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CBS All Access has released all 10 episodes of the second season of the new Twilight Zone reboot. The streaming service released the episodes of the first season weekly, like they do for most of their shows like Star Trek: Picard. I was a bit shocked when I heard they were going to release all the episodes at once, even though that is my preferred way of viewing shows. I will be reviewing each episode with some spoilers throughout, so you have been warned!
Episode 1 – Meet in the Middle
Jimmi Simpson and Gillian Jacobs start the first episode of the second season of The Twilight Zone. Simpson plays Phil Hayes, who has high standards for dating and is left displeased many times during his dates. While on a date, he suddenly hears another woman’s voice in his head, voiced by Gillian Jacobs. The two are confused at first as to what is happening since she can hear him, but as the two learn about each other’s lives, they build a relationship that leads to them wanting to meet each other.
This episode had a good setup that genuinely made me interested throughout. As the two characters talked day and night and discovered things about each other, I was always wondering what would be the twist at the end. For most of the episode, the story and relationship between Phil and Annie felt realistic. I thought the episode might just end with him just simply hearing voices in his head, so it made it even more shocking once the twist was revealed. My problem with the ending was that it didn’t explore how or why Annie and Jimmi could hear each other’s voices. It was a surprising ending, but could have been developed more.
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Episode 2 – Downtime
Newly promoted hotel manager Michelle (Morena Baccarin) feels like she is at the top of the world until she learns that she is a virtual avatar created by a man in the real world named Phineas. She is part of a program called ‘Sleepaway’ which allows users to access a fake version of the world where they can inhabit any character. There is only one rule: don’t break character.
The concept of a virtual world isn’t a new idea. Many movies and television shows focus on a world you can create and live in. What I found interesting about this program was that Michelle was a created character, but she was self-aware. She is able to make her own decisions and have her own personality without being controlled by Phineas, who we never see. The episode tries to separate itself from other shows with a similar premise but fails at being dramatic and the twist comes way too early. Of the ten episodes released for the second season, it is one of the more forgettable.
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Episode 3 – The Who of You
Ethan Embry plays Harry Pine, an actor looking for his big break. He is behind on his bills and is in desperate need of money. Instead of waiting for his big break and watching his relationship with his girlfriend crumble right in front of him, he decides to rob a bank to get the money he needs. While robbing the bank, he learns that he is able to switch bodies with anybody when he looks into their eyes.
This was my favorite episode of the second season. It was their most repetitive episode, but I found it highly entertaining. The episode moved at a quick pace, but it always kept me guessing. It offers a classic body swapping story, but offers a lot of smart writing and humor. The fun part of the episode was seeing how different characters, young and old, male or female, would act as Harry. Since Harry is always on the run and switching bodies, the episode remains tense until the shocking ending. There is also a great performance from Billy Porter, who has a small role in the episode, but utilizes it well with an unpredictable character. Porter’s character is one of the more memorable moments from Season 1 and 2 of the Twilight Zone reboot.
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Episode 4 – Ovation
Jurnee Smollett-Bell, who just came off of a great performance in the DC film Birds of Prey, stars as Jasmine, a struggling musician who is gifted a magical coin by a suicidal pop star. With the magical coin, anytime she sings in front of people, they will automatically applaud her.
Pop idols are worshiped by many people and this episode covers the idea. When Jasmine enters a music competition, she immediately loves the attention, even when her sister warns her of the new-found fame. As the story progresses, Jasmine no longer wants the fame, which many celebrities deal with throughout their career. The story is very real for a lot of celebrities and it offers another twist at the end. Jasmine’s sister, Zara, takes the coin for safekeeping and when Jasmine learns of a new pop star, she goes to go kill her. She learns that it is her sister. The ending of this episode came as a shock to me since Zara never felt jealous of her sister’s fame. The ending is left for interpretation instead of giving us a solid twist.
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Episode 5 – Among the Untrodden
Creepy kids with powers aren’t new to The Twilight Zone. Most movies or shows that focus on a kid with powers, they are kids that are bullied. ‘Among the Untrodden’ takes a different route and instead gives the popular student powers. The mean girl, Madison, meets nerdy Irene and develops a friendship with her. Irene helps Madison with her new-found powers.
I really enjoyed the twists for this episode since there were a few of them. With giving the bully the powers, any moment could change for the worst when she is interacting with Irene. When we get towards the end of the episode, we think we got the story figured out but it offers another twist that makes you rethink the whole episode. The best part of the episode was watching Madison become more vulnerable and open up towards Irene. They develop a realistic friendship and Madison looks out for Irene. This was one of the darker episodes, not only in terms of the theme, but also the look of the episode.
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Episode 6 – 8
Joel McHale versus a murderous octopus is exactly what we need right now. Rudd (McHale) leads a group of researchers who are studying underwater creatures. They come across an octopus and we learn that they aren’t there to help the octopus but instead capture it for a pharmaceutical company. We learn about a lot of characters in the episode and their intentions.
This is one of the shorter episodes for this season and honestly leaves me wanting more. The twist of the octopus at the end altering its DNA to lead an army of octopi was so cool and I wanted to see what would happen next. There were plenty of moments throughout that reminded me of Alien, especially with the scientists involved and how the octopus treats people. Spoiler: it isn’t very nice!
The other characters in the episodes, like scientist Ling, feel similar to other characters in movies with a similar premised. Then we learn that Ling is a double agent and wants to take the octopus DNA to create super Octo-humans! What a bizarre twist!
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Episode 7 – A Human Face
A couple gets a warning of an upcoming cosmic flare. As they prepare for it, they discover an unknown species in their basement which they believe to be an alien. The couple had recently lost their daughter and are still in the grieving process. The alien seems to be a highly intelligent species and transforms itself into the daughter of the couple. Both parents react in a different way. The mother understands that it is an alien, but wants to be with her daughter again so she overlooks the fact that it is alien. The father on the other is more rational. He tries to get his wife to understand that the alien is using them and may have other motives.
This episode handles grief quite well with how people handle it differently. People who have lost a loved one would take a chance to be with them again in some form. The thought of emotion over being rational took charge in this episode with the couple constantly arguing about it during the episode. Another aspect of the episode I found to be interesting was how the alien was able to channel the daughter and convince the mother to be with her. The alien even goes as far as saying that it is overcome by human emotion and turns off its core directive. This also makes the episode intense as we know anything is possible when it comes to The Twilight Zone.
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Episode 8 – A Small Town
Damon Wayans Jr. leads an interesting episode as a widower who was married to a well-liked mayor who died in a car accident. He discovers a miniature replica of the town he lives in and quickly learns that anything that he does to the model, it happens in real life.
This was another one of my favorite episodes despite it being an episode that wasn’t ambiguous or meaningful. I thought Damon Wayans Jr. gave the best performance in any of these episodes. He was still mourning his wife but also was trying to move forward. His idea of moving forward was helping his small town with various jobs like cleaning up the streets and listening to the citizens. He does all of this by taking care of the small model, which will affect the town. This was an episode that was easy to pick at and figure out what was going to happen. He was a man who came into too much power and you can easily figure out the route the character takes. It doesn’t have a shocking twist at the end but I enjoyed the episode for the progression of the character and the different things he was doing to the town … and people!
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Episode 9 – Try, Try
Movies and shows with a time loop theme seem to pop up every once and awhile and The Twilight Zone offers its own twist to it. Topher Grace plays Marc, who saves Claudia from getting run over and they get to know each other by touring a local museum. Marc starts to finish her sentences and predict certain situations. Claudia starts to suspect something and it is revealed that Marc is stuck in a time loop and relives the day with Claudia over and over again. He takes advantage of trying different scenarios that will help him get closer to Claudia every day. Sometimes he fails, but then has to wait to the next day to try again.
The later episodes of the season were some of my favorite. Topher Grace gives an eerie performance which turned sinister at the end. He started off the episode as a likable guy, but with The Twilight Zone, things aren’t as they seem. As we learn more about his time loop journey, we learn that he is stalking Claudia. Claudia and Marc don’t have the strongest connection, so it makes it hard to understand his reasoning for stalking Claudia. There was humor thrown throughout the episode, mainly coming from Marc failing to move forward in his day with Claudia. This probably has the weakest ending of the episodes, but I found Topher Grace’s performance and the time loop take on it rewarding.
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Episode 10 – You Might Also Like
Janett Warren lives in a utopian America where consumers are obsessed with the next ‘big’ item. An item that is being shown across the country is ‘The Egg’, which promises to fix all your problems. Janett isn’t convinced that the egg will make her happy since she recently had a stillborn baby. Janett keeps blacking out and waking up in her bed and feels she is being abducted by aliens. She tells her friend that she keeps losing chunks of time. She thinks this new egg that everyone is obsessing over has something to do with her blacking out. She tries to monitor herself while she blacks out even going as far as tying herself to a chair. That doesn’t help since she floats towards the window and outside, where three aliens watch her.
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I was really curious as to how the last episode would play out. Would it connect all episodes like the Season 1 finale? I expected the episode to go that route but instead it was a sequel to the 1962 episode, ‘To Serve Man’. The Kanamits, an alien race from that episode, appear at the end of this episode. At first, I didn’t catch the connection so I didn’t feel the impact. After researching the episode, I caught on and absolutely loved it! The whole episode dealt with consumerism. Gretchen Mol gives a great performance as Janett Warren. The script for this episode allows for Mol to give a more lighthearted and fun performance, especially when she is interacting with the aliens. They think her leg would be the best part to eat and they can make it extra crispy! The season finale was probably the funniest episode of the ten with moments of pure wit that allowed for writer and director Osgood Perkins to show his style. It had a clever connection to a previous episode and ended the season on a high note!
Overall, I enjoyed the first season a lot more. The new season works best when it is being bold. Most of the episodes are either predictable or have nothing new to say. The first season covered such topics as politics, gender, and race, all which are current issues in society. The newest season covered the theme of identity. Episodes like ‘Ovation’, ‘The Who of You’, and ‘Downtime’ touch on the idea of your purpose in a classic sci-fi way. Each episode, whether it is about identity or not, seem lighter and less focused on being captivating. There are still things I appreciate about this season, like Jordan Peele as the host. Ever since he stepped into the horror game with Get Out, he has proven himself as a talented director and a great host. His voice is calm and mysterious as well and gives off a level of intrigue that Rod Serling was able to provide. The show is also shot beautifully. Each episode looks great and there is a lot of detail in the set design. There were some solid twists throughout the season and some that were left for interpretation. The cast also isn’t as strong as the first season. Actors like Seth Rogen, Kumail Nanjiani , and Adam Scott led an impressive cast to promote the season. There weren’t as many big names in the second season outside of Billy Porter, Topher Grace, and Joel McHale. There were plenty of decent performances, but I was left wanting more from some of the characters.
As much as I found the new season to be somewhat of a disappointment, I will always want to watch something related to The Twilight Zone. The score and opening always get me excited when I watch it. Now that I finished the new season, I want to go back and watch old episodes with Rod Serling which are also available on CBS All Access!
What did you think of this season? Tell us in the comments below!
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