake of Nightmare at 20,000 Feet called Nightmare at 30,000 Feet, which had... a podcast, I think, and Adam Scott running an airplane. Honestly, I don't remember a lot of it, and that's the problem with a lot of these. They don't really have those clincher moments that the standard Twilight Zone episodes do. Like, take the classic episode *Time Enough at Last*, of course about a dude who just wants to read, but is constantly distracted by the people in his life. At the very end, he has the time to read all the books he wants, since everyone else was wiped out by the apocalypse, but just he is about to, he breaks his glasses. That is a very iconic and very memorable moment. That is largely absent from this new incarnation, and in its place is... attempting to comment on modern social issues. Like, in the least subtle manner possible. The worst offender is "The Wunderkund", about John Cho as a political advisor who gets an 11-year old elected President. It is very clearly about Trump, and it is so painful to watch. Like, imagine all those hacky Trump jokes from like, Jimmy Kimmel and Bill Maher, and make them into a *Twilight Zone* episode and here's what we've got. "Not All Men" could've been interesting exploration of toxic masculinity, but doesn't really demonstrate that and has an ending that just contradicts itself. "Point of Origin" could've been as biting as an episode of the original, with a focus on the current immigration crisis. Again, though, it doesn't really explore these issues or really makes a point about them. It's just "yep. This is happening." People have defended (correctly) that the Twilight Zone from the 60's was political, but it always felt complete, and further more, held up as stories in their own right with universal themes. "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" could be held as a commentary on McCarthyism and the Red Scare, but could be seen as a simple story about mass hysteria and the dangers of paranoia. Hell, the 2002 one had an update that was pretty good, while also commenting on the hysteria following 9/11. A lot of these, beside being unsubtle, are just not really good or memorable. Okay, there is one, and it's the best one of this season "Replay". There is a strong undercurrent about police brutality and racism, but it never feels too attached to that. Instead, it has more of an overriding theme about changing the past and trying to build a future. That makes it work a lot better, since it combines contemporary themes with more universal ideals. Aside from that, it just isn't very memorable. I've heard "Six Degrees of Freedom," was touted as a highlight, but I didn't care for it, especially the end. I can't tell you anything that happens in "A Traveler" or "Blue Scorpion". The very last episode of the season "Blurryman" is also pretty mediocre for the most part, though its message about how people ought to explore and expand art in all different directions and explore new ideas and worlds, and that something can be both good art and good entertainment was decently handled in the closing narration (the episode leading up to it was decidedly less adept at this message). That narration reminded me a lot of how Rod Serling, a long suffering TV writer who had scripts regularly censored by sponsors for their too-close-for-comfort stories, was able to use SF/Fantasy to explore contemporary themes and new ideas. (They might've also taken influence from the old Tower of Terror ride in Disney California Adventure with their TZ homages) The thing with this is that it has potentially good ideas and has a stellar cast and crew. Thus, none of it is really bad per se, but at that point, it just doesn't reach the level of being good. It's solid mediocrity, and that's probably the worst part. It just doesn't evoke an emotion within you. I'll probably never see any of these episodes again, and I've rewatched plenty of the *Twilight Zone* from all its incarnations. It is revived for a second season, and hopefully, it does get a lot better, because I do see potential in this series, if they can look at what didn't work for people and fix it, this could be a great show. Finally, Jordan Peele does a decent job as narrator. I honestly preferred Forrest Whittaker during his short stint, or even the unseen narrator from the second season of 80's series. 

Well, with that out of the way, join me in a little bit as this year sees the next Summer of Terror with the Nightmare on Elm Street series.