Worth Watching: Jordan Peele Revives ‘Twilight Zone,’ Nat Geo’s ‘Hostile Planet,’ Kimmel Goes to Vegas
A selective critical checklist of notable Monday TV:
The Twilight Zone (CBS All Access): Rod Serling may never have foreseen the new dimension we know as streaming TV, but he would likely have approved of Jordan Peele‘s latest incarnation of his enduring and iconic supernatural anthology of the strange and wondrous. Launching with two episodes on April Fools’ Day — though no fooling, this is great storytelling — the new Zone will drop future episodes on Thursdays starting April 11. The series hits an early high with its new twist on the classic “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet.” Starring Parks and Recreation‘s Adam Scott in the role immortalized by William Shatner in 1963 (and by John Lithgow 20 years later in the Twilight Zone feature film), this episode flips the premise on its head. The menace in the skies isn’t so much on the wing of the plane, but inside the dangerously paranoid actions of journalist passenger Scott. The bold twist ending is classic Zone. In another longer (perhaps too long) episode, Silicon Valley‘s Kumail Nanjiani is terrific as a struggling stand-up comedian who learns that every joke has a price. Tracy Morgan guest-stars in “The Comedian.”
Hostile Planet (9/8c, National Geographic): As the title suggests, this is no warm and fuzzy nature program. Bear Grylls is host/narrator for a wide-ranging six-part series capturing life at the extremes for animals coping with life-altering climate change as well as the ever-present danger from predators and other challengers. The first episode takes us to “Mountains,” from the Himalayas to the Rockies and the Arctic, with snow leopards and baby barnacle goose chicks literally going over cliffs in desperate survival scenarios. Also harrowing: the plight of gelada monkeys in Ethiopia, forced to climb every higher to find enough grass to live on, while fending off attacks from other tribes.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! (11:35/10:35c, ABC): The late-night host goes on the road to the town of his childhood, Las Vegas, for a week of shows from Caesars Entertainment’s Zappos Theater inside Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. His guests will include Tiffany Haddish, Kevin Hart, Seth Rogen, Celine Dion, James Taylor and members of an obscure clan called the Kardashians.
Inside Monday TV: Kids’ network Nickelodeon celebrates its 40th anniversary today with a marathon of fan-favorite episodes of series including SpongeBob SquarePants, plus the premiere of a new prank series The Substitute (2 pm/1c). Henry Danger star Jace Norman guests in the opener, wearing a prosthetic disguise to go undercover as a faux substitute teacher, pranking unwitting students… Now that the roster has been trimmed to a Top 20, ABC’s American Idol (8/7c) gives each singer a chance to belt out a solo at L.A.’s Wiltern Theater in hopes of moving on to the live shows later this month… Renewed for a second season, CBS’s reboot of Magnum P.I. (9/8c) wraps its freshman year with Magnum (Jay Hernandez) confronted by the return of Hannah (Jordana Brewster), his ex. She’s got a shotgun wound and a mission: to find her missing father from the CIA. In other news, Magnum suggests to Higgins (Perdita Weeks) that he join her as his P.I. partner. Let the unresolved sexual tension continue to simmer until the fall.
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For those who prefer Rod Serling's shows when he was still alive, his "Night Gallery" and the original "Twilight Zone" are on MeTV on Sunday after the prime time hours...
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SyFy runs Twilight Zone episodes all the time too.
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I rewatched Night Gallery a few years ago, since it was but a dim memory compared to TZ, which I've seen several times.
Serling only wrote a few dozen of the episodes, and only a few of those were very good, with the number that would make the TZ cut perhaps countable on one hand. And not many of the ones he didn't write were very good, either.
He wasn't that thrilled with the overall direction of the show and didn't have the kind of control over it that he wanted (he certainly didn't like the monster-of-the-week format).
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FAMILY GUY reruns on TBS!!
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Tonight its mostly gonna be getting back into my Columbo Monday routine and Into The Badlands.
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American Idol live and then switch over to NBC for Enemy Within (steadily improving).
Later via DVR- I'll watch the Magnum PI season finale (one the more entertaining new shows this season) and The Fix.
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I'll watch Legends of Tomorrow, and then the finale of Magnum. Seems odd to have a season finale already, but I guess it IS April, after all.
By the way, EDITOR ALERT!! The above article states: "Magnum suggests to Higgins (Perdita Weeks) that he join her as his P.I. partner."
I think that should be that Magnum suggests that SHE join HIM as "his P.I. partner."
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Thank you for letting me know about Doris Day and James Garner in Move Over Darling on TCM this past weekend. I was able to catch most of it live and TCM had it available On Demand so that enabled me to watch the beginning portion. I still have to catch Send Me No Flowers with Doris Day and Rock Hudson. Every single one of these is worth watching again and again :
Pillow Talk- Day/Hudson
Lover Come Back-Day/Hudson
Thrill of It All- Day/Garner
Move Over Darling-Day/Garner
Please Don't Eat the Daisies-Day/ Niven
That Touch of Mink- Day/Grant
Glass Bottom Boat- Day/Taylor
Alfred Hitchcock's - Man Who Knew Too Much- Day/Stewart
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As a fan of classic movies and James Garner I need to see these! Thanks for posting this!
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Very funny movies!
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You're welcome. When I saw them on my on-screen guide, I thought of you! 😀
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Legends of Tomorrow is back! Then, I'm going to take a peek at Hostile Planet and somehow work in Enemy Within, Badlands, and Knightfall!
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Yeah, I'm excited to watch Legends. 🙂
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BTW...Hostile Planet is on National Geographic as it says in the article not Nat Geo WILD as it says in the header!
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