Entering A Woke Dimension: ‘The Twilight Zone’ Episode Explores Police Brutality
By Paul Bois - The Daily Wire
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You are now entering the woke dimension, and Jordan Peele's "The Twilight Zone" is your gateway. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it took no more than two episodes for the rebooted show to wave around its social justice street cred, and not in the Rod-Serling-Cold-War-Dualism way, but rather the Al-Sharpton-Police-Man-Bad way.
The episode, titled "Replay," features a mother named Nina (Sanaa Lathan) driving her son, Dorian (Damson Idris) up to college as they are pursued by (of course) a racist white cop (Glenn Fleshler). Eventually, the mother comes upon a magical camera that has the ability to rewind time, which she employs over and over again in an effort to fend off the tormented policeman. However, no matter how many times she rewinds time to employ a different tactic against her oppressor, the racist officer always gets the upper-hand. As noted by THR, it is when the episode reaches its third act that it becomes full SJW:
As the episode moves into its third act, the inevitable happens as Nina finally loses control and loses her son at the hands of the murderous cop. At first it seems like she may not save Dorian, but after getting her hands on the camera, Nina tries one more time. At this point, the writers attempt to add a message about not losing sight of where you come from, as Nina has to return to the hometown she left behind.
Eventually, with the help of her estranged brother, Nina and Dorian make it to his historically black college, where along with his classmates they face down and publicly shame the violent man who has been chasing them. But in a very Twilight Zone twist, years later as Nina, Dorian and his daughter enjoy each other's company, the prodigal son steps out to run an errand and never makes it back as he is killed by the police. As Peele reminds us, you can't escape fate (or institutional oppression), even in The Twilight Zone.
The lack of nuance and overt salute to woke politics has become Jordan Peele's calling-card ever since the debut of "Get Out," which portrayed affluent white liberals as parasites benefiting off the bodies of black men and women. Peele followed up "Get Out" with the rather apolitical "Us," about an affluent black family being terrorized by doppelgangers of themselves.
However, unlike both "Get Out" and "Us," Peele's reboot of the Rod Serling classic has not gotten the same rave reviews from critics. Currently, "The Twilight Zone" holds a mediocre 76% on Rotten Tomatoes and an even more mediocre 6.7 on IMDB.
Jordan Peele made headlines recently when he publicly eschewed the possibility of ever casting a white male in a lead role. "I don’t see myself casting a white dude as the lead in my movie," Peele said during an appearance at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Hollywood, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Not that I don't like white dudes. But I've seen that movie."
Peele characterized his stance as a sort of renaissance for representation in Hollywood. "It really is one of the best greatest pieces of this story is feeling like we are in this time — a renaissance has happened and proven the myths about representation in the industry are false," he said.
