The new Twilight Zone starts with a winner and a … no

Granted, having one of the two blurred area being a clunker is not considered a "great chance", but rather as "a strange erroneous judgment" or "a lack of taste". But it's hard not to let the sobering shadow of the "Comedian" cool down the reaction to the much, much better "Nightmare".

So let me send "The Comedian" first, so that we can go at best.

Written by Alex Rubens (a Key & Peele contributor who also co-wrote the film Keanu with The twilight zone producer / host Jordan Peele) and directed by Owen Harris (a former British television director well known for his role as Black mirror The episode "San Junipero", "The Actor" features Kumail Nanjiani as Samir Wassan, a struggling humorist who usually generates only a few polite chuckles with his harsh political commentary. When the famous comedian JC Wheeler (played by Tracy Morgan) spends a night at the club, he tells Samir: "Nobody wants to hear arguments" and advises him instead to tap into his "unique resource", his own life. . Wheeler warns Wassan that if he does, and the public connects to it, this personal material will be "gone forever".

Samir quickly realizes that JC means that literally. When he makes a joke about his dog, or the nephew of his girlfriend, or one of his rivals at the club, even before leaving the stage, these living creatures have disappeared from reality, past and present.

This is a good premise for a blurred area episode (or even an episode of Rod Serling's Night gallery, who has entrusted a "desperate comedian" more than he had planned "with" Make Me Laugh "directed by young Steven Spielberg.) But is this a sufficient premise to exceed 50 minutes? The first sign that "The Comedian" is going to be a fiasco happens pretty soon, when it takes well over ten minutes for Rubens and Harris to get to the part where Jordan Peele appears in his dapper suit, telling us in an impassive voice that Samir Wassan entered … in the Twilight area.

The main problem of "The Comedian" is that he is too busy considering each "angle" of the "gift" of his poor protagonist, to the point of making a repetition. Samir takes too long to understand that he must be able to erase people from existence. Then, once he realizes that some of his small changes have big consequences, like his relationship with his girlfriend Rena (well interpreted by Amara Karan), the plot has not really changed. Wassan continues to record a loss after the other.

Nanjiani is a strong lead and Diarra Kilpatrick gives brave performances as an ambitious colleague who insults, exasperates and inspires Samir. The episode as a whole presents an intriguing perspective of comedy and fame, suggesting that audiences ask their favorite celebrities to sacrifice their souls. But it's a nice point of view to snack for almost an hour. Nearly an hour! There is no excuse for "The Comedian" to be such an endurance test.

"Nightmare at 30,000 feet" may be a bit too long. (On the one hand, the coda of the episode is a mistake, but I'll come back to it.) But at least most of its superfluities are entertaining and thematically defensible.

Co-written by The defenders and Daredevil Writer / Producer Marco Ramirez and Faithful The X-Files screenwriter / producer Glen Morgan, and directed by Emmy-winner (for the House episode "House's Head") Greg Yaitanes, "Nightmare at 30,000 Feet" to Adam Scott portrayed by Justin Sanderson, a successful but stressed investigative reporter, taking Transatlantic Flight 1015 to Tel Aviv at 10:15 pm October 15th. In the original "Nightmare" – and in the blurred area film – the nervous passenger panic because he sees a gremlin tear the wing of the plane. In this updated version, Sanderson discovers a digital audio player in the pocket of his seat, containing a disturbing podcast … on the mysterious disappearance of Flight 1015!

Essentially, "Nightmare at 30,000 feet" tells the same story as the previous "Nightmare". Justin is upset because he is all warning that everyone is in danger of death, according to the disturbing details that he has found from the podcast. In the end, after he was overpowered and the plane landed, we discover that just like the characters embodied by Shatner and Lithgow, Scott's Justin Sanderson was right to be terrified although for different reasons than travelers who had crossed the Twilight Zone before him. .

However, there are several big differences this time, beyond a prophetic podcast taking the place of a tiny, destructive monster of planes. From the beginning, Ramirez, Morgan, Yaitanes and Scott associate Justin's paranoia with more than a nervous state. The episode begins with an extra projection of security. He also shows that he buys a magazine at the airport with an article he wrote about the hectic politics of contemporary society entitled "The End of Civility?"

The creative team also insists on the preconceptions of the viewers – and the hero – by having the plane occupied by bearded Muslims, muscular Russians and a drunken ex-driver played to the full by Chris Diamantopoulos' fat. As the podcast tells Justin who his fellow passengers are – and insinuates that one of them may be responsible for the problems of Flight 1015 – he reacts excessively and does not care who, who and what they are facts.

The episode is never too much of a doubt about Justin's assumptions … at least until the climax, when he seals the fate of his mate and squadron mate by actually flipping the plane over to the unbalanced flyboy of Diamantopoulos. Even though he heard this guy telling how he had lost his job for "one mistake too much that I can not take back" – and even though he'd seen him gobble up many mini-bottles Alcohol – he seems to believe implicitly that the affable white guy knows more about what to do than all people with darker skin and thicker accents in the plane.

My only big problem about "Nightmare at 30,000 Feet" is that his ending is perfect: Adam Scott gave a very specific example to Adam Scott: "Oh, he is the pilot! Says Sanderson, who the podcast has been talking about since the beginning. Then, the hero wakes up on an island and discovers a new podcast describing his death at the hands of all the other passengers who survived the crash of the plane. Cut to: those same passengers, heading towards him. Ha ha

Yet, "Nightmare" is a much better argument for the relevance and viability of this new blurred area that "The Comedian" does. On the stylistic level, he plays with a very particular type of modern alienation: the feeling of being constantly watched, but completely alone. Flight 1015 has cameras allowing passengers to observe pilots; and almost everyone has a phone ready to document each of Justin's collapses. However, every time he puts his earphones to listen to the podcast, the audio mix of the episode changes subtly to emphasize his isolation. Nobody shares his illusion – if that's what it is.

At one point, an air marshal tries to pull our man from the rear guard by saying that it is "easier to recover from his wrong" than to buy something stupid that he is considering. to do. But despite his worries, he's a confident guy, this Justin Sanderson. He will continue to insist that he knows what is good, right down to the ground.

Observations lost

• The note attached to this double review averages the two episodes. If I had to score them individually, I would give a "B +" to "Nightmare at 30,000 Feet" and a "C-" to the "Comedian" (I have not yet watched the other two episodes provided at the show). Criticism: For an overview of all the episodes that are circulating, I refer you to Danette Chavez's great catch.)
• "The Comedian" is fully exploiting the ability of CBS All Access to switch to full-TV MA, but "Nightmare at 30,000 Feet" is only one unacceptable moment for the network, when Justin talks about his past, " I've seen shit bullshit, and it's buggered me. " I wonder if this line was added to increase the rating, so that no one would think that the series will always suit a younger audience. (Whether or not) The twilight zone Needs being "mature" is another issue I could discuss in a future exam.)
• Jordan Peele is no stranger to "Nightmare at 20,000 feet". He has already played in his own version (somehow)!