Television Review: The Twilight Zone (2019): The ComediansteemCreated with Sketch.

in #television5 years ago (edited)

Caution: Spoilers Ahead

This review refers to the first episode only of the new Twilight Zone reboot series executive-produced by Jordan Peele (the director, producer, and writer of hit films Us and Get Out.) The episode is directed by Owen Harris, a director of the hit TZ-like British show Black Mirror. The series is currently available only on CBS All Access, the online streaming service of US broadcaster CBS. This first episode is, however, posted for free on YouTube (see above).

Submitted for Your Approval

First the good news: the premier episode of the latest reboot of the Rod Serling classic has a decent premise, fairly good cinematography and appopriately eerie music. Peele’s performance as the host who opens and closes the episode is perfect. His delivery echoes Serling’s very famous speaking style without descending into campy parody. He even wears an updated version of a 1960s men’s suit, complete with a starched, white pocket square. I missed the cigarette, but you can’t have everything.

Submitted for Your Non-Approval

Now for the bad, of which unfortunately there is a lot to say. This episode is so weighted down by Peele’s political and racial agendas that it will date quickly, and its often-polarizing content is a slap in the face to Serling’s universally themed morality tales. Plus, the final image rips off one of the most famous ending shots in horror history, in a way that uncomfortably crosses the line between affectionate homage and blatant thievery.

Kumail Nanjiani stars as Samir, an unsuccessful stand-up comedian who dreams of stardom. The problem is that no one wants to listen to his unfunny political rants about gun control and hating Donald Trump. He dies onstage so many times he could be Kenny from South Park.

One evening, Samir meets a legendary stand-up comedian named J.C.Wheeler (Tracy Morgan, in the best performance of the production) at the bar of the comedy club where he does a regular show. Wheeler tells Samir that his act is boring because he doesn’t inject any personal content in it that audiences find relatable. He warns Samir, however, that once a comedian inserts part of his life into an act, that part of his life will disappear; it will be “gone forever.”

Samir takes the advice, but ignores the warning, and in his next show, he introduces a funny bit about his dog, who is humorously named “Cat.” The audience loves it and Samir goes home to his girlfriend, Rena (Amara Karan), a happy man. Although, disturbingly, he finds that Cat has disappeared and Rena denies that they ever owned a dog in the first place.

Samir doesn’t get what’s going on until he accidentally “deletes” Rena’s nephew, Devon, by doing a funny bit about Devon in his newest show. Once Samir realizes that he has the power to “delete” people by mentioning them in his comedy act, he decides to start deleting shitty people he knows and thinks need to be punished.

He starts with a gross fellow comedian who ran over a women and her baby while driving drunk but somehow managed to get off. Along the way, Tracy Morgan as Wheeler shows up to reassure him that what he’s doing isn’t really murder, because time treats the deleted people as if they never existed. (Wheeler is obviously some kind of demon or even Satan himself, and Morgan's devilish smile is highly entertaining.)

Now for the uncomfortable part: God forgive me for pointing this out, but as a critic I just can’t let it go. Every “scumbag” that Samir deletes is a white male who has done something shitty, which Samir rants and raves about in his show. The only people of color he deletes are wholly innocent folks: the accidentally erased nephew and a black female comedian he erases because she’s his main competition for a slot on a famous TV show.

I'm a grown-up; I could ignore the trite "all white men are evil" messaging if The Comedian were good enough to make me overlook it. But it's just not that good by a long shot. Also, we’re a long way here from Serling’s dream of using television to bring people together instead of driving them apart.

The other major negative is a script that features a ton of F-bombs, vulgar comments, and other profanity throughout. Somehow, I have a hard time imagining Rod Serling approving of lines like “Suck my vagina.” And I also can’t envision most parents wanting their kids to watch this kind of a script, which means that younger horror/sci-fi fans will miss out. (I enjoyed the original when I was in grade school.)

Getting back to the story, after erasing his rival, Samir realizes that he’s become the same type of scumbag he sought to eliminate, and he deletes himself during his last show. This brings back the female comedian and the nephew, although presumably the "scumbag" white males are given another chance as well.

Now, for the ending shot I mentioned at the beginning: once Samir deletes himself, his image shows up in a mural on the comedy club’s wall that depicts an audience of people in 1920s formal dress.

“You have always been the caretaker, Samir!”

I’m aware that Peele is a hardcore horror fan who likes to insert lots of Easter eggs and homages to other films in his work. And I generally like that kind of stuff. But this is just too blatant and lazy of an ending to be appealing.

Stanley says hello.

Sort:  

To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.

Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvoting this reply.

Does that YouTube link not work outside of the US?

I’m in the UK and it’s not opening on mobile.

Really curious to watch if poss. Black Mirror is my ind if show so anything along those lines are welcome viewing!

Posted using Partiko iOS

It probably doesn't work outside the US. It'll probably turn up on UK Netflix in a year or two, maybe.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.36
TRX 0.12
JST 0.040
BTC 70846.59
ETH 3567.69
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.79