The Twilight Zone (2019) Season 2: You Might Also Like

This is it folks. After what feels like an agonizingly long journey, we have reached the final stop on our trek through Twilight Zone 2019 season 2. It has been something of a disappointment but I'll save my overall analysis of season 2 as a whole for the end. Right now my focus is on the final episode “You Might Also Like”. Will it be good so this season can end with dignity, or will it be another let down? Let's not beat around the bush and jump straight into it. Warning, spoilers ahead.

In “You Might Also Like” the whole world is going gaga over a new product known as The Egg. Supposedly it will make everything alright forever. However, one woman isn't as keen on The Egg as much as everyone else. Jane Warren is still struggling over delivering her still born daughter and is experiencing some bizarre events she can't really explain. Strange adverts start appearing in her head and she gets a strange floating feeling while she sleeps. She begins to question why she would even want The Egg when she doesn't even know what it is and cancels her order for it. Deciding to find out what's happening to her she ties herself to her house at night, only to come face to face with those responsible for everything going on.

“You Might Also Like” is a satire consumerism. A lot of elements of it are parodied in the episode and it's done fairly well for the most part. There are even fake adverts shown at certain points in the episode that are actually pretty funny. I wish there were more of these because they were a highlight. But as satire on consumerism it's fairly rudimentary. It goes through all the things you would expect it to without any real surprises. Most people simply want The Egg simply because they want it, despite not actually knowing what The Egg actually is. This is meant to be a critique on people buying things simply to buy things but it's all very surface level. It lacks any real bite. I also can't help but find it's overall message rendered inert due to the fact that it's coming from a series that was itself a product of consumerism. If this was coming from the original series or even Black Mirror it might have worked but it's coming from Twilight Zone 2019, a series made to sell subscriptions to a streaming service. The satire lacks weight because of this.

But what it lacks in bite it makes up for in wit. There are some genuinely funny moments here. My favourite part of the episode is when Jane is trying to go through customer service, anyone who has done this will feel her pain. I feel like this episode would have worked better as a straight comedy because it's in those comedic moments that it truly shines. Not that the dramatic moments are bad because they really aren't, Jane is a likeable enough protagonist that is easy to root for and her backstory is only hinted at in the beginning, so there's an intrigue in learning more about her. Unlike the last few episodes where the characters were so flat I didn't care about them, here I was invested enough in the character to actually care what happens to her. It's such a shame then that the story completely implodes in on itself.

So you're probably wondering who is behind this whole thing. I did leave you hanging on that after all. Well, it's the Kanamit, the aliens from the classic Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man”. As Jane discover, the Kanamit have been studying the earth by analysing our radio waves and are scared of our independence. The Kanamit are a hive mind that view our free thinking and ability to change our mind to be a threat. After analysing our commercials they've found a way to manipulate us and The Egg is their creation designed to wipe us out. It's never explained but the ads we see appear to be a psychic transmission of some sort. Jane says that the human race has evolved to the point where they don't watch TV anymore so they don't even see advertisements but the Kanamit queen, who exists now for some reason, says that they still consume advertisements subconsciously. I'm not sure what this means exactly because the world building in this episode is pretty weak. Some elements go unexplained, there are places called fulfilment centres but we don't know what they are or where they came from.

The episode ends with Jane wanting to get an Egg because the Kanamit reveal they got the idea for The Egg from her pain of losing her baby. She wants one as a replacement for something she can never have even though she knows it will kill her. The final scene is rather chilling showing people buying their Egg even while the world burns around them. It's a good ending. If the satire was stronger it would have had a bigger impact but it still works and makes sense given how the story was going.

But this episode is ultimately ruined with the choice to connect it with “To Serve Man”. For those who have never seen it, “To Serve Man” is about the Kanamit coming to earth to help humanity by fixing everything so people can live in comfort. The twist at the end reveals that the Kanamit did all this so they could fatten us up and eat us. We get a hint of that in “You Might Also Like” as well which hints that these are the same Kanamit seen in that original episode but this makes no sense for several reasons.

First of all, the Kanamit made themselves known to the public right away. Everything they did, they did publicly. So why are they now working in the shadows? Why try to hide themselves when they never had a problem showing themselves before? Secondly, how did they set everything up like this? When did they start inflicting their influence and how? We know the Kanamit are psychic since they are telepathic but nothing we see indicates they can manipulate and control us. So how did they set this all up? The Kanamit just wanted to eat us and at the end of “To Serve Man” they got what they wanted. They took humanity to their planet to eat them. So if it's a sequel, why are there humans still on earth? What happened in between the two episodes? This is never explained.

There are two ways of looking at this episode. The first is as a sequel which doesn't work as we've already seen. The other way of looking at this is as a throwback. It isn't connected to the original, it just uses the same aliens as a call-back to the original. This works a lot better but it comes across as exploitative. Instead of using there own creation, they used something from the original series just to exploit peoples nostalgia for that original episode. Using the Kanamit was a bone headed decision. If they had used a new alien race the story would be a lot better but they wanted to connect it to the original series for some reason and it takes the episode down. The Kanamit are indicative of the big issue with the new Twilight Zone series. It can't escape from the shadow of the original series. If it was something new entirely, if it was a completely original series it wouldn't be as bad. But no one would care about it if it was. People only payed attention to this series because of the name, because it was the Twilight Zone. I only watched it because of that reason. If it were some new original anthology series I might have checked it out later on, but by making it a reboot of one of the greatest, most recognisable series of all time, that makes me want to check it out right away if for no other reason than curiosity. But by doing this it gives itself a standard it cannot match up to.

“You Might Also Like” almost works. The satire lacks bite but it makes up for that with strong humour and a likeable and interesting main character. But it's ruined by that one creative misfire of trying to tie it into an original series episode. It gives it an expectation it can't match and comes across like it's trying to exploit the original series rather than carry on it's legacy. This episode was more frustrating than anything else but, I guess I can't call it bad. It's ok overall. Not good or bad, just ok. It stands as a testament of how one creative mistake can tank an otherwise solid idea.

And that's this series in a nutshell. None of the stories in this have been bad on paper. They were good ideas ruined by sloppy execution. Either through a sloppy twist, unlikable characters, flat direction or pure stupidity, every episode in Twilight Zone 2019 has suffered from creative incompetence. That being said, season 2 is an improvement over season 1. Sure it still suffers from a lot of the same problems like bland direction and weak writing but there were noticeable improvements. Pacing is a lot better with episodes never feeling like they dragged. Some did but it isn't a universal problem like in season 1. Episodes mostly ran for just over 30 minutes which I think is the perfect length, not too long and not too short. The politics was toned down much more in this season. The social satire was done a lot better this time around and while it was still obvious what the message was it didn't feel shoved in your face either.

I criticised season 1 because there was a clear bias in it's messaging towards the left. Read my post titled “Politics in Art and Why The Twilight Zone Failed” for more on that. Season 2 manages to find a middle ground and doesn't attack one side of the aisle so it is an improvement on that front, but it also feels like the spark is gone. Season 1 feels like it was a season the writers wanted to write while season 2 was something they did because they were contractually obligated to. Say what you want about the satire in season 1 but at least it had bite to it. The satire in season 2 is so toothless by comparison. They've said all they wanted to say and it shows. Unfortunately, the writing isn't entertaining enough to make up for that. The 1980's reboot wasn't always great social satire either but at least the stories were enjoyable. 2019 is just dull and lacks variety. That's something that season 2 has yet to address.

In season 1 I only liked 2 of the 10 episodes, in season 2 I only liked 3 out of the 10 episodes. So it is better, but only barely. Though I will say that the worst episodes of season 2 weren't as bad as the worst episodes of season 1. If I wasn't reviewing it I would have given up on it. Watching it became a chore.

I tried guys, I honest to god tried to like it but I couldn't. If you want an anthology show that deals with contemporary issues then watch Black Mirror. If you want a timeless anthology with excellent stories then watch the original series. The 2019 Twilight Zone isn't the worst thing I've seen and is even occasionally excellent but it isn't entertaining enough for me to truly recommend it. I gave it a second chance and it blew it. We don't know if it will get a season 3, but I do know that even if it gets one, I won't be there. I'm done. Until next time, remember to stay safe and have fun.