One of my favorite TV shows of all-time is the black and white, Rod Serling creation of "The Twilight Zone." As a huge Sci-Fi nerd, I absolutely adored how the show merged Sci-Fi, horror, thriller, and history altogether in one nice package. My favorite episode by far is "The Obsolete Man," where the show demonstrates a society where fact is decided by the government and what implications it has on the people of its society. Concepts such as this entail a challenging, literary, and overall interesting take on TV.
Naturally, I was so excited that a creative mind such as Jordan Peele would be taking on the reboot of this show. To be honest, both "Get Out" and "Us" are two hour-long episodes of "The Twilight Zone," complete with sci-fi concepts that end with a nice twist. He certainly did not disappoint with the first two episodes released on April 1 entitled "The Comedian," and a remake of an original episode called "Nightmare At 30,000 Feet."
To begin, the first episode is an hour long and centers around a comedian named Samir (Kumail Nanjiani, who you might have seen from "The Big Sick). Samir is a comedian who really wants to make it back but is hesitant to resort to basic comedic principles that result in slapstick laughs. However, when he meets a famous comedian at his bar, he's told to involve his personal life and be more relatable to the audience. After doing this, he finds that something strange happens to the subject of all of his routines. Through this, he must decide how to use this power and exactly what he's willing to give to remain in the limelight.
I find this to be quite an interesting premise, and the performance of Kumail Nanjiani is one of my favorites on TV. It really is a commentary on how much are you willing to give up to achieve stardom. Are you willing to lose your friends, your self-esteem, even your dignity to achieve fame? "The Comedian" answers this question.
The second episode "Nightmare At 30,000 Feet" is a remake of an original episode entitled "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet." The new episode is all about an investigative journalist who boards a plane and finds an MP3 player with a podcast already playing. He clicks play and hears many revelations about the flight he is about to take.
This episode is all about destiny, fate, and changing the future. It is another fresh take on the interesting premise of "can you really change the future?" I can't reveal much due to spoilers, but I think this episode is slightly better than the comedian. Flying isn't one of my fears, but it's kinda creepy knowing what all can happen on a flight.
Jordan Peele is also excellent in his role as sudo-Rod Serling. My favorite part of the original series was the monologues by Serling, and Peele does a great job rekindling that magic.
I'd definitely recommend these first two episodes to fans of the sci-fi genre, and I"m really excited to see what episodes will be remade, and what episodes will be brand new. It's a solid beginning to the series.
