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In case you haven’t seen the intro from my entry dated
1/26/19 (it’s in my archives whenever you want to read it), I’m no longer going
to review every single movie I see. I’m
going to review one, with the occasional bonus, and just give ratings for the
rest from now on (unless I decide to pick it up again in the future). You can always ask me why I gave the ratings
for the films without reviews though (via comments or the e-mail addresses
under the ‘About Me’ section).
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The Twilight
Zone: Season Two G
I generally liked this second season of the newest Twilight Zone, produced and narrated by
Jordan Peele, better than the last one enough to recommend it (you can read my
review for the previous season in the
archives---www.abcreviewarchive.blogspot.com).
Since it was only ten episodes, like last season, I’m simply going to
briefly discuss each one in the order they were presented, even though you
don’t have to watch them in order (being it’s an anthology series). First, we have “Meet in the Middle” which
imagines two people falling in love with each other’s voice inside their heads
instead of going crazy. Given the title,
they do attempt to meet and, in a somewhat clever turn of events, things don’t
turn out so well for at least one of them.
“Downtime” follows a fairly common storyline for the series, involving
mistaken identity of sorts wherein someone questions their entire existence
after a big reveal. We’re given a
different type of body-swapping tale in “The Who of You” that isn’t quite like Freaky Friday where a man can somehow
trade bodies via eye contact; contains a
twist of sorts at the end that should’ve been easy to figure out before being
revealed. “Ovation” was the weakest
entry for me which was baffling considering Ana Lily Amirpour (one of the only
directors I actually knew of this season), who made a name for herself with the
“different” vampire tale, A Girl Walks
Home Alone at Night, helmed it. It
pretty much emphasizes that fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially if
you suddenly transition from being invisible to stardom visible, and the title
refers to a rather silly concept; there’s a twist at the end that isn’t even
too shocking (I really didn’t care by that point anyway). “Among the Untrodden” involves a girl at a
boarding school learning she has special powers after a new girl informs her
so. It’s fairly straightforward but
corny fun in a similar way The Craft
is, and there’s a twist at the end I didn’t expect. A team of scientists at the bottom of the
world try capturing a special kind of octopus in the episode appropriately
titled “8.” It’s a decent creature
feature helmed by the directing duo (Justin Benson/Aaron Moorhead) behind Resolution, Spring, and The Endless;
the octopus does kill people and is eventually disclosed to have quite a
sinister agenda of its own. In “A Human
Face,” a married couple encounter an alien in their basement that gradually
transforms into their deceased daughter.
I wasn’t a fan of the CGI and the story itself ends up being rather
sappy, yet it simultaneously could be viewed as something that could’ve led down
darker paths given the alien’s intentions.
A man discovers a replica of the exact same small town he resides in in
“A Small Town” and learns he can play God, originally for the better given the
town hasn’t been doing so well following the death of his wife, but naturally
having “the whole world in your hands” can lead to disastrous consequences,
especially if others hear of this ability.
Topher Grace is in his own version of Groundhog Day in “Try, Try,” but I don’t remember Bill Murray
trying to severely harm anyone other than himself while in his time loop. Lastly, “You
Might Also Like” is a decent segment involving aliens subtly trying to take
over the world, but it felt a bit underdeveloped. All in all, I really only disliked one of the
ten episodes, ranging from 31 to 46 minutes (I don’t understand why they can’t
all be 30 minutes or less like the original series), available on CBS All
Access wherein you have the option of watching all ten in color or black &
white (like the original series). None
of them truly felt too original, which is nearly an impossible feat anymore,
but many of them felt unique momentarily, if that makes any sense. To make myself clear, there were more hits
than misses this round, and that’s always a good sign for an anthology
show/movie. 9/23/2020
Other movies I've seen and their ratings (see above):
The King of Staten Island >>>OK
Let It Snow (2020) >>>EH
Yes, God, Yes >>>OK/G
---Sean O.
9/29/2020
9/29/2020