The Outer Limits (Season 7 Premiere)

Reviewed by:
Matt Freeman

The Outer Limits is the red-headed stepchild of the Twilight Zone, and always will be. The creepy, semi-morality-tale formula is officially tired.The seventh season premiere of the latest incarnation of The Outer Limits (now on the Sci-Fi Channel) offers more clichés than cautions, and leading with Tom Arnold doesn’t help matters at all.

The premise, a father buys a robot that eventually replaces him as head ofthe household, is an insult to the kind of genius Rod Serling offered. Thecheap effects and easy commentary (“Beware machines!”) are likely to invite unintentional laughs.

Perhaps the show itself can’t be blamed. After Tales from the Crypt, Ray Bradbury Theater, the original Outer Limits, and several versions of the Twilight Zone, this short story format has definitely run its course.

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