SERIES PREMIERE: When Jordan Peele was one of the writers and co-stars of Comedy Central’s brilliantly funny sketch series
Key & Peele, one of the other writers was Charlie Sanders. Now Peele and Sanders have reteamed for this new, six-episode anthology series, which is like a
Black Mirror Lite – whimsical rather than tragic, but still set in a futuristic world whose ideas intersect and overlap. In
Weird City, there’s a physical dividing line between the Haves and the Have-Nots: all sleek and futuristic on one side of the “tracks” (more like a wall, or just a border), and more like a non-gentrified downtown on the other. The first story is about a mandated matchmaking app, and stars Ed O’Neill and Dylan O’Brien as men seeking, somewhat reluctantly, computer-matched dates. It’s a very entertaining and unexpected little story – good enough to encourage viewers to seek out a free one-month trial subscription to the presenting streaming site, YouTube Premium. And oddly, Peele is about to use himself and a new anthology series as bait for yet another subscription streaming service, when he launches, and hosts, a new version of
The Twilight Zone on CBS All Access April 1. Meanwhile, there’s
Weird City, which indeed is accomplished and polished enough to help put YouTube Premium on the map. Or, at least, on some viewers’ radar.
For a full review, see David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower.