Paramount+ sends The Twilight Zone into the Twilight Zone
As Paramount+ gears up for its March 2 launch, the streaming service cleaned house to free up space for new projects. Several CBS All Access originals were given the boot, including Jordan Peele’s reboot of the Rod Serling classic The Twilight Zone.
Peele’s reboot debuted to much fanfare in 2019 and ran for two seasons. Several big name celebrities signed on to star in the spooky anthology that offered chills and thrills amid a backdrop of real-life issues.
The Twilight Zone arrived two years after the success of Peele’s seminal horror movie Get Out, and there was no better person to resurrect Serling’s classic. Though there have been remakes aplenty over the years, Peele’s version of the show was able to harness the same creepy energy of Serling’s show and pair it with everyday scenarios and situations that gave viewers pause and encouraged them to think.
Though the show wasn’t perfect it was the perfect place to contemplate the other side of life’s mysteries, often through the lens of the outlandish and obscure.
The Twilight Zone has always been a place to reflect upon societal issues
Rod Serling was able to develop his science fiction show in the middle of one of the most intriguing periods of American history. When the show debuted on CBS in 1959, World War II and the Korean War were still fresh in the country’s mind and the Cold War was heating up. The Space Race was about to begin in earnest and there was political unrest, racial tension and McCarthyism running rampant.
In short, it was a perfect time to write thought-provoking stories under the guise of science fiction.
Like Serling, Peele’s show came about during Donald Trump’s presidency as the country was reaching a new boiling point. Thanks to advancements in technology, the stories Peele could tell reflect the modern era but still delivered strong messages to viewers.
For many fans, the new era of The Twilight Zone was fresh and poignant and something that Rod Serling would be proud of.
Unfortunately, many viewers didn’t connect with what they believed to be “woke” television. Though Serling’s series still resonates today with equally woke messaging, some viewers felt that the show was trying too hard to send a message, while other viewers believed that the series was disjointed and didn’t have the kind of cohesion needed to keep it going.
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It’s possible that Peele could resurrect his show elsewhere, possibly under a new title. Peele signed a 5-year first look deal with Universal and he has an overall TV deal with Amazon Studios. A Twilight Zone-esque anthology could do very well at Amazon and Peele would have even more creative freedom to develop the project as he sees fit.