I can be a bit of a sucker sometimes for anthologies, I always love the fact that they have as many stories as you want, it's true that quantity doesn't always equal a great amount of quality, but sometimes quality really does help.
This is another sci-fi gem I think is under the radar. Yeah I know I lot of people say, this revival isn't as good as the original; but lets face it it's a tough act to follow. What I really like about this version of the anthology is isn't trying to one up it's predecessor, but it's trying to simply do it's own thing while staying true to the spirit at the same time, which I feel is what a good revival should do. I remember seeing this show when I was about 12 so in a way this show is one of the final relics of my childhood at it's end, also if it wasn't for this show I never would of known entirely about the original. It was also to me one of the last really good anthologies before they became a lost practice, not to say there aren't anymore but they've became few and far between.
There are a lot of things I feel this revival has going for it. I really like the theme song which I think is very good and memorable, it has a really eerie and spooky tone to it. The production value I thought was on par, it was done on a higher budget but it was used well. From the make up of the aliens/monsters, certain special visual effects which hold up, well may'be not all some CGI effects do look dated.
The pacing I personally thought was better, each of the stories like it's predecessor are an hour long but I hardly noticed the time. I really liked the into narrator, he has that storyteller tone which is both wise and kinda creepy.
Even liked the use of cast members, each of them were a mixed bag from unknowns, experienced actors/minor leaguers you might have seen here and there, and some familiar faces from TV shows or movie you might know about. Each of them are different ages and I like that they all look like regular people, which I like because it makes them more easier to emphasize or relate to, than anyone from the CW whom look ridiculously good.
And this show has a lot of good and memorable stories. It's true this show does have a lot of bad apples, but that's the same fundamental truth about most other anthologies out there, it's a matter of sorting out the bad ones in order to find the really good ones, and the good ones really are tasty. I really like how most of them are morality tales that really do deal with the fallibility's of man and science, the danger of uncontrolled progress, conflict between man and mechanization, fear of what is unknown or what we don't understand, and the importance of being human and humanity triumphing.
There are plenty of memorable stories, I'll let you make your own lists and be the judge of them. But then again that's the point of most of these anthologies anyway. A couple of them for me are one "Stream of Conciness" which was about an internet technology completely running the show and books and literacy have became almost obsolete. Another which is my favorite one "Tribunal" which is an emotional story on a lawyer (played well by Saul Yurik from TV's "Warehouse 13") traveling in time to gather sufficient evidence, to try and convict a wanted Nazi.
Overall this show was a solid sci-fi, I wouldn't mind another revival, or at least some other anthology based on sci-fi to form. Anthologies are something the sci-fi community needs more of right now. Like any story in an anthology this show is worth checking out.
Rating: 3 and a half stars
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