The (New) Twilight Zone - Surprise: Its shit

I’ve seen the first two episodes so far and have mixed feelings. The first episode “The Comedian” was pretty bad. Everything people said about it I agree with it’s overly long, boring, predictable, and has nonsensical themeatics. It’s about how comedy should be deep and not put others down or maybe is about how you shouldn’t over share or fame has too high price to pay or audiences are too low brow to like real comedy idk. I would definitely skip this episode.

The species episode “Nightmare at 30,000 feet” was much better and actually felt like a Twilight Zone Episode. The plot was interesting and actually had mystery which made you want to keep watching. The episode however did feel a little stechend out in the 40-50 minute time frame but it wasn’t near as bad as “The Comedian”. The twist was also a little too predictable but I’d rather have a predictable twist then a dull ending. The episode wasn’t as good as the original “Nightmare at 20,000 feet” which managed to do a lot more in less time but it was an admirable adtempt. If most episodes were around this quality the series would actually be a kinda nice throwback to more cheesy anthology shows like the 80s twilight zone or Tales from the dark side, as I’ve always been a sucker for horro sci-fi suspense but it’ll probably end up trying to hard to come off as deep or woke. I’ll probably try to watch the rest of the season before making any definitive judgements.
 
I dunno, I'm kind of liking it. I will admit that the increased run time is unnecessary, and likely just to match run-times with Black Mirror or fill a programming block, leading to stretched out episodes.

In regards to the first episode, I will agree that it seems to have a mixed message, but what I think it was trying to get at was that when you put something out in front of the world, it's no longer yours anymore, it becomes a part of those who hear the story, but I'm probably reading too much into it. I can't say it was pro-politics as his stand-up was literal garbage when he was being political, although I could be missing some point about how unfunny comedy is more noble than actually funny jokes that appeal to the masses. I don't think it was saying you need to be very crowd-pleasing to become great as the black chick seemed to be doing very well before she accepted the guy's advice at the end. I think the only thing that makes sense is that it's against selling out, with the idea that if you lose who you are, both the bad and the good things leave you? I liked the cinematography and I liked the mural at the end. I also liked the general idea of the episode, although it was poorly executed.

Episode two howerver was pretty good. Off the bat is has a pretty good theme/message I guess, which seems to be about paranoia causing events to happen. The twist was really obvious, although i liked the fake out at the end where it seemed like he'd be stranded alone, until we found out he was killed by everyone. It's nothing overly special but it was a nice touch. It kept a good sense of suspense, and a good atmosphere, and you were at points wondering where it was going, although around the marshal section you did more or less guess that he was going to bring the plane down. I do think marketing it as a remake of 20,000 feet was a cheap trick given that it almost has nothing to do with it at all, minus the plane and general theme of paranoia. I hope the series has more episodes like this one, although with the supposed plot of rewind, I've got a feeling it's not going to be hot.

Now, my hope for the next episode, based on the description posted earlier, is that the sheriff is going to turn out to not be racist or whatever, and that let's say the Mum kills him, at a point where the camera dies and she can no longer rewind. I think a nice little thing about automatically assuming the worst about someone could be good, especially as that is what the audience would assume the sheriff to be doing. That, howerver would probably be too smart for Jordan Peele/ not woke enough?

I'll keep pirating the show until it starts to get really solid
 
The first episode wasn't that bad, although I do have some big problems with it. The amount of cursing felt extremely jarring and out of place. Same with the black lesbian (I don't remember her name) suddenly kissing the Safir after making tampon and sore vagina jokes at his expense. The 2nd amendment stuff was annoying, too. I know that the original TZ was always political, but it was at the very least a bit more subtle with it most of the time.

Another thing was that the cinematography took some getting used to. The old TZ had limited camera movement which gave it a kind of unique, creepy feel. Here it seemed like the camera was always moving which just made it feel like every show nowadays. I really wish it was shot in black and white. I feel like that would've helped it a lot.

Despite all that, I actually liked it. The premise was cool, even if the plot was predictable. The creepy shots of the laughing crowd gave it that uncanny valley feel that the original TZ was famous for. The last five minutes were really good, with the final shot actually giving me a chill.

Honestly, if they had just shortened it, made it classier, and got rid of the unnecessary political stuff, it would've been great. As it is now, it's just okay. Not fantastic, but not that bad either. I'd say give it a shot if you're interested.
 
I do think marketing it as a remake of 20,000 feet was a cheap trick given that it almost has nothing to do with it at all, minus the plane and general theme of paranoia.
Yeah the only direct reference I saw was when the plane crashed you could see a doll version of the gremlin ape thing from the original episode.
 
I'm watching the most recent episode, the one with the videocamera, on City TV via the "Replay" feature on my IPTV box.

Is the theme of this episode "White policeman bad"? That's the main message I'm getting. It's not exactly subtle.

EDIT: I couldn't finish watching it due to it being one of those shows where the Replay only lets you watch it within an hour of it ending. If it times out only 60 minutes later, I don't even see the point of letting me start to rewatch it after 11pm in the first place.
 
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Fuck. That new episode had to be one of the most 'Current Year' things I've ever seen. Right off the bat, there is no twist. A smart episode of the zone would have the police officer not be a threat, just be seen as one. Either the mum or son would kill the cop before realising that they were the kind of person they thought the cop was, or the mum would force the cop into the situation she thought was going on in the first place. The episode completely lacked irony, which is something this episode should have had in spades. Something says nothing if it is just the same messages we get over and over. That being, White man bad, black people need to rise up. Gentrification bad, yada yada yada. I was really barracking this series. I want it to be good. But when they give me cat piss and pass it off as the Twilight Zone, I'm not impressed. Further more, it had the fortune teller from Nick of Time, which would usually feel like a nice reference, in a less shit episode.

Overall rating - 1/10 for the nice direction, even though it doesn't give the feeling of The Zone. If I weren't pirating the show, I would stop here
 
Fuck. That new episode had to be one of the most 'Current Year' things I've ever seen. Right off the bat, there is no twist. A smart episode of the zone would have the police officer not be a threat, just be seen as one. Either the mum or son would kill the cop before realising that they were the kind of person they thought the cop was, or the mum would force the cop into the situation she thought was going on in the first place. The episode completely lacked irony, which is something this episode should have had in spades. Something says nothing if it is just the same messages we get over and over. That being, White man bad, black people need to rise up. Gentrification bad, yada yada yada. I was really barracking this series. I want it to be good. But when they give me cat piss and pass it off as the Twilight Zone, I'm not impressed. Further more, it had the fortune teller from Nick of Time, which would usually feel like a nice reference, in a less shit episode.

Overall rating - 1/10 for the nice direction, even though it doesn't give the feeling of The Zone. If I weren't pirating the show, I would stop here
OK I gotta watch this for myself just to see how bad this is. Right now I'm just kinda baffled it's coming out now and not in like 2016. :optimistic: but I thought this kind of shit was dying out.
 
I can't wait for the episode where a bunch of aliens are promised a better world on the other side of a wall that splits them from humans and that this world is the ideal world and then the aliens jump over that wall and the twist is, that the otherly world is filled with "bad" people who actually hate those aliens and want them to die.

It'd be called I Once Saw A Wall Far West.
 
Crossposting from KiA.

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