I guess that’s reasonable. You can’t argue with taking advantage of the streaming format to make episodes as long as appropriate for the story they are trying to tell. Now they just need to get good stories.
You’d think they would lead with some of their best work, so if the first two are not particularly good that seems like a very bad sign.
The lengths may vary, but the one they put on YouTube for free did not need to be an hour long. The premise was delivered quickly and it could have been 20 minutes shorter.
Apparently it’s the best episode of the first four that they showed press, which doesn’t say much for the whole series. Unless someone says there’s a stand-out episode, I’m a pass.
There’s a reason for that. The one season they went to an hour was mediocre at best, with only “50 Fathom Grave” and “Death Ship” being memorable.
Does anyone pay for CBS All Access? I can’t imagine this thing surviving.
…and that season was not included in the original syndication packages sold to local tv stations for rebroadcast in the 1970s, '80s and '90s, either. Those stations wanted the half-hour shows only.
It’s basically not being run to turn a profit on its own merits. It’s a place to dump a show like the Star Trek thing or this Twilight Zone reboot and get enough episodes made to sell for rebroadcast on another streaming service at some future point.
Good point.
If you already subscribe to Netflix and have a VPN, Star Trek Discovery S1 is available via Netflix/Mexico (that’s how I’m watching it). I imagine other All-Access shows will be as well.
I would pay for it if they didn’t keep giving away a month for free every few months. I like several of their shows. Star Trek: Disco. is great, the Star Trek Shorts were good, I enjoy having access to Survivor without commercials, and Late Show with Colbert without commercials. It’s another service that also has the old Star Trek shows (which is relevant to me since we are doing the Star Trek ReWatch at Qt3 where we watch an episode of the old Star Trek every week), so even on months that I don’t have Hulu or Netflix, I can still check out classic Trek on CBS All Access.
Not yet, at least in the UK.
So far:
Episode 1 - The Comedian. When a comedian makes jokes about someone they are erased. A creepy premise, but it always goes where you think it will go. There are no surprises, so it’s a wasted opportunity.
Episode 2 - Nightmare at 30,000 feet. Great premise again. A man gets on a plane and finds an mp3 player with a podcast that is talking in the past tense about the flight. Weirdly, the episode tips its hand 2/3rds of the way through, and then it’s just a matter of watching it play out. Again, decent episode, but weird pacing and timing on the reveal.
Episode 3 - Replay. Woman finds she can rewind time using her camcorder. Best one so far. This episode really goes over the top and really hammers home its point. It does not go for subtlety. I liked it. The ending does go on for a scene or two too long though. That seems to be a recurring problem, but at least here it’s not bad.
Meh, Jordan Peele is kind of a dick. He’s been doing trashy humor since Mad TV. What’s next, Seth MacFarlane wants to do a Star Trek show?
I agree.
All three have been callbacks to previous classic episodes, but Replay does the most with the material and truly shows us something “new” with a theme the old Twilight Zone only ever touched on obliquely, or in service to the overriding “conformity is death,” mantra.
Re Replay: to see THAT kind of story with THAT kind of representation done THAT in your face was something special.
More like this one please.
I just got a notification from my CBS All Access app. Apparently there’s a new season coming and all episodes drop all at once on June 25th.
Damn it, that’s two days after my membership expires. It’s as if they know that.
Maybe I’m in for another month after all.
I’m only 15 minutes into the new Season’s premiere, and I already love it! They’re starting out with a strong premise episode out of the gate this time, unlike last season where they started with, possibly, the weakest two episodes.
I have to confess, I’ve been watching but not massively engaging. The Season 2 premier was very good, with enough clues and misdirection to make trying to guess the twist a lot of fun.
I think part of the problem I have with it is that there have been so many versions of the Twilight Zone and imitators that it doesn’t feel like a very fresh format anymore and some of the episodes just aren’t strong enough to carry the format.
Oh hey, thanks for the reminder! I completely forgot about Season 2 being available. I think I watched only 2 episodes. That’s the thing about anthology shows, I never feel the need to watch a new episode, since they’re all unrelated short stories. I’m the same way with Black Mirror, where I stalled out on “Men Against Fire” in Season 3. I need to get back to that show too.
To be honest, I’m almost taking back what I said above - Season 2 I’m finding a lot more consistent in quality than the first. I’ve enjoyed most of them so far.
I still think the ‘The Twilight Zone’ brand doesn’t carry quite the punch it used to though.