DIMENSION 404
Hulu, 3:00 a.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: The title of this new Twilight Zone-type anthology series alludes to that scary “404 Error” message that pops up when your computer is really, truly screwed up. The numerals “404” also pop into the show from time to time as a fun, random cameo, including the price of a coffee at a local coffee shop. And each episode of Dimension 404 begins with a streaming “glitch” that stalls, then takes over, the streaming signal, much like the opening to The Outer Limits, back in the 1960s, pretended to commandeer the viewer’s TV set: “We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical…” (Good luck explaining those concepts to your kids and grandkids today.) So far, so good, and extra points for unveiling a show called 404 on April 4 – but once Dimension 404 begins, based on the three episodes made available for preview and available for streaming beginning today, it’s more of a Twilight Zone light, with both the concepts and the execution less original and artfully crafted than you’d want from such a modern sci-fi anthology show. For the real deal, go to Netflix and watch Black Mirror. Meanwhile, in this opening trio, Lea Michele (pictured) stars as the apparent dream date of a guy trying a new dating app, and Patton Oswalt, in the best of the opening tales, plays a cinema nerd (no stretch there; Oswalt’s books on cinema are delightfully passionate and well-informed) who is understandably wary of the newest cinematic technological gimmick.