New 'Twilight Zone' Reboot Pales In Comparison To The Original

TERRY GROSS (HOST): This is FRESH AIR. This year marks the 60th anniversary of "The Twilight Zone," the classic anthology series that first appeared on CBS in 1959. This Monday, the network unveils a new version of "The Twilight Zone" - but with some changes. It won't be shown on the CBS broadcast network; it will be on its subscription streaming site CBS All Access. The host on the original series was the show's creator, Rod Serling. In the reboot, it's Jordan Peele, who's also one of the show's executive producers.

Our TV critic David Bianculli has this review of the new "Twilight Zone." And in the interest of full disclosure, David's son Mark Bianculli was a member of the writers staff on another Peele TV project.

DAVID BIANCULLI (BYLINE): The best "Twilight Zone" stories, by now, are like fairy tales or folk tales burned into our collective consciousness - the broken reading glasses, the talking doll, the intergalactic cookbook. From 1959 to 1964 on CBS, it was Rod Serling who wrote or selected those stories and who also served as on-air host of "The Twilight Zone," presiding over some of TV's most durable stories of wonder and imagination. For this new incarnation beginning April 1 and offered exclusively to subscribers of the CBS All Access streaming service, the on-air host and hottest name among the show's creative team is Jordan Peele.

Jordan Peele, after emerging from the audaciously funny "Key And Peele" sketch comedy series on Comedy Central, has written and directed two hit clever movies, "Get Out" and the just-released "Us." Both of them are scary yet funny, unpredictable and exciting and soon slip from the seemingly normal to the unsettlingly strange. In other words, both of those movies, "Get Out" and "Us," are perfect supersized "Twilight Zone" episodes.

But in the first four episodes of this new "Twilight Zone" TV series shown to critics, Jordan Peele seems less involved and less in the zone than when producing stories for the cinema. When Rod Serling presented the first four episodes of the original "Twilight Zone," he had written or adapted them all, establishing his very personal tone and approach. For this new series, Jordan Peele neither writes nor directs any of the four programs made available for preview. Others seem to have a more direct involvement, and these are people with impressive genre credentials. One of the show's other executive producers, Simon Kinberg, has written several "X-Men" movies, and contributing writer Glen Morgan was a writer and producer on the "X-Files."

But not one of the four previewed episodes fully hits the mark established by the classic Serling series. They're too long, too slow to develop and, for the most part, much too predictable. And even Peele, as the on-screen narrator, seems to be on autopilot. Serling, when introducing tales on the original "Twilight Zone," clearly enjoyed humor and irony as much as his cigarettes. Peele, as his successor on this new series, looks and sounds more like someone doing a Rod Serling impression. But it's Rod Serling as a pod person, seemingly drained of all emotion.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE TWILIGHT ZONE")

JORDAN PEELE (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AND HOST, THE TWILIGHT ZONE): (As Narrator) Settling in for a 13-hour transatlantic flight to a land rife with ancient mysteries is Justin Sanderson. Mr. Sanderson's occupation is to uncover unbiased truth. But with an hour left before certain doom, he must ask the right questions of the right people. Landing at the truth this time will require an unscheduled stopover in the Twilight Zone.

(SOUNDBTIE OF MUSIC)

BIANCULLI: The episode Peele is introducing there is called "Nightmare At 30,000 Feet" and stars Adam Scott as a plane passenger who finds an electronic playback device in his seatback pocket. When he plugs in his headphones and starts listening, he hears a podcast telling of a tragic flight, the very flight he's just boarded. The title of the episode is a nod to one of the most famous stories from the original "Zone," which had William Shatner as a plane passenger insisting he saw a monster outside on the wing. But that was called "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet." This new one is a completely different story. And what it gains in altitude, it loses in cruising speed and effectiveness.

The best of the initial batch is an episode called "Replay," which has the protagonist using an old camcorder to turn back time. But even that is such a familiar plot in the genre, from "Supernatural" to the comedy film "Galaxy Quest," that it hardly rises to the crackling originality of Peele's "Get Out" and "Us." And that's not the only comparison from which this new Twilight Zone suffers - at least at first. This new CBS All Access series not only pales beside the original "Twilight Zone" but also when compared to the first CBS remake back in 1985. It also lacks the wit of such vintage anthology shows as "Hammer House of Horror" and the creepiness of "The Outer Limits."

But there's no need to dwell on the past or even to compare Peele's TV show to his movies. Any "Twilight Zone" made in 2019 has to be compared to and try to match the brilliance of "Black Mirror," the current Netflix series by Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones. "Black Mirror" is great, with virtually every episode taking you on an unforgettable voyage. The new "Twilight Zone" - at least for now - is a disappointment. I like the new arrangement of the familiar theme song, but that's about it. And since this new series is being presented on a subscription site, the most telling thing to say about this new "Twilight Zone" is that, in this case, you don't get what you pay for.

(SOUNDBITE OF "TWILIGHT ZONE THEME (2019)")

GROSS: David Bianculli is editor of the website TV Worth Watching and author of "The Platinum Age Of Television: From 'I Love Lucy' To 'The Walking Dead,' How Tv Became Terrific." He reviewed the new "Twilight Zone" series beginning Monday on CBS All Access.

Monday on FRESH AIR, we'll talk about Chief Justice John Roberts with veteran Supreme Court correspondent Joan Biskupic who's written a new book about Roberts. She'll talk about the roots of his conservative views, his reasoning on key decisions, including one upholding the Affordable Care Act, and why she thinks President Trump shouldn't regard the Roberts court as a rubber stamp for his administration. I hope you'll join us.

FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham with additional engineering support from Joyce Lieberman and Julian Herzfeld. Our associate producer for digital media is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. I'm Terry Gross.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE WEE TRIO'S "BELLE FEMME DE VOODOO")

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