Season two of The Twilight Zone is back on CBS All Access. Jordan Peele narrates the reboot, and executive produces too.
The first episode, called “Meet in the Middle,” shows a man named Phil suffering from hearing a woman’s voice in his head. Phil finds it hard to live with the woman constantly speaking in his brain, interrupting his dates and other private moments.
Over time, Phil and the woman behind the voice, Annie, begin to hit it off. At least Phil does, falling hard for Annie.
He begins digging around online for more information, and finds Annie is married. She notes that her marriage is a dead end, giving Phil hope.
The two plan to meet at the midpoint between their homes. Phil is on a train when he hears Annie in distress. He gets out of the train and heads to where she is, and faces off with a man he believed to be harming Annie, not realizing Annie is a step ahead of him.
It ends badly, at least for Phil. There isn’t much to like about Phil, but Jimmi Simpson plays him deftly. It’s a creepy episode.
The second episode, “The Who of You,” sees a struggling actor named Harry rob a bank. He has the ability to lock eyes with another person, then swap souls with them after the eye lock has happened. Others in the swap-personality chain include a woman from the bank Harry attempted to rob, a police officer, a psychic, a jogger and a boy.
Over time, it’s a bit challenging to remember who swapped souls with who.
Ethan Embry plays Harry.
Chasing Harry all the while is a detective played by Daniel Sunjata, formerly of Rescue Me.
Frothy ‘60s pop offsets the anxious mood of the episode.
The new season has some name actors in the cast, including Joel McHale, Damon Wayans Jr., Gretchen Mol and Topher Grace. The episodes we watched are faithful nods to the ‘60s series that predated the reboot. The stories didn’t stay with me long, but were fun to watch. They offer entertaining twists on the world we know, and Peele nimbly inserts himself in the frame to deliver his sage assessment.
