There’s
a certain dilemma with reboots and remakes.
If you stick too close to the original, there’s no real point. You’re not adding anything. If you try to make it different, you risk
straying too far from the original vision.
It becomes a remake in name only.
It’s difficult to find a balance where you’re truly continuing the
legacy.
I
suspect the new incarnation of The Twilight Zone has been trying to find its
footing. At least one is a remake of an
original episode and seems to face that dilemma. Overall, though, it would seem that some of
the episodes are really trying to pay homage to Rod Serling’s vision.
Blurryman
is sort of a metafictional take on an episode.
It starts off looking like a regular episode, but it’s not. Midway through the opening narration, Jordan
Peele seems to break character and we realize the episode is about making a
Twilight Zone episode.
At
the center of this is Sophie Gelson, the false episode’s writer. Jordan Peele complains that her opening
narration isn’t good enough. So, there’s
a rewrite and some cue cards that don’t hold what she actually wrote.
Plus,
some footage shows a blurry man that no one noticed. Each episode seems to have at least
once. (The footage shown is from The Comedian. I checked and there is
actually a person there, although not as blurry.) The cue cards are written off as a
prank. The footage really isn’t anyone’s
fault. There are several people that
should have noticed and the script writer isn’t really one of them.
Blurryman
lays on the fright as Sophie descends into horror that occasionally showed up
in the classic series. She finds herself
on an empty lot, being chased by Blurryman.
When she finds other people, no one notices her, nor does anyone react
to her pursuer.
The
ending could be taken one of two ways.
It could be seen as somewhat cheesy and a blatant attempt to appeal to
fans of the original series. Instead,
I’d like to think that it’s a great way to acknowledge the original series and
maybe try to bring us back to that.
(Maybe the episode’s ending is a little corny, but I like it.)
I
can forgive a lot during a show’s first season.
I realize that this is basically a new production. While it would appear to have influences from
earlier incarnations, there will be missteps.
Maybe the self-referential nature doesn’t work all the time here, but I
do get the sense that they’re trying.
As
Sophie points out, why does it have to be art or entertainment? Likewise, why does it have to be true to the
original series or something new? It’s
difficult enough to find a balance. It’s
even more difficult to find something everyone will like. Sophie wondered what The Twilight Zone was as
a child. Was it a literal place or was
it a part of our imagination? I think a
lot of us have wondered the same thing from time to time.
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