Great article from InVerse:
https://www.inverse.com/article/38087-new-twilight-zone-jordan-peele-rod-serling-cbs
Because We Have ‘Black Mirror’ Do We Need a New ‘Twilight Zone’ ?
Are we in a renaissance of sci-fi/horror anthology shows?
By
Ryan Britt on
November 3, 2017
Filed Under
Black Mirror,
Comedy,
Fantasy,
Streaming &
TV Shows
The original
Twilight Zone might be one of the most conceptually brilliant
TV shows of all time. From 1959-1964, it simply told a variety of weird stories that generally asserted some kind of
science fiction or fantasy twist, often right at the end. Both thrilling and intelligent, few TV shows come close to the class and precision of the original series. So, news of a brand new version of the
Twilight Zone should be great, right? Well, yes and no. In a way,
Black Mirror already is the 21st Century
Twilight Zone. Is the world big enough for that much weird?
On Thursday,
news broke that CBS All Access is developing a new version of
The Twilight Zone produced by Jordan Peele. Considering Peele’s horror/
comedy masterstroke with his film
Get Out, he’s an excellent choice to helm a new
Twilight Zone. But then again, so were John Landis and Steven Spielberg when they did
Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1983. Consisting of four mini-stories, the film needlessly remade the classic William Shatner episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” in with John Lithgow while the production was marred by
death and controversy.
Burgess Meredith is the last man on earth in the classic episode "Time Enough At Last." Guess what: iconic 'Twilight Zone' music does not appear in this episode.
A 1985 reboot version of the TV show also featured adaptations of Ray Bradbury,
Stephen King and Harlan Ellison stories. On paper, the show was solid, but it failed to catch on the way the original did, and almost no one even remembers it exists today. Then, there’s the 2002 version of the show hosted by Forest Whitaker, which sadly only lasted one season. The point is, none of these reboots or revivals are bad per se, but they do feel oddly cursed, lost forever in the black and white shadow of the original.
One problem of doing a contemporary
Twilight Zone is that to film it in color almost betrays the premise of the show. And that’s because, beyond having sci-fi twists, there is no “concept” for
The Twilight Zone. It’s not like
Star Trek where there’s an entire established world with different sci-fi characters and mythologies. Doing remakes of classic episodes or adapting science fiction and horror stories from the past also would be a mistake. In other words, the only way to do a contemporary
Twilight Zone is to do something new. Which is where
Black Mirror comes in. Functionally,
Black Mirror serves the same purpose today that
The Twilight Zone did in the early 60s. This doesn’t necessarily make similar shows redundant, but it does present a challenge. Sure, there were contemporaries of the original
Twilight Zone, horror/sci-fi anthology shows like
The Outer Limits and
One Step Beyond, and both have excellent moments to rival
The Twilight Zone. But with the near intelligent excellence of every single episode of
Black Mirror, a new
Twilight Zone is now the
Outer Limits or
One Step Beyond of the 21st century. Plus,
Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams is already being praised as comparable to
Black Mirror, and it hasn’t even aired in the US yet.
Jessica Brown Findlay and Daniel Kaluuya in the 'Black Mirror' episode "15 Million Merits" in which the world is controlled by oppressive media.
Perhaps the return of
The Twilight Zone signals a different sea change in television. In a world in which competition for serialized, binge-worthy narratives is fierce, a smart sci-fi show consisting of standalone stories could do great. Plus, CBS All-Access has already pretty much proven their streaming-only subscriber model has paid off.
Star Trek: Discovery has been successful, despite
early fears and hand-ringing. In other words, if the new
Twilight Zone’s only competition is
Black Mirror, that might not be such a bad thing.
If Peele does decide to film the show in black and white, it would be a solid move. But here’s hoping he doesn’t stick too close to the nostalgia for the original. For those who aren’t fans, the only thing they probably remember is the iconic creepy theme music. But, the first season of
The Twilight Zone in 1959 didn’t even have that iconic theme music yet. What it did have was solid and original writing. Meaning, if the new
Twilight Zone is mostly a new show, it won’t need that old theme music to remind us why it’s great.