9 TV Shows That Tried To Exploit Nostalgia (And Failed)

3. The Twilight Zone (2019)

A Twilight Zone revival should have been the easiest open goal in television history. The return of the show had been long overdue, and after Black Mirror started doing horror/sci-fi anthology in its place, it made sense for the grandaddy to return.

When it finally happened, CBS initially made all the right moves on paper. After producing one of the best Twilight Zone movies not called Twilight Zone in Get Out, Jordan Peele was tapped to produce, narrate and even write episodes of the series, and he along with the other executives quickly got to work drafting in the best talent in the industry.

Movie directors like Ana Lily Amirpour and Simon Kinberg were singed to helm episodes alongside Black Mirror staple Owen Harris, but the problem was the stories simply weren't there. It was also in a difficult position, caught between delivering something new and contemporary while delivering audiences a 60s Twilight Zone nostalgia hit via recreating and reimagining old episodes.

There were flourishes of greatness in the first season, but it needs to break out the shadow of the previous iteration and commit to something truly new to truly succeed with the next batch of episodes.