Search - The Twilight Zone - The Complete Series (Season One) on DVD

Lore T. from BLAIRSVILLE, GA
Reviewed on 3/19/2010...

Was okay, not the original like I thought but not bad.

1 of 4 member(s) found this review helpful.

John C. (bookwheelboy)
Reviewed on 12/31/2007...

Not bad.

1 of 7 member(s) found this review helpful.

This is the mediocre 2002 version of The Twilight Zone.

07/04/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Be warned. This is the 2002 version of The Twilight Zone and is the third and least effective version of the show.
It is hosted by actor Forrest Whittaker,who for some unexplained reason walks around while introducing episodes. The clueless producers thought that this would be an effective way of introducing the episodes,it wasn't.A voiceover would have been better as the 1985 version used.
There is one particularly offensive episode on racism where a white man is portrayed as a racist because,while in the middle of the city in the darkness of night,he wouldn't let a black stranger into his car after the stranger banged on his window and yelled "let me in".
How many people would let any stranger into their car in the middle of the city at night,especially when the stranger is banging on the window and yelling at them?
That just shows how badly written and produced this series was. The complete unfairness of this premise somehow escaped the producers.
There are also many other episodes that meander on with weak stories and lame resolutions. So disorganised was the production of this show that they had to copy no less that three stories from the original Rod Serling version in just this one season.

The three versions of The Twilight Zone comprise-
1st version-The original Emmy award winning version hosted by writer Rod Serling that premiered in 1959 and ran for five seasons.
2nd version-The eccellent and under-rated 1985-87 version which had a third season padded on after it's cancellation to get enough episodes for syndication.This version had scripts by some of science fiction's best writers.
3rd version-This DVD set,which is the disappointing 2002 version that was cancelled after only one season.

I personally am going to wait for the 1985 version as it is much better than this 2002 Twilight Zone,which has some very poorly written episodes.
The publicity blurb of this 2002 version sums it up-"with today's hippest young stars"-the Twilight Zone is not supposed to be MTV. In fact,the Twilight Zones sites that cover the original version have boycotted it because they consider that it is not true Twilight Zone.
One of this series producers is Pen Densham,the appalling producer that was responsible for turning the new 1990's version of The Outer Limits into a soft-core porn show. Clearly,this man has no idea of what makes true science fiction.
All in all,this is a very disappointing version of the series and is very badly produced.Avoid it."

Hits and a lot of misses

Brian Reaves | Anniston, AL USA | 10/15/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I never saw this series when it aired on UPN, so the DVD collection was my first taste of the "new" TZ. It's very easy to see why it was cancelled after one season. First off, who in the world chose Forest Whitaker as the host? Sometimes he's calm and cool, others he seems almost hyper in his delivery of the taglines. No one could compare to Serling in delivery, but they could have found SOMEONE a little more "out there" for host. Second, the stories...wow. Most of them have a good premise, but they all seem to just limp away rather than hit you with the shocking impact the original series had. "Still a Good Life" is a perfect example. Based as a sequel to an original TZ episode (with two of the original actors still in the main roles), it had the potential to be the best show ever. The little girl (Billy Mumy's real daughter) acted one way throughout the entire episode, then at the end suddenly did a complete about-face that made absolutely no sense whatsoever. It was as if the writer just said, "Hey, that'd be cool" and jerked the story completely around. Unfortunately, this is not the only story like this in the series. Most have very uneven storylines, trying to make us care for one-dimensional characters. While the original (and even 80's version) TZ had us sympathetic for the characters involved (or at least hating the baddies), this one is more like watching a car wreck from the outside. There's some morbid curiousity, but you can walk away and not really care how it all turns out. There are some gems here ("The Pool Guy" and "Chosen" to name a couple), but most are just crash-and-burners.

All in all, I'm looking forward to seeing the 80's version come out later this year. UPN made a good try on this revival with some major talent, but even the best actor can only do so much with inferior stories. For the die-hard fan only, and then only good for one viewing."

The 2002 Series

07/08/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The 3rd Twilight Zone series only lasted for one season, this box set will include all of its episodes. This show aired for 22 weeks, with 2 episodes for every one-hour show, so there will be 44 episodes in this set.This set will be presented in widescreen, and will have 5.1 Surrond Sound , DTS Surround, and Stereo Surround Sound.Like the original show, this Twilight Zone series has a lot of big name guest stars: Shannon Elizabeth, Jason Alexander, Jessica Simpson, Jaime Presley, Jason Bateman, Usher, Lou Diamond Phillips, Cloris Leachman, Method Man, Molly Sims, Amber Tamblyn (of TV's Joan of Arcadia), Vivica A. Fox, Portia de Rossi, Dean Winters (of TV's Oz), Dylan Walsh, Patrick Warburton, Eriq La Salle, and comedian Paul Rodriquez.This set also includes remakes of two classic Twilight Zone episodes -- "The Eye of the Beholder" (a plastic surgery story) and "The Monsters on Maple Street" (a lynch mob tale about aliens possibly in their area).

Also, in this set is a sequel to an old Twilight Zone episode called "It's Still a Good Life" (the original was about a kid with the power to make a person disappear, if you think negitive thoughts. The kid would say that he'd send you to "the cornfield") The sequel on this box set includes two of the actors from the original episode: Billy Mumy (who played the kid) and Cloris Leachman.So let Forest Whitaker take you into a world of imagination. A dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A wonderous world where the boundaries are only that of your imagination. The Twilight Zone."