The first season of Jordan Peele's TWILIGHT ZONE reboot was something of a mixed bag - a few hits, a few misses, a generous assortment of various ZONE flavors. It also seemed to make very little impact on the pop culture landscape: even as new episodes aired, the conversation surrounding the series was borderline non-existent, and in the months since that first season wrapped we'ver rarely seen it mentioned.
Is this symptomatic of THE TWILIGHT ZONE living on CBS All Access? Would it have been more popular on, say, Netflix or Amazon Prime? Is it possible that the new TWILIGHT ZONE's platform had nothing to do with it, that maybe people just weren't all that impressed by the series' first batch of episodes? Who can say? In all likelihood, a combination of elements prevented the new ZONE from becoming a hit.
Next month, Peele and company are getting a second at-bat, with an all-new round of episodes directed by a full-on murderer's row of directors (including Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, Ana Lily Amirpour, Osgood Perkins and more) directing a parade of guest stars (including Morena Baccarin, Jenna Elfman, Ethan Embry, Sky Ferreira, Topher Grace, Tony Hale, Gillian Jacobs, David Krumholtz, Thomas Lennon, Chris Meloni, Gretchen Mol, Billy Porter and a shitload of other stars). They're clearly sparing no expense with this series, and we're hoping all involved learned a thing or two after the first season.
We'll find out soon enough. In the meantime, here's the very first trailer for THE TWILIGHT ZONE, season two.
THE TWILIGHT ZONE returns to CBS All Access on June 25th. We'll be tuning in.