DISCLAIMER! I'm a comedian. 22 years of wrestling with the double-edged creative sword of trying to say something to an audience and trying to make them laugh. It's not an either/or proposition, as it seems to be with Samir in this episode, but the metaphorical aspect of what you give to the audience no longer being yours, is certainly a truism.
I've long been a fan of The Twilight Zone, and the eighties revival was a must-watch for me in my teenage years, when I was devouring the works of Harlan Ellison and Richard Matheson, as well as Alan Moore's wonderful short comic strips in 2000AD. In our world of ongoing narrative, where even cinema releases require a knowledge of twenty preceding films, it is wonderful to wallow in an hour of television that asks many questions, and when it is over, it is over.
I thoroughly enjoyed Tracy Jordan's enigmatic appearance in a vaping cloud, and I thought all of the performances were uniformly excellent. The depiction of standup comedy was, like in The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel, necessarily unrealistic (there's only one club in these TV towns because they're expensive to build...), but effective in its simplicity. The laboured adherence to a potentially funny bit, that is delivered in a woefully unfunny way, is something I have personally seen thousands of times over the past two decades, and hearing Samir launch into it every night gave me PTSD from hosting shitty tryout nights.
I hope the rest of this series is as skilfully handled as this first installment. It's not a big showboating episode, and I am grateful for that. Along with Love, Death & Robots and Black Mirror, I'm glad the single-episode anthology is making a comeback.
It's predictable and unfortunately mediocre :(
Well, I for one, loved it shrugs
This was UNBELIEVABLY BORING.
God I hope that this episode isn't indicative of what this reboot has in store for us.
Oh, and "The Comedian" didn't say ANYTHING remotely funny. The nightclub audience all deserve Oscars for acting like there was some reason to laugh. After watching this for an hour I think I smirked once.
The only good part was the end, because it was finally over.
A bit cringe and a whole lot of that good-old political stuff. By the half of it I was wondering how long it would go on for.
If the first episode is any indication this Twilight Zone will be too much on the nose to even be considered any good.
But it's the first episode so... we'll see who gets the last laugh... Get it... laugh... last... Badump tiss rite.
All jokes aside: comedy isn't the only thing that requires timing, charm and talent to be good.
It was pretty predictable but I did enjoy the flow of it. Slow but ominous - the heavyness was tangible.
Predictable and utterly boring. Not fun at all.
The alleged comedy in this show was terrible. overall the show itself was good though. thank God they're not writing comedy haha
I actually thought it was pretty good. A little on the predictable side but it was still entertaining to watch anyway.
That was a weak start...hoping things get better.
This Death Note's version is better tan Netflix one
It doesn't even matter that there's only been two episodes to air. When will people get that Rod Serling was a genius and the Twilight Zone was a masterpiece that can't be duplicated? If you can't make a great idea better (and when it comes to the Twilight Zone, no one has or can), then why do it at all? Why bother? It's okay to accept that some things are just fine the way they are.
It was predictable for me, but I like how it went all Death Note with the killing joke(s).
Great episode very much in line with the original series! I’m excited to see what else is too come. I feel like people are misremembering the original show because this was very similar to most twilight zone episodes and it was great.
Wow, that hit deep. This does serve as a lesson and a reminder that the scariest things on earth are not the ones we don't understand, but those we think we do enough to give up a piece of our souls for, until all we've got left is our souls to give for something we never really understood in the first place.
Samir could be anyone of us, but how many of us can honestly say they can do what he did for his final act? #ChivalryLives
It made me think about Death Note. Especially the part with the notebook. But also made me think about Black Mirror. I honestly do not remember a single episode of the previous The Twilight Zone series so I can't say if Black Mirror should've make me think about The Twilight Zone in the first place :thinking:.
The episode was too slow for me. I watched it because it's ** The Twilight Zone** and because I like Kumail Nanjiani. Otherwise I would have stopped watching to be honest.
Hope the second episode has a better pace. I like this kind of short stories and the ”it makes me think” feeling.
More of the entertainment industry trying to push their anti-gun / anti-trump agenda....
The Twilight Zone (2019) – 01×01
New Series, my musings. – Very quick reviews.
A worthy update
Whilst having a flick through Morpheus tv app, (good app). I discovered eps 1 & 2 had been released, quickly downloaded them. Twilight Zone has always equalled a quality show to my mind, this series, so far, has upheld the tradition.
Rotton Tomatoes – IMDB
The Comedian starts off with a rather unfunny comedian, down on his luck, relationship issues when he comes across legendary comedian “J.C. Wheeler” upon a stool at a small little comedy club. Thus begins his journey into the twilight zone.
Without going into the story, the style and visuals are pleasing, soft orange lights, (I do miss the smoke of a nightclub) and the story builds nicely as the journey into the twilight zone begins. I was surprised that this episode was an hour long. Not sure 1 hr episodes suit the twilight zone, but for this episode yes it did.
As the Comedian realised his power he first makes jokes on random people he finds on social media, bad people, but it always came back to being personal and the people in his life. A small portion of the show dealt with altered reality / the Comedians awareness of where he was. Nice. (Especially in this day and age of spiritual & science questioning of reality.)
And that is what the Twilight Zone has always been about.
The Comedian, (and I cannot find his character name or actor name on line?) Didn’t deserve his fate, and that is one of the beauties of Rod Serlings twilight zone. It’s a cruel place.
I did think the tale was going to go another way and was pleased to be wrong.
Opening credits, Mmm, too fast, slow it all down, we don’t need a ton of CGI graphics chucked in our face. (Think a fade shot of Rod would be worthy)
Opening Theme: Yeah fine.
Boring, predictable, and a terrible lead. Even Peele's performance as the narrator seemed like a parody. I do hope this show has more to offer. Fingers crossed it's not a mark of things to come.
When I decided to give this series a try, I was hoping for a better first episode. The Comedian is way too predictable, and actually made me nod off in some parts. Granted, I was rather tired when I decided to watch this, but no first episode of a series should be this sleep inducing.
I’ll probably watch a few more episodes, but if this does not improve…this obviously wasn’t for me.
It was good -I’ve never seen the original version tho- however it was 12 minutes too long!
Weak episode , language was excessive, episode wasn't funny nor was it interesting.
And predictable I might add.
Hope it's much better than this down the road, are this will be heading back to
The Twilight Zone never to be seen again. Well for 20 years on another Reboot.
Definitely the weakest, worst episode
of the entire season
I personally don't really care about language and whatnot, but there was more than necessary for this episode.
Otherwise, it was good.
Extremely predictable. Maybe I was expecting to much, something like Black Mirror or similar. I will give them another chance, maybe until the fourth episode or so, let’s see if they show us something remarkable.
Well, that was... extremely predictable.
This felt like Death Note , but with a comedian.
Very watchable but utterly predictable.
this HAS to be an april fools joke?
Shout by DeletedBlockedParent2019-04-01T15:34:40Z
for me it's a weak starter episode. but we'll see. it's anthology so everything can happen.