Jordan Peele isn’t the first person to reboot Rod Serling’s illustrious anthology series The Twilight Zone. Serling’s series ran for five seasons from 1959 until 1964. After the unsettling production of Twilight Zone: The Movie, the series was rebooted in 1985. The 1985 version ran for two seasons on CBS with a third and final season produced for syndication. In 2002, the show was revived once more, this time with Forest Whitaker as host. The second revival was on the air for less than a year and consisted of only one season. With the failures of the past two reboots, fans of The Twilight Zone can’t help but wonder if Mr. Peele’s version will meet a similar fate.
The third reboot of The Twilight Zone premiered on CBS All Access on Monday, April 1st with two episodes: “The Comedian” and “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet”. New episodes will be available every Thursday starting April 11th. But with these first two episodes, Peele’s The Twilight Zone seems like it’s off to a bit of a rocky start. No matter how many times The Twilight Zone gets rebooted, one fact remains the same: no one can recreate the magic of the original series.
What It Gets Right
Before its premiere, Peele’s series sounded promising. Though he only has two films under his belt, Peele has demonstrated an ability to create horror and science fiction with a genuine purpose. This is crucial because back in 1959, Serling had to disguise the political and social commentary in his show through aliens, monsters, and other science fiction elements.
With Get Out and Us, Peele takes horror back to its roots by using the genre as the statement-making vehicle that it once was. In fact, Peele cites The Twilight Zone episode “Mirror Image” as an inspiration for his film Us. And the premise of Get Out is at times reminiscent of the episode “The Trade-Ins”. Regardless of how viewers feel about his films, it’s evident that Peele’s heart has been in the right place when it comes to his creative endeavors.
Thanks to his penchant for horror, social critique, memorable iconography, and inventiveness, Peele seems like a worthy successor to Rod Serling’s throne. With the first few episodes, Peele proves he’s capable of respecting the show’s legacy while still making the new series feel like something all his own, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. He’s also recognizable enough to hold his own as the show’s narrator and he’s got a cast of well-known actors to back him up. All these elements sound like the recipe for a successful revival. But unfortunately, Mr. Serling’s shoes are just too big to fill.
What It Gets Wrong: The Host
The Twilight Zone would be nothing without Rod Serling, and that’s an unequivocal fact. Not only was his screen presence and narration a critical element of the show, but he was one of the most imaginative writers of his time. The 1985 reboot didn’t have that same type of iconic narrator. Instead, Charles Aidman narrated the first two seasons and Robin Ward narrated the final season. In contrast to Serling, neither of these narrators appeared on-screen.
When the show was revived in 2002, Forest Whitaker hosted. But this time around, the host actually appeared on-screen. But unlike Serling, Whitaker wasn’t writing the episodes. Consequently, his performance as host lacked the passion that Serling provided.
Jordan Peele also appears as an on-screen host in the 2019 revival. Since Peele has both writing and directing experience, one would think he’d play a more significant role in the production process beyond that of the show’s host. But that hasn’t been the case. Peele was one of three writers to craft the story behind “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet”, but he hasn’t written any of the teleplays for the series thus far.
Rod Serling wrote most of the episodes of The Twilight Zone. As a matter of fact, he wrote 71 original teleplays and 21 adapted teleplays, totaling 92 teleplays out of the show’s 156 episodes. So when Serling hosted the show, viewers could really feel how much he cared about the stories he was delivering. Serling poured his heart and soul into The Twilight Zone, and it doesn’t feel as though Peele has done the same. Moreover, Peele’s performance as narrator inevitably pales in comparison to Serling’s. He lacks the booming voice and enigmatic presence that made Serling’s hosting style so unforgettable.
What It Gets Wrong: The Runtime
Four out of five seasons of the original series had episodes that were 30 minutes long (closer to 20 minutes without commercials). The fourth season was the only one that consisted of hour-long episodes. But it’s no coincidence that the episodes in season four are some of the show’s least memorable. Audiences today have become accustomed to a more cinematic television experience, so it’s not surprising that Peele’s reboot consists of hour-long episodes. But this is a huge misstep.
The Twilight Zone is much more effective with a shorter runtime. Anyone who revisits the original series will be impressed by how much Mr. Serling accomplished narratively in less than half an hour. Part of what made the 1959 series so accessible was the anthology format, which meant viewers didn’t need to watch every episode to follow along with a story and didn’t need to watch the episodes in any particular order. But the brief runtime also ensured that the show was easily digestible. Serling made every word of his teleplays count and made sure that every scene was vital to the story he was telling.
Furthermore, the hour-long runtime is a drawback of Peele’s series. From just the first few episodes, it’s apparent that these stories feel overly stretched out. The longer runtime results in a slower pace. That slower pace gives people too much time for their minds’ to wander, which is why viewers are able to easily predict exactly where each story is headed within the first 15 minutes. This eliminates the build-up of suspense and the element of surprise that the 1959 series was known for.
What It Gets Wrong: The Network
Far too many people have declared that they refuse to sign up for another streaming service, so the fact that Peele’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS All Access might just be the show’s downfall. Although the original series aired on CBS, television was a much different experience back then. Releasing only one episode per week could be beneficial for the series because it gives people a week to discuss each episode. But that would have been more effective if the series was on regular cable. Since binge-watching appears to be the preferred method of television consumption nowadays, the show probably would have thrived if it was on Netflix instead. Coincidentally, the original series is available to stream on Netflix.
What It Gets Wrong: The Style
The decision to have an on-screen narrator was a wise one, even if Peele’s performance doesn’t even come close to Rod Serling’s. And the decision to keep some of the musical elements of the original series was also the right choice. However, this new series lacks the spine-tingling and intriguing atmosphere of the 1959 series.
The show’s pacing and visual style eliminate the aura of mystery. The writers have also failed to establish unique worlds with each episode the way that Serling once did. Hence, it doesn’t feel like we’re stepping into the surreal dimension known as the Twilight Zone.
Maybe the lack of thrills is due to our own familiarity with the original series. Even people who have never watched an episode of The Twilight Zone have become acquainted with some of the show’s storylines whether they realize it or not. Serling’s creativity was unparalleled and his ideas have lived on for years as the inspiration for many modern movies and television shows. For example, 2012’s Ruby Sparks is evocative of the episode “A World of His Own”. Similarly, The Poltergeist bears resemblance to the episode “Little Girl Lost”. And the episode “Living Doll” clearly inspired the plot of Child’s Play. There’s no shortage of movies with plots eerily similar to episodes of The Twilight Zone, which is why it might take more effort to create episodes that are just as impactful as the ones that aired decades ago.
However, it’s not impossible to come up with new ideas that still capture the same feeling of the original series. In fact, Charlie Brooker’s series Black Mirror does a better job of matching the tone of Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Black Mirror also contains wholly original stories that still feel in the same vein as the 1959 series. It seems as though the closest we’ll ever get a modern version of The Twilight Zone comes in the form of Black Mirror instead of Peele’s reboot. But even Black Mirror can’t hold a candle to the original The Twilight Zone series.
Episode 1: “The Comedian”
The first episode of the 2019 revival of The Twilight Zone follows a comedian named Samir Wassan (Kumail Nanjiani). After his politically-charged routine fails to generate any laughs, he ends up running into one of his heroes, J.C. Wheeler (Tracy Morgan). The legendary comic gives him some ominous advice about comedy. He advises Samir to put himself out there. But he warns that once he makes his routine personal the audience will connect with it and “once they connect to it, it’s theirs. And once it’s theirs, that shit is gone forever”. Samir witnesses this firsthand when he makes a joke about his dog and returns home only to discover from his girlfriend (Amara Karan) that they never had a dog in the first place.
The metaphor about putting too much of yourself into your art is a solid one, but the story eventually spirals into overly familiar territory. Once Samir realizes how much power he has, he starts erasing people who’ve done terrible things. But ultimately, he lets the power go to his head.
It’s easy to see where this episode is going right off the bat. After a few people start disappearing, the story starts to overstay its welcome. If this was done in true Rod Serling fashion, it would have been a much shorter episode and we would only see one or two examples of Samir wiping people out of existence before reaching the conclusion. The fact that this episode feels so dragged out means that there isn’t enough suspense or tension to make this feel true to the spirit of The Twilight Zone. “The Comedian” gets points for originality because it doesn’t feel like a carbon copy of one of Serling’s episodes, but it also simply isn’t as good.
Episode 2: “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet”
The title for the second episode is misleading, calling to mind one of the original series’ most iconic episodes, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”. But this episode has little in common with that William Shatner episode. Instead, “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet” focuses on investigative reporter Justin Sanderson (Adam Scott). Like Shatner’s character in the original series, Justin Sanderson previously had a nervous breakdown and his sanity starts to unravel on a flight through a thunderstorm. But instead of being terrorized by a gremlin on the wing of the plane, Justin Sanderson is being terrorized by a podcast that predicts that the plane he’s on is going to disappear.
The setup has potential and hearing the podcast foretell our protagonist’s fate is chill-inducing. But the plot eventually becomes sloppy and predictable. The “twist” was too easy to spot, resulting in an unsatisfying resolution.
On a more positive note, there is a certain level of detail in this episode that’s admirable. There are plenty of nods to the original series as well as easter eggs that connect the new episodes. For instance, the narrator of the podcast that Justin Sanderson listens to is named Rodman Edwards, a reference to Rod Serling’s full name (Rodman Edward Serling). Additionally, Kumail Nanjiani also appears in this episode on the cover of a magazine at the airport. These are just a few of many easter eggs in the new series. However, these aren’t enough to make the revival worth watching.
The Twilight Zone: Conclusion
One of the advantages of an anthology series is that a few bad episodes aren’t enough to spoil the show completely. However, kicking off a new series with two mediocre episodes is never a good sign. There’s hope that this version of The Twilight Zone can recover in future episodes, but that’s if its audience continues to tune in.
Peele’s The Twilight Zone is an improvement compared to the previous reboots. However, viewers are better off revisiting Serling’s original series. Hopefully, Peele’s series will serve as a great reminder that the 1959 version of the show was one of the most innovative and influential television programs of all time. Audiences who are looking for something a little more modern are better off sticking with Black Mirror, which is the closest any show has ever come to capturing the essence of Serling’s The Twilight Zone.
What’s your favorite episode of the original The Twilight Zone? Share your answer in the comments below!
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