Romantic comedies tend to be better at the “meet-cute” than the “get-to-know-ya.” There’s a reason why so many TV and movie love stories begin with the couple hating each other. It’s easier in a way for writers, directors and actors to work with conflict than accord. It requires less imagination to depict soon-to-be lovers spending 45 minutes or so sparring over petty annoyances and diverging personal values. All the creative team has to do is to come up with one position or character trait and then counter it with the opposite. “He’s neat, she’s slobby,” “One’s liberal, one’s conservative,” and so on.
In The Twilight Zone episode “Meet In The Middle” though, Phil and Annie connect right away. Phil finds so many of the women he dates disappointing. Annie feels neglected and invisible. But after they stumble across each other in a restaurant, they start spending hours every day together, commiserating about the TV shows they love and the people they hate. Annie’s all Phil ever wanted.
But she may not be real.
When CBS All Access revived Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone last year, the new series arrived with much ballyhoo, but mixed results. There were a couple of brilliant episodes, a few just-okay hours, and a distressing number of out-and-out duds. Despite Jordan Peele’s involvement as a producer and host—and despite an admirable effort to make the Serling-style eeriness and plot twists relevant to now—too many episodes of this new Twilight Zone were overlong, and too many felt like they were straining to be both meaningful and mature.
So it’s an encouraging sign that The Twilight Zone’s second season begins with an episode that’s relatively simple, and highly watchable. “Meet In The Middle” only runs 43 minutes (which is probably still 10 minutes too long, but that’s okay). It has a straightforward story; and Jimmi Simpson and Gillian Jacobs give engaging performances as Phil and Annie. While the episode definitely has a point to make, credited co-writers Emily C. Chang and Sara Amini and director Mathias Herndl don’t hammer at it too hard.
The scenario is this: While Phil’s stuck on yet another dreary date, with a woman who obsesses over the cooking show Chef Boss, he suddenly hears Annie’s voice in his head for the first time, saying a wary “hello.” After an initial freakout on both sides, the two begin a telegraphic conversation that continues off-and-on for weeks, until they finally agree to meet in person, halfway between his home in Ashford City and hers in Diamond Falls.
But here’s the twist: While Phil’s taking a train to meet the woman of his dreams (maybe literally), she warns him telepathically that she’s being threatened by a burly bearded man in a plaid shirt. She leads him to the man’s house, but after Phil muscles his way in and and bludgeons him to death, he finds Annie sitting on the steps with her daughter, crying because the man he just killed was her husband. The police arrest Phil; and as they’re taking him away, he hears Annie in his head again, essentially admitting that she suckered him into committing murder.
But maybe this is just what Phil wants to believe. Maybe the only way he can deal with the crime he just committed is to tell himself he was baited into it.
Again, the space between the setup and the twist in “Meet In The Middle” runs too long. Chang and Amini carry through with the rom-com tradition of “boy loses girl,” as Phil cyberstalks Annie before their big meet-up, and pushes her away after he finds out she’s married. It’s a bit much.
And the episode has an even bigger flaw… or maybe it’s just something that bothered me because it’s a personal pet peeve. As good as Simpson is as Phil—mixing genuine vulnerability and sweetness with a dollop of creepy entitlement and self-delusion—he’s presumably been directed to react to the thoughts in his head as though he’s having an actual silent conversation. It makes his performance more visually dynamic, but it just looks weird, to see a guy sitting in a coffee shop laughing and nodding at nothing, with other people around.
That said, Phil is supposed to be a little weird. We see him in therapy early on, talking about his delusions and his dissatisfactions; and while he seems like a nice guy, there are hints he has some issues with women. He gets distracted when his date has curlier hair than her profile picture suggested. (He also doesn’t understand the dishes she wants to order, which suggests that maybe he doesn’t like his ladies or his meals too ethnic.) He promises to guide Annie through his favorite music and his favorite sci-fi, to improve her taste.
Maybe this episode isn’t about a woman manipulating a lonely man into freeing her from an abusive marriage. Maybe it’s about a man who can’t find meaningful real-world relationships because he can’t accept people for who they are. He’ll meet a woman in the middle, sure… so he can drag her to his side.
Stray observations
- CBS sent critics a Twilight Zone gift box filled with snacks, which included hints to the easter eggs and callbacks we can expect this season. The hint for this episode is, “You’re looking at a species of flimsy little two-legged animals with extremely small heads, whose name is Man.” That’s an excerpt from Rod Serling’s narration in “People Are Alike All Over,” a season one original Twilight Zone in which astronauts exploring Mars are telepathically lured by a beautiful woman to their new home… a zoo!
- Nice touch to play “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You”—with the line “you’re just too good to be true”—during Phil’s IRL meeting with Annie.
- Welcome back to The A.V. Club’s Twilight Zone reviews! Unlike season one, this latest run is dropping all at once; so rather than these reviews running weekly, look for one review every morning for roughly the next 10 days. I’ll mostly be following the episode order as it is on CBS All Access, but be warned: CBS only sent three episodes in advance and I’ll be doing those first, regardless of where they ultimately fall. Next up is “The Who Of You,” followed by “You Might Also Like.” I’ll let you know down here at the end of each review which one’s coming next.
98 Comments
One of the few, truly awesome episodes of the 1980’s Twilight Zone is “A Message from Charity,” which features a similar premise of two characters communicating telepathically (through the centuries, in that case).
One of my all time favorites and it came to mind instantly when I read this review
It definitely ranks among my favorite Twilight Zone episodes, including the original series. A haunting and heartwarming story about first love.
Jordan Peele has absolutely trashed Twilight Zone with the ham fisted
forced SJW messaging. The original was first and foremost sci-fi/fantasy
with subtle social issue allusion, without being hammered over the head
with how you should feel about it. Also, Get Out was way overrated and
hinged its entire plot on a magical, all powerful hypnotic teaspoon.
I’m not sure how you could possibly enjoy the original episodes if you have a problem with “SJW messaging” which is basically all they consist of.
The good Doctor you are responding to is an impersonating troll that’s assuming the identity of Dr Emilio Lizardo. I don’t know what it is about the real Dr Lizardo that attracts SO. MANY. FAKE. ACCOUNTS.Feel free to dismiss dremilioalizaaardo and check out the actual intelligent comments left by the legitimate dremiliolizardo.
The 1980s reboot is seriously underrated, in my opinion. They adapted a ton of stories from legit sci-fi writers (Harlan Ellison, Greg Bear, George R R Martin, Arthur C Clarke, Ray Bradbury) and they also good writers writing new stuff who would then go on to better things (J. Michael Straczynski, not always my cuppa but doing good work here).
It did have some gems. The ending of “A Little Peace and Quiet” still haunts me. And “The Call” was a classic.
I gotta say that that sounds like a pretty malicious ending, more Showtime’s Outer Limits than Twilight Zone. Let’s hope this isn’t a harbinger of things to come.
That’s the twist!
Jordan Peele has absolutely trashed Twilight Zone with the ham fisted
forced SJW messaging. The original was first and foremost sci-fi/fantasy
with subtle social issue allusion, without being hammered over the head
with how you should feel about it. Also, Get Out was way overrated and
hinged its entire plot on a magical, all powerful hypnotic teaspoon.
Jordan Peele has absolutely trashed Twilight Zone with the ham fisted
forced SJW messaging. The original was first and foremost sci-fi/fantasy
with subtle social issue allusion, without being hammered over the head
with how you should feel about it. Also, Get Out was way overrated and
hinged its entire plot on a magical, all powerful hypnotic teaspoon.
The 1st one feels a little meaner than what Serling would typically do. But the 2nd one is very nicely humanistic.
As much as I love Jimmi Simpson, I thought that was Frogurt/AAARONBURRR, AARONBUHHRRR!!! in the photo, and was actually disappointed to learn it wasn’t him.
Jordan Peele has absolutely trashed Twilight Zone with the ham fisted
forced SJW messaging. The original was first and foremost sci-fi/fantasy
with subtle social issue allusion, without being hammered over the head
with how you should feel about it. Also, Get Out was way overrated and
hinged its entire plot on a magical, all powerful hypnotic teaspoon.
I thought it was Richard E. Grant.
He is you.
As a brit with mainly second-hand knowledge of the show, I ploughed through about 80 episodes of the original before CBS’s came out, and the fact they were mostly a very snappy ~20 minutes was a big strength. A lot of tv of that era doesn’t hold up at all, and even a couple that I personally like such as the original Star Trek can really drag. I am pleased to say that even without nostalgia in play, Serling’s Twilight Zone is as entertaining today as anything. It doesn’t hurt that Serling was a progressive individual concerned with challenging the status quo and addressing the lack of diversity in television at the time.CBS didn’t recapture that magic, though to a lesser extent than their current Star Trek output. Unlike that it doesn’t seem like they didn’t get why Twilight Zone worked, or what its philosophy is, but rather they aren’t bound by the constraints of network TV and its leading to bloated stories too concerned with referencing what made the old one great. I really hoped the second season would address that issue, it’s broader problem with streaming in general really.
Seriously. Last season I watched till the cop episode (which is probably the only one I liked). It just all felt unnecesarily bloated. The faster pace of the original is vastly superior. Maybe I’ll drag myself through the rest of S1 and this when I finish Seinfeld.
I was pretty sure I watched the whole first season but apparently just the first 4. So about the same as you. Maybe it is worth checking out the rest, but if I can watch 3 episodes of the original in the time it takes to watch 1 of the new, and be pretty much guaranteed 2 are gonna be great, I dunno what the point is. I’ll probably check out the higher rated eps of this season at least.
Jordan Peele has absolutely trashed Twilight Zone with the ham fisted
forced SJW messaging. The original was first and foremost sci-fi/fantasy
with subtle social issue allusion, without being hammered over the head
with how you should feel about it. Also, Get Out was way overrated and
hinged its entire plot on a magical, all powerful hypnotic teaspoon.
Jordan Peele has absolutely trashed Twilight Zone with the ham fisted
forced SJW messaging. The original was first and foremost sci-fi/fantasy
with subtle social issue allusion, without being hammered over the head
with how you should feel about it. Also, Get Out was way overrated and
hinged its entire plot on a magical, all powerful hypnotic teaspoon.
Everything’s a disappointment after “Seinfeld.” 😀
I truly love the original Twilight Zone, but there was a whole season in which the episodes were an hour long, and they drag. Also, even the 20-minute episodes have a structure of 5 minutes at the start to setup the premise, 15 minutes of characters trying to understand the meaning of their circumstances, then a one-minute gut-punch twist and then we fade out on narration. I still love them, but to say they were snappy and had no fat is a stretch.
Yeah I never got onto the hour long ones but it seemed to be a mistake. I’ll give you that with the 20 min episodes, sometimes its very clear a premise was better suited to a several-page short story, but overall they didn’t drag, both compared to other TV from the day and the new bloated eps.
Everyone is always down on season 4’s hour long episodes, but I genuinely like about half of them.In particular “He’s Alive” with a young Dennis Hopper is great. It’s about nazis, and I first watched it a few years ago (before worrying about nazis was actually an everyday occurrence) and thought it was maybe a little over the top. But watching it today, it’s great.And Minature has a young Robert Duvall and is probably(?) a classic?
Jordan Peele has absolutely trashed Twilight Zone with the ham fisted
forced SJW messaging. The original was first and foremost sci-fi/fantasy
with subtle social issue allusion, without being hammered over the head
with how you should feel about it. Also, Get Out was way overrated and
hinged its entire plot on a magical, all powerful hypnotic teaspoon.
Also riding off the back of this, even twilight zone based comedy holds up better than a lot of stuff from the era!
Jordan Peele has absolutely trashed Twilight Zone with the ham fisted
forced SJW messaging. The original was first and foremost sci-fi/fantasy
with subtle social issue allusion, without being hammered over the head
with how you should feel about it. Also, Get Out was way overrated and
hinged its entire plot on a magical, all powerful hypnotic teaspoon.
I remember liking the comedian episode, for the most part…but the second one with Adam Scott on the plane was a dud. Especially the second ending where everyone magically survives the crash and then murder him because it was his fault. It felt very un-Twilight Zoney.
It was supposed to be a take on the original Shatner/Gremlin story, but I couldn’t figure out the moral. Was it that he was an idiot for assuming the stereotypical culprits were behind the crash? Because that isn’t anything eye opening especially for how long it dragged it out?That same episode could have been like a half hour long and been more about how exploitative (and poorly researched) some of those True Crime podcasts can be. Or how they can often perpetuate misconceptions by purposefully withholding information for the sake of dramatic effect.
Oh god yes on the last part. I’ve gotten into writing YouTube videos on historical mysteries and crimes and oh my god are true crime podcasts usually awful. I wrote about the Black Dahlia and there is literally dozens of podcasts that either don’t check anything more then Wikipedia or just omit facts to fit a narrative. And they are so successful that it kills me. I wish that episode had mocked Making a Murderer or My Favorite Murder instead of… the bland direction they went.
My Favorite Murder would have been a good one. The callous tone discussing awful things
OH OH OH OH! Adam Scott should have been a True Crime podcaster. He gets sucked in because his own disinterest for research leads him to follow the mysterious podcast without question and the episode plays out pretty much exactly as it did.
Fuuuuuuuck that actually would have worked. Have him wear some terrible shirt that says basically a detective and have a terrible jingle for his true crime podcast! Yes! True story, the historian I worked with on the Black Dahlia episode, a guy named Larry Harnisch, really doesn’t like MFM. Not just for obvious reasons, but they stole audio of him talking once and didn’t ask for permission. Not great!
Well….The day after I watched the Adam Scott episode, I got on a plane and a zune or some ancient mp3 player flew off the top of a ledge during take off…AND THEN THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT STARTED LISTENING TO IT. So that episode retroactively scared the living shit out of me for about an hour and a half plane ride. I travel for a living, on a plane 2 or 3 times a week, and that’s never happened to be before or since.
In the original, Wiliam Shatner saves the plane by causing a fuss. In this one, Adam Scott doesn’t manage to stop the crash, but he changes it enough that they live.
Mostly I find myself watching this show for references to the original Twilight Zone and basically nothing else, which is…not as fulfilling as it would seem. But I read a recap of S1 and I guess the last episode ties them all together in a meta way, so maybe we’re missing something by not watching it…just seems like such a *chore* instead of fun.
In the original, Wiliam Shatner saves the plane by causing a fuss. In this one, Adam Scott doesn’t manage to stop the crash, but he changes it enough that they live.
Did he though? Because it’s never made clear what exactly the podcast he is listening to is supposed to be. Which is the biggest flaw in the episode.On first viewing, the Shatner version is ambiguous as you watch it. We know he’s afraid of flying, and it doesn’t help when he sees a thing on the plane. But NOBODY ELSE sees it the whole time.Until they land, and the damaged plane is evidence he was right all along. That’s the twist. He was driven mad by the fact nobody believed him combined with his own anxiety.But the Adam Scott version? At first you could argue he was crazy. He hates flying and there’s this thing telling him what’s going on, but maybe it’s all in his head because of personal biases about the people around him. Which leads to him inadvertently helping someone hijack the plane.That would have been okay as an ending. But then the podcast has one more chapter that’s “LOL they survived except this one guy and no one knows what happened to him….”Which takes it from being all in his head to clearly prophetic about what’s going on. At which point it’s a self-fufilling prophecy…which you could still have gotten without the post-crash stuff.Also, the idea they beat him to death (as he’s the only person who doesn’t survive) and don’t lay a hand on the dude they all saw hijack and crash the plane is some bullshit.
I agree that it had a “new Planet of the Apes” style twist where they knew they had to have a twist and they decided not use the good one that worked a couple times before. Plus, look, a stuffed animal from the old twilight zone! But if you had been next to me on the plane you would have totally high fived me for not peeing my panties.
If you’re looking fo a good skwering of true crime I’d say Trial & Error or American Vandal are both pretty good, also that one Banksy movie
The original series was also CBS btw.
Jordan Peele has absolutely trashed Twilight Zone with the ham fisted forced SJW messaging. The original was first and foremost sci-fi/fantasy with subtle social issue allusion, without being hammered over the head with how you should feel about it. Also, Get Out was way overrated and hinged its entire plot on a magical, all powerful hypnotic teaspoon.
The original run of the show demonstrates that “too long” is a real problem. Like many people who watched the laughably abysmal first season, I doubt I’ll be back for the second, but thanks for jumping on the grenade, here.
So it sounds like the dude’s a “Nice Guy” who invents an excuse to murder the husband of a woman he’s in to because Nice Guys like to think the women they like would come to them if only that other guy (who’s totally a dick and she just can’t see it) wasn’t around.Or, in this case, he assumes she realizes it and is just begging somebody else to do something about it because she can’t. Because I’m not sure I like the idea of it being left to the audience to determine if the above is the case, or if the moral is that women are manipulative and like to use claims of abuse as punishment for the men in their lives.
Subtlety is a dying art lately because if your ambiguous some people will read into something like this and come away with women are manipulative monsters. Probably not the intent.
people who do that are the same people who see one woman do bad at math and think ‘wow, girls suck at math’
True, it’s not like its this episode that made them deeply misogynistic.
if people realized just how much projection went into pearl clutching faux criticism, like how totally it’s just about them showing their fears, they’d stop doing it. it’s only ignorance preventing them from being embarrassed.
Well it sounds like you’ve already made your mind up about the plot of something you haven’t seen and don’t know the plot to.
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Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
Lol. Shut up. You don’t matter.Shut up.No one gives a shit or asked for your opinion.And yet you’re a dumb piece of shit with no insight into anything ever.Great no one asked you or cares.It’s too bad your opinion means jack fucking all.
My takeaway was that she, in fact, tricked him but that his stunted issues and eagerness to buy into the narrative made him an easy mark.More to the point: “Watch out ‘nice guys’ because anyone offering you what you think you want might just use you as a means to an end. Your desires might destroy you.”He was using this woman as a means to an end to escape loneliness and was too busy using her to notice she was using him.I don’t think the “delusion” aspect works because he clearly heard her voice before he met her. And those were her glasses.I think it was more about making awkward romeos as scares of women as women are of men. “Don’t come on too strong.”
Eeeeh. That just means it’s both-sidesing the issue which is just lazy.
I’m sorry, how is this “both-sidesing”. It’s about a domestic violence victim using the only escape valve she has available to her and a douchebag facing the consequences of the actions that were caused by his desire for a toxic “perfection” that could never exist.
Also, she gave him landmark-based directions when she was “running” from the train, and those directions were the only way he possibly could have gotten to her house. There was no ambiguity to that aspect (unless I’m missing something big).
dude did you even watch the episode or are you just showing everyone how much you can project
The premise that future lovers start out hating each other is at this point a formula, but it’s a good formula that probably derives from the Hayes Code days when nobody could have sex. One of my favorite movies, Shop Around the Corner, uses that approach. But I don’t think it’s done so often just because it’s “easy” and lazy. It’s because conflict can be arousing — for men and women — in movies and even real life where bantering and butting-heads (figuratively, mostly) is actualized courting and foreplay. It gets the adrenaline going, sublimates desire into play. It’s a verbal form of dancing. And the promise of good sex.
Okay its been a while, AKA one year feels like 100, but what episode was out and out brilliant last year? I remember the bad ones, the weird gun one, president kid, the one with Hayley Atwell, but which episode is great? Side note please be good this time, it has so much potential.
Replay probably comes closest? But then the 3rd act just doesn’t work (although when it reaches the actual-actual ending that’s pretty good). Other than that I thought president kid and the comedian were the next tier, and after that it’s a sharp drop off.
Replay isn’t bad but I don’t know if its brilliant.
It has a really great setup, and there’s nice ambiguity with whether the sheriff is a malevolent force, or he’s just systemic racism…but the resolution is way too talky. It’s not brilliant, but I think it’s the one that could have been if they’d done another draft (the whole first season needed a few more drafts).I think the reviewer last year liked the Traveller episode with Steve Yeun? I never rewatched that one, because the season ended up having so many “I dunno…aliens I guess?” episodes that it retroactively tainted all of them.
I have literally no memory of that one. And several episodes were a few rewrites away from being good. Its what angered me about the season.
Absolutely none of them reached anywhere close to brilliant. The closest they got was decent, but still overlong and too on the nose.
Hayley Atwell was in Black Mirror, not this
Hayley Atwell? Are you sure you’re not thinking of Black Mirror’s 2013 season?
I see the problem. I was specifically thinking of the Not All Men episode, it was Rhea Seahorn I was thinking of. Guess I mixed that up with Hayley Atwell somehow. The episode wasn’t very good though.
It seems the biggest flaw was actually the insinuation at the end of the episode that Phil might have been hallucinating. That would clearly have been nearly impossible. It would be incredibly difficult and random for him to have found this unknown woman in a random city hundreds of miles away from him. I mean, it’s the twilight zone. It’s much easier to believe the magical thing than the random thing. That’s the central conceit of the show. The silly thing is that the writers were seemingly too afraid to just have a female clearly be a villain. Women can be demented and evil too. It’s not wrong to write a story in which all people are deeply flawed humans – even women. Also, if you watch the episode again, you’ll see that people were looking at him like he was crazy when it was laughing and nodding to himself.
So Annie created social media profiles to show her living in Diamond Falls, when she and her family were actually living in Kingswood the whole time? That is some next-level femme fatale scheming.
That’s a good point – either she set up fictional social media profiles showing that she lived in a different town and was single, or Phil just hallucinated the stuff he read online about her. I’d say that points to the telepathic connection being real, since the “Phil is just crazy” explanation is pretty unsatisfying.
We only see Phil looking at one social media account of hers (presumably Facebook, although I don’t think we see the FB logo). All she would have to do is change her “current location” on that account.A few weeks pass between their first conversation and when she tells him her full name. Presumably in that time she comes up with this plan of getting Phil to kill her husband. He had already told her what city he was in, so she figured it would be easier to fake her location and come up with the “meet me in the middle” plan instead of giving her actual location, since he would be more likely to kill a stranger who had kidnapped her to save her than kill her actual husband.
I saw four episodes of the season so far, and it’s been such an amazing improvement. I guess Jordan Peele is one of those people who actually listens to and understands criticism.
That’s a relief. Can’t wait to watch through them all.
I don’t know, that final twist sort of takes the air out of it. I mean, sure, there’s plenty of room to speculate, and usually that’s great, but here it feels like too easy an out for dudes already totally on Phil’s side. I started to feel uneasy the moment he looked her up. What was especially bizarre, and what made this episode really work, was part of what made me so uneasy is that, given the extreme set of circumstances and a mixture of extreme curiosity and deep insecurity, I’m not entirely sure I wouldn’t have done the same thing. It’s not far off from the internet, and there’ve been a few instances where teens have actually convinced each other to do terrible things. Making her explicitly culpable just muddies the waters too much, especially at a time when guy’s should be questioning their intent and make arrangements to A. Not be a dick about it and B. adjust accordingly.
Note: by “same thing” I meant look her up, not follow through on the rest. I hope I made that abundantly clear.
In terms of allusions to previous episodes, the broken glasses shot reminded me of “Time Enough at Last”:
And this reference finally didn’t feel gratuitous.
I liked this. Hoping it’s a sign of a stronger (even if just slightly) season.
I like Peele’s take on the show but he seems to have forgotten that Rod Serling was smart enough to lighten it up every now and then – “Static,” “ Night of the Meek, “ “A World of His Own.” We don’t need to be constantly hit over the head. I thought Peele was smart enough and funny enough to make it work out.
Halfway into season 2, it has some lighter touches. Every episode has comedic moments. The big lesson I see from season 1 is that the leads are now charismatic, desperate people whereas season 1 was lighter on desperation. I won’t say the season 2 leads are all saints but they have charm. It’s returned to the 1960s show’s roots of “charming loser chasing a goal detours into the Twilight Zone in pursuit of their goal” whereas season 1 was more “self-righteous cad ends up in the Twilight Zone randomly”.The season 2 leads so far are magnetic character performances whose ambitions or actions actually drive the action. Whereas I feel the season 1 leads were more ciphers. There’s a conscious effort here at traditional character actor performances that makes season 2 feel more classic. It’s somewhat back to the 1960s show’s roots as a show about quirky misfits who want the wrong thing.
Jimmi Simpson has been a star pinch hitter for so long, it would be nice if he could find his own home…and hopefully something better than a CSIMaybe he likes being a gypsy, but somebody should come up with a series regular role for him (sans twist). I’ve got it, prestige TV madlibs: him and Melanie Lynskey on a Hulu show about a couple that accidentally starts a darkweb business, that tests their morality and opens them up beyond their previous rat race existence, title:Binaries
(whoops I cast that too well…turns out they were married and got divorced in 2014)
“You’re looking at a species of flimsy little two-legged animals with extremely small heads, whose name is Man.”“This is just an example, it could also be something much better.” (apologies to The Scary Door).
I think this episode might have been better than any episode from season one.
oh, britta’s in this?
This was too straight forward and almost needed a 2nd twist to be worth our time… like an after-shot of Jacobs doing about 2:00 minutes with her actual husband early in their dating to get him to buy her a house or something .
“There were a couple of brilliant episodes, a few just-okay hours, and a distressing number of out-and-out duds.”To be fair, that describes most seasons of the original series. Serling himself once said that the original show was 1/3 great episodes, 1/3 average episodes, and 1/3 awful episodes.