A Human Face

A lot of people will call this a bad episode but its actually good because it dives deep into the human subconscious. A place that many people keep locked up in their minds and don't want to explore because it contains many painful emotional memories. Love is the one emotion that can strip us of our strength, of our logic, of our intelligence. Many people will do or say anything to have the smallest glimpse or taste of what true love is that we will abandon everything to have it. I liked this episode because I can relate, shamefully more than once.

The best TZ episodes for me were always large sci-fi concepts seen from a smaller personal angle. They analysed what it meant to be flawed and human and how we respond to unusual situations. Set-wise the cast and setting were relatively small, so they felt like a 20-25 min stage play.

This episode is all of the above and I enjoyed it.

Definitely not the best or the worst, not exactly boring but not exciting either, just silly really, but it does ask or at least offers up a very interesting question; could you fight an enemy in the form of a loved one?. Again, interesting but silly.

So much for the 'good alternate episode' theory that I expounded in the last review - as this was another terrible addition to the show.

As a grieving couple is preparing to move to a new house and sever another connection with their late daughter, they discover a form of extra-terrestrial life form in the basement. Though scared, Barbara (Jenna Elfman) says she sees some of her daughter in the strange creature which is baffling to Robert (Christopher Meloni) who patently does not. As the creature begins to further adopt the look of their daughter (Tavi Gevinson) Barbara becomes more and more convinced that they should interact with her, but Robert remains sceptical.

Another episode where the failings are all in the writing which desperately confuses a serious subject matter, for profundity about the situation. I accept there's a tiny granule of a discussion about rejecting reality for less pain in here, but the exploration and execution are terrible. Writer Alex Rubens has provided funny episodes of TV in the past, but this is his third "Twilight Zone" of this run and only his first "The Comedian" has been anything like acceptable. In this one, almost nothing happens except an endless circular conversation between the central pair; "that's not our daughter", "but what if it is", "But it's not", "but what if it is". Mercifully, the episode is strikingly short, clocking in at just over 30 minutes - but again, it's the first act - dragged out as if it's the complete story. Is the alien benevolent or evil? Is there one in every home? What does all the people walking outside at the end mean? All these questions remain unanswered.

The effect is quite good for the original alien form and the transformation into Maggie, and the performances from the central pair are OK (nice to see Jenna Elfman again) but those are slim pickings from another terrible episode.

Felt like there was little effort put into this, unfortunately. The dialogue was awful.