The Twilight Zone

The often overlooked black sheep of the franchise, the 2002 _Twilight Zone_ delivers a solidly entertaining season of the strange and fantastical. Produced by Ira Steven Behr (_Star Trek: Deep Space Nine_) the season features 43 sci-fi, fantasy, and supernatural tales; including a couple of remakes of classic episodes, such as “Eye of the Beholder” and “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” and several others that are inspired by original episodes. Still, the episodes are rather hit-and-miss. The writing is a little weak; at times telegraphing the twist and rushing the story. Yet overall it does a good job at modernizing the series and tackles a lot of same political, social, and theological issues that the original show did. Hosted by Forest Whitaker and featuring a host of impressive guest stars (Katherine Heigl, Portia de Rossi, Jeremy Piven, Elizabeth Berkley, Andrew McCarthy, Jaime Pressly, Jason Bateman) the shows has a lot of talent behind it. The 2002 _Twilight Zone_ has some flaws, but overall it proves to be a worthy revival of Rod Serling’s classic series.