User reviews

The thing that sets the original The Twilight Zone apart is that each episode is expertly filmed, especially in its use of longer takes and slow moving panning shots, that cinematography helps to kick the tension into high gear, the new series doesn't do that and I can't figure out why? The cinematography in the first two episodes just did not draw me in, they explained too much right off the get go.

I think I'm being generous with a 6star rating.

The first episode is pretty painful to sit through. Should've been at least 15 minutes shorter, and was very predictable.

The second episode is a little bit better, but still kind of meh.

The best part about viewing this was it reminded me to watch the older episodes of Twilight Zone.

If you want to watch a great show that's kind of like T.Z, go check out Black Mirror.

I've just finished watching the first four episodes, and I went from excited anticipation, to disappointed, to fed up enough to bail on future episodes.

Each episode seems to be plot-focused on targeting one identifiable group as perpetual racists, and another group as perpetual victims.

The science fiction is a minor incidental to the series.

Rod is turning in his grave! Shame on this reboot!

I didn't care for Season One very much. I enjoyed the stars but was disappointed by the episodes. But Season TWO is a HUGE improvement. If you didn't like the first one, give the second season a try. The first episode starts out very strong and doesn't disappoint. The other episodes range from very good to pretty good to ummm oh..KAY. Nobody has ever been able to do this show justice from the original series but Jordan Peele is doing a pretty darn good turn this season with it!! I hope there will be a Season Three to look forward to.

The original Twilight Zone series was full of social commentary and messages that challenged society. With episodes touching on topics like racism, religion, censorship, greed, and corporatism, the show was far from a simple science fiction series. One might suggest the Twilight Zone started Hollywood's tradition of engaging in social and political issues.

So why did this concept work so well in the 1960s while receiving so much backlash today? The answer is simple: politics is more polarizing than it has been in recent history.

Rod Serling, the writer of the original series, set out to challenge viewers by creating content that neither the tv executives nor the regulators felt would make for a positive outcome, but they were wrong. It was a big success.

However, when revisiting old episodes, it's clear that Serling's radical approach to writing was still tame enough to appeal to most average American viewers of that era. Today, writing about social topics that make people uncomfortable while avoiding ideological backlash seems nearly impossible to do.

1964's episode "I Am the Night - Color Me Black" told the story of a town eager to hang an innocent black man after he was wrongfully convicted of killing a racist white man in self-defense. 2019's episode "Replay" tells the story of a woman using a rewind button on a camcorder to protect her son from a racist police trooper. Just read the other reviews and see how today's polarized viewer responds to the latter.

To be fair, many of the ideas conveyed by Serling's original Twilight Zone were deliberately written to not appeal to either side politically. The same probably cannot be said about this current reboot. It would be interesting to see if Serling could take on this challenge today.

Maybe the solution to this problem is to no longer use social commentary in writing. Or maybe the writers could make more obvious right leaning episodes to even things out. One thing is for certain, as long as entertainment seeks to talk about the things that make us uncomfortable, you'll manage to alienate a lot of viewers... here.... in The Twilight Zone.

I felt similarly to these negative reviews last year, though i still saw a lot i liked in season 1, it was just to heavy on social issues.

Season 2, however, completely redeems the show. Less political message and more focus on creepy alternative realities that find our protagonists in paranormal turmoil. I wont say this is a top notch show, but it's definitely popcorn worthy and worth the watch.

Season two in my opinion is way better than the first season. In no way is it better than the original, but it kept my interest and I was excited for the next episode.

When it first came out, I wasn't too impressed by the first batch of Season One episodes. A couple were good, most were meh. The second half of Season One is much stronger, with only one that I didn't care for. Halfway through Season Two now, and I'm enjoying it. Again, I believe there's one that I did not really care for. Overall, I think most of the hate for this show is coming from people who don't want to pay for CBS All Access, or just hate the idea of reboots. I will say, a lot of the episodes tend to be more on the Black Mirror side of things than Twilight Zone, which I understand is a bit backwards since TZ came way before BM, and BM was definitely inspired by the original TZ.

It's good. Go into it with an open mind.

There is nothing worse than programming that treats its viewers as stupid and ignorant. This series in no way respects the foundations of the original Twilight Zone. It is awful.

The first season seemed too straightforwardly preachy, almost lazy. The original series, like all good science fiction, encouraged examining one's views to arrive at a more enlightened viewpoint. The first season of this most recent iteration, however, felt like it was just telling people what to think, but failed to provide the intellectual motivation. The second season takes the more time honored Twilight Zone approach and does a fantastic job.

Season two is beautifully executed in terms of production quality and in terms of being science fiction that makes one think. Separately I would give season one a 6, but season two a 9.

About half of episodes are interesting. The rest are poorly dressed up moral (and nowadays political) preachiness rather than mystical storytelling.

What's interesting is that I agree with the ethics behind the stories - and yet I'm appalled that they actually wasted entire episodes trying to force these moral concepts back at me.

In many ways the lackluster audience ratings are deserved. The show's producers ruined a great opportunity to talk about the human experience under extraordinary circumstances.

I hope they re-think this series for season 2. If they want to do ethical pieces, at least don't make them so obvious. We're already bombarded with these issues from the news and social media every day.

If you are a sci-fi fan who loved the twists and sudden horror of the original series you'll be disappointed on these new episodes, incredibly biased at the point they get out of their way to push a narrative instead of adding to the story even with subtle messages on screen.

You'll be better watching the old episodes on youtube or try a random scifi movie that might be just 20 minutes longer, almost every episode could be done in half the time to deliver the same story.

I only give a 2 star review because it has great scenography, customes, visual effects and a pretty interesting change of scenery.

I got caught due to Jordan Peele narrator role and thought the stories were written by him as in the case of Rod Serling but it wasn't the case, I hope he continue to do his own movies and get away from projects like this.

So this show is the poster child of "get woke, go broke."

Started early in the first season and made the show awful. The stories were terrible and unrelatable. I'm not sure if they fired all the writers into the second season, but it went back to something resembling the good TZ.

I'm sure the first season destroyed the viewership and the second got it going but the decision was made to can it. Had they allowed it to gather viewers after they stopped being woke it would still be around, but studios often don't give second chances. And if numbers don't hockey stick up it will be let go.

In the end it was a missed opportunity. They waited too long to correct their course.

It's obvious that nothing can compare to the OG Twilight Zone from the early '60s. That is the standard. I was excited in 2019 for the Jordan Peele reboot though and watched every episode. Reflecting back, I was unhappy with it. Yes there were a handful of decent episodes but a lot of them in my opinion had flat endings or just could not maintain my interest. The political slant to the episodes did not bother me. i just think a lot of the episodes were boring.

Come June 2020 with the Season 2 premier, and WOW ! New and improved! The stories now remind me of the OG Zone with stories of human turmoil complete with dark twisted endings. I have been through 4 episodes so far on season 2 and really enjoyed 3 out 4 of them and look forward to watching the rest. As others have said, if you hated season 1, come back to season 2. I don't think you will be disappointed. I rate the show 7 as of this writing. The season 2 episodes boosted my rating.

I just finished "Replay", it actually started out very well and grabbed my interest. A few twists and turns and then it seemed to take on a black (people/person's) agenda. I have NOTHING against any race, creed or colour of people but this episode seemed to target the black community and audience (not to mention the "black lives matter" poster in one scene). I have the new Twilight Zone set up on my PVR and will give it another few chances. It started out great and then seemed to take on a lot of issues regarding the current landscape of America and their racial issues that did nothing to propel the story. A similar story could have been told from the same point of view without all of the racial overtures. I do not have any of those issues and was hoping for a similar reboot of the Rod Serling series. I'm not old, I'm not young but what I watched, unfortunately, was not what I had hoped for. Mr. Peele, please keep on the track of the original series, try not to bring your personal opinion on race, political views or social standing into what could have been a solid reboot of a classic.

I grew up with the twilight zone and tales from the crypt and tales of the unexpected. This is comparison is just awful. The story's are boring they just aren't gripping or spine tingling. It's a no from me.

I've never seen the original so I'm watching it as a new show entirely and I'm really enjoying it. I love black mirror and that style of dystopia different story each week style and if you do it's worth a watch. You might not like everyone as they are different but I've often found myself laughing too. It's a crazy escapism show and I'm enjoying it. I'm shocked at the low ratings but then saw republicans didn't like it so maybe an agenda there who knows. I'm British so I haven't worried just enjoyed the show.

These should be half hour episodes, but even that would not help with the lack of suspense. After three episodes of viewing I figured out what the ending would be after the first few minutes of each episode. It appears mainly to be a show to push a political agenda rather than a updated suspense show.

I had such high hopes as we all did, I believe. Each episode is worse than the previous.

It's more like The Idiocracy Zone.

The Squandered Potential Zone.

TV Written by Children Zone.

I don't know what a-lot of these people are crying about. A lot of the reviews look to be from uptight, conservative, and sensitive christians that pine for the way society used to be.

Swearing bothers some in this day in age, some act as if they were watching Scarface for crying out loud. For those I say, it's great you used your "clicker" and shut off the show. The problem is, those reviews give a bad reflection of this show and unfortunately those biased opinions have some sway toward the future of the show and the producers. Jordan Peele does a great job of presenting each story... he is not Rod Serling, and I am sure that is an issue with some of those negative reviewers.

It seems they watch everything with a conservative outlook with any topic in their lives and social norms have advanced since the "good old days" since 1959 - 1964 when the original was on T.V. They are more sensitive to anything that gives even a hint of views counter to their own and feel threatened.

The original will always be outstanding in my opinion, I grew up watching it back in the 70s and I have the whole collection on disk...This adaptation is pretty damn good (oops I swore there) Some of those episodes do point out social issues or an sort of "woke" aspect in a story format that is entertaining and is reflective of todays advancement in society. That is the thing a lot of the negative reviewers do not like.

It is hard to judge this series fairly without comparison to the original series and it is hard to imagine that anyone with an interest in the genre won't have seen this. Compared to the reboot in the 1980s this is miles better but when looking to the original series of The Twilight Zone it really is hard to compare to a series which, in my eyes, was perfection. Other modern anthology series have managed to get close, Black Mirror and Inside No. 9 both spring to mind and although you can easily say they were influenced they would never be compared. The actors are fantastic, the sets and cinematography are beautiful but when it comes to the stories themselves although I find it hard to be objective but feel they are just slightly lacking. If it didn't carry The Twilight Zone name I can imagine it would be viewed more favourably without the comparison but I was pleasantly entertained so believe it will be worth seeing what the second series has to offer. It certainly has promise.

I really wanted to like this. It has high class actors and it's beautifully filmed, but the stories are rank.

It is little more than propaganda that ticks all the modern political points, which would not be all that bad I guess, were it not so staggeringly one sided.

It never cease to amaze me that major networks have the audacity (and the money obviously), to isolate damn near half it's audience by preaching at it.

This could have been a wonderful remake if stories that stood on their own were used rather than preaching at half the population and affirming the other half.

A stone cold waste of great talent and a great crew.

First episode not good, second episode better , really hope this gets better.