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New version of The Twilight Zone to be on CBS All Access

People tend to forget the goofy ones and focus on the greatest hits. But there were five seasons and a lot of it was forgettable.

I wish Peele has done more writing on the show, he only wrote on Nightmare at 30,000 Feet. He’s an amazing writer and I imagine he was busy with Us and Lovecraft Country too, but I think the show would be stronger with him having more control.

I did see Us, it has one of the creepiest scenes I’ve seen in a recent horror movie.
 
Yes, the original did have a sense of humor as well. That's something else that the revival could learn from.

They should have hired the guy who wrote this:

Better-New-TZ.jpg


:rommie:
 
I am not sure the classic TZ was necessarily subtle. Certainly, it made sure you did not miss the social message that it was espousing. However, the writing was excellent. Also, the classic TZ had some brilliant twists of irony at the end that made the episodes very memorable. I think that makes a big difference. The issue isn't really subtlety. After all, if you are too subtle and your audience is not sure what you are trying to say, that's not good either. The reason episodes that "hit the audience over the head" are bad is not because they lack subtlety but because they are insulting the intelligence of the audience. The question is can you make your point in an intelligent, thought provoking way. Put differently, can you make your point in a way that makes the audience go "hmm, I hadn't thought of it like that" or even "hmmm, I change my mind, that is a better way of thinking of that issue."
 
Serling wanted to change the minds of his audience, that was the point. He only used sci-fi and fantasy to get around censors who objected to his more obvious points about racism, bigotry and politics. He had to get the audience to think because that’s the only way he could tell it. Peele doesn’t have that same challenge and can be clearer about the point. Because while television may have have changed, people haven’t. We’re still racist, bigoted and politics is still a mess.
 
So far the new TZ episodes.;)
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Aren't they already available that way? Just turn down the tint on your tv to zero.


Jason

They've remastered the episodes for black and white.

Just turning down the color on your TV will achieve inferior results.
 
Episode 9, "The Blue Scorpion."

Well, this episode was well done, but it didn't really have that Twilight Zone vibe to it. But, as a random episode of a fantastic-themed anthology series, it holds up pretty well. It was well cast and well acted, nicely directed with some artsy touches along the way, and the characters come to a satisfactory resolution without necessarily a happy ending-- the twist ending was pretty much off the shelf, though. The guy really should have known that throwing a supernatural object into a lake wouldn't be the end of it. If he had disassembled it and spread the pieces around, and then it came back, then the ending might have had more impact. Maybe.

But this being the show that it is, I have to wonder if there was supposed to be a moral to the story that they failed to communicate. The supernatural object in question being a gun, and the creators of this series being so simplistic and obvious, one would assume that it's about gun control. But what exactly was the message? Why was the anti-gun, lifelong Hippie father the first victim? Also, how did he come into possession of this strange weapon that only seven people have owned? What was the origin of the curse? What was the meaning of the gun's aversion to darkness? Why was the climax of the story Jeff's battle with the foreshadowed criminal, and why did the gun save him, leading to his estranged wife letting him have his dad's guitar? It doesn't really add up to an anti-gun message. Perhaps it was just supposed to be about, as the closing narration said, making objects more important than people. If so, it should have been more about the dad's beloved guitar rather than a random gun, so as not to cloud the issue. Who the hell knows with this show?

I did get a kick out of the part about animism versus anthropomorphism, because I'm just like that girl. Among other weird things, I always arrange the TV dinners in the freezer so that none of them are ever alone. :rommie:
 
Season 1 is at an end and it couldn't happen soon enough. What a massive disappointment this series has been. I've seen it noted that it feels like the writers of this show are high schoolers who have recently become aware of social justice and want everyone to know. They noted that unlike the writers of the original series, they don't try to convey their message through allegory but instead, scream it in your face for 50 minutes. I think that's the best assessment of this series.
 
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I've always been a big fan of the Twilight Zone and Outer Limits. So i'm really excited that there is a new show. Is anything known if or when it will be released on Netflix in Europe?
 
They noted that unlike the writers of the original series, they don't try to convey their message through allegory but instead, scream it in your face for 50 minutes. I think that's the best assessment of this series.

That's their first mistake. Allegory was a key component of what made the classic show "the twilight zone". It gave the classic TZ, it's uniqueness and flavor. Without allegory, it's not the twilight zone. It's just another standard, dime a dozen, TV show telling a story with a message. That's be ok if this show had a different name, but they deliberately chose to call it "the twilight zone". If you are going to choose the same name, then you need to stick with the same concept.
 
Loved the season finale. Some pretty clever stuff inside of stuff going on there. Great conversation between Sophie and JP that mirrored so much of the conversation we've seen online about this series. Shows that they knew what they were stepping into with this show, and it also shows that there may have been some actual real life debate when they were making it about whether some of it really was too "on the nose", as they described it in this episode.

Loved how the ending was so straight up literal and simple.
 
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