History Series / TheTwilightZone2002

* BrokenAesop: "Azoth the Avenger is a Friend of Mine" teaches having courage. However, when Craig showed his courage by standing up to his father, the father had no fear of retaliating and Craig was only saved from him because he used Azoth's magic sword to turn his dad into an action figure. [[SarcasmMode Believe it or not]] in the real world, kids don't have power like that.

* ColorMeBlack: "Shades of Guilt": A man avoids picking up an African-American activist (which allows some skinheads to beat him to death) and he keeps trying to avoid blame... and the Twilight Zone twist is him slowly becoming a twin of said activist, starting with his skin color changing, up until [[TimeyWimeyBall somehow he ends up living what precisely happened that night]], and himself/a copy of himself picks him up out of mercy.

** [[spoiler: "The Collection": the babysitter gets turned into a doll and the little girl gets away with it.]]

* AdultFear: "How Much Do You Love Your Kid?" Your child may be kidnapped, and the police won't do a thing about it, because it is for a [[FridgeLogic perfectly legal]] TV show. And there is the implied threat that if you can't find your child in an hour, you will never see them again. [[spoiler:And ''your own husband'' was the kidnapper, and thinks that doing it all was a ''favor''.]]

* ArcWords: Appear many times on various episodes (as an example, "[[ItIsNotYourTime Not Yet]]" on "The Executions Of Grady Finch", which is heard by Finch every time he is to be executed ([[spoiler:and which makes the hearing of "Now!" when Finch gets his LaserGuidedKarma a WhamLine]]).

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: "Cradle of Darkness" portrays Alois Hitler as a German nationalist who wanted Austria and Germany united, along with being antisemitic and bigoted toward Romani. It's {{implied}} that he was the source of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's views. The real Alois is not known to have had these opinions, however. Adolf Hitler first got into far-right politics after Alois died as a student in Vienna. Furthermore, his elder half-siblings Angela and Alois, Jr. are neither seen nor mentioned in the episode even though he was raised with them.

** [[spoiler: "The Executions of Brady Finch": good news, the titular criminal is given a KarmicDeath by the DivineIntervention that kept him alive long enough for him to slip up and finally confess. The bad news? The son of the man Finch killed will go to jail for trying to pull a VigilanteExecution and there's no telling whether or not Finch's lawyer will reveal Finch's confession, that with client-attorney confidentiality and all.]]

* FailedExecutionNoSentence: "The Executions Of Brady Finch" has the titular man sentenced to die, even when he insists that he's innocent of the murder that put him there. DivineIntervention prevents him from getting killed multiple times (even when the victim's angry son walks up to Finch in court and tries to shoot him) and Finch's lawyer eventually manages to convince the court that just keeping on trying to execute him would in and of itself be considered "cruel and unusual punishment" ''and'' must mean that someone up there thinks he's innocent, so Finch ''must'' be set free. [[spoiler:The truth is that Finch ''was'' the murderer and he finally gets the courage to confess, to his lawyer, when he's let go... which is what the DivineIntervention wanted all along, so it kills him by dropping the courthouse's statue of Nemesis, the goddess of Vengeance, on him.]]

* VictoryIsBoring: In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E73ItsAGoodLife It's Still a Good Life]]", Anthony Fremont has grown tired of always winning at bowling and challenges Joseph to a game. When Joseph deliberately sends his ball into the gutter twice in a row, Anthony becomes angry at him for letting him win. He is about to punish him but his daughter Audrey asking him to play Pinball with her stays his hand.

The series also produced [[TheRemake remakes]] of three other original series episodes: "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E83DeadMansShoes Dead Man's Shoes]]" ("Dead Man's Eyes"), "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E22TheMonstersAreDueOnMapleStreet The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street]]" ("The Monsters Are on Maple Street") and "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E42TheEyeOfTheBeholder Eye of the Beholder]]".

* RetGone: "Upgrade" has an overstressed woman complaining about her rebellious teenagers, disobedient dog and her family's bills. After falling and hitting her head, she gradually comes to witness [[spoiler: the dog, both teenagers, her husband and eventually ''herself'' upgraded into superior versions of themselves. It then is shown to be a computer game that a little girl is playing and she decides to keep the new family.]] BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor, indeed.

* SettingUpdate: "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street" uses the fact that it's 2002 to add more things to the blackout that freak out people, like [[CellPhonesAreUseless cell phones being unresponsive]], explores the paranoia behind profiling (the only house that still receives light belongs to a Middle-Eastern man) and on top of that [[spoiler:it uses the fact that TheWarOnTerror is fresh to change the creators of said blackout from aliens to a U.S. GovernmentConspiracy that was testing how normal Americans would react to a situation that fired up their paranoia.]]
* ShoutOut: In "The Collection", Danielle tells Miranda that she and Jenny used to watch ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' together and that Jenny wanted Buffy and Spike to hook up. Both ''The Twilight Zone'' and ''Buffy'' aired on Creator/{{UPN}} during the 2002-2003 season.

* ThatSoundsFamiliar: In "Hunted", a virtually crime-free future society is suddenly menaced by a mysterious creature called a Kreetor, believed to have long been extinct. The leader of the team tasked with finding and killing the Kreetor finds out that [[spoiler:the Kreetor is actually a human, possibly the only one left on Earth, and all the other "humans" are actually cyborgs who wiped out the human race and took over their civilization. The word Kreetor came from "creator."]]

* RealityWarper: Danielle in "The Collection" can [[spoiler: transform adults into dolls while under extreme duress.]]

The series also produced [[TheRemake remakes]] of three other original series episodes: "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E83DeadMansShoes Dead Man's Shoes]]" ("Dead Man's Eyes"), "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E22TheMonstersAreDueOnMapleStreet The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street]]" ("The Monsters Are on Maple Street") and "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E42TheEyeOfTheBeholder The Eye of the Beholder]]".

* TheRemake: "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" and "Eye of the Beholder", with some SettingUpdate.

* ContinuationFic: "It's Still A Good Life" is a direct continuation to the original series' "It's a Good Life", showcasing that Anthony Fremont has grown up and has a daughter, who happens to be his SuperiorSuccessor in terms of powers. The conflict of the episode comes from the rest of town noticing this and Anthony's grandmother deciding to try to use her as a LaserGuidedTykeBomb to take out Anthony and his reign of terror once and for all.

* IJustWantToHaveFriends: In "The Collection," this is Danielle's justification for [[spoiler: transforming her babysitters into dolls]]--she's so desperately lonely for any sort of companionship that she'll do whatever it takes to make people stay with her...whether they want to or not.
* ImmoralRealityShow: The eponymous "How Much Do You Love Your Kid?", that kidnaps people's children and forces the parent selected as a "contestant" to RaceAgainstTime to locate the kid by answering a number of questions that will lead them to where the kid is... and a million dollars. And there's the implied threat that if the parents can't find their child in an hour, they'll never see them again. [[spoiler:It becomes more sadistic when it turns out that in order to legally allow children to be taken in such a way, at least one of the parents must agree, even with said implied risk on the line.]]

* MyGreatestFailure: In "Azoth the Avenger is a Friend of Mine," the title character reveals that in his youth, he fled a demonic attack that killed his whole family. His shame over his action continues to motivate him.

* ThePowersThatBe: In "One Night at Mercy," Death remarks that while he wants to quit, forces even more powerful than him (which he simply calls "They") won't permit him to do so.

* RaceLift: This revival was targeted towards a more African-American audience; the host was black as were a lot of the main characters in its episodes, and it featured episodes such as a racist white man waking up black. TropesAreNotBad, of course, and being on Creator/{{UPN}} might have had something to do with it.

* SuperiorSuccessor: [[Literature/ItsAGoodLife Anthony Fremont's]] daughter in "It's Still a Good Life" manages to be a SuperiorSuccessor to a nigh-omnipotent RealityWarper. She can restore things that her father has willed out of existence (which he himself cannot do) and is immune to his telepathy.

** In "Azoth The Avenger Is A Friend Of Mine", Darrell Hansen is a [[HairTriggerTemper rageaholic]], alcoholic security guard who repeatedly beats his wife Lorraine and son Craig.

* BrokenAesop: "Azoth The Avenger Is A Friend of Mine" teaches having courage. However, when Craig showed his courage by standing up to his father, the father had no fear of retaliating and Craig was only saved from him because he used Azoth's magic sword to turn his dad into an action figure. [[SarcasmMode Believe it or not]] in the real world, kids don't have power like that.

** In "Azoth The Avenger Is A Friend Of Mine", how does a regular Joe security guard (and abusive husband) defeat a Literature/ConanTheBarbarian Expy? By splashing hot coffee in his face and not stopping his beat-down with a night stick until the other guy stops moving.

** What Craig wanted Azoth The Avenger to do to [[AbusiveParents his abusive dad]] (and it's not unusual for him (and the audience) to believe it's going to happen, with Azoth being a Literature/ConanTheBarbarian {{Expy}} and Craig's dad being a regular security guard). Turned out [[BadassNormal that it went the other way around]], and Craig's dad gives Azoth a beating with his nightstick so bad that [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Azoth asks Craig to put him back on his home dimension immediately]] (although not before telling him that this is a situation where only Craig can save himself, if he is brave enough to confront his father).

* EnfanteTerrible: [[spoiler:Anthony Fremont's daughter didn't fell far from the tree. She gets fed up with her grandmother trying to use her as a LaserGuidedTykebomb against Anthony to banish ''everybody who was still remaining in town'' to "the cornfield", eventually gets bored about her and her father being the only people left in town so she brings the people (and the rest of the world) back, and the episode ends with her and Anthony watching a baseball game in Brooklyn Stadium with her making clear that she will experience a nice life with her dad from now on... and ''nothing'' will get in their way.]]

* FailedExecutionNoSentence: "The Executions Of Brady Finch" has the titular man sentenced to die, even when he insists that he's innocent of the murder that put him there. DivineIntervention prevents him from getting killed multiple times (even when the victim's angry son walks up to Finch in court and tries to shoot him) and Finch's lawyer eventually manages to convince the court that just keeping on trying to execute him would in and of itself be considered "cruel and unusual punishment" ''and'' must mean that someone up there thinks he's innocent, so Finch ''must'' be set free. [[spoiler:The truth is that Finch ''was'' the murderer and he finally gets the courage to confess, to his lawyer, when he's let go... which is what the DivineIntervention wanted all along, so it kills him by dropping the courthouse's statue of Justice on him.]]

* HollywoodLaw: One standard use of this trope with "[[FailedExecutionNoSentence if people sentenced to death cannot be executed for reasons beyond our control]], ''even after trying several times'', they are free" appears in "The Executions Of Grady Finch", among some other examples.

* TomatoSurprise: In "Upgrade", after moving into a new house, Anne [=MacIntosh=] discovers that her dog Zonka has changed breeds and [[RippleEffectProofMemory she is the only one who realizes it]]. She soon finds that her previously obnoxious family, consisting of her husband Philip and two children Sean and Tess, has been similarly replaced. Their physical appearances are entirely different and their personalities have become essentially perfect. Anne can't get anyone to believe her and she is eventually replaced herself. [[spoiler: The final scene reveals that Anne and her family are characters in a little girl named Lizzie's ''VideoGame/TheSims''-esque people simulator VideoGame.]]

* OhCrap: When the husband and wife in "Sanctuary" realize that by using Rikki's only working cell phone, they have given into temptation and as a result, they forfeited their chance to live in a real-life garden of Eden.
** Miranda in "The Collection" when she discovers [[spoiler: driver's licenses that match the names and appearances of Danielle's dolls, and realizes that they're all former babysitters who were permanently transformed by the child's desperation.]]

* ThatSoundsFamiliar: In "Hunted" a virtually crime-free future society is suddenly menaced by a mysterious creature called a Kreetor, believed to have long been extinct. The leader of the team tasked with finding and killing the Kreetor finds out that [[spoiler:the Kreetor is actually a human, possibly the only one left on Earth, and all the other "humans" are actually cyborgs who wiped out the human race and took over their civilization. The word Kreetor came from "creator."]]

The second TV revival of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'', this series aired on Creator/{{UPN}} during the 2002-03 season. It aired in hour-long installments, with two half-hour episodes run back-to-back, the only exception being the one-hour episode "The Lineman." Creator/ForestWhitaker was the on-camera host.

* AbusiveParents: Craig's father in "Azoth The Avenger Is A Friend Of Mine", a [[HairTriggerTemper rageaholic]], alcoholic security guard that keeps beating on his wife and son.
** Danielle's parents in "The Collection" are a more emotional example--they're super-controlling over every aspect of her life, down to her television-watching and diet. It's clearly taking a huge toll on her.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: "Cradle of Darkness" portrays Alois Hitler as a German nationalist who wanted Austria and Germany united, along with being antisemitic and bigoted toward Romani. It's {{implied}} that he was the source of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's views. The real Alois is not known to have had these opinions however. Adolf Hitler first got into far-right politics after Alois died as a student in Vienna. Furthermore, his elder half-siblings Angela and Alois, Jr. are neither seen nor mentioned.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: "Cradle of Darkness" portrays Alois Hitler as a German nationalist who wanted Austria and Germany united, along with being antisemitic and bigoted toward Romani. It's {{implied}} he was the source of Adolf Hitler's views. The real Alois is not known to have had these opinions however. Adolf Hitler first got into far-right politics after Alois died as a student in Vienna.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: "Cradle of Darkness" portrays Alois Hitler as a German nationalist who wanted Austria and Germany united, along with being antisemitic and bigoted toward Romani. It's {{implied}} he was the source of Adolf Hitler's views because of this. The real Alois is not known to have had these opinions however. Adolf Hitler and his father had a very poor relationship with his father, who was abusive. His politics formed starting as a student in Vienna after Alois died.

* HollywoodLaw: One standard use of this trope with "[[FailedExecutionNoSentence if people sentenced to death cannot be executed for reasons beyond our control]], ''even after trying several times'', they are free" appears on "The Executions Of Grady Finch", among some other examples.

* HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct: "Cradle of Darkness". [[spoiler: Subverted in that the time traveler succeeds, only for the nanny to replace baby Adolf with a baby from a beggar woman on the street.]]
* HollywoodLaw: One standard use of this trope with "if people sentenced to death cannot be executed for reasons beyond our control, ''even after trying several times'', they are free" appears on "The Executions Of Grady Finch", among other examples.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: The standard use of this Trope of "if people sentenced to death cannot be executed for reasons beyond our control, ''even after trying several times'', they are free" appears on "The Executions Of Grady Finch", among other examples.

* HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct: "Cradle of Darkness": [[spoiler: Subverted in that the time traveler succeeds, only for the nanny to replace baby Adolf with a baby from a beggar woman on the street.]]

* IChooseToStay: "Found And Lost"