Why 2019's Twilight Zone is Boring

though seventy years old at this point the original 1950 rod sterling quiet zone is still one of the creepiest and smartest works a speculative and weird fiction ever committed to TV it's a series that poses strange questions and offers even stranger answers a series that's moody and atmospheric and thought-provoking a dark parable that's gone on to inspire countless other works of we're fiction it's no wonder then that there have been so many attempts throughout the years to revive it a movie in 1983 a series in 1985 and another series in 2002 each has been greeted with varying levels of critical success but none have been as cultural impactful as the original the 2019 remake won't be breaking that tradition don't get me wrong the new twilight zone has a distressing amount of quality and talent involved the cast is solid throughout and the only reason certain episodes work at all is the powerful performances of the actors involved there's also a nice push for racial diversity in the cast and sometimes in the themes of a few of the episodes like replay and the traveler and I'm proud of Who I am the visuals of each of the 10 episodes are gorgeous and moody and the music wonderful and Atmospheric and reminiscent of the discordant jangles and strings of the late and great 2013 hannibal TV show it's a lot of quality to be draped on a fundamentally flawed structure to understand the fundamental flaw in a new series we have to go back to the original Rod Serling Twilight Zone and the thing that has to be understood about the original series is that it's not science fiction despite looking like it on the surface though there are dozens of definitions of science fiction at its core one of the key aspects of science fiction is that it introduces a technology or technologies we don't have in the modern day and it explores and maps out the impact and implications they'd have on individuals and society for example a robot by Isaac Asimov is interested in the implications of what sentient artificial intelligence means for our understanding of personhood how an AI would define and think about itself and how society would go about trying to control it leading to the Three Laws of Robotics for which the book is most famous this definition of science fiction is also why something like Star Wars at its heart is not science fiction despite having a lot of the trappings of it it has a lot of technologies that don't exist in the modern day but it's not interested in the impact of them it has lightsabers because they're cool not because it wants to speculate about how they would change warfare even the implications of the force the speculative aspect of its universe that's most critical to the story isn't really explored how does the force change the universe you get mystical samurai cops and that's about it nothing about the force is actually key to the functioning of the Star Wars universe you could take it out and the movies will be a lot less fun but the universe wouldn't really be changed and this isn't to disparage Star Wars I love Star Wars but despite its trappings its fantasy and to say it's science fiction just isn't accurate much like Star Wars despite its trappings The Twilight Zone isn't science fiction but it's not fantasy either The Twilight Zone is a much older and simpler form of story it's a parable each episode is a self-contained story of right and wrong with a strange or impossible element there to hammer home a message not be explored all three of the John Rose we've talked about science fiction fantasy and parable have strengths and weaknesses unique to them one of the strengths of a parable is its clarity there's right and wrong and not a lot else to be said almost by necessity parables have to be streamlined and simple in structure and a parable there's a message or lesson and the story is really just a vehicle to illustrate it prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy and a thoughtless frightened search for a scapegoat has a fault all of its own the parable of the boy who cried wolf doesn't go into the emotional underpinnings of why a boy would consistently sound a false alarm because it's not important did he have an abusive childhood was that a metaphor for trying to escape abuse and the unwillingness of society to listen is the wolf symbolically his abuser the parable doesn't care and it isn't important to the point it's trying to make don't sound false alarms or no one will pay attention when the threat is real the original 1950s Twilight Zone understood that simplicity of structure was key to a successful parable each episode was a half-hour in length just long enough for setup twists and a falling action you can tell this simple structure was key to the Twilight Zone success because most of what people remember about any given Twilight Zone episode is the ending submitted for your approval tales of expectations shattered assumptions obliterated preconceived notions stuffed into a bag of doubts and tossed into a lake of hunches all about the boring 30-minute setups and while having such a simple structure might seem restrictive I'd argue that not only is it the most effective way of telling a parable but that there's a lot of freedom and structure that the simplicity of the structure allowed rod sterling and the other writers to grapple with issues other shows on TV couldn't at the time and allow the episodes to brief in the grace notes and exhibit a and my argument is the new Twilight Zone where the original Twilight Zone was a half hour the 2019 incarnation is twice that length at an hour and while I'm sure the writers and producers thought that was a great chance to expand and tell a more complete and complicated story than the original show what it actually does is put the episodes in an uncomfortable limbo they're too long to be able to embrace the simplicity of the original show that structure of set up twists and falling action and too short to really be able to explore the core concept and theme of each episode there's a reason most movies aren't an hour long and that's because it's simply not a conducive length for telling a good story with each episode of the new Twilight Zone I found myself bored around the 30 minute mark impatient for the twist out of curiosity but not really invested in the characters or plot episode 7 not all men is a good example of the problems the extended runtime of the new Twilight Zone can cause the core concept is that there's a meteor that falls and causes all men in the area to become violent this is sort of a dumb concept to begin with but not completely doomed the main character even goes through some growth she starts the episode unassertive and meek in the face of the patriarchal hierarchy of the company she works ad you know you don't have to agree to everything Phil asks of you that's no big deal like a weird saying no I don't want them to think I'm I'm not a team player and ends it standing up for herself against male harassment you know I bet you'd look much too did you smiled what did you say why don't you try it sometime now this isn't an inherently bad art but its execution is pitiful without enough await for we the audience to become invested in we never get any real indication of why the character starts the way she does what her life experience has been to shape her into who she is and there's no sacrifice our growth involved in her change if the episode was longer it could have delved into that material made the main character a fully realized and three-dimensional person that we could have become invested in and root for but as the episode stands she and her growth are more perfunctory than anything else she's meek she runs from aggro dudes for a bit then stands up for herself the twist of the episode also isn't worth waiting a whole hour for at the climax of the episode it's revealed that while the media makes men more violent it's not an overriding urge the episode implies that the effective men didn't resist simply because they wanted an excuse to inflict violence but because this twist comes so late it's not really given enough time to breathe and be explored in a meaningful way this ties into another fundamental problem with the 2019 series which is that it isn't anywhere near as smart as it thinks it is often the idea or message at the heart of an episode is borderline offensive and how simple it is by trying to avoid destiny you create it paranoia is bad you should care about the suffering of others mind boggling truly they're not bad messages but they're simple and the television audience of 2019 isn't the audience of 1959 the modern audience is more schooled and experienced with sci-fi and weird fiction we're not shocked or provoked into thought anymore just by the introduction of a weird element like your car coming to life and stalking this isn't to say audiences of 1959 were dumb for the discourse around sci-fi and weird fiction for even the casual TV watcher of today is a lot more complex than it was back then we're not in the 101 level anymore more like the 103 level we've seen the initial introduction of most ideas seen them explored and challenged and subverted and are now bored by those first two levels of discussion this is why the core message of an episode like point of origin in which refugees from another world are rounded up and placed in concentration camps falls flat the episode follows a woman who's privileged life is stripped from her when a government agency identifies her as an unwitting refugee from another dimension and imprisons her the episodes message isn't subtle you should care about the suffering of others you should treat immigrants as people and that even before her fall from grace the woman should have cared more about the fate of her immigrant housekeeper and illegal immigrants broadly think they would take us to the Four Seasons it's not a bad message and it's one that a mind-boggling amount of people nowadays somehow still don't understand but from a fictive perspective it's too simple and trite to spark interest and engagement or make the audience think and it's also a message we've heard several thousand times the way we consume information nowadays is different from one the original Twilight Zone first aired the discourse around topics like immigration or gender nowadays is in many ways saturated and as an audience we suffer from a type of preach fatigue where we've been told so many times that a given side of a given topic is good or bad that we've sort of stopped listening this wasn't as much of an issue in 1960 and it especially wasn't an issue with the twilight zone back then sci-fi and weird fiction wasn't considered a mode of serious social commentary in the TV arena which meant the twilight zone could lure audiences in for a fun and spooky time their cognitive defenses lowered and then sucker-punched them with something deeper than what they expected that advantage of bypassing an audience's preached defenses is completely lost in 2019 Twilight Zone we all know that science fiction can effectively tackle big issues and we know the deal with the Twilight Zone specifically that it's going to have a twist in the last act that makes us question our complicity in some social issue our preach fatigue hackles are already raised in 1960 The Twilight Zone was adding a new element to the discussion but now the social topics it was concerned with are so heavily examined that to truly do a comparable job it needs to be way way more clever than point of origins premise of imagines aliens instead of Mexicans to be as effective as the original 29 teens Twilight Zone really needed to tackle issues that are less clear-cut than men having a choice in their violent behavior or whether illegal immigrants deserve basic human rights issues that are less overtly preachy because they're less discussed for example point of origin actually has the kernel of a complex an interesting idea in it it just doesn't do anything with it in the episode as it is now the main characters fall from grace serves largely as a kind of gotcha moment showing the irony of how the tables have turned but in a better version of the episode her arc could be used to explore the idea that social lines are largely arbitrary and fickle and that whether you're part of a group or not can change on a whim it's an idea that's worth examining the facets of the causes and effects of how and why and where social lines are erected and one that's more complex than point of origin stripe message about how you should treat immigrants like people there's more material there for an audience to chew on engage with an idea that's less preachy and more thought-provoking another element that made the twilight zone successful and relevant in 1959 but doesn't really apply today is the issue of censorship in 1959 what could be portrayed on screen and which topics could be explored was far less permissive than it is today there's an interview with Rod Stirling right before the Twilight Zone first aired where he talks about being tired of clashing with sponsors and executives over what content and social issues his screenplays could include one example he brings up comes from a teleplay on the nuremberg trials in which the company American Gas insisted on an edit mention was made of gas chambers and the line was deleted cut off the cut off cut off the soundtrack and it might be noted little of these guys that the gas involved in concentration camp was cyanide which bore no resemblance physically or otherwise due to the gas heated stone they cut the line because the sponsor was did not want that Auto Association made between what was the horror and the misery of Nazi Germany with the nice chrome wonderfully an aseptically clean beautiful kitchen appliances that they were selling but just as with the point about the lack of complexity and its themes the new Twilight Zone exists in a different era than the original we're at a point in television and fiction where creators don't have to bow as much to advertisers and censors and can actually just say what they mean point of origin doesn't need to Veil its message about immigrants and their demonization in sci-fi terms it could just tell a story about real-world immigrants and refugees this doesn't mean it has to be bereft of weird elements those still have a valid role to play but it does mean it can address the issues that it's about head-on and directly and I'd argue there's value in that kind of clarity some people will make an argument that veiling issues in sci-fi metaphors lowers and audience members knee-jerk defences and lets them look at an issue stripped of their preconceptions and prejudices and there's certainly a tradition of creators using weird fiction to try and accomplish that Rod Stirling himself spoke about it in several interviews throughout his career we have to tell them the story of prejudice in terrible form which they may step aside as third persons and clock can say how awful we treat our minority groups but at least they know that it's an evil and it will recognize it as such now on Twilight Zone for example done during just as timorous a time as any other time we made a comment on prejudice on conformity on intolerance and censorship now it may well be that the inner message may never get through but I think peripherally it does get through but in that same interview sterling also emphasizes the need for clarity immediacy and hitting the audience where they live when discussing social issues I think the the purpose the point of a dramatic show which is used as a vehicle of social criticism is to involve an audience to show them where in their guilt lies or at least indeed their association this latter point is the one I think is more valid I'd argue that veiling real-world social issues through weird fiction metaphors is a nice idea but it's not a particularly effective one and often the metaphor simply goes over people's heads how many red had it build a wall enthusiasts watch point of origin and thought to themselves after yeah you know what immigrants aren't so bad and we shouldn't round them up into concentration camps I'd argue none it's far far too easy for an audience member to simply think that shirt in this case what happened was unfair but this real-world case is different for x y&z reasons no matter how insignificant those XYZ differences are to the core situation fundamentally people are simply very good at ignoring and minimizing information that destabilizes their worldview and it's relatively simple to do it with fiction and none of the new Twilight Zone episodes are pointed enough to break through that cognitive barrier what's ironic is that for all that Jordan Peele is touted as one of the creators of the new Twilight Zone and for how much his face actually shows up in the new Twilight Zone his own movie get out is a far more effective blueprint of what the Twilight Zone should be and a good contrast to it to begin with the sci-fi concept of the heart of it that there's an enclave of rich white people stealing black people's bodies for themselves is a manifestation of a complex and nuanced form of racism that often isn't acknowledged or discussed racism is generally thought of as simple dislike or belief in the inferiority of another race and while that's as accurate as far as it grows racism can also fetishize or simply allow for superior traits in the other racial group while still denying the people themselves their agency and basic humanity it's a form of racism that was one of the bedrocks of slavery that as a institution a perfectly paired black bodily strength with white intellect and you can see a modern expression of it you know how most football teams are largely black but the quarterback white the black team member serving as muscle to the quarterbacks mind the racism at the heart of get out is far more complex and nuanced than point of origins it complicates most people's understanding of racism as the simple belief that races that aren't their own are inferior and makes us question our own complicity and assumptions at 144 minutes get out also not only has enough time to explore this idea but also to breathe and build to its twists and flush out its main character unlike not all men's main character get outs main characters a real and multifaceted person with weight and history and goes through a coherent character art we never get a concrete reason for why not all men's main character starts the episode meek which makes her feel blurry and poorly defined by contrast were shown get outs main character was traumatized but what he feels was his complicity in his mother's death as you said he didn't call anyone the alternate ending a get out even threats his emotional growth through the themes of racism despite ending having his body in prison the main character is mentally free an inverse of the Fate he would have suffered at the hands of the Armitage family here's director Jordan Peele explaining the scene he beat the he beat the dragon but more importantly for Chris when he says I beat it he's talking about his inner demon and that was the moment he went back for Georgina and after hitting her in the car he defeated his personal demon of when he didn't go and get his mother so in a way he made the only decision that would free hit his soul and even though he's in prison like many black men are unjustly and but his soul is free get out also has the advantage of being annajura that just like the original Twilight Zone isn't oversaturated with serious political commentary while there are smart and socially intelligent horror movies out there many people still think of it them as dumb fun and thus get out can effectively draw you in with the promise of cheap thrill before sucker-punching you with depth and message get out has clear-cut right and wrong it's not like we don't know who to root for and who is evil but these three elements together a complex theme a real character and low expectations save get out from the preached fatigue I talked about before I'm from which the 2019 Twilight Zone suffers so heavily ultimately 2019 Twilight Zone feels like an outdated show stiff and limited and slow worse it's boring which is really the greatest sin it's stuck in an uncomfortable limbo both in terms of era and link its mired in the past trying to emulate a TV show that's 60 years old at this point while also up ending a structure I'm placing with one that's incompatible with what it's trying to imitate [Music] [Music]

Channel: Tacit Cantos

Views: 9,973

Keywords: twilight zone, 2019 twilight zone, jordan peele, rod sterling, problems, boring, new twilight

Id: o8SUDcGSQLE

Length: 18min 19sec (1099 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 25 2020