Review: Colman Domingo stars in The Twilight Zone ‘Downtime’
Fear the Walking Dead star Colman Domingo steps into The Twilight Zone
Colman Domingo joins Deadpool and Gotham star Morea Baccarin in a trippy trip into The Twilight Zone. Season 2 of Jordan Peele’s reboot of the classic Rod Serling series has definitely ramped up the creepy factor as Baccarin discovers that her world is not everything it seems.
“Downtime” achieves the classic Twilight Zone chill factor when the world stops but Michelle Weaver’s world keeps going. There’s an orb in the sky but no one else seems bothered by it, and eventually everyone succumbs to its pull. Except for her.
She returns home to find that her husband Carl (Domingo) is unaffected until she mentions the orb, and then he comments that it’s “downtime” and lapses into an Irish brogue. Alone and terrified, Michelle finds herself confronted with news that the life she has been living is not what she thought it was, and she has some decisions to make.
The episode is reminiscent of the Cameron Crowe mindbender Vanilla Sky, starring Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz. Eagle-eyed fans will see that there’s a little nod to The Twilight Zone episode “The Brain Center at Whipple’s” if you watch carefully.
“Downtime” is wholly original with lots of modern day concepts that make it relevant for today’s audience…but also relevant for future audiences, too. After all, Serling’s genius was that he could spin tales in the early 1960s that remain as culturally relevant for today as they were when the episodes first aired.
Baccarin is phenomenal in “Downtime”. She is able to capture so much emotion in her expression, which is important as she spends much of the episode on her own. Domingo’s all-too-brief appearance is so much fun. Fear TWD fans won’t see a trace of Victor Strand in this performance, which gives Domingo free range to flex his acting muscles. (Mr. Peele, please give Colman Domingo an entire episode. He needs an entire episode. And we know it would be brilliant.)
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The entire second season of The Twilight Zone is available to view now on CBS All Access, including the episode “A Human Face” with fellow Fear TWD star Jenna Elfman.
Fans will be able to catch more from Colman Domingo when Fear the Walking Dead returns for season 6 this summer, and during the Fear TWD panel at SDCC at Home July 22-26.