Now that I've worked my way through this series of Twilight Zone, I feel like I can make an informed opinion about it.
There are a few decent stories in here, particularly How Much Do You Love Your Kid. But for the most part, a lot of these episodes play like reheated leftovers. There's very little that still tastes fresh.
But I have a hard time blaming the show for this.
The difficulties that this version has is that the original version was too successful, and the storytelling models it established have become ingrained in our culture. While clever writers can still write original stories with original twists, these writers clearly wanted to make the show feel like the Twilight Zone. So they lifted several of the twists. There aren't many surprises during the series, and the writing doesn't lift up a lackluster story like the original TZ could.
Even though Twilight Zone isn't able to be revived in a meaningful way, there's still Black Mirror to tide over fans of cleverly observed sci-fi anthology stories.
There are a few decent stories in here, particularly How Much Do You Love Your Kid. But for the most part, a lot of these episodes play like reheated leftovers. There's very little that still tastes fresh.
But I have a hard time blaming the show for this.
The difficulties that this version has is that the original version was too successful, and the storytelling models it established have become ingrained in our culture. While clever writers can still write original stories with original twists, these writers clearly wanted to make the show feel like the Twilight Zone. So they lifted several of the twists. There aren't many surprises during the series, and the writing doesn't lift up a lackluster story like the original TZ could.
Even though Twilight Zone isn't able to be revived in a meaningful way, there's still Black Mirror to tide over fans of cleverly observed sci-fi anthology stories.