A meteor shower affects the male occupants of a town and it’s up to sisters Annie and Martha to keep things together.

The Twilight Zone was never subtle, and back in the 60s that was a necessity – it needed to hammer home its allegorical messages in such a way that they weren’t lost within the sci-fi trappings. In the 21st Century we’re a bit more sophisticated at picking up references without the need of a flashing arrow screaming ‘See what we did there!?’ And yet this tale of ‘when men go bad’ is so on the nose that it’s embarrassing.

I struggle to review this without invoking potential accusations of ‘well, a man would say that’, and even the title ‘Not all Men’ is a direct reference to the maligned social media hashtag where men were lambasted for suggesting that not all men behave like the key players that drove the #MeToo movement. It’s a gender minefield, and this episode reduces men to violent animals following the contamination of the water supply by alien meteorites. Except that… and here’s the twist… a lot of the men were already monsters before the contamination, and they were never actually affected, just chose to use it as an excuse, while some weren’t affected – they had the choice not to succumb to toxic masculinity.

Heather Anne Campbell returns with a screenplay directed this time by Christina Choe, and they get good performances from Taissa Farmiga (The Nun, American Horror Story) and Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul). The production values ensure it’s a good-looking and action-packed hour, it’s just that I honestly don’t get what they were trying to achieve. I don’t think it’s a deliberately exercise in misandry (though it could be read that way) and surely the subject it’s actually trying to address is so important that it shouldn’t be dressed in such broad strokes.

Verdict: Not all men are like this, though in The Twilight Zone you ought to watch out for an attack on The Night of the Living Dicks. Is it perpetuating male stereotypes, or is it genuinely suggesting that Annie had to go through this ordeal to get her voice to stand up to casual sexism? I’m none the wiser. 5/10

Nick Joy