THE TWILIGHT ZONE: SEASON TWO (2020)
Release Date: January 12th, 2021
Rating: Unrated
Region Code: 1
Duration: 385 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Directors: Mathias Herndl, JD Dillard, Peter Atencio, Ana Lily Amirpour, Tayarisha Poe, Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, Alonso Alvarez-Barreda, Jennifer McGowan, Osgood Perkins
Cast: Jimmi Simpson, Kristin Lehman, Ethan Embry, Daniel Sunjata, Jurnee Smollett, Tawny Newsome, Sophia Macy, Abbie Hern, Joel McHale, Nadia Hilker, Jenna Elfman, Christopher Meloni, Damon Wayans Jr., David Krumholtz, Natalie Martinez, Topher Grace, Kylie Bunbury, Gretchen Mol, Greta Lee
Synopsis: Executive producers Jordan Peele and Simon Kinberg’s modern re-imagining of the classic TV series continues the legacy of socially conscious storytelling. Featuring enthralling narration from Peele and an all-star cast including Tony Hale, Ethan Embry, Billy Porter, Jurnee Smollett, Joel McHale, Christopher Meloni, Jenna Elfman, Damon Wayans Jr., Topher Grace, and Gretchen Mol, Season Two uses introspection and self-exploration to usher viewers into a dimension filled with endless possibilities.
Here we have the second season of the CBS All Access streaming anthology series The Twilight Zone hosted by Jordan Peele (Get out), and it is another solid collection of sci-fi and otherworldly what if... tales. I grew up watching the re-runs of the original The Twilight Zone hosted by Rod Serling, as well as his follow-up anthology series The Night Gallery, in addition to the revivals of The Twilight Zone from the 80's and the 00's, the series has been in my blood for what seems like my entire life. These series left an indelible mark on my fertile young mind, infusing within me a love of the fantastic and a craving for bite-sized TV anthology storytelling that explored the weird, the strange and the unexplainable. The first season of this latest revival produced and hosted by Jordan Peele was very strong, and so to is the second season with a wonderful cast and a talented bunch of directors at the helm, offering up ten new tales guaranteed to capture the imagination, if not exactly stun you with their originality.
In the season opener "Meet in the Middle" we have a too demanding single-guy named Phil (Jimmi Simpson, Westworld) who starts to hear the voice of a female occupying his head. His therapist tells him he might be experiencing the tell-tale signs of dissociative identity disorder, but he is not so sure. Unable to escape the voice he begins to carry on conversations with it, learning that her name is Annie (Kristin Lehman, Bleeders) and that she lives half way across the country, becoming quite friendly with his new found voice-in-my-head friend. Eventually the pair begin to develop a romantic relationship and decide to meet-up, leading to Phil boarding a train headed in her direction. Both are ecstatic to finally be meeting each other but enroute their psychic conversation is cut short when Annie is seemingly abducted by a stranger, leading to Phil attempting to rescue her, resulting in a maddening twist that will have Phil questioning his own sanity.
Up next is "Downtime" written by Jordan Peele and starring Morena Baccarin (Gotham, Deadpool) as the employee of a hotel who has just been promoted to manager, but her first day in her new position is derailed when a giant orb appears in the sky causing everyone around her freeze in their tracks staring slack-jawed at the orb. As her reality begins to unravel she is shocked to learn that she is an avatar in an online game, but a glitch in the system threatens to erase her, but she is not willing to let-go without a struggle. This felt like an update of stuff like "The Lost Hour" episode of the Joe Dante produced TV show Eerie, Indiana, but not as fun and played pretty straight, and in my opinion to a lesser effect.
In the "The Who of You" directed by Peter Atencio (Keaneu)
features a down on his luck actor named Harry (Ethan Embry, The Devil's Candy) resorting to robbing a bank. During the clumsily executed theft he accidentally swaps minds with the bank teller after making eye contact with her, which somehow causes the mind-swap. He manages to escape capture by continually swapping minds along the way, leaving behind a befuddled string of panicked people with swapped minds, ranging from baristas and cops, to kids and and even a shitty psychic. It's a fun bit of cat and mouse chase with a cool twist that I did not see coming, and I love seeing Embry in just about anything.
features a down on his luck actor named Harry (Ethan Embry, The Devil's Candy) resorting to robbing a bank. During the clumsily executed theft he accidentally swaps minds with the bank teller after making eye contact with her, which somehow causes the mind-swap. He manages to escape capture by continually swapping minds along the way, leaving behind a befuddled string of panicked people with swapped minds, ranging from baristas and cops, to kids and and even a shitty psychic. It's a fun bit of cat and mouse chase with a cool twist that I did not see coming, and I love seeing Embry in just about anything.
"Ovation" directed by Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night) features a street performer named Jasmine (Jurnee Smollett, Birds of Prey) who one day meets her idol, pop-star Fiji, who hands her a coin and then commits suicide by promptly walking in front of an oncoming city bus. The coin seems to have an influence about, and soon after Jasmine is discovered by the host of the popular TV music competition show Ovation, and after being invited to appear on the show wins over the crowd. Her fame begins to inexplicably sky rocket almost immediately but in typical Monkey's Paw fashion every good turn has an equal downturn, leading to tragedy with a not unexpected twist.
"Among the Untrodden" is a tale along the lines of The Craft, The Woods and Suspiria, with a new arrival of transfer student Irene (Sophia Macy) at an all girl's boarding school. AT first she is met with bullying by the popular girls, before being allowed to join their click. Soon after she discovers through a school science fair project that the leader of the click Madison (Abbie Hern) has psychic abilities, and she helps her to hone her newfound abilities before themes of betrayal and revenge start to sour the friendships with plenty of name calling, cat fighting, spellcasting and even a bit of resurrection.
"8" is directed by indie sci-fi darlings Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead (The Endless, Synchronic) and it deals with a team of scientist who are stationed in the frozen Antarctic when they encounter a super-intelligent species of octopus that lives under the ice. This might be my favorite episode yet of the series, perhaps because it is the most horrific of them all. The episode features Joel McHale (Community) and Tim Armstrong (of rockers Rancid) and is a nicely claustrophobic bit of tentacle-terror that should appeal to horror fans of fans of stuff like the X-Files, having been written by longtime X-File scribe Glen Morgan (Black Xmas), and I tip my hat to the fantastic creature effects.
In a "A Human Face" a couple played by Jenna Elfman (Fear The Walking Dead) and Christopher Meloni (Law & Order: SVU) are still grieving the loss of their teenage daughter when they are visited upon by a shape-shifting alien entity that assumes their daughter's identity and absorbs her memories. The couple have been struggling to move beyond their grief but the arrival of the alien causes them to not only revisit their grief but also the buried anger they have for each another. As the film plays out the couple attempt to figure out if this alien entity is somehow their daughter back from the beyond or the manipulative first leg of a conquering alien army.
In "A Small Town" handyman Jason (Damon Wayans Jr, Super Troopers 2) is the widow of a small town mayor, while working at the Church he discovers a miniature of the town locked away in the attic space. While playing with it he discovers that the model is a magical in that when tinkered with it causes real world reactions, like when he repaints a model of a storefront on the model the actual building is miraculously changed. He begins by using the model to do good around town, but when the new Mayor (David Krumholtz, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle) begins to accept credit for Jason's anonymous
good deeds he begins to use the model to exact small revenges upon him, like dropping a giant rock on his sports care and letting loose a giant tarantula upon him! Eventually the model is discovered by the powers that be, but their grand ideas threaten to destroy the tiny town altogether. This one conjured up some solid anthology episodes from the past like "The Mission" from Amazing Stories and The Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life", the latter of which was remade by Joe Dante for the film adaptation of The Twilight Zone: The Movie.
In the time-loop stalker episode "Try, Try" we have a young woman named Claudio (Kylie Bunbury, The Sitter) who is saved from getting hit by a truck while crossing the street by a guy named Marc (Topher Grace, Spider-Man 3) who seems like a great guy at first, until she begins to notice weird instances of fortuitous timing and an abundance of knowledge of things he should not have. This is when the cracks in the veneer begin to show, revealing that Marc is stuck in a time-loop and that their random meeting on the street was not so random to begin with. Marc is really a potentially violent and controlling creep, like a more domineering version of the Bill Murray from Groundhog's Day without the happy ending and without the character ever becoming a decent guy.
"You Might Also Like" is written and directed by Osgood Perkins (Gretel & Hansel) and is a re-imagining of the original series episode "To Serve Man". The episode stars Gretchen Moll (The Notorious Bettie Page) as a housewife named Jayne Warren who is all consumed with acquiring a new must-have enigmatic product known as the "egg". A product that is being ubiquitously advertised and desired, but the purpose of the "egg" and what it does is not made clear. Jayne endeavors to discover what the "egg" is, all the while experiencing periods of missing time and unexplained egg-related anxiety that might have something to do with nightly alien visitations. The season capper is a weird one, and I loved it, it felt like the goofier original series episode with some Lynch-ian existential tension, along with some commentary on consumerism and our need for more stuff and how that makes us a threat to the known universe.
Audio/Video: All ten episodes of the second season of The Twilight Zone (2020) arrives on anamorphic DVD, and it looks great for a standard definition presentation. Audio comes by way of English Dolby Digital 5.1 with optional English subtitles. Everything is well-balanced and clean sounding, the dialogue and score come through nicely, but it is lossy audio and lacks the oomph of a uncompressed track.
Extras are slim but we do get a deleted scene on "Downtime", deleted/extended scenes for "Ovation", "8", "A Small Town", and a 4-minute gag reel. The three-disc DVD set arrives in a clear keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork and a slipcover with the same artwork.
Special Features:
- Deleted Scenes
- Gag Reel
I have been enjoying the latest iteration of The Twilight Zone quite a bit, this season had a good mix of sci-fi, a bit of horror, the psychological and the fantastical, and while not every episode was a knockout it nonetheless was a solidly entertaining season with stories that ignite the imagination to varying degrees. It might not be as mind-blowing as the original series but when I was watching the 80's incarnation as a kid I didn't think those episodes were on par with the original series, but re-watching them now they're magical in their own way, so it might just be a matter of perspective, regardless this was a solid season of anthology TV.
