Season One Discussion

[ottoDbusdriver]

18 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

I think the part that was actually most interesting to me was the contrast between Eve and Anna, and how Anna was the person who someone would stereotype as an illegal immigrant (Hispanic, house keeper) while Eve would certainly never be profiled as an illegal (white, upper class) and how unprepared Eve was for all of this, while Anna almost seemed ready, and how Eve was forced to confront her own biases and treatment of Anna, and how they ended up in the same place. I think there is an interesting story to be told about how people can be blind to the suffering of others until their forced to confront it personally. I think if the episode had focused more on that aspect, it would have been a bit more complete. 

I'm still curious how the gov't determined Eve was a transdimensional illegal immigrant in the first place.  What was the trigger to freeze the bank accounts and send the team to arrest her in the grocery store parking garage ?

[benteen]

I've not watched the last two episodes of the show after reading the reviews.  It's incredibly disappointing to see how this series turning out. 

Quote

It seems more like the writers are high schoolers who have recently become aware of social justice and want everyone to know it.  Unlike the original series, they don't try to convey their message through allegory, they just scream it into your face for forty minutes.

I think that's a great assessment.  I'd also add that their (left-wing) messages seem to come first and everything else, including being an entertaining show comes second.  The original Twilight Zone episodes weren't all classics.  There were some stinkers in there.  But they were rarely not entertaining.

There's not one episode of this show that measures up to the weakest episode of Black Mirror.

Edited May 21, 2019 by benteen

[ottoDbusdriver]

The Blue Scorpion was better than other episodes, but they never really explained why Jeff's dad had the gun for so many years, yet it drove Jeff crazy in a matter of days.

Way too many Jeffs in the episode though -- could he have killed any of them, and the curse of/obsession with the gun would be lifted ?

Chris O'Dowd is always good.

[Starchild]

Personally, I'll finish out the season, but if they are still 60 min. when they come back for S2, I'm probably going to be out.

[Annber03]

5 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

The Blue Scorpion was better than other episodes, but they never really explained why Jeff's dad had the gun for so many years, yet it drove Jeff crazy in a matter of days.

Did they say he'd had it for years? Or had he just somehow found it in recent days, too? I would've liked to know how exactly his dad came into possession of it, especially given all the talk about how much of a hippie he was. 

Quote

Way too many Jeffs in the episode though -- could he have killed any of them, and the curse of/obsession with the gun would be lifted ?

I was wondering about that, too. I'm thinking it had to be the "right" person in order for the curse to be broken, otherwise things would've only gotten worse for him if he'd shot the wrong Jeff. Maybe he would've followed in his dad's tragic footsteps as a result? It is interesting that owning the gun led his dad to kill himself, but Jeff's focus was more on killing somebody else. 

That ending with the kids had me all anxious. Had a couple good jump scares throughout, too, with the gun suddenly going off and that guy breaking Jeff's car window. 

[ottoDbusdriver]

7 hours ago, Annber03 said:

Did they say he'd had it for years? Or had he just somehow found it in recent days, too? I would've liked to know how exactly his dad came into possession of it, especially given all the talk about how much of a hippie he was. 

Otis did have that wall safe, complete with red light in the wall of his closet, so that makes me think that he had the Blue Scorpion for quite a while.

Add in the fact that Jeff said Otis had gone to Cuba right after the revolution and hung out with Che Guevara, it makes me think he may have had the gun for 50+ years.

[benteen]

Better than most of the episodes this season but that's not saying much.  Shorter than normal but I thought they still could have cut ten minutes from the runtime and it would have benefitted.  Still, the show continues to be unsubtle and what was going on was still vague as hell.  The Blue Scorpion is an interesting idea and Chris O'Dowd gives a good performance but they did a poor job of showing how Point A got to Point B storywise.

Season 1 has been a massive disappointment and I don't know how those involved in the show can look at it and not feel that way.

Edited May 24, 2019 by benteen

[tennisgurl]

Certainly one of the better episodes, Chris O'Dowd really carried the dramatic weight really well, and I thought it had some good creepy moments, and the ending with the kid getting the bullet with his name on it was quite unsettling. It probably helps that it wasnt really a "message" episode, at least in the way that some other ones have been. It had some elements of gun control, but it was more about obsession and objects becoming more real than people at times, and how obsession can lead to self destruction.

It seems like his dad had the gun for awhile, considering he hung out with Castro in Cuba in the 60s and thats when the gun was apparently created, and he created the lit up wall to try and contain the gun until it was too much and he ended his life. Maybe he was more depressed, and Jeff was more angry, and thats why his father used the gun on himself, and Jeff was tempted to use it on others. 

Jeff's ex wife trying to take his dads guitar to sell it right after his dad died really did seem pretty cold, especially as the whole divorce was apparently her idea. I think that the idea was that Jeff needed closure, and he thought that was killing his ex wife's new boyfriend was it, in his blue scorpion haze, but when he actually needed to leave that life behind and move on. Or something, I cant say I am really sure what its supposed to mean. Still, I enjoyed the episode and its creepy atmosphere. 

[Maximum Taco]

20 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Jeff's ex wife trying to take his dads guitar to sell it right after his dad died really did seem pretty cold, especially as the whole divorce was apparently her idea. 

It also isn't accurate according to the law. 

Inheritance is seen as separate property (even in an equitable distribution state.) As long as he didn't spend any of it on assets they own together (and he couldn't have since his dad just died), or specifically put it in both their names (and why would he?) he would have sole ownership over all of his dad's wealth and belongings that were willed to him (assuming his father willed it directly to him and not to both of them) and she would have absolutely no rights to it in the divorce. 

Also if she was dumb enough to take it to court the judge would have no doubt have ruled in his favor, since divorcing someone right after they come into a six figure inheritance is quite clearly a cash grab, and that inheritance was never shared marital property. 

But after the Kid as President episode I don't rely on the Twilight Zone to do any research to make their stories make sense. 

Edited May 25, 2019 by Maximum Taco

[tkc]

On 5/25/2019 at 9:10 AM, Maximum Taco said:

It also isn't accurate according to the law. 

Inheritance is seen as separate property (even in an equitable distribution state.)

That's an interesting fact! I guess one way you could read it was that the lawyer was taking advantage of Jeff representing himself, and was purposely lying to him to get him to agree to giving up the guitar... or that the story is set in a Twilight Zone version of New York.

In light of how many of the episodes have been quite obvious about their social commentary, I thought this one was much more subtle up until the closing narration. According to an interview with writer Glen Morgan, one of his goals was to keep the possible gun rights/control aspect of the story from turning off the audience.

Finally, White Rabbit is a bizarre but highly compelling song.

[Melina22]

13 hours ago, tkc said:

Finally, White Rabbit is a bizarre but highly compelling song.

I didn't love Blue Scorpion, but hearing Grace Slick's voice again gave me chills. There's something about her voice singing that song that can never be duplicated. 

[Annber03]

Ooooooh. Well, there's a way to wrap things up for the season!

Pretty cool episode. I'm going to have nightmares about shadowy, stalking blurry figures, though. 

Edited May 31, 2019 by Annber03

[tennisgurl]

That was serious levels of meta, like meta on top of meta with a side of meta. I agree with Jordan, the idea of a Twilight Zone writer (and OG Twilight Zone fangirl) actually ending up in a Twilight Zone episode is a pretty great idea. 

I thought this was a really fun way to end the show, you really could feel the love that people on this show have for the OG show, and science fiction/horror/fantasy in general, worked really well and it shined through all throughout the episode. Jordan was clearly having a grand old time playing himself, as was Seth Rogen in his smaller part (can he actually star in an episode sometime?) and I love Zazie Beetz and she was really good here. I admit this is the first episode of this show that has truly creeped me out, that blurry man was seriously unnerving, especially when Sophie found the book and started to see the blurry man inside the book coming closer and closer. 

If I had one criticism it was that I wish we had set up more of why Sophie was now so against genre fiction and felt like there is no room for pure fantasy in the cultural landscape. We saw that her father discouraged her for watching something "silly" so we can make conjecture, and I generally saw and enjoyed the lesson, even if I wish they had gone a little harder on it with her backstory. But I love the celebration of both the original show and what a great show it was, as well as the importance of genre fiction and how it can mesh with talking about real issues, which you can tell is really important to JP. 

In that last scene where Sophie was wandering in the black and white room, I was like "wait...is that Rod Serling?!?" and it was! I admit, I got serious chills when "Rod" did the last narration again and when he took Sophie into the opening credits, talking about the importance of imagination. "I think you know where you are." It actually looked pretty cool, both "Rod" as well as the creepy sets and the trippy ending. I especially loved her walking through the ending to Time Enough at Last, that was great, and a really good episode to reference. Really, I will need to watch again, just to pick up all the references to classic episodes. 

[Annber03]

1 hour ago, tennisgurl said:

I admit this is the first episode of this show that has truly creeped me out, that blurry man was seriously unnerving, especially when Sophie found the book and started to see the blurry man inside the book coming closer and closer. 

Yes! That was a cool, unsettling visual. I really liked how they played around with the whole thing of Sophie being alone and looking around to see if that blurry man was there, and having him pop up in ways and places you wouldn't quite expect. Such a good use of tension. The scene with her desperately trying to run from the blurry man and trying to get everyone's attention, only for nobody to hear or even see her, was also quite unnerving.

Quote

Really, I will need to watch again, just to pick up all the references to classic episodes. 

Same. I liked how this felt kinda reminiscent of "A World of His Own". I also want to make use of the black and white option for the episodes, and see now if I can spot any instances of that blurry man popping up elsewhere. 

[Melina22]

I feel like she may have been wandering through sets from previous new Twilight Zone episodes. They did show brief scenes from Blue Scorpion and others. I'd have to rewatch to be sure.

A very weird episode but maybe the best of the season. 

[braindead]

I've been lurking around here forever and have never felt compelled to post on the forums. I just really enjoy reading all of your posts and thoughts.

Having said that, The Twilight Zone has been my ultimate favorite show since childhood. This incarnation has me incredibly torn and I would like to discuss it with you.

Why couldn't this have been a standalone show? I realize it's on trend to piggy back off classics and remake and re-imagine, but it is borderline sacrilege. Although I want to enjoy it, I find myself watching every episode with a pinch of resentment. I see Peele attempting his best Rod Serling and it makes me mad. The Twilight Zone is loved by so many generations and is a perfect representation of its time. Why infringe on that? 

I think this show, with it's modern narrative, meta references - buzzword buzzword - could have stood on its own as a representation of our times. Dimension 404 attempted it. Black Mirror does it exquisitely. I truly believe Jordan Peele and his crew could have successfully created original content influenced by The Twilight Zone; why didn't they? The cynical part of me wonders if it is a ploy to capitalize on a built in audience. The bitter part of me thinks it's a sign of our generation's arrogance - "Oh, I loved this show! I can make it sooo much better!" I don't know, but I'm bummed.

Am I alone in feeling this way?

[Melina22]

I was very disappointed with this season, apart from Blurryman, which at least held my attention. I totally understand how you feel. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

What I liked: Jordan Peele subtly thumbing his nose at the haters, and the meta turn the show and episode took on themselves.

What I didn't like: the cheapness of the episode, and the fake Rod Serling. I know most episodes were probably mostly filmed on sound stages but I don't need that fact put in my face. And using some bad CGI and a voice imitator to create a vision of Sterling felt like unnecessary sacrilege to me. I hope they don't ever do it again.

For the most part I liked this first season and will be looking forward to the second.

[ottoDbusdriver]

I didn't really like Blurryman that much.   Creepy ersatz-Rod Serling didn't help.

Plus, you never found out why Sophie was the only one affected by Blurryman, especially if it was on recordings and other people could see it on the recordings. 
Why her ?  Is it just because she was a writer ?

[cmfran]

Ugh, I hated "Blurryman" so much. As soon as Jordan Peele broke character and the camera pulled back to reveal what was going on, I rolled my eyes. And unlike the other eps, you really needed to watch all the previous eps (as well as the original run of TZ) to get all the references. And yeah, the CGI Serling was ridiculous.

I had high hopes for this reboot, but overall, I've been hugely disappointed. If there's another season, I won't be returning. Thankfully, Black Mirror returns this week.

[NeenerNeener]

On 5/7/2019 at 9:57 AM, benteen said:

According to its wiki page, this week's episode is based on a 1977 short story called "The Screwfly Solution."  It was written by a woman named Raccoona Sheldon, a pen name for American psychologist Alice Sheldon, better known as sci-fi writer James Tiptree Jr.  Looking at her Wikipedia page, to say she had an interesting life would be an understatement.

I just got CBS ALL Access now because there's finally enough on it to justify having it for a month or two, so I just watched this particular episode. There was a series on Showtime back around 2006-2007 called Masters of Horror that did a much better take on "The Screwfly Solution". This one wasn't nearly creepy enough.

[Starchild]

On 6/1/2019 at 7:21 AM, cmfran said:

Ugh, I hated "Blurryman" so much. As soon as Jordan Peele broke character and the camera pulled back to reveal what was going on, I rolled my eyes. And unlike the other eps, you really needed to watch all the previous eps (as well as the original run of TZ) to get all the references. And yeah, the CGI Serling was ridiculous.

I had high hopes for this reboot, but overall, I've been hugely disappointed. If there's another season, I won't be returning. Thankfully, Black Mirror returns this week.

Yeah this was pretty bad. Nothing really happened, which made the episode seem to last forever. I knew it was Serling before the first commercial break, because of the "classic Serling" position they had the shadow standing in just before she ran behind the supermarket set shelves. So waiting another 50 minutes for the end felt interminable.

I will give a second season a try if they cut it to 30 minute episodes.

[ottoDbusdriver]

6 hours ago, eliot90000 said:

My question is whether or not the Blurryman was actually embedded in all of the other episodes.  

Yes, and no.  Looking at episode 1 as an example, The Comedian, there is a man in that shot walking away from the camera as Samir exits the comedy club, but he's not blurry at all.
 

[IWantCandy71]

Well , at least I know now why it's not on regular TV. IMO if you can't tell a story without four letter words in every scene, you aren't a good storyteller and you don't have a good show. I gave it a try. It's just "politically correct" nonsense masquerading as a TV show.  

What I want to know is, why did he have to drag Rod Serling's name into it and ruin my happy memories of an actually GOOD TV show ?

WOW. What a sad let down.

[Was-MArsenault]

It looks like The Comedian (the episode that was made for free) is now private.

[Avaleigh]

On 6/1/2019 at 7:21 AM, cmfran said:

I had high hopes for this reboot, but overall, I've been hugely disappointed. If there's another season, I won't be returning. Thankfully, Black Mirror returns this week.

I stopped watching this a little more than half way through the season but decided to check out the rest now that Mr. Avaleigh and I are in self isolation.

I wanted to like this SO much. I was so excited when I learned that Peele was doing a reboot. I loved Get Out and Us and thought that he'd be the perfect person to handle a Twilight Zone show for a new generation. Unfortunately, for me, there wasn't one episode here that didn't disappoint.  

My favorite episode of the season was probably the Black Lives Matter episode and even that one was so OTT with its message. I felt like the showrunners didn't trust its audience to be able to make connections without screaming every point they were making. The lack of subtlety in every episode made it seem like they were talking down to the viewers so it came across as annoying to me. 

I also felt like the show wasn't particularly imaginative especially compared to a show like Black Mirror. Black Mirror is everything that I wanted this reboot to be. 

I can't say that I'm really looking forward to next season but am willing to give it a try just because I like Jordan Peele and think it's clear that he has a lot of good ideas. This season fell flat for me but maybe they'll be able to work out the kinks next time around.

[WAnglais1]

My favorite out of the season was probably the Blue Scorpion episode. I thought the guy from THE IT CROWD was excellent.

Most of the other episodes were like getting hit with a frying pan to the face and an oar to the back of the head at the same time.

The season ender? I called it about ten minutes into the episode. No surprise at all.

A little editing on these scripts would help a lot.

[Cotypubby]

I saw the first three episodes and wow this show is not good. The first one (The Comedian) was OK, but the updating of Nightmare at 30,000 Feet took an interesting concept and did nothing with it. That ending was terrible. It was like half a story that just stopped in the middle. And then we get to “Replay.” 🙄 Nothing but a  heavy-handed Black Lives Matter polemic with all the nuance of a sledgehammer.  

Is there actually a good episode of this series? Because nothing so far is making me want to continue. 

Edited May 15, 2020 by Cotypubby

[Avaleigh]

On 5/14/2020 at 11:06 PM, Cotypubby said:

I saw the first three episodes and wow this show is not good. The first one (The Comedian) was OK, but the updating of Nightmare at 30,000 Feet took an interesting concept and did nothing with it. That ending was terrible. It was like half a story that just stopped in the middle. And then we get to “Replay.” 🙄 Nothing but a  heavy-handed Black Lives Matter polemic with all the nuance of a sledgehammer.  

Is there actually a good episode of this series? Because nothing so far is making me want to continue.

Not really. They're all pretty underwhelming. Maybe the episode with Jacob Trembley is worth checking out, but it still has a weak ending among other issues. There are some interesting ideas that are explored in the season but for me I felt like each episode missed the mark in terms of writing and overall execution. It's really disappointing because they assembled such a nice group of actors. Maybe my expectations were too high since the original series is so good.

[Cotypubby]

Yeah, I ended up watching the rest just because I hate stopping something in the middle, and while the following episodes were better (some of the time) none were great or make me want to recommend the series. 
 

My favorite is probably the astronaut one. That one was actually tense, with an intriguing story that I was not sure where it was going, and no heavy-handed politics! It’s funny, even though I‘m on their side and agree with their views, the over the top messages made me roll my eyes and think “Oh come on! Get off your high horse and shut up! We get it, you’re so woke.” Original TZ was political too, but it was either more subtle or the storylines containing the messaging were just so much stronger. Original TZ felt like “We’re going to give you some creepy/mysterious/disturbing stories that can be read as parables on society and it’s ills,” whereas Peele’s version is “We need to make each episode about a different social justice issue. Oh right, and throw something strange in there as well.”

[LadyIrony]

I only lasted 4 eps of this reboot, I was keen to begin with but it was just so poorly done. Nothing really made much sense and it lacked that "Twilight Zone" irony. 

In particular I think they really sacrificed the opportunity for irony in Ep3 "Replay". I thought the cop became suspicious by her behavior, trying to buy him a slice of pie etc. Everything she was doing just made her look more guilty to the cop. 

Instead they went the SJW route, ho hum..

[Ottis]

On 5/3/2019 at 9:58 AM, benteen said:

Now that was an improvement.

It's not a perfect episode to be sure and the ending was a little confusing.  My impression was is that everything happened and the aliens were just observing what was happening.  I hope that's the case because I'm not big on the whole simulation thing.  I assume Pierson was saved my alien technology.

Anyway, I thought it was a good episode and I enjoyed.  The opening scene was excellent.  Very well-done and it built up suspense.  Plus, it took some old themes/plots from the Twilight Zone.  The threat of nuclear war always hung over the series and many of the episodes.  Plus, the show did a number of space episodes.  I always look forward to a Twilight Zone space episode.

I thought the acting was good and I like that the crew, as a unit, didn't completely fall apart.  At least they'll be getting their second chance.  Although it took the destruction of their civilization to do it.

I was also wondering why they didn't have some kind of entertainment...movies, TV, books, music (what was up with no music) on the ship for such a long voyage.  The commander throwing a fit over two of the crewmembers having sex...don't they have better birth control in this era?

They mention The Great Filter...did they also mention the Fermi Paradox as well?  I've read about that theory recently, which speculates the various reasons why we haven't met any of lifeform or if there is other intelligent life in the galaxy.  It's fascinating.

The length of the episode.  While I do think some scenes could have been tightend up and that the show still have a problem with episode length, I thought this episode ended too soon.  It really did not feel like it was 54 minutes long.

Good episode.  Promising.  We'll see how the rest of the back half of the season goes.  Rhea Seehorn from Better Call Saul is on next week's episode.  She's fantastic on that show so that is a good reason alone to watch next week's episode.

I thought the ending made no sense. If the aliens were only observing, why no crystalization? If it was only a test, why did they actually make it to Mars? I thought the ep should have stuck with the dilemma of whether to go or stay on Earth and whether their choice was a good one. Adding the aliens was unnecessary.