The Twilight Zone (2002) Series Review

The Twilight Zone (2002-2003)

Season 1 - 43 episodes (2002-2003)
Rent The Twilight Zone (2002) on Amazon Video (paid link)
Created by: Rod Serling
Starring:  Penn Badgley, Jason Bateman, Gil Bellows, Elizabeth Berkley, Xander Berkeley, Linda Cardellini, Rory Culkin, Reed Diamond, Shannon Elizabeth, Ethan Embry, Sean Patrick Flanery, Lukas Haas, Wood Harris, Moira Kelly, Wayne Knight, Method Man, Samantha Mathis, Christopher McDonald, Jeremy Piven, Jaime Pressly, James Remar, Portia de Rossi, Eriq La Salle, Jeremy Sisto, Jessica Simpson, Ione Skye, Christopher Titus, Dylan Walsh, Alicia Witt
Rated: TV-14

Plot
This second revival of The Twilight Zone (1959) hosted by Forest Whitaker presents tales of suspense, fantasy, science fiction, and horror.

Verdict
I get why this had one season. Part of the issue with anthologies is there is no story or characters to which you get attached and no cliffhangers that force you to come back. I like anthologies because the stories are complete and compact, but the other side is that the stories need to be really good to hold your interest. While this season has some good episodes, so many of them feel generic. For a show like this to succeed, the episodes must generate discussion through originality of ideas or shock. This rarely manages that feat.
It depends.

Review
The original series premiered in 1959 and ran for five seasons. There was a three season revival in 1985. Having recently watched the 2019 series and having seen the original series a few years ago, I decided to give this one a try.

This season has a lot of episode, but unfortunately not a lot of standouts. This season explore death, fame, conformity, and even updates a few episodes from the original series.

A doctor's patient is Death in episode two. Death just wants a break, but that alters everything. His doctor doesn't believe him but soon becomes convinced. 

E2: Tyler Christopher, Jason Alexander play Dr. Jay, Death

Episode three has a neat twist. A white man refuses to let a frantic black man in his car one night. The black man is killed with the white man feeling guilt. That grief manifests into the white man becoming black and facing racism first hand. He somehow transports back to that night. The two men are one and the same. Helping that man was helping himself, and that's the message.

Episode four is boring. An artist draws his dream girl, and she then becomes real. Even the twist is banal.

I thought I had read the story of episode five somewhere else, but I can't find another origin other than this episode. A woman time travels to kill Hitler, discovering that trying to kill a baby isn't easy despite the impending future. It's a short story that maximizes the effectiveness. By trying to kill Hitler, she only ensured his rise when another maid buys a gypsy baby to replace the 'lost' baby.

E5: Katherine Heigl, James Remar play Andrea, Alois Hitler

Episode six was predictable.

In episode nine a man is killed over and over again before we discover he's a criminal and that is his sentence.

I suppose there's a reason episodes across the reboots frequently explore fame. Everyone wants to be famous and they all seem to be willing to make a deal with the devil. That's the situation in episode twelve. It's not bad, but it is generic.

With episode eighteen a strange doll given to Charlie by his jerk boss as a thoughtless gift ends up changing both of their lives.

E18: Wallace Langham plays Charlie

Episode nineteen revisits the Adam and Eve story, setting paradise as a place absent of technology and the daily grind. The problem is that the pair can't leave the world they know behind.

People always want an easy path to a better life. In episode twenty we see the catch. When it's too good to be true, it usually is. What surprised me is how quickly this guy leaves his wife and kids with no hesitation just to be rich. Why would another man be willing to give up his perfect life? He realized his trophy wife was going to kill him, so instead some poor sap that thinks he's won the lottery is killed instead. It's not a bad episode.

Episode twenty-one presents a familiar tale. A rich and successful man that's burned every bridge to get there has no friends or family. Now he has regrets. He wants it all.

In episode twenty-two Gabe gets to see why he has such bad look. Invisible men are out to get him with someone intentionally writing his life to be unlucky.

Episode thirty is a sequel to the 1961 episode It's a Good Life where a child is running a town, and thirty-one updates 1960's The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street where paranoia drives a community to madness in just a few hours. Episode thirty-eight updates the 1960 episode Eye of the Beholder where a horribly disfigured women seeks an operation to look 'normal.'

I like episode thirty-two. A man thinks he's sent to the past to prevent a tragedy, but he's there for something much different that will affect his own future.

In episode thirty-six a magician struggles to figure out a trick from one of the greats. He's told it's not a trick, it's magic. He petitions to apprentice for the great magician and gets more than he ever wanted. It was indeed magic.

My favorite episodes are 2, 5, 18, and 32. I didn't like 4. Most of these episodes seems like stories I've seen before. There's just not much that stands out, though I did really like episode five about Hitler. While I couldn't find the story anywhere else, I feel certain I've read it before.