Last week I did an article about the ’80s Twilight Zone, so this week I’m covering the 2000s version. Of the 4 versions of the show I’d say this is the most obscure, as the original is still a classic, the ’80s one has plenty of fans, and the most recent one is only 5-6 years old. The 2000s one was recent enough that it got a DVD release the year after it ended, but long ago enough that it didn’t get covered online nearly as much as the most recent one(I thought the recent one had its moments but don’t have enough to say about it to warrant an article).
It aired for one season, 2002-03, on UPN from 9-10 PM Wednesdays following Enterprise. Except for the hour-long episode “The Lineman”, the show aired back-to-back half-hour episodes each week, which makes me wonder why season 4 of the original show didn’t do the same instead of airing all hour-long episodes. UPN is remembered as the loser in the battle of the two non-major broadcast networks that were created in January 1995 and merged in September 2006. The CW is practically considered a continuation of The WB(until it decided to go in a different direction in recent years), which helps explain why this TZ incarnation has fallen through the memory cracks. It isn’t very well-remembered and from what I can gather isn’t especially well-regarded by those who do remember it, but I think that’s a shame because I think it had some worthwhile stuff.
Like all the other TZs, it’s very of its time. Just look at the show’s intro, with a theme song courtesy of Jonathan Davis of Korn:
This was one of the more mocked elements of the show, but as a fan of amusingly dated things I kinda like a nu-metal version of the TZ theme. It should be noted, though, that for the first half of the season the show used a different theme by X-Files composer Mark Snow:
How 2000s the show was is especially glaring when you compare it with the extremely ’90s revival of The Outer Limits, which ended the year this show began.
My favorite episode is “How Much Do You Love Your Kid?” a satire of reality TV when it was at its peak, with Wayne Knight as the host of the fake reality show. Two other eps I liked also starred guys from Seinfeld: “One Night at Mercy” with Jason Alexander and “Azoth the Avenger Is a Friend of Mine” with Patrick Warburton.
Although I think the show’s better than it’s given credit for, I’ll admit it did have its flaws. For one thing, it often tried too hard to appeal to young people. Maybe it was trying to fill the gap left by the end of Are You Afraid of the Dark? Another problem I had is that I thought some of the episodes were too centered around the twist ending, in that the twist was fairly clever but the episode didn’t have much going for it after that. The best episodes don’t depend on the twist ending even if it’s a good one. Also, I thought Forest Whitaker was too genial for his role as the show’s host. Someone who I thought would’ve been a good choice was Lance Reddick, who I thought had the appropriate air of mystery for the role.
Couple more notes:
- Amber Tamblyn was in the first aired episode, “Evergreen”, which I thought was one of the better episodes(and the other episode of the night was the aforementioned “One Night at Mercy”, making the show’s first night my favorite pair of eps to air on the same night). She plays a troubled teen who gets threatened to be sent to Arcadia Military School.
- Two actors who went on to star in Arrested Development the following year appeared on the show in Jason Bateman and Portia de Rossi(Jeffrey Tambor appeared on the ’80s show). Another established actor to appear on the show who was just about to have his most famous role was Ian McShane.
So, yeah, it had it’s flaws but I think it’s worth checking out if you haven’t seen it but are a fan of the previous TZ shows.