The Twilight Zone
When I was a kid one of my favorite times of the year was New Years Day because the annual tradition of a The Twilight Zone marathon. TTZ is my favorite television show of all time. When it was announced that Jordan Peele, writer and director of the massively popular Get Out, would be bringing the series back I was excited to say the least. It seemed to me, based on all the interviews that I read, that Peele has a lot of admiration and respect for the original series. I felt that he could come out with a version of the show that was as close to the original as possible.
So far, I’ve watched two episodes of the new series, The Comedian and Nightmare at 30,000 Feet. I thought both episodes were really good, strengthened by wonderful performances from Kumail Nanjiani and Adam Scott, respectively. The thing that really made me enjoy the show so far is how much it feels like the original series. I’ve seen some criticism complaining about how it felt too much like the original series, but to me that is a strength and not a weakness. I think you can remain faithful to the original series but also have a modern spin (thinking specifically of the podcast plotline in Nightmare). I’m really exicted to watch the rest of the season.
If you are a fan of the original series or if Black Mirror was just a little too dark for you, give The Twilight Zone a shot. Honestly, the only downside I have experienced with the series so far is that it airs on CBS All Access, which is streaming service that you have to pay for in order to watch the CBS back catalog and some service-exclusive shows like The Good Fight, Star Trek Discovery, and The Twilight Zone. If you’re not a regular watcher of CBS programming, you may want to wait until they all air that way you can sign up for a CBS All Access trial and binge them all. I can’t wait that long because of my excitement for the show, but for more casual viewers the show alone probably isn’t worth the price of a subscription to a whole new streaming services, but I was impressed with what I’ve seen so far that I will continue paying for the service.