I
remember seeing the coming attractions for the new Twilight Zone series. I was excited until I realized that it was
going to be on CBS All Access. Granted,
I also wanted to watch Star Trek: Picard, but it still wasn’t enough to get me
to pay. I don’t have a lot of money to
spare. Since the outbreak of
Coronavirus, it looks like I have a free month to watch the first season.
Samir
Wassan is the titular comedian. He has
an act about The Second Amendment that comes off more like a lecture than a
comedy routine. He gets no laughs. That’s when he’s approached by a famous
comedian, J.C. Wheeler. J.C. hasn’t been
seen for a while, but is apparently good enough that Samir asks for any
pointers.
J.C.
tells him that he has to put himself out there and he’ll get the laughs he
wants. But it comes with a catch. He can never get that part of him back. That might seem like an innocuous warning, but
this is The Twilight Zone. Nothing comes
for free.
It
starts simply. Samir makes fun of Rena’s
dog, aptly named Cat. When he returns
home to his girlfriend, Rena, she doesn’t recall ever having a dog. All pictures of Cat are gone from Samir’s
phone. No one recalls Cat.
Therein
lies the rub. If he mentions a person’s
name, that person disappears, but Samir delivers a popular routine. Samir runs up against two further conditions. First, he has to use the person’s actual
name. Sort of getting it right only to
realize it might be an alias doesn’t work.
Second, he can’t use the same person twice. He has to make a new person disappear each
time he’s on stage.
At
first, this seems great. He can get rid
of people he doesn’t like. Fellow
comedian Joe Donner hit a mother and child sitting at a bus bench. When Samir makes Joe go away, the bus bench
is restored and the mother and child are presumably still alive.
He
goes through a list of people who wronged him, from bullies to a pervy school
coach. Eventually, he starts towards the
petty. He gets rid of Rena’s
mentor. She goes from being a lawyer to
being a waitress. He also makes her
nephew disappear. Not only does Rena not
remember the nephew, but her sister is unable to have children.
Samir
has an ethical debate. He’s using people
for his own advantage. They did
exist. He remembers them. But he’s the only one. As J.C. points out, there’s no grieving
mother. No one really cares except for
Samir. When Rena finally calls him on
it, there’s only one thing for Samir to do.
It
might seem that this is exclusively about the Law of Unintended
Consequences. However, not each action
has a downside that’s readily apparent.
Samir did save two people, which has to count for something. Of course, just because we’re not aware of it
doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. We don’t
know if Joe had kids or was helping people on the side.
It’s
more about responsibility. Samir points
out that The Second Amendment states “well-regulated”, implying that not all
restrictions are off limits. The key
here, though, is regulating yourself.
Samir doesn’t ever really try to hold back. He’s aware of what he’s doing, but he does it
anyway. Sure, some good did come of
it. It’s not until the end that Samir
realizes how much harm he’s caused, even if no one else knows it. This is a solid entry for the new series.
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