CBS has announced a partnership with comedian and filmmaker Jordan Peele to create a new Twilight Zone TV series. The new show could bring anthologies back to television while also exploring new realms of science fiction and horror. The show will be on CBS All Access, along with Star Trek: Discovery. Here are 5 things we want from the new show.
1. More Diversity
If there’s one thing you can criticize about the original Twilight Zone TV series is that it’s not very diverse. Almost every episode is just a sea of white men and white women. With his breakthrough movie Get Out, Jordan Peele has shown he can tell great science fiction and horror, but also make relevant stories about race and racism. There should be more episodes in the new Twilight Zone that reflect that. Adding diversity to the cast and stories would be a great way to make the new show more unique, improve on the old, and also draw in more viewers.
2. Great Stories
This might seem like a given, but it’s not. Twilight Zone has some of the most legendary stories in television and science fiction. Some of the classics like “Eye of the Beholder” and “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” aren’t just great episodes, but great stories.
The problem is that it’s a different time, and making classic stories like the originals isn’t that easy. There was a Twilight Zone revival in 1985-1989 but there aren’t many people who remember episodes from them. There was another revival in 2003 that only lasted one season, and those stories haven’t made any impact. The new Twilight Zone can hire some of the best writers and best directors to create new and iconic stories.
3. Modern Technology
Another area that the new Twilight Zone can improve on the originals is to tackle modern issues and technology. In our world, there are smartphones, tablets, the Internet, and lots of other technology that didn’t exist in the original series. These can be easily mined for new and mind-bending stories. We can point to the British science fiction anthology series Black Mirror as examples of how to do original stories that can take modern tech and find our greatest fears. In some ways, Black Mirror has been the prototype for what a new Twilight Zone TV show could be.
4. New Multimedia
The original Twilight Zone was brilliant for its time, but a new series could be more on the cutting edge. With today’s world, the show could live beyond just the TV screen, but on every screen. TV shows like Mr. Robot and Stranger Things have embraced this by releasing mobile games that tie into and expand the world of the TV series. It would be awesome if the new Twilight Zone followed suit and had apps to tie into the series. Besides just a mobile game, Twilight Zone could have an app that connects to specific episodes of the show. If the show had an episode about a woman terrorized by a mysterious chatbot, that same chatbot could talk to the viewers with chilling messages.
This is actually happening. There’s already a report that CBS is preparing an interactive live-action version of the show with the first episode written and directed by Bioshock’s creator, Ken Levine. It would be a whole new way to watch TV.
5. Network Airing
Look, we know that with the success of Star Trek: Discovery, CBS is going all-in with their streaming service CBS All Access. Star Trek: Discovery has been a big success and probably brought a lot of revenue for CBS, and the announcement of Twilight Zone being developed for CBS All Access probably means it’s supposed to drive more subscribers. They want more subscribers and making a top-notch show like Twilight Zone available only in the app is a great way to do that, but we really don’t want it. While it would be nice to get the show in the app, we hope that CBS will change their business model and put the show on the air for everyone to enjoy.
What do you think about the new Twilight Zone? Let us know in the comments!
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