“The Twilight Zone” got a second revival in 2002 and the results are pretty mixed. Like the other versions of the show, it’s very hard to review in the sense that it’s an anthology series so every episode has a different cast and storyline. This means that some episodes are significantly better than others. Despite the challenge, I still noticed a pattern and that is that it just cannot come close to matching the original.

Hosted by Forest Whitaker (“The Last King Of Scotland”, “The Butler”), “The Twilight Zone” offers a range of different disturbing stories with sci-fi and supernatural elements. There’s still usually some sort of horrifying twist at the end of each tale.

Let me first make it clear that even though I think he does a decent job, Forest Whitaker just isn’t Rod Serling. Serling’s delivery remains iconic after all these years. There were some big stars that made appearances throughout the run of this version of the series. I definitely liked Jason Alexander (“Pretty Woman”) as Death in an early episode. Shannon Elizabeth (“American Pie”) also appears in one of the stories and she is fairly good. A lot of the performances in this felt very forgettable but I think the writing just wasn’t there.

Some of the episodes here are actually remakes of ones from the original series but most of them are new stories. Some of the episodes do feature good ideas, it’s just the execution is disappointing. I think my problem with this version is that the writing just isn’t on par with the original and as a result, it never feels as disturbing or as powerful as it should. I will say though that I do like the intro for the series. I think it is way better than the intro from the 1980s revival series. Overall, 2002’s “The Twilight Zone” never quite works and it’s a real shame because I love the idea of anthology sci-fi/horror.