Trailer Review: Jordan Peele's The Twilight Zone
By Amy Schatz
On February 21, CBS All Access released the full trailer for their upcoming Twilight Zone reboot (set to debut April 1), directed by Jordan Peele. Sound like a confusing combination? It gets even more complex: Tracy Morgan, grimacing under a dark flat cap, appears briefly in the trailer to taunt a character whose back is turned to the camera, “Are you happy with your life? Don’t you want it all?” The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun (who has sat down with Musée Magazine in the past) will appear prominently in at least one episode. Sanaa Lathan. John Cho, and Adam Scott will also hold starring roles.
What kind of show is it going to be, really? Hard to tell. The trailer implies a heavy psycho-thriller vibe which is further emphasized by the ample allusions to Stephen King’s The Shining, though it looks like small-town politics will pervade some of the episodes as well. Pretty much the only constant which the trailer promises is good cinema and guaranteed binge-ability: The trailer is ripe with hauntings, horrors, thrills, and a spine-tingling omen of some serious supernatural business.
A rapid-fire, emotionally tense montage of interactions between the show’s diverse cast hints at the possibility of poignant social commentary, especially in light of Get Out, Peele’s incredibly successful 2017 horror/thriller satire. I am particularly interested in the developments of one scene from the trailer, a sequence apparently shot from a video camera or smartphone which shows a cop lunging towards a driver he pulled over for unknown reasons, shouting “Turn it off!” How will Peele treat the topic of police brutality and institutionalized racism? Can we expect a provocative encounter that tests the audacity of network television, or, better yet, productive dialogue for viewers to take away? Will The Twilight Zone continue in a similar vein to Get Out, pushing at the boundaries of what a TV show is supposed to do?
Essentially, I hope Peele’s take on The Twilight Zone will be equally visually immersive as it will be productive. CBS is taking a big risk by rebooting a series which some critics might say has been utterly exhausted of new content, but Peele’s distinctive style makes me think this show (which will begin streaming in some of the critical months leading up to the 2020 election) is going to have a lot to say.
Watch the trailer here.
