Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Zoned Out: The Twilight Zone- 'The Wunderkind' (2019)

Another week and another morality play courtesy of CBS' version of Hulu.  This time, it *might* be topical...
Our Lead is a 'Kingmaker'- a Campaign Manager who can't lose...until he does.

Sadly, this is the only time we see John Laroquette.  Why cast him for just this one bit?
He discovers an 11 year old kid who made a YouTube Video about wanting to be President.  This could be his way back in!
During this, we constantly cut back to him strapped to some sort of operating table.  Clearly something goes wrong here!
Will his campaign work?  More importantly, what will happen to him if it does?

To find out, watch the Episode on CBS All Access.  They have other stuff too...I guess.
A dark Episode designed to touch close to home.  If you didn't figure it out, this is *kind of, sort of* about Trump.  I really hope that nobody missed that.  Putting aside the politics (at least for now), the Episode is quite good.  Peele continues to give Actors that don't normally get to be Leads the chance to do so.  Yet again, it pays off.  John Cho has really stood out on his own in recent years and this is no exception.  It's also funny to see the lady from Castle Rock- I probably should finish that Season some day.  Unsurprisingly, Jacob Tremblay is also good here.  The Plot is sort of a riff on one of the more famous ones- the one where the kid has reality-warping powers.  They take the literal magic out here and just make it all about 'making connections' and just plain being convincing.  The kid manages to leave an impression on people just through his looks and words.  He can make you do what he wants in a more subtle way and you rarely question it.  The framing device of Cho on the Hospital Bed works well enough and keeps you reminded of the fact that something bad is going to happen.  You could probably do the Episode without it too.  It's not like you *don't* suspect a bad ending for a TWILIGHT ZONE EPISODE (especially a modern one).  Regardless of where you stand politically, this is a very good Episode.  As a bonus, we can see that even in the age of Prestige Television, the practice of Casting a Kid Actor's Sibling as his/her Sibling is still in effect...
Next time, trouble in Space.  Are visions of danger to be ignored or acted upon?  See you then...

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