THE TWILIGHT ZONE |
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The Narrator - Jordan Peele Phil Hayes - Jimmi Simpson Michelle Weaver - Morena Baccarin Jasmine Delancey - Jurnee Smollett Jason Grant - Damon Wayans Jr Janet Warren - Gretchen Mol 
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MEET IN THE MIDDLEA lonely man who can't seem to make a connection suddenly finds himself with a psychic link to a woman who would appear to be his soulmate. When they make arrangments to meet, however, things take a turn for the dangerous. After Season 1's 'social issue of the week' focus, Season 2 gets off to a start with a story that riffs on social distance in the modern world and the dangers of internet relationships. Sure, it's a telepathic connection in the story, but this is 100% about getting caught up in the image that someone portrays of themselves, without having access to the full picture. Whilst it's a timely look at a modern situation, it isn't forcing its agenda down your throat quite as forcefully as stories in Season 1 were wont to do. It concentrates on character and plot over the social issues and is all the better for it. In fact, it concentrates on character and the early romcom elements of the story for so long that the rush through the third act sadly undermines that section of the story and the inevitable twist in the tale, which is both predictable and rather unbelievable, given the amount of time it takes for the hero to turn from lovelorn nerd to man of impulsive action. The episode relies almost exclusively on Jimmi Simpson as the lovelorn Ralph and he can do this sort of hangdog outsider stuff in his sleep, but he does manage to keep the meandering early section and the rushed end section together through the sheer force of his likeable, weak characterisation. There are both improvements and issues evident in this opening episode, but it's a solid enough, if uninspiring, start. Top DOWNTIMEMichelle Weaver has just been promoted to hotel manager when a giant globe appears in the sky, everyone freezes in place and she starts to be stalked by kids on skateboards. TNow this is much more like a TWILIGHT ZONE story done well. The opening sequence is one of sheer mystery as the scary set up of the world being frozen by the ball in the sky without any explanation, even though everyone else seems to be in on the situation is effectively and evocatively realised. Then the truth of the situation is revealed, but that's not the end because the personal and moral implications come into play and there is a lot of grey area to be playing around in. There is much more going on beneath the surface of the story than the story itself and it is nicely played out by the cast, headed by Morena Baccarin, who gets to be centre stage for once. The incidentals, such as effects, are all as we might expect them to be, but the direction makes the strangeness of the situation its strength and there's enough meat on the bones of the script to give the audience something to think about after the episode is over, which is what THE TWILIGHT ZONE is supposed to do. It is also good that the usual twist in the tale format is eschewed for a more interesting and thoughtful resolution. This is possibly the best episode the show has come up with yet. Top THE WHO OF YOUAn out of work actor decides to rob a bank to pay the bills, but escapes capture by swapping bodies with the female counter clerk. As a dogged police officer tries to understand what is happening, bodies are taken and jettisoned in increasingly desperate attempts to stay free. Social issues are completely abandoned in this fast and frenetic tale of body swapping and desperation. There are hints of questions around identity and how they are tied to our physical bodies, but none of that is really explored. Instead, it's a fast ride of body swapping and police procedural that might not have a lot to say about the human condition, but is more entertaining than a lot of the previous episodes the show has produced. Top OVATIONA music superstar gives a street performer a strange coin before tragedy strikes. The previously unknown performer suddenly finds success coming her way in the shape of singing show Ovation. What price fame? That's the simple question at the heart of this story. What happens when the acclaim, the ovation, overpowers the message of the artist, when success comes from being successful and not being good, when people hear only the fame and not the person? And what happens when the fame is gone and the next wannabe becomes the big star? It's such a simple premise that it struggles to fill out the running time of this rise and fall of a pop star story. There is very little here that hasn't been seen before and only the presence of a magical coin marks it out as a fantasy rather than a heightened riff on A STAR IS BORN. The descent into lonely madness once the applause is gone seems to go on forever and the reaction to a newly arrived pop sensation seems a bit over the top. Jurnee Smollett pulls out all the stops here. And it is the twist at the end that is the justification for the story. If you don't see it coming, then it's quite effective, but if you do see it then it's pretty unremarkable. And the coin that is responsible for all this? No explanation is given, even the inevitability of tragedy that goes with it is undercooked, which is a shame as the episode would have benefitted either from a stronger explanation for the source of the fame or no explanation at all. Top AMONG THE UNTRODDENAn unpopular young woman with an interest in psychic phenomenon arrives at St Mary's Boarding School and discovers that one of the popular girls has strong pyschic powers. Slowly, their fortunes begin to change. High School is hell and if you haven't learned that yet, you haven't watched any teen movies ever. This has echoes of all of those, be it MEAN GIRLS or CARRIE. There's a lot of things that are familiar here, but that doesn't matter because the plot contains enough in the ways of twists and turns to keep the audience guessing. In fact, the games the plot plays with the audience's expectations helps keep things lively. The performances from the girls are good enough to stave off cliche and never give away exactly what is going on or where it's going to end. Who is good and who is bad is never obvious. The final twists are satisfying, giving the episode its focus and revealing the truth rather than pulling a rug on the audience. This makes it one of the most effective episodes the show has produced to date. Top 8Antarctic researchers are killed and a new species of octopus is discovered. The specimen is brought into the research station and more people start to die. Has mankind finally met a predator to outmatch him? This is the first truly violent, brutal episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. There is some real horror gore here, but that's because this is a true sci-fi horror story. Essentially a mash-up of THE THING and ALIEN, it's the story of isolated humans fighting with a superior killing machine. The effects that bring the octopus to life are exceptionally good, which is more than can be said for the human characters. None is given time enough to impose themselves as a real person before they are either killed or forced to function as an ambulatory plot exposition device. Unlike some of the other episodes, this suffers from not having a long enough running time. Every facet of this would have benefitted from having more time spent on it. The opening sequence is people dying before we even know what the researchers are doing there in the first place. The characters are underdeveloped and so we are not affected by their deaths beyond the graphic nature in which they are shown. Exactly what nefarious schemes the humans factions have (a direct steal from the corporate stooge in ALIENS) has to be info-dumped at high speed in the last act, undermining the turn around that ought to have global significance. All of these matters could have been improved with a longer running time. As a result, 8's running time flies by and yet manages to leave the audience unsatisfied and only partially impressed, which is a shame because it had potential to be a real chiller. Top A HUMAN FACEA couple still suffering from the loss of their daughter are visited by an alien capable of taking on her appearance and even her memories and thoughts. Can it bring them some peace and what is its own agenda? This story doesn't work at all. A wordy info dump in which everyone simply talks about what they are feeling, none of those speeches, or those feelings for that matter, come across as real. The alien is clearly visible as such right at the start of the story and yet the mother seems to be convinced from the first second that it is related to her daughter. This makes no sense at all. As a result, all the conversations that follow don't make sense either. Then, the alien announces exactly what it is and what it's doing and that doesn't change anyone's opinion either. This is the weakest episode of the season to date and of the show to date. Top A SMALL TOWNA bereaved husband finds a model town in the church loft. Any changes he makes on the model happen in the real town, making his seem like a benevolent god. When a sleazy politician starts taking credit, the changes made become less beenvolent and the mood of the town turns ugly. A SMALL TOWN feels like an unfinished story, missing the last few minutes. Up until the conclusion, it is a nicely written and underplayed piece that looks like it might be heading towards saying something about the corrupting nature of power and then runs out of time and just throws in a final scene. There are no consequences because there isn't enough time to fit any in. We never find out what happens to the sleazy poltician or what the fallout is for the relationship between the major characters. The story just... stops. There is the impression of a more layered, nuanced story that has somehow been lost in the edit. There seems to be more about the politician that is never said, but hinted at in the expressions of his family. The show's running time appears to have worked against it again, squeezing out the point of the story. The giant spider attack is a highlight. Top TRY, TRYA young woman is saved from an accident by a man who seems completely in tune with her. As they explore a museum, she finds herself falling in love. Until she finds out his secret. This episode cannot be reviewed without spoiling it, so skip on if you don't want to know what is going on. That's not a useless warning because the early parts of the episode, before the secret is revealed, are a light and pleasing romcom situation. The interactions between the two is delightful and entertaining. As soon as it is made clear that it's a reworking of the GROUNDHOG DAY, things go downhill for a while as it looks like being a vapid retread with a lot of wordy exposition. Then things start to turn dark and much more interesting, taking that well-worn scenario and twisting it to a dark place, saving the day. It also manages to avoid making its couple cliches, him evil, her victim. They are, at all times, quite rounded and believable. The conclusion is surprisingly even-handed and all the more satisfying for that. Top YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKEJanet Warren is suffering from strange losses of time on the same day she is expected to pick up her family's egg, something that will fix her life forever even though she doesn't know what it is. This is an almost quintessential TWILIGHT ZONE episode. A single character is trapped in a world that doesn't seem quite right, struggling with a mystery that she doesn't even fully comprehend, in this case two myseries she doesn't quite comprehend. Through her actions, she will come to know something others do not and learn the truth about both her mysteries. Except that actually she won't. She learns what's happening during her lost times, but not why and no explanation is given to the audience either. It just happens because that's what the plot needs to happen in order for her to get to a place where she can have an explanation given to her for the second mystery. What is the egg? Well, it's a metaphor for our subservience to advertising. We want it because it's being marketed to us as indespensible, because it's new and because we are told it will fix all our problems. The apotheosis of advertising, driving our needs to have new things. That's the point and, to be fair, would probably have worked a whole lot better without the mystery of the lost time and what has been causing it. Yes, this episode is a metaphor, a fantasy that isn't meant to be taken at face value, but the whimsy isn't satisfying and the addition of unnecessary advertising moments in the plot might seem relevant, but are actually just distracting. Much like the point of the plot, it's stuff for the purpose of stuff, not for any meaning or value. Gretchen Mol seems perplexed by it all, as well she might. Her character never seems either bright enough or determined enough to acheive what she does in terms of getting answers and then the finale completely blows everything that has gone before by being utterly pointless. Unless the complete lack of a point was the point all along. Season two has been an improvement on Season 1, but this episode really wasn't the way to send it out in style. Top |
