What I’m Watching: The Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone: Season 1, Episode 4 “A Traveler” (B-)

This was the least impressive offering this show has presented yet, not nearly as intriguing and involving as the first three. This was reminiscent of “The X-Files” more than any of those hours, and it also felt pretty dated, more, I’d imagine, like previous iterations of this show. What made this one different was that it wasn’t immediately clear that something strange and unexplainable was going on, and the mystery had to build as a result. I had seen previews a while back with Greg Kinnear, and he played the jolly captain well, turning him from energetic socializer to a much more serious man with secrets to protect when the occasion called for it. I wondered right away whether it was Steven Yeun’s breakthrough role in the Korean-language “Burning” that netted him the role of A Traveler here, or if it was his American fame on “The Walking Dead” that led to his casting as the very mysterious prisoner so eager to be pardoned in this small Alaskan town. I didn’t love much of the middle of the episode, though I got back into it towards the end when, after being confronted by Yuka, the captain knowingly told her that “it’s only a lie if we choose to believe it.” I would have preferred that the hour ended up the flying saucers showing up overheard, but I guess aliens eating pie with Jack was the way to go. In this case, I’m glad this show reboots its premise each hour, and I’m looking forward to whatever’s in store next time.