It's safe to say that politics have drastically shaped film and television this day and age. Nearly every mainstream show wants to cater to all racial groups and genders, but in the long run, it shows how shallow many people can be. How can we fight racism if we attack another race repeatedly? The political landscape has gotten so rotten that it's hard to distinguish coincidental choices with legitimate ones. The obvious being with films like the latest Star Wars (until that changes), Mad Max, Captain Marvel (if you bring aboard someone as toxic as Brie Larson, you can't shake that connection), and basically anything by Jordan Peele.
Jordan Peele is an interesting man. A man who has transitioned from comedy (he started off on Mad TV, one of my favorite shows of all time and is best known for Key and Peele) to directing horror. That seamless transition alone is admirable in its own right, but... we're dealing with a modern day director, and given his ties, we know where this is heading. I'm not a big fan of Jordan Peele (I prefer Keegan Michael Key), and I wouldn't care about his films regardless of my political standing. I haven't seen his films, but in a way, I don't need to see them because the summaries and political climate give me an idea on what I'd be in for.
Then came The Twilight Zone.
I'm just going to get this out of the way, I'm not a big fan of the original Twilight Zone. I'm not a fan of the original The Outer Limits either, so maybe I just don't have a taste for horror from their respective eras. On the opposite, I love the first revival, namely because I love Tales from the Darkside. I feel 80s horror anthologies have a bit more life to them thanks to their cheesy dialogue and endearing antagonists. For the more polarizing second revival, it's okay, I made it through every episode I wanted to see, there's far worse. Then came Jordan Peele.
When they announced the new Twilight Zone, I was obviously skeptical. I mean let's face it, we know what rhetoric would do to any show. The white guy always dies or turns out to be the bad guy, and Trump jokes all around. I never got to see the show because it was only made available on CBS All Access. My philosophy on streaming services, I don't use PayPal, and I wouldn't pay for a streaming service if I only intend to use it once. I do have Hulu though, but nary a reason to use it yet.
I caught a review of the show by the almighty Asalieri, and it confirmed my suspicions. Check out the review here: https://www.bitchute.com/video/FjI49GdkRXEd/
For the record, this won't be a verbatim review, I want to use The Twilight Zone as a jumping off point for how much Jordan Peele sucks ass.
It's not that he's a hack director, and it's not even about his political leanings. It's the fact that he's terrible at translating those views to film. When you take into account what he believes in and the premises behind his movies, you could probably predict where they'd head. The suspense would be cut drastically.
Get Out, about an African American who gets into a girlfriend's family who turns African Americans white. A symbol for the "decimation of black people the world over" or just an attack against white people's dominance in the world.
BlacKKKlansman, okay it's about a bust that happened in the 70s, but of course it'd be something made today by someone like Peele, and Spike Lee while we're at it.
Us, likely a metaphor for "crab mentality", a well off African American family attacked by lesser dopplegangers.
I may be reading too much or too little into Peele's writing, but let's go into how he manages The Twilight Zone.
Peele is the narrator and producer of The Twilight Zone. Just to make this clear, he has only written one episode, he hasn't directed any of the existing ones. What's the problem with that? We have abominable episodes going right under his nose.
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Asalieri said it best in his review, but just to get you up to speed, I may need to borrow some points. Like I said before, Peele lacks subtlety, the first two episodes, while nothing to write home about, are at least serviceable, though frankly not even the premises can lure me in. While I can't blame Peele for the next few episodes, remember, he's the showrunner, he created it, he stars in it, he produced it (along with Simon Kinberg who was coincidentally involved with the garbage Fant4stic movie right when it was going south), and given his influence, I think he has as much say as the network when it comes to what's good enough to air.
Under Peele's watchful eye, we got episodes of the Twilight Zone that are incredibly off base. I guess this was to be expected given how radically each version of the show was when it came to tone. The original was a collection of cautionary tales with a sci-fi twist, the first revival had a focus on horror, with a mix of the spirit of the original, the second revival tried to be a modern take on the original... this one has a very partisan edge. Guess it really is a steady decline, this isn't even that original, they weren't even the first to have a person of cover host it (Forrest Whitaker helmed the second revival.)
How partisan is this? The third episode focuses on cops and their supposed vendetta against African Americans, complete with it being a fat white guy as the cop (because stereotyping is only offensive to non-whites I guess, double standards hurrah), a not so subtle Black Lives Matter message (displayed in the foreground but not hard to see), complete with irony; one of the main characters is heading to an all black college, and we treat it as a positive thing, even though having an all-any race anything goes against anti-segregation. It's bad if there's an all white college, but don't you be touching those all black colleges. I'd like to remind people of Alabama's black belt and them embracing the history of Rosa Parks, as well as the fact that Oklahoma is an example of a state with an all black college, and they're one of two states with no blue counties. Would that make them racist too?
I wouldn't be so upset about this, had it not been for the fact that they included a supernatural premise that is practically thrown out the window. It's a magic camcorder that reverses time (I imagine the other buttons have an effect but an hour's not enough to establish one of the cornerstones of the Twilight Zone, the supernatural.) I won't be harping on all episodes, namely due to the fact that it'd amount to their choices for the antagonists and protagonists, plus one about illegal aliens, but to show how creative the writing for that is, they're actually portrayed as aliens. However, I will focus on episodes that make clear what message the show is trying to push.
For starters, we have a gun control episode, because that certainly isn't an obnoxious topic that isn't as idiotic as it is futile. It gives the idea that once we have a gun or one's in eyeshot, we immediately go insane. Get back to me when they make something where someone goes crazy over the paranoia of having a gun. Since the episode descriptions on wikipedia are so generous, it's like you don't even need to watch the show.
Next they threw in an obligatory anti-Trump episode. Their stand in for Trump is an eleven year old YouTuber. Okay...? Points for not using a rapist or klansman, but a child? You want to present yourself as the voice of reason? Well through this, you ironically act like a kid yourself, which is why I don't identify as a democrat. Unless Tulsi Gabbard takes office, I need to stay out of this election. Plus, Asa didn't point this out, but John Cho of Harold and Kumar fame actually starred in this episode.
Next, and for this I'm less offended at the subject matter, more at the fact that they weren't subtle about it. They made an episode where men became violent rapists, with a meteorite serving as a mcguffin, but guess what? The meteorite had no effect and it just served as an excuse. Wanna know how not subtle this is? The episode is called "Not All Men". As if they took a objective viewpoint and decided to twist it to push a bigotry agenda. Okay? So does that mean African American men are rapists? Does that mean gay men are rapists? Does that mean transgender men are rapists? Does this mean Muslim men are rapists (okay they rape the minds of women but that's another story.) Obviously this was written by a woman and directed by a woman, perhaps to avoid double standards, but this just adds more strikes to the episode. You want to be considered credible? Don't resort to promoting agendas like this (because frankly, you're about to join the ranks of history's biggest bigots.)
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A big reason we have so much opposition to politics in media is because it interferes with the quality of it. Politics speak louder that the stories trying to be told, and ironically, it's a tad bit bigoted. Representation is fine, but promoting it so fiercely can harm self-esteem. People will ignore the liberties they already have and become entitled brats, possibly bigoted too. Now look, I simply choose to not watch shows and movies like these, but, as someone who was never that big of a fan of the Twilight Zone, I could easily say that I'd hate this show even on its own merits. It's as if they knew few people would watch these agendas if they were their own thing, so they cash in on existing brands, and poison it. I wouldn't be so idiotic about this, but they can't even incorporate it well into stories about the supernatural.
Wanna know how bad it is? I saw reviews on IMDb, and many of them came from left-leaning people who also agree the political stuff is delivered in a heavy handed manner. Peele, you can keep doing what you're doing, but you won't get a crumb from me, because I'm on the right side of history.
