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Morbid

Rooster Illusion
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The reboot of the classic, 1959 TV show hosted by Rod Serling will debut on CBS All Access on April 1st, and the full trailer for the series has been released.

Jordan Peele will host and produce the show, and even star in some of the episodes along with Tracy Morgan, Steven Yeun, Kumail Nanjiani, Sanaa Lathan, Taissa Farmiga, John Cho, Ike Barinholtz, Greg Kinnear, and Alison Tolman.

If you are a fan of the original series, it does look as if some of these new episodes are either calling back to the more famous episodes of the original or totally retelling them. It remains to be seen if it will be any good, but the trailer is decent.

However, is this enough to get people to pay for CBS All Access? Not for me it isn't.

I am already coming close to paying for so many separate subscription services that it about to equal the cable bill I quit paying years ago. Not that I still won't watch the series another way, of course.

Anyway, here's the trailer and let me know your thoughts. Any fans of the original? This enough for you to shell out some dough to CBS in order to watch (legally)?

 
It being on CBS kills any hope or interest i might have otherwise had in it. That network doesnt do good shows.

And they are def going to run into the soon to be exploding problem of streaming service overload. Most people are already paying for netflix and/or Hulu, now a basic major network is asking for MORE money to access its own streaming service? The fuck is Hulu for then? Idiots.

Pirate it for free if youre interested. Sometimes i pirate shit even if i have a means to watch it thru a service i paid for, just out of principle. Fuck these networks and fuck the entire system.
 
So far, I don't care for it. The review below pretty much sums up my own feelings. Warning: possible spoilers ahead.

[....]
The 2019 Twilight Zone, executive-produced and presented by horror auteur Jordan Peele, showcases a few intriguing ideas and a few fascinating performances. But despite the advantages of technicolor, a marquee cast, and a doubled length for each story, the new series’s episodes lack vitality and flair. It’s not entirely fair that this Twilight Zone can’t just exist on its own terms—free of comparison to the original show. But it’s an unavoidable comparison; Peele’s Twilight Zone makes copious references to Serling’s original run, via means including its opening titles, full-length episode homages (such as the second episode, “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet,” a reimagining of the original “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”), and, most of all, Peele’s in-episode monologues, in which he addresses the audience à la Serling.

This Twilight Zone exists in the same world as the hugely popular Black Mirror,which was widely hailed for taking the anthology modern-horror concept further than it had ever gone before. Whatever you may think of Black Mirror, it undeniably works hard to create tense, unsettling, high-concept speculative fiction. By comparison, the 2019 Twilight Zone feels quaint. I appreciate that, at times, this version opts for unexplained phenomena, instead of the endless exposition of so many minutely detailed puzzle-box shows. But in the four episodes I saw, it felt less like the show was intentionally creating a haunting aura, and more as if it had merely failed to resolve each plot’s ambiguities.

Take, for example, that remake, “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet.” It’s a symbolically rich episode about discourse and belief, all taking place in the increasingly high-pressure claustrophobia chamber of a transatlantic flight. Adam Scott plays a both-sides-y pundit who finds an MP3 player loaded up with an investigative all about the flight he’s on—specifically, its horrible, mysterious, forthcoming crash, which, of course, sends Scott’s character into a panic. The paranoia of flying in the age of terrorism is evoked well, mostly through thematic background noise: MAGA hat-wearers board the plane, as do women in hijab, Sikh men wearing turbans, and a disconcertingly dead-eyed pilot.

But as it plays out, the story is a strange parable. Is its lesson to listen to warnings from the future, or to ignore them, or to find some superior way of communicating them to others? Or is the lesson merely to avoid flight 1015, on October 15, scheduled at 10:15 P.M.? It’s hard to say—and rather than take the effort of explaining how that fully recorded podcast from the future got onto the plane, or why Scott couldn’t get anyone to listen to it, the episode waves its hands a little, pointing to its loose ends with the same shrug: it remains a mystery, because the airplane, and the podcast, and Adam Scott, are all in . . . the Twilight Zone.

At least “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet” is wildly suspenseful—brought home by a delightful performance from Chris Diamantopoulos. The Comedian, the premiere starring Kumail Nanjiani, explores what it takes to become famous with a sharp, evocative premise—and then repeats the same beat through the episode’s predictable end, draining the episode of its charm.
[....]
It’s not surprising that when Peele’s production intersects with politics, it soars; the filmmaker has established himself as a deft interpreter of thorny topics. The question prompted by the irregular, disappointing first episodes of The Twilight Zone is where his voice has gone. Technically, it’s present in every episode, summarizing plots with a few droll props and a sumptuous suit. But unlike the unassuming Serling, Peele seems self-conscious and posed when delivering his narration; his voice does not really sound like his own. And that might be the biggest problem of all. This Twilight Zone fulfills all the basic requirements of competence, but seems to have a limited ability to improve upon, or engage with, the deep-seated anxieties of the original. Where is Peele's singular, racially conscious vision? It's a mystery fit for.... the Twilight Zone.

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/04/twilight-zone-new-remake-review-jordan-peele
 
I've seen the first three episodes, and I am super impressed. Of all the reboots and films over the years, this is by far the best. I think he really captures the feel of the original, but with content appropriate to our time.

The update to the super classic episode "Nightmare at 30,000 Feet" was especially brilliant. In response to the article in the post above, I'm fine with the fact that it wasn't wrapped up with a neat bow at the end, and that actual thinking was required. Original Twilight Zone often made one think, and that was a big part of why it was brilliant and enduring and beloved.

Five stars out of five from me.
 
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