The Ultimate Ranking Of Jordan Peele’s ‘The Twilight Zone’
Sharai Bohannon
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Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone was one of the many shows gone too soon. For those of us who grew up watching the reruns of the original show, this new version seemed like it was overdue. It also debuted the same month that Peele’s Us hit theatres, which eased any doubts about his vision for this reimagining. I was obviously one of the easiest people to win over. I remember explaining why I was living for the first episode monologue.
However, we can’t have nice things for long on this planet. What seemed like another great anthology ended after two seasons. I always assumed it was because it was on CBS All Access which was a service no one was going to pay for. I also wondered if everyone was just tired of hearing the word “woke” get misused (and overused) by internet trolls and packed it up. It wasn’t until I was researching this article that I discovered Monkeypaw Productions decided to end it. I’m happy they got to leave when they felt it was time. Although, I’m sad that we’ll never know what a third and fourth season would’ve delivered. Which is why I decided to use my time with Paramount+ to rewatch and rank the entire series.
20. You Might Also Like (Season 2, Episode 10)
A woman realizes she, and her neighbor, are losing time while awaiting the egg that “they need.” Written and directed by Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House) this unsettling episode stands as the series finale. This one sees the return of the Kanamits from the original series episode “To Serve Man”. It’s a fun episode about aliens that gives us time with Gretchen Mol, Greta Lee, and George Takei. It gave me enough nostalgia and mystery for me to go along with the ride. It being my least favorite episode is a testament to how great the series was overall.
19. A Human Face (Season 2, Episode 7)
A grieving couple are visited by an alien lifeform that they believe might be their recently deceased daughter. This episode stars Jenna Elfman and Christopher Meloni as the leads in one of the smallest casts of the whole series. It’s a very slow burn that’s also a little too predictable for me to ever get truly invested. However, the acting made it hard to look away and to not empathize with these characters a little. It’s also one of the episodes that could easily cut the alien out and just be a show about grief. No one would be the wiser.
18. 8 (Season 2, Episode 6)
A team of scientists on a research mission in the Antarctic discovers a deadly species. I was not expecting see Joel McHale turn up in this episode. I was also not expecting the second half to get so spicy. The first half had me thinking this wasn’t the episode for me and I was making peace with that. However, once things took a turn and the stakes got raised, I lived! I owe it another rewatch just for the killer octopus vibes. This is one of the episodes that thrives because the cast sells you something that you didn’t think you wanted to buy.
17. Nightmare at 30,000 Feet (Season 1, Episode 2)
A journalist with PTSD finds himself trapped on a plane with a podcast telling him the plane is doomed. This one gets cool points for having Adam Scott as the lead and also for being a call back to the original series. The premise is familiar because we’ve all seen the episode from the 60s called “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”. While neither version lands in my personal favorites, I respect the tension and claustrophobia they both provide. As someone who’s afraid of flying, I never want to see Adam Scott in an airport after watching this episode.
16. Six Degrees of Freedom (Season 1, Episode 6)
A team heads to Mars after a nuclear war on Earth. Not only does this episode of The Twilight Zone pay homage to Ray Bradbury, but it also has Jessica Williams included in this stellar cast. If there’s one thing I’ll always make time for, it’s seeing Black women in space serving astronaut realness. While it’s a little on the slower side, it’s definitely not the worst episode of the bunch.
15. Among the Untrodden (Season 2, Episode 5)
A transfer student thinks her new bully might have psychic abilities. This episode was much more Are You Afraid of the Dark? than The Twilight Zone. However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing seeing how this second season felt more experimental. We got a lot of nods to things old and new, and deserved to have a little high school chaos in the mix. I love that we have an episode focused on young women in school that doesn’t go full Carrie. I also really love that everyone involved is kind of a villain because we will never have enough interesting villain roles for young women.
14. The Blue Scorpion (Season 1, Episode 9)
A guy down on his luck finds a gun that literally has his name written on a bullet. The only thing that could rival my hatred of guns, is my love for Chris O’Dowd. One of the things this series did well was casting comedic actors in roles we wouldn’t normally see them in. O’Dowd gives one of the best performances of his career here. This episode manages to have enough tension to keep you invested even if you think you know where it’s going.
13. The Comedian (Season 1, Episode 1)
A struggling comedian meets his idol and takes some advice that lands him The Twilight Zone. This was a very strong series premiere. It made valid points about what comedy is and Kumail Nanjiani’s charm makes you want to root for it even more; he can’t help but be likable. It was also cool seeing Tracy Morgan working after his accident. This was the first time we got to see Jordan Peele do the opening monologue and really drove home how different this would be from the series we grew up watching reruns of.
12. The Wunderkind (Season 1, Episode 5)
A campaign manager gets a kid elected to the highest office only to realize the kid is a monster. John Cho, Jacob Tremblay, Allison Tolman, and John Larroquette are amazing as usual. The premise is peak Twilight Zone and the pacing in which it unravels is magnificent. However, this episode had the misfortune of feeling too on the nose for the year it came out. I watched it, and can admit it’s really good, but some of it’s definitely a time capsule for the year it came out. Although, social commentary is baked into the DNA of the original so perhaps this one is the closest to Rod Serling’s vision.
11. Ovation (Season 2, Episode 4)
A street performer becomes an overnight sensation after a distraught pop star gives her a medallion. Ana Lily Amirpour directed this Jurnee Smollett-led episode. It’s another one that gets to the heart of everything we expect from this series. It’s a stellar addition to the “be careful what you wish for” episodes that seem to be the bread and butter of science fiction. The pop star’s death up top is jarring and makes us lean forward. The episode beautifully shifts focus so we can see just how bad fame is from the inside out.
10. Point of Origin (Season 1, Episode 8)
A socialite’s life is turned upside down when ICE takes her housekeeper and then begins digging into her past. Ginnifer Goodwin gives a solid performance as a woman who finds out that she’s from a different planet. The episode gets into immigration and classism while still keeping its foot firmly planted in the sci-fi world. It’s a wild ride and did not end the way I expected.
9. A Small Town (Season 2, Episode 8)
A widowed handyman finds a model of his town. As he examines and plays with the model, he discovers what he does to the miniature actually impacts the town. This episode was written by Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due and is very cool investigation of community and social responsibility. It’s also refreshing to see Damon Wayans, Jr. get to something more grounded than the comedic roles we usually see him in. This episode felt like an origin story that happened to be in The Twilight Zone and I’m here for it a little more every time I revisit it.
8. Not All Men (Season 1, Episode 7)
A meteor landing seems to be the reason men have become alarmingly violent. I’m here for this episode. I think the casting choices were brilliant, and the message is forever relevant. I also love the plot twist that the meteor is just an excuse for all men to use for their toxic behaviors. I’m very much here for the conversation of “yes all men” and actually having the dialogues that we need to be having. I think it’s a very great episode to put on when discussing male privilege with your teens. I think it’s great to bring up when talking about mansplaining, rape culture, and government interference with women’s bodies.
7. Meet in the Middle (Season 2, Episode 1)
A lonely man hears a woman’s voice in his head and strikes up a relationship. This is a damn good season opener. I figured out the twist about halfway through but I had fun anyway. Jimmi Simpson is tasked with carrying this episode as his co-star (Gillian Jacobs) is mostly unseen until the end. Their relationship would be a fun sci-fi romance if we didn’t know that everyone, and everything, in The Twilight Zone is doomed. This episode also hits different after experiencing a pandemic that ended with a lot of us feeling lonely and craving a connection.
6. Downtime (Season 2, Episode 2)
A woman’s life comes to a halt when a giant orb appears in the sky and everyone but her freezes. This is the kind of mayhem I expect from The Twilight Zone. I love an episode that folds in on itself multiple times until it gives you a sad truth that I didn’t see coming. This episode was written by Peele and shows that he studied the original series better than most of us. This episode also had the audacity to have a cast that includes Morena Baccarin, Colman Domingo, and Tony Hale in some of the best roles of the season.
5. Try, Try (Season 2, Episode 9)
A woman finds out she’s stuck in a time loop with a guy that’s been stalking her. It’s very Groundhog Day but in conversation with season one’s “Not All Men.” It’s easy to get lost in the chemistry between Topher Grace and Kylie Bunbury to the point of almost forgetting this is not a cutesy show. As we start to see the cracks in Grace’s character we begin to worry that he’s more dangerous than he seems. It escalated further than I thought it would, and some of the dialogue gets too on the nose for me. But it’s a solid episode about “nice guys”.
4. The Who of You (Season 2, Episode 3)
An out-of-work actor decides to rob a bank but things get out of hand when he discovers he can switch bodies with strangers. This is easily my favorite episode of season two. It feels like a less demonic and homicidal version of 1998’s Fallen. It escalates beautifully and has so many twists and turns that it’s worth it to go through it a second time to see how you missed key information. The episode has a stacked cast led by Ethan Embry, anchored by Daniel Sunjata, and stolen by Billy Porter.
3. A Traveler (Season 1, Episode 4)
A mysterious stranger crashes a holiday party and causes mistrust and chaos. Marika Sila is an Indigenous officer of the law whose frustration with her boss is palpable. She immediately calls shenanigans on Steven Yeun’s character but no one listens. I relate to her so much it hurts and am kind of living to see the people around her get what’s coming to them. Ana Lily Amirpour also directs this one and it feels like it in all of the right ways. Her aesthetic is possibly the only one that would be able to do this story justice.
2. Blurryman (Season 1, Episode 10)
A screenwriter finds herself being written into the episode of The Twilight Zone she’s supposed to be writing. This episode is fun and chaotic, and it blows up its own world so many times that it’s dizzying. By the time we realize who the Burryman is, and why he’s trying to contact our main character, we’re having so much fun that it feels like the rug is being pulled out from under us. Zazie Beetz finally gets the lead role and I want even more for her. Betty Gabriel, Seth Rogen, and Jordan Peele are all part of the supporting cast.
1. Replay (Season 1, Episode 3)
A woman only has an old camcorder to defend her and son from the police officer intent on making him another statistic. This is a very emotional episode that should’ve gotten Sanaa Lathan at least one acting award. Because The Twilight Zone is a show that’s never been afraid to hold a mirror up to society, it seemed only fitting that it made space to tackle police brutality. The way it’s handled and the very relatable feeling of hopelessness and frustration at this situation are why this is one of the best episodes of the reboots.
Did you also live this version of The Twilight Zone? Let me know your ranking at @misssharai.
Categorized:Editorials
