YMMV / The Twilight Zone (2002)

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • How sympathetic you may find the main character of "The Pool Boy" after The Reveal depends entirely on how you interpret various ambiguities. He is placed into a virtual prison after being convicted of murdering the owner of a house he was working for, after some sort of encounter with the owner's wife. It is never made clear if the murder was his own idea or if the wife was in on it and framed him for it; he remembers the wife coming on to him pretty aggressively, but this may just be how he perceived it.
  • All 3 main characters in "The Lineman" apply:
    • Was Tyler's breakdown towards the end solely from his rejection and greed, or did electrocuting himself with the microwave fry his mind and cause him to be unable to think rationally?
    • Was Shannon honest to Tyler about not dating employees, or was she never interested in him in the first place? She possibly felt so guilty about nearly getting Tyler killed, that she could not bring herself to tell him the truth and hurt him even more. The fact that she was so quick to start making out with Buddy suggests the latter.
    • Was Buddy honest with Tyler when he said that he meant nothing when he was kissing Shannon? Tyler didn't believe Buddy was telling the truth and since he still had the power to read minds, maybe he could tell that Buddy wasn't being honest.
  • The jury is out on Nick Dark, the host of the titular game show in "How Much Do You Love Your Kid?" He does seem genuinely concerned about Donna as she plays the game to find her kidnapped child, helping her solve the clues and demanding that the cameras be turned off when she tearfully embraces her son Wylie after he's injured; however, he also goads her into continuing the hunt and seems cheerful when Donna shoots the kidnapper—her own husband—because it will be a great twist ending. He could be a Faux Affably Evil villain who only cares about ratings, or a Punch-Clock Villain who does have sincere sympathy for the contestants.
• Awesome Music: The new version of the Twilight Zone theme song was mixed by Jonathan Davis of Korn.
• Crosses the Line Twice: "I had to change the baby" from "Cradle of Darkness".
• Esoteric Happy Ending:
  • "The Executions Of Grady Finch" ends with the killer dying after being crushed underneath a statue. Great, except everybody is convinced he's innocent except the lawyer he confessed to, so now they'll go on a wild goose chase for the killer. And the victim's son who tried to shoot him for getting away with it never got any closure in hearing Grady finally confess and got arrested for attempted murder .
  • "Azoth the Avenger is a Friend of Mine" ends with the abusive dad being turned into an action figure. However now young Craig only has a single parent left, and losing one of the breadwinners of the family can put them into serious financial problems and even poverty, as many who escape violent relationships in real life can find out. And good luck explaining to the police what happened to the father.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In "Evergreen", Amber Tamblyn plays a rebellious teen whose family moves to a gated community to set her straight. In this community rebellious teens are sent to "Arcadia Military School" which turns out to actually be "Arcadia Fertilizer Company", which turns said teens into fertilizer. Tamblyn went on to play the title character in Joan of Arcadia.
• Informed Wrongness: A recurring theme in the episodes were that characters were portrayed as in the wrong for not believing supernatural explanations over the more mundane ones. The biggest offenders would be "Chosen" ^note  Where the main character is punished for not trusting aliens who were kidnapping his friends and in general acting like a cult. and "Shades of Guilt" ^note  Where the main character's wife thinks that a man stole her husband's car and wallet rather than believing her white husband turned black out of nowhere.
• Karmic Overkill: A segment called "The Pool Guy", where the main character finds himself trapped in a "Groundhog Day" Loop experiencing his own murder over and over again. At the end it's revealed that he's a murderer himself who was forced to undergo a memory wipe before being placed in a Mind Prison and that the man who kills him every time was his victim. According to his jailers and even the narrator, it's just deserts, but viewers felt that killing a confused, helpless man thousands of times until he goes insane is infinitely worse than killing someone once.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • In "Into the Light", Rachel Stark, slowly discovers that one of her students is about to commit a school shooting and when she sees him on the roof, he tries to talk her into letting him kill the students since she hates them. She is unswayed and she tackles him off the school before anyone can get shot, killing both the student and herself in the process. Even better is that right before she died, the light on her students' faces disappeared, so she died knowing she had saved them.
  • Charlie Stickney earns his happy ending in "Mr. Motivation" when he finally bolsters the confidence to stand up to his Bad Boss and gets him fired for trying to lie about the expiration date on a birth control pill.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • In "Evergreen", Jenna's entire family catapults over it when they knowingly let their daughter be turned into fertilizer because she tried to flee the community.
  • The skinheads in "Shades Of Guilt" go beyond it when they attack and kill or attempt to kill in the new reality an African-American college professor, which is why they didn't get a second chance to rethink their choices like the protagonist.
• Narm:
  • "Azoth the Avenger Is a Friend of Mine" is ripe with Dull Surprise.
  • Ty enhancing his psychic powers by microwaving his own head in "The Lineman".
  • "Harsh Mistress" is about an abusive Yandere guitar that at one point jealously "watches" as its new owner has sex with Tangi Miller.
  • Jessica Simpson as Miranda Evans in "The Collection". She is... not convincing when things start getting weird.
    Miranda: You stupid bitches!
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Liliana Mumy plays Anthony's daughter in "It's Still a Good Life." Younger audiences might recognize her as the voice of Leni Loud.
  • Craig Hansen from "Azoth The Avenger Is A Friend of Mine" would grow up to be even more violent than his father ever was.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: In "Cold Fusion", the concept surrounding scientists seeing their own creation being used for destruction would've been great, especially given the fact it was being produced right around the War On Terror. Instead, they never expand much beyond that being what caused the main character to go mad and kill the other scientists involved before committing suicide.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • Matt McGrady in "Shades Of Guilt". He's supposed to be depicted as a racist for leaving an African-American college professor to die at the hands of 3 white supremacists. However, when a person is banging on your window in a dark alley begging to get in your car, it's considered ill-advised to let them in, no matter what race they are. The episode really makes it look more like a man who was fleeing from someone who he was understandably afraid was a carjacker and learned too late he was wrong. He also felt incredibly guilty about it after he realized his mistake. The ending doesn't help much, as when he was saved by himself, you can see the skinheads nearly get into his car. So while it was a noble act to save him, he almost dies in the process.
  • His wife to a lesser extent part way through. After Matt turns black and returns home, she kicks him off the property believing him to have been another man who stole her husband's car and identity. While one can definitely sympathize with Matt for being wrongly kicked out of his home, her theory was a lot more plausible than what was actually happening.
  • The main character in "Chosen". While he was undoubtedly an asshole, you'll find few that believe that he deserved his fate because he chose not to take a leap of faith with the shady aliens that came to collect him. Not only did he have no idea that they were aliens, but they were also extremely unclear about what they wanted from him, coming off as a sort of creepy cult that can convert other people. The last act that gets him left behind is his shooting the alien that kicked in his door in what he rightfully at the time believed was self-defense.
  • Despite being a murderer, the main character of "The Pool Boy" tends to be viewed sympathetically due to many finding his fate of being killed over and over again in a realistic simulation as being Karmic Overkill. It likely does not help that the events that lead to him committing the murder are vague.
  • Ryan from "Fair Warning" is portrayed as a bad boyfriend who Tina was right to break up with for not believing she was being stalked. However, he did believe her, even going as far to bear up the guy as a warning to leave her alone (earning himself a criminal record in the process). He stopped believing her when he saw security footage of the stalker being in a different location at the same time Tina claimed she was being stalked. While she ended up being right, this just puts Ryan among the many who were portrayed as in the wrong for not believing a supernatural event was occurring.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic
  • Buddy towards the end of "The Lineman". After Tyler caught Buddy kissing his ex-girlfriend, he never apologizes for it and his claim that it was just a friendly act sounds more like a lie he was trying to cover up as he was angry at Tyler for thinking it meant anything. And while Tyler attacking Buddy was not okay, the fact he permanently ended his friendship with Tyler comes off as rather callous since they were lifelong friends so he would know by that point Tyler had clearly lost his sanity and needed major help. Especially considering the things that caused Tyler to start going crazy were directly related to something Buddy had done.
  • While Henry Santos from "Tagged" obviously did not deserve to die, his handling of the situation when he was confronted by Marcus caused him to come off as Too Dumb to Live. Instead of just walking away from a potentially dangerous situation or trying to deescalate things, he condescends and mocks Marcus when Marcus demands that he stop painting over his tag, despite knowing that Marcus is a gang member and that other members of the gang are sitting in a car just a few feet away, and continues to treat the situation like a joke even when Marcus pulls a gun on him; when Marcus turns him around, Henry snidely remarks, "Oh, you're a big, freakin' man, huh?" before trying to pull the gun away from Marcus by the barrel, which unsurprisingly caused Marcus to accidentally shoot Henry.
  • Noah in "Sunrise" claims that the killing of one of the five in sacrifice would be worse than letting the sun disappear forever. He then grabs the knife and begins to taunt the others, claiming that their willingness to perform the sacrifice is akin to cold-blooded murder. Later, when Amber has drawn the short stick and everyone else is hesitant to go through with the act, Noah hits her in the back of the head with a rock, causing her to bleed to death.

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