The Twilight Zone - General Discussion

[LexieLily]

I've got a contender for Worst Episode (with the caveat that I haven't seen them all.)

Season 5, Episode 24, What's In The Box? The acting choices for all of the characters were so bizarre (especially the wife) that I spent the episode wondering if they were bad actors or were they supposed to be acting that way? The nearest I could come up with was the wife and the creepy repairman were running some sort of long-con for unidentified reasons to drive Joe crazy. Maybe they were having an affair and that's why she was so insistent Joe was. But all of them were so wholly unlikeable that I didn't know why I was supposed to care.

[Annber03]

Aw, I rather like that episode, for some strange reason :p. I think I mainly just like the whole concept of seeing your own future and struggling to fight the inevitable. But of course, that's not a new concept to the show, and it's one that many episodes did in a much less abrasive way, so to speak. I agree this particular episode is a very odd one tonally in a lot of ways, yes. The husband and wife are just so damn miserable and unhappy with each other, to where you do wonder just what they ever really saw in each other in the first place. And the moral in this one, if one were to look for any, is....appreciate those you love better? Stop trying to fight fate, 'cause if the world decides you're screwed, you're screwed? It's a pretty dark ending, for sure. 

I like your theory about the wife the repairman running a con :p. That would've made for a curious and intriguing twist, for sure! 

[Cobb Salad]

17 hours ago, LexieLily said:

I've got a contender for Worst Episode (with the caveat that I haven't seen them all.)

Season 5, Episode 24, What's In The Box? The acting choices for all of the characters were so bizarre (especially the wife) that I spent the episode wondering if they were bad actors or were they supposed to be acting that way? The nearest I could come up with was the wife and the creepy repairman were running some sort of long-con for unidentified reasons to drive Joe crazy. Maybe they were having an affair and that's why she was so insistent Joe was. But all of them were so wholly unlikeable that I didn't know why I was supposed to care.

I don’t like that episode either mostly because of the yelling and the general dislike the couple seemed to have for each other.  I didn’t care about the characters either.   There are a bunch of clunkers in the 5th season (along with some classics) but I’m not sure if I could identify the worst episode out of the bunch.  Have you seen “Uncle Simon” yet?  The 2 main characters in that episode are pretty unlikeable too. 

[LexieLily]

1 hour ago, Cobb Salad said:

I don’t like that episode either mostly because of the yelling and the general dislike the couple seemed to have for each other.  I didn’t care about the characters either.   There are a bunch of clunkers in the 5th season (along with some classics) but I’m not sure if I could identify the worst episode out of the bunch.  Have you seen “Uncle Simon” yet?  The 2 main characters in that episode are pretty unlikeable too. 

I don't think that title is on my list of episodes I've got recorded, no :(. I binge-recorded a lot of the NYE marathon on Decades and they've been languishing in my DVR queue ever since, lol. 

[Cobb Salad]

Happy New Year!  Time for the Twilight Zone marathons:

Sy Fy - Starting at 5:00am, 12/31.  On January 1 starting at 8pm they will show 3 episodes from the 2019 Jordan Peele version.

Decades - Starting at 12 noon 12/31

[Madding crowd]

I recorded some of my favorites to show my 25 year old son. I told him this show is one of the few that has intellectual messages along with the creepiness. One of my favs was on-The Howling Man. I liked the idea on whether you would recognize evil if you saw it.

[Cobb Salad]

The SyFy marathon is still going on today.  They’re going to show a couple of my favorites soon - A Stop at Willoughby and Time Enough at Last.  

I watched the Jordan Peele 2019 episodes last night.  Overall I thought they were okay - interesting that they were broadcast in black and white.  Of the 3 episodes they showed I thought only one felt more impactful broadcast in B&W.  They also aired some promos for these newer episodes airing this Wednesday.  

[MagnusHex]

Since the show's no longer on Netflix even though I was barely past season 3 yet in my viewing, I bought the blu-ray set of TZ last year and I've been saving it for when I watch Supernatural, season 6. Now that it's finally time, I got to watch its first three episodes: The Time Element, Where is Everybody, and One for the Angels.

The Time Element

Of course, as everybody probably know, the pilot episode, The Time Element, was broadcast not as a TZ episode, but as an episode of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, which itself was produced by Desi Arnaz from I Love Lucy. Knowing about Rod Serling's history as a WWII veteran gave the episode an extra dose of dramatic weight, especially the knowledge that he was haunted by the war and all its casualties.

Naturally, The Time Element has its theme rooted in such a sentiment as Peter Jenson, your average everyman (otherwise known as your typical TZ protagonist) travels back in time and struggles between the dilemma of cashing in on his knowledge of the future or stopping the Pearl Harbor attack. The extended one hour runtime gave the episode enough time to familiarize us with the secondary characters about to be killed in said attack, which was nice. Even though some might describe the episode's hour runtime as detrimental to its pacing, which I agree with to some extent, I also like how the plot is slowly built-up that way. When I'm watching a black-and-white film, I would usually mentally prepare myself for a slow burn anyway as the few B&W films I've seen were drawn out that way, so I had no problems with The Time Element being as dragged out as it is.

The twist ending is great too. I'm a sucker for tragedies, and I like the tragic element of just doing the best you could to be a decent man and attempt to save lives from the Pearl Harbor attack, even if Peter ultimately doesn't succeed. I remember reading a humorous remark about time travel: everyone always tries to stop 9/11 on their first stop. If this episode is made today, the Pearl Harbor attack would probably be changed to 9/11. I really like how the final scene was done too, how the psychiatrist ultimately finds himself traveling through the titular Twilight Zone and finding Peter's picture in the bar, learning that he died in the Pearl Harbor attack. It's like A Nightmare on Elm Street meets Back to the Future.

You gotta give credit to Rod for easing the audience into the pulpy time travel plot too because not everyone's into sci-fi yet, and Star Trek: TOS wouldn't air for another handful of years in the '60s. The time travel part of the story was gradually unfolded with such cleverness that I didn't really see coming to be honest (helps that I'm a non-American who has limited knowledge about '40s America), and I like how the young couple was skillfully eased into the story to make us care about them as much as Peter did.

I remember, while watching the Jordan Peele reboot of the series that I voiced about how I was annoyed by the heavy-handed political message in some of the episodes, but I was quickly reminded that the original TZ had similar trappings from Rod Serling, and it did kinda leave me wondering what the reason was that made the original episodes more appealing even in the face of sledgehammer-driven messages. But to be honest, it's no great mystery why I made the distinction: Rod's messages at the time felt more universal. The anti-war sentiments in many of Serling's TZ episodes, for example, could be understood and empathized by anybody regardless of race and gender because war is a universal language. But of course, Jordan's takes would feel more divisive due to the topic being about minorities. American minorities at that. As a non-American Chinese living in a country (Singapore) that's not exactly obsessed with arguments about racism (being a multi-cultural nation after all), I guess it's not so much that I'm not a fan of political messages in storytelling, but that I wasn't interested in Jordan's particular racial messages (at least its contemporary form in a time when everyone just feels a little more entitled to more trivial privileges compared to the '50s/'60s), even though I enjoyed Get Out and its message. I wasn't even remotely interested in Crazy Rich Asians (literally set in Singapore, albeit an exaggerated and glamorized version) or any big-name Chinese-starred films over the past decade like Shang-Chi or Everything Everywhere All at Once. Having said that, what's also worth noting is that I once had an fanatical belief in the past that fiction could be used as meaningful vehicles for social messages and shouldn't be squandered as cheap entertainment. Go figure.

4/5

Where is Everybody?

I think I would have starved to death if everyone disappeared from the world. I would imagine that I would have enjoyed it at first, being a loner and somewhat of a misanthrope, but 1) no streaming services because someone's gotta keep those servers running, and 2) food in supermarkets expires eventually, even preserved food. I don't know how to cook and, more importantly, I don't know how to grow food. Really doesn't help that I'm a picky eater who doesn't like my greens. Good luck breeding cows and slaughtering them, I guess. Christ, how did Will Smith survive again in I am Legend?

I saw the original pilot version of the episode with the original opening titles and Rod's opening narration. I really love the way Rod introduced the series to everyone, even if it did kinda spoil some of the intricate details in later episodes like Escape Clause. Such an intriguing way to introduce the world to the great show, and it reminds me of those older films when the director would have a commentary at the start to ease the audience into the picture. Of course, nowadays, directors would trust the audience's intelligence too much to do that anymore, but it does make me kinda miss those opening narrations and overtures. Remember those 5 minute overtures that would set the mood of the film? God, I really liked it in Gone with the Wind.

The pilot on the blu-ray also came with Rod's lecture at Sherwood Oaks College in 1975, where he had some intriguing insights on filmmaking, such as the way silence with no music cues made the episode feel more realistic, and it certainly did. I really like how older B&W films felt more naturalistic due to a lack of background score in certain scenes. He, along with Earl Holliman (Mike Ferris) on the official TV broadcast episode's commentary track (94 and still kicking! goddamn), also mentioned how the phone booth scene was based on Rod's personal real life experience where he also had trouble opening the phone booth door and was embarrassed. It's certainly an experience I could more than relate as I goofed up similarly many times in the past.

The ending is pretty good too. I like the commentary on the human need for human interaction, something I have experienced constantly despite my many past attempts to cut myself off from society (here I am now, for example). Of course, being stuck in a tiny box like that would make you feel claustrophobic even if you never had history of the symptom, so the resulting loneliness and delusions are probably inevitable either way unless you spend years training for NASA or something.

And of course, like many of Serling's TZ episodes, the Atomic-era paranoia circulated this episode's themes as well, with Mike wondering if everyone has been Hiroshima'd. It's a nice layer to the series I wouldn't mind seeing in other episodes too.

Another interesting insight worth noting on the Holliman commentary was that the entire episode was not only filmed on a studio (which I could hardly tell thanks to the lack of color), but the street where Mike walked onto was the same one from Back to the Future. No wonder it looked kinda familiar to me. Nice that the same set from another sci-fi story was used though. Alternative headcanon: Mike walked into an alternate universe version of Hill Valley in his "delusion," the same way Peter Jensen walked into '40s Pearl Harbor.

4/5

One for the Angels

"Death doesn't like to be cheated." - William Bludworth, Final Destination 5

Here's a more whimsical episode that leans towards camp, especially during the scene where Lou Bookman makes his big pitch to Mr. Death. Why would Death need a tie or whatever useless trinkets Lou was trying to offload on him? Who knows? But it is amusing regardless that Lou's pitch is persuasive enough that even Death would entertain the notion of men's fashion.

Of course, whenever a child is endangered, even the most whimsical episode is ultimately turned into a serious one. But even so, I appreciate the consequences here of Lou's action in escaping his death resulting in someone else's.

I also like that it has a well-deserved happy ending, something you wouldn't usually think to find in a thriller anthology series like TZ, but of course, IIRC, Rod Serling has offered a bunch of other lighter episodes throughout the series as well, rather than all gloom and doom.

3.5/5

[Annber03]

"One for the Angels" is a really touching episode. I've always liked that one. And "Where is Everybody?" is a great way to lay out the basic premise of a show like this.

I have the DVD set of this series - I need to sit down and watch "The Time Element" at some point. It's fascinating to think of how many other shows came to be thanks to the Desilu brand - Lucy and Desi really were trailblazers in more ways than one. 

Nice write up of these episodes. 

[MagnusHex]

Mr. Denton on Doomsday

This was an instant classic even if it lacks the usual sci-fi elements one might expect from this show. It has a great pathos of a character from Dan Duryea's Al Denton with a very sympathetic backstory that I really like. Some might be annoyed by the heavy-handed moralizing of such an episode, but I quite enjoy broad themes like this, especially when this episode feels rather subversive of your typical heroic tale where you get to shoot/beat up the bad guys without any emotional baggage. It's a very straightforward plot but it nonetheless contains a brilliant enough of a twist to keep things engaging. Watching the episode with Martin Landau on the commentary track, he remarked how it would have been interesting to follow Henry J. Fate (Malcolm Atterbury)'s journey from town to town as the peddler, helping people, and I agree.

What's fascinating is that over the first three (or four if you count The Time Element) episodes, you have three different genres that differentiate from one another. Even if they all contain sci-fi or supernatural elements, Mr. Denton could easily be passed off as a western. With another anthology series like Black Mirror, for example, you'd usually only have sinister or technophobic-related tales that feel limited in range. And what's brilliant, of course, is that you didn't really have TV guides or Wikipedia back then to tell you what the next episode would be like, merely Rod Serling's short summary to tease your appetite, so you wouldn't really know what to expect.

One little nitpick that I didn't even realize until I read the AV Club review: there's a helpful doctor conveniently standing by just to pronounce the hand of both men to be incapable of firing a weapon anymore. It wasn't that big of a deal, but it is slightly amusing in hindsight.

4.5/5

The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine

Looking through the list of '30s films I've seen, it did seem like a more innocent time. The Wizard of Oz for one thing; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for another. Both very wholesome films that portrayed a whole removed from the kind of gritty cynicism decades later. But then you also had horror flicks that explored the darkness of the human heart, films like White Zombie, Dracula, and of course, Frankenstein.

Although for Barbara Jean Trenton (Ida Lupino), I guess a more appropriate film to recall would be Gone with the Wind (the younger Jerry Hearndan/Jerome Cowan in the projected film even bears a striking resemblance with Clark Gable/Rhett Butler), a film of which its form of "romanticism" hasn't aged well at all (not to mention its casual racism). But Barbara would probably believe that Gone with the Wind was a wholesome film full of heartfelt emotions celebrating the power of love or something...

To be fair, Marty Sall (Ted de Corsia) was a jerk. Ida/Barbara was still as beautiful as ever this episode (even if make-up might have been involved), so if it's a superficial matter of looks, Barbara deserves more than bit roles. Then again, I guess it's the '50s after all, and female roles in pictures haven't really progressed that far yet. It would be some time before we would hire aging ladies to replay a role they had some 40 years ago (Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode obviously, who had already reprised her role in H20 during the '90s).

Furthermore, I also understand the appeal of shutting yourself away living in nostalgia. Heck, I'm a shut-in myself spending my life watching older TV shows from decades ago (instead of bothering with new and trending shows like The Last of Us), so I'm no better. That thirst and hunger to escape away into something simpler away from the trappings of real life and all its misery, I could relate to that even today, at this moment in my life. I remember writing a fan fiction back then called Escapist. It was never finished, but it was essentially about a shut-in who ended up escaping into several fictional worlds from anime (think Chaos;Head meets Ready Player One). Similarly, Last Action Hero also explored the appeal of such simplicity in fiction. Even with the ending to Shrine, the scarf implied that Barbara has simply escaped to another universe. But I think that in spite of that ending that seemingly tried to end the tale on a more hopeful note, the way Danny Weiss (Martin Balsam, or Dr. Gillespie from The Time Element) shouted for Barbara to come back to the real world still feels rather heartbreaking, having lost his dear friend he cherished forever from reality. It's a sentimental ending, and yet it still feels somewhat wrong and unsettling.

Alternative headcanon: Barbara gained access to the magic ticket from Last Action Hero and entered her film the same way Austin O'Brien did.

4/5

[txhorns79]

On 3/25/2023 at 8:17 AM, MagnusHex said:

The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine

I always felt like this episode was too similar to Sunset Boulevard.  To me, the only real difference was Barbara was able to magically return to the fantasy of her movies, while Norma Desmond simply had a mental breakdown.

[MagnusHex]

6 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

I always felt like this episode was too similar to Sunset Boulevard.  To me, the only real difference was Barbara was able to magically return to the fantasy of her movies, while Norma Desmond simply had a mental breakdown.

I think it helped that I've never seen Sunset Boulevard, so the episode still felt fresh to me (although I heard Glenn Close's gonna star in a contemporary remake). Plus, due to the reasons I mentioned regarding my own personal experience with the theme of escapism, I quite enjoyed the ending.

[MagnusHex]

Walking Distance

If The Time Element represented Serling's trauma from his experience in WWII, then Walking Distance (and arguably Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine) is representative of his nostalgia for a simpler time during his childhood, wishing he could go back again rather than deal with the exhausting drama and horrors that would plague the '60s, giving him no rest after living through the war of the '40s.

This episode is one of those where the protagonist has literally walked into the eponymous Twilight Zone (as opposed to having strange events happening around his starting location and secondary characters). Be it time-travel or an alternate dimension, it's quite an endearing and heartfelt tale cherishing the simple pleasures in life one takes for granted as a child. You'd end up incapable of moving on if that yearning persists, perhaps even living out in your adult years things you wanted to do as a kid but never got to (speaking from a personal experience, naturally).

To be honest, the episode wraps up a little too perfectly to really engage me, especially because the pacing of the plot slouched a little after the meeting of his parents before the ad break (something Serling pointed out in his college lecture commentary track as well as he severely criticized his younger self). It's nonetheless a quite well-crafted episode in my opinion, just not one that stands out too much in my mind.

That said, I found it amusing that the young lad with the roadster just randomly called out to the adult Martin, practically a stranger, out of nowhere to show his new set of wheels. It helps though that the sequence in the past is implied to be a dream sequence (something Serling admitted in the aforementioned lecture that he didn't intend for the script to turn out that way, people ignoring adult Martin's strange behavior). I also like the end, when Martin walked into the diner again and random teenagers start dancing to rock & roll music as if to tell you "Hey, it's the 1950s/60s again!" I had flashbacks to Back to the Future (which also has a Marty!) watching that scene and hearing that music.

Quite a handful compared Gig Young's own personal life with Martin Sloan, an inevitable comparison due to how Gig died (and what he did immediately before he died). I find that rather tasteless to be honest, even though I understand why such comparisons were made. We like to act like we know the personal lives of celebrities like they're out bestfriends (or in some cases, our worst enemies we'd scorn over the Internet)... but they're not. The only people who could and should make such comparisons are Gig's friends and family, or at least people who really knew him at one point outside television and film. It is rather tragic though, I'd admit - and not just his fate, but his wife's.

4/5

Escape Clause

You know, whenever I see an unpleasant character like Walter Bedeker, who despite his churlishness and self-centeredness, managed to marry to someone pleasant and the total opposite, I just couldn't help but wonder how people ended up in these marriages. I suppose you could make a case that Walter's perhaps a more caring and even charismatic man in the past.

I've dreamed of immortality before, but then I quickly realized (thanks to fiction) that it comes with the consequence of aging and falling sick without dying. But Twilight Zone cleverly acknowledged this by offering Walter the benefit of being immortal, ageless and invulnerable. Those three can mean very different things, and it's usually not often that someone like the Devil (or more likely, the Djinn from Wishmaster) would offer all three without any hidden trick.

And that makes Walter's actions seem all the more foolish. What a f-ing waste. There's things I would've done in his place, obviously (like riding a rollercoaster, for one thing, not having to worry about my heart or my anxiety condition... or dying from a coaster accident like Final Destination 3), but this man just received one of the best deals of all time and squandered it. Sigh. What an idiot. And it can be a wonderful thing to dream about if you're a loner with no attachment to anyone in the world, so your friends and family dying wouldn't bother you the least. The only consequence I could think of is that the Earth might someday implode or something and you'd be left floating across space dusts. No Netflix, no video games, no nothing. Just space and dusts. Then I might consider using the escape clause.

Hell, I would even take a Groundhog Day kind of scenario where I would be reliving the same day forever ("I'm a god!"), but watching a different episode of old TV shows everyday. With thousands, if not more TV shows than I could watch in a lifetime, it would be like what Henry Bemis felt like in Time Enough at Last (before the cruel twist, I mean).

Walter's foolishness doesn't end behind bars either, because think about it: Sure, Walter is trapped behind bars, doomed to be imprisoned forever. But here's the thing, Walt... people break out of prisons. What's a few hundred years attempting to break out of prison (or just wait for the law to go lenient on you down the road, after you serve a hundred years of a life sentence) compared to eternity? All he had to do was just wait around and an opportunity would show itself. And the fact that he became impatient and ended up using the clause suggests that the Devil knew just what kind of man he was and counted on this petty little man committing some kind of crime and ending up becoming bored to death behind bars.

Despite the seemingly grim description of the ending, it's actually a whimsical episode much like One for the Angels (which also featured a supernatural entity associated with the afterlife), further evidenced by the bouncy music score. It's also amusing that the guard attending to the imprisoned Walter burst into the hallway immediately upon hearing the 'thud' when Walt collapses. Like immediately, almost as if he has super hearing. Why didn't we get an episode about that guy? lol

I quite enjoyed this story, probably more than Walking Distance and the other whimsical episode, One for the Angels, mostly because immortality is just such a fascinating concept that I always like exploring, and I love stories about the Devil tricking people too (currently watching Supernatural season 6, but Thomas Gomez's take on the Devil is naturally more jolly than Mark Pellegrino's sinister demonic force who wouldn't bother with such a contract or game; I could see Tom Ellis' Lucy fooling around with such a clause though). Some might consider immortality a curse, but I consider tales of people living forever an escapism. No heaven, no hell (at least not any time soon), just Netflix and the Internet forever, or at least till humanity dies out in a couple million years, give or take.

4.5/5

[txhorns79]

10 hours ago, MagnusHex said:

then Walking Distance (and arguably Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine) is representative of his nostalgia for a simpler time during his childhood, wishing he could go back again rather than deal with the exhausting drama and horrors that would plague the '60s, giving him no rest after living through the war of the '40s.

I think the inverse of this was A Stop at Willoughby, where the protagonist gets swept up in nostalgia with tragic results.  

Also, if you ever saw Serling's Night Gallery, he revisits this idea again with They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar.  It's perhaps my favorite episode of that series. 

[MagnusHex]

The Lonely

Before this episode, the show has somewhat played around with the idea of isolation within a contained environment before in Where is Everybody. But it's here in The Lonely where we truly get our first exploration of a lonely man who has been stuck on some prison asteroid for four years (while Walter Bedeker barely survived four minutes in a tiny jail cell). Whether Corry is truly guilty or not is mostly irrelevant because the moral question here, naturally is whether the punishment fits the crime. But for what it's worth, at least Corry has someone delivering books (and then a love-bot) to help him pass the time. It could have been a lot worse for him, like getting imprisoned in a small room experiencing 1,000 years per minute of real time within a simulation (I just can't help myself, I love Black Mirror so much, especially the White Christmas special).

The idea of a robot as a companion in a '60s show is certainly interesting though, considering how real the idea might become in the near future (if it isn't real already, from what I heard). Of course, this being the '60s, such impure relationships wouldn't really be accepted on television yet, but even so, Rod has injected a tragic vibe to the outcome of Alicia here rather than sanctimoniously commenting on how such a relationship wouldn't work in real life. We're meant to sympathize with Corry here in the end, how he has earned his freedom but ending up sacrificing a potential happiness with another, even if said happiness might very well be a fleeting illusion.

And even though we didn't spend a lot of time with Corry troubling over Alicia's robotic state, I feel like it's one of the more fascinating moments in the episode, the idea of this chance at happiness being at your reach, but you're constantly reminded that it's not real, merely a façade. Drives you nuts thinking about it for too long. It's not quite a Westworld or Detroit: Become Human situation where it's confirmed there is true sentient life behind those gears and cogs, so the only question here in this episode is whether or not you're deluding yourself loving a robot.

As usual, I personally wouldn't mind being stuck in a prison like this if I have light entertainment to pass the time. The whole idea of loneliness has rarely bothered me (sure, I get lonely sometimes, but my life as a loner has always felt more appealing than dealing with the consequences of my inept social skills), so it's hard for me to feel as much impact from the episode as a normal person would have, unfortunately. If anything, I would die of boredom first, especially when I'm not much of a reader (TV AND FILM ALL THE WAY BABY).

It's amusing to think about how Jack Warden was in 12 Angry Men (amazing film I'm glad I watched) just two years prior to this episode. Alternative headcanon: Corry had a 12 Angry Men situation that ultimately resulted in him receiving his pardon.

4.5/5 Strong ending to a solid structure.

[MagnusHex]

Time Enough At Last

"Cursed by his own hubris." - Bender, commenting on an episode of The Scary Door parodying this episode

Initially, I would like to say that I could probably relate to the theme of this episode a lot more seeing how I'm always escaping from the real world into fiction. But rewatching this episode, I realized just how obsessed Henry Bemis is with reading (to the point of reading ketchup bottles???), such that he ended up neglecting his work to satisfy his hobby, something even I wouldn't have done. Henry's behavior, however, has reminded me of my days serving conscription in the army, just huddled away in some corner watching anime I've downloaded on some China brand tablet I bought cheaply off the Internet. It was forbidden for us to carry a device like that, but I needed my escape from that place (didn't have the best experience in my camp). And that's why a part of me still sympathized with Henry nonetheless, especially with what ultimately happens to him at the end of the episode. It helps that I have myopia too and I'm forced to wear glasses as well. Just the idea of them breaking forever, never allowing me sight again... it sends shivers.

And even though I mentioned that I'm not much of a reader, I'm knowledgeable enough that Henry's utterance of Keats and Shelley made me geek out a little (one reason why Penny Dreadful was so enjoyable for me). No mention of Poe though, but at least Rod got Shakespeare in.

However, the episode does meander quite a bit before its inevitable arrival at the twist ending so popular you probably knew it before even watching this episode for the first time. We spent quite a bit of time not just understanding why Henry felt the need to escape (from his nagging wife and his understandably frustrated boss), but also wandering around the post-apocalypse landscape with Henry wondering what to do with himself. Remember what I said about food expiring if everyone dies out? Well, in this episode's scenario, there's also the risk of radiation fallout, and yet Henry just gobbled up that cookie left in the open like it was nothing. This scene with Henry restlessly shifting around felt rather anticlimactic and dragged out, especially when I already know what's coming. It's as if Rod was figuring out what to do with Henry after the H-bomb dropped and just padded the scene till the ending. As can be seen from M. Night movies, a good story needs more than just a good twist to function. If you remove the thrill of that twist during a rewatch and the episode doesn't hold up well because of it, then maybe the structure needs some reworking. I've enjoyed previous TZ episodes without a twist, after all, even Walking Distance to some extent because of how well-written they were.

I think I'm probably give this episode an undue and undeserved hard time, but what made me like Where is Everybody's slow build and not so much this episode's second half is probably because I subconsciously attributed Henry Bemis with 1) his obsession with reading and nothing else, and 2) that twist ending also related with his obsession. It doesn't help that Henry is written as a very broad character whose only interesting trait is that he loves to read. That said, Burgess Meredith helped elevate the character a little by playing up the lovable charm of Henry the nerd, so watching Henry wasn't as dull as it could have been.

At the same time, it's because of that second half that shows Henry's sorrows over everyone being killed that makes the twist far more powerful (it's because we saw how despondent Henry was in the face of apocalypse that made us feel for him), so it wouldn't really be fair of me to criticize the episode for that either. I do still believe that it could have been shortened a bit to further heightened the impact of the abrupt twist, or spend that additional screentime building up that theme of the cruel randomness of fate and chance (with the payoff being the ending), but I'm probably just nitpicking by this point.

The way Henry tripped and dropped his glasses was kinda amusing too, albeit quite believable. I can be quite clumsy myself too, but seeing this episode, if I ever find myself in a similar situation as Henry in the future, I'd be sure to watch my step.

As a footnote, it's interesting how a show like Twilight Zone gives us the hard truth about the '50s, whereas a nostalgic piece like say, Back to the Future, only remembers the good times. It's a time of segregation, female depowerment, and a persisting fear of nuclear holocaust. But hey! Chuck Berry and Johnny B. Goode!

3.5/5

[Annber03]

I've always wondered about Henry's marriage to his wife in "Time Enough at Last". She goes so far as to black out entire pages of his beloved books and rips them to shreds, and is so dismissive of and cold to him. Were they ever happy? If not then how the hell did they ever wind up together in the first place? So many questions...

And yeah, I love to read - I was one of those kids who'd be reading on the school bus and walking home from the bus stop with my nose in a book :p. So I too very much get and relate to Henry's love of reading, and need to escape in a book. But yes, reading while you're supposed to be working...I can see where his boss would've taken a bit of issue with that :p. I always like the bit where his boss reminds him of a woman who saw him staring at her and got so offended, to the point where she hit him with her umbrella, and Henry's like, "I was just trying to see who she'd voted for!" LOL. 

7 hours ago, MagnusHex said:

Remember what I said about food expiring if everyone dies out? Well, in this episode's scenario, there's also the risk of radiation fallout, and yet Henry just gobbled up that cookie left in the open like it was nothing. .

LOL, I think about that, too :p. I suppose one could perhaps try to handwave it that maybe he was out for a good while before he came to and went out to explore and see what had happened, but yeah, even then... 

I read once, in a book about this series, I believe it was, that Burgess Meredith once said that of all his roles he'd had throughout his life, this was the one he got the most comments about. Indeed, something about his character in this episode, and his portrayal of the character, really resonated with a lot of people, and I definitely think that's a large part of why this episode is so popular and memorable. And clearly the show was impressed by him here, too, given he showed up on here a few more times in other episodes :D. 

I'm enjoying these write-ups of yours!

[MagnusHex]

2 hours ago, Annber03 said:

I've always wondered about Henry's marriage to his wife in "Time Enough at Last". She goes so far as to black out entire pages of his beloved books and rips them to shreds, and is so dismissive of and cold to him. Were they ever happy? If not then how the hell did they ever wind up together in the first place? So many questions...

Yeah, I wondered about that too. Like I said in my review for Escape Clause, I just wonder how these marriages come together when one or the other member of the couple is so unpleasant...

[Fool to cry]

18 hours ago, Annber03 said:

I've always wondered about Henry's marriage to his wife in "Time Enough at Last". She goes so far as to black out entire pages of his beloved books and rips them to shreds, and is so dismissive of and cold to him. Were they ever happy? If not then how the hell did they ever wind up together in the first place? So many questions...

And yeah, I love to read - I was one of those kids who'd be reading on the school bus and walking home from the bus stop with my nose in a book :p. So I too very much get and relate to Henry's love of reading, and need to escape in a book. But yes, reading while you're supposed to be working...I can see where his boss would've taken a bit of issue with that :p. I always like the bit where his boss reminds him of a woman who saw him staring at her and got so offended, to the point where she hit him with her umbrella, and Henry's like, "I was just trying to see who she'd voted for!" LOL. 

LOL, I think about that, too :p. I suppose one could perhaps try to handwave it that maybe he was out for a good while before he came to and went out to explore and see what had happened, but yeah, even then... 

I read once, in a book about this series, I believe it was, that Burgess Meredith once said that of all his roles he'd had throughout his life, this was the one he got the most comments about. Indeed, something about his character in this episode, and his portrayal of the character, really resonated with a lot of people, and I definitely think that's a large part of why this episode is so popular and memorable. And clearly the show was impressed by him here, too, given he showed up on here a few more times in other episodes :D. 

I'm enjoying these write-ups of yours!

A person I follow on Twitter said he tried to introduce his young son to the show and he decided to start with this episode. The ending emotionally wrecked him so much that the kid refused to watch the any more Twilight Zone! That was a couple of years ago and I got an update that the now teenage still hasn't watched the rest of the series.

[Annber03]

5 hours ago, Fool to cry said:

A person I follow on Twitter said he tried to introduce his young son to the show and he decided to start with this episode. The ending emotionally wrecked him so much that the kid refused to watch the any more Twilight Zone! That was a couple of years ago and I got an update that the now teenage still hasn't watched the rest of the series.

Oh, my god, wow! Poor kid! 

I have wondered sometimes how younger generations might react to this show, given how much of it's become part of pop culture and how well-known some of the twists are now and everything. If this show were to air in this day and age every episode would come with a "spoiler alert!" warning :p. 

[MagnusHex]

Perchance to Dream

Great, two of my worst fears coming together - nightmares and rollercoasters. The latter I could avoid by not going to rides altogether, but the former represents a sense of not being in control, which is one of the causes for my anxiety condition. The feeling of lying in bed, not being able to do anything about your nightmares, I remember nights when I had anxiety about such fears. In fact, it goes further than that, and I was worried about sleeping because the act of sleeping feels like you're becoming unconscious for 8 hours, even if physiologically speaking, the human body isn't technically unconscious while sleeping - that doesn't make the feeling of unconsciousness any less real.

And while it's just a TV show, this episode expresses well enough what that kind of somniphobia could mean, how it might even mean you might die in your sleep without even knowing. That's really what I meant by the feeling of unconsciousness while sleeping, because I doubt Edward Hall felt anything from his heart attack when he died during sleep, or even aware of the pain.

But I do love the twist. It's been a long time since I've seen this episode (or season 1 of the show for that matter), so I kinda forgot how it ended. That is one weak-ass window. I doubt you could do the same for windows today because most of them, especially in office buildings like the one in the episode, have been designed in accordance with safety standards, so they must be made of much tougher material nowadays.

Also, the fact that Edward sees the psychiatrist's secretary in his dream greatly reminds me of Playtest, which actually disturbed me a lot more than this episode with its ending, but that's not a knock on it or anything. I like both for different reasons.

Maya being a Cat Woman seems kinda niched and an inspired choice though. Though I haven't seen the movie, I wonder if it's related to the '42 horror film, Cat People (Adam West and Catwoman wouldn't appear on-screen for another 7 years). If it is, then it seems that Edward might have subconsciously borrowed horror elements from multiple sources (like the famous *in Brad Dourif's voice* SOMEONE'S IN THE BACK SEAAAT!!! urban legend) in his imagination during the nightmare. After all, the mention of Maya, the recollection of the urban legend, all of that happened only after he fell asleep in the psychiatrist's chair, not before.

Interesting trivia related to Suzanne Lloyd, actress of Maya, from her interview on the TZ blu-ray: 1) She had a guy cancelling their date after seeing the episode. "I didn't know you were that kind of a woman." lol What an ass. 2) The other men who came up to her and remember her from the show didn't remember Maya as a murderess, but I can see why, considering that Maya didn't technically murder Edward nor did she really do anything to him other than act sinister and scare him a little.

Rod's description of the next episode made me think of the Titanic, though I could be wrong. A Night to Remember came out in '58, just a year before Judgement Night was aired, after all.

4/5

Judgement Night

Well, so it turns out I was wrong, that this isn't about the Titanic at all. Ah well.

What it is about is a rather fine example of the show being too preachy at times, focusing more on its message (in this case, "look at all the evil things Nazis have done and how this man deserves the Hell he's in") than telling an engaging and entertaining story. But in spite of my complaints about these things, I don't really blame both Rod and Jordan for being preachy because they were expressing the things they feel strongly about on-screen, and they were very justified in feeling that way. But of course, my review isn't really about them or a judgment of their character (or even their writing skills, really); it's a judgment of the episode and its script.

To be fair, even though I knew the twist was coming just about five to ten minutes into the episode rewatch, I didn't really mind the expositional way Lt. Muller was telling Carl Lenser (and the audience) how they're going to be judged by God. It's a very lazy "telling instead of showing" way of storytelling I'd usually have a problem with, but in the case of this episode, I kinda forgave Rod for it, partly because of Rod's sentiments regarding WWII, but also because there's a certain catharsis to hearing those words uttered by Muller, that they shall be judged for their evil acts, that there's a karmic reckoning waiting to avenge the innocent, and that Carl could count his Nazi ass on it. It's probably satisfying in a way for the audience of 1959 to hear those words, especially for those who have lived through the war just somewhere around 15 years ago and witnessed the cruelty of it. You can't really judge an episode like this in a vacuum without considering its historical context.

Interestingly, Wikipedia listed White Bear as an episode of Black Mirror similar to it. While I agree with that as it has a larger similarity with this episode, for me, probably because of how it's my favorite BM episode of all time, I once again thought back to White Christmas instead, which actually has a "Mr. Potter" in it too (not to mention being the poor sap who is stuck at the crime scene of his murder for 1000 years per minute). 

3.5/5

Edited March 31, 2023 by MagnusHex

[MagnusHex]

And When the Sky was Opened

At least those malaria patients would have beds. Guess some entity, be it God or the Devil, deemed those three soldiers expandable compared to malaria victims. I mean, c'mon, it's malaria. lol

One of the challenges I discovered writing these reviews - and not just for The Twilight Zone - is that not every episode can be worth talking about. Some just have a cool moment or twist, while others have great suspense built up throughout the episode (like Where is Everybody?). This challenge becomes greater rewatching TZ episodes because it's a show where its main appeal is often the twist, though sometimes you have decent half hour explorations of the human condition, but the half hour format doesn't really allow enough time for meaty discussions like that. Since I already know most of these twists, my reviews would really comes down to me either making some joke (one only myself found humorous) to compensate, talk about the cool camera shots, the historical context behind the culture of America during the episode's airing, or more often, talk about themes, tragedies, or fears the episode has touched on. The fear of suddenly disappearing into mid-air with nobody to remember you, however, can be hard to discuss even if you've seen Infinity War because I doubt that's something most people would be able to relate with. While I did have fears of dying alone with no one to remember me, it's still not quite what this episode is touching on.

It really doesn't help that the episode lingered on Colonel Forbes' (Rod Taylor) quest to search for Colonel Harrington (Charles Aidman) for just a little too long. He discovered that his friends has mysteriously disappeared, and the plot spends the next few scenes repeating the same plotline of Forbes screaming and searching, offering the audience no answers, while also not really giving us much to feel bad about towards both Forbes and Harrington's disappearance (like delving into their family background, or perhaps showing Forbes saying goodbye to his girlfriend because he knows he'll disappear). Thus, the plot drags a little, and there's not much to talk about here other than how the fear of space travel at the time (moon landing's still a little way away) might have inspired the episode, that disturbing action of delving into the unknown pitch black vastness of space.

But again, it's hard to logically connect that fear with what's happening here, people mysteriously disappearing. My first thought was a higher deity like God or Death, but the episode offered no explanation or emotional connection on why such an entity might want to erase these men.

What really doesn't help either is that there's very little substance to Forbes' character for me to talk about or relate to. When there's a fleshed out personality with wants and fears that I could relate to or are related to the plot (or even the twist), there's at least something more meaningful to I could work with.

2.5/5

What You Need

Here's an episode I could talk more about in length. The idea that there's a man out there who could offer you anything you'd need in your life is a fairy tale fantasy one might dream about. Tales of genies and wish-fulfillments are tales as old as time, but this wasn't quite that, as Pidott (Ernest Truex) merely peddles in what you'd need, not what you'd want, and sometimes, that can be a more fulfilling gift, not to mention a nice spin on the usual wish-fulfillment plot device.

But of course, what Fred Renard really needs is perhaps a trip to the shrink or some chill pills, because what an unpleasant this man is from the get-go, wrangling Pidott like a ragdoll. There are some people could never be satisfied right up till their old age, and Fred displays the kind of mean-spiritedness that comes with such a grouch, even pushing him towards murder. The twist that Pidott is the true protagonist of this tale and Fred the antagonist is brilliant, and it's one of Rod's more clever ways of shaking up the format and audience expectations through his adaptation of Lewis Padgett's story. The way Fred meets his untimely fate is sudden enough too even during rewatch that the suspense never stops.

Honestly though? Fred only has himself to blame. I get being cautious, but $240? Come on. Even in 1959, that can't be much (maybe 2.5k with inflation). But even if he becomes a millionaire, he probably wouldn't have been happy. He should've taken Pidott's advice about what he needs and used that money to see a therapist to gain that serenity.

Interestingly, this story was featured on a sci-fi anthology series preceding The Twilight Zone, titled Tales of Tomorrow. In it (and the original Padgett story), instead of a peddler, the man offering what people need does so from his shop. Even though TZ's version is better written and executed, especially when ToT's version has a clunky exposition at the end about playing god, I kinda like the ToT version a little more just because it has a theme I could emotionally care about, playing god and manipulating your destiny and fate, even if it saves your life. As I mentioned, TZ is usually about the twists and the suspenseful atmosphere carrying us there, and TZ excels at that. But in the act of doing so, it doesn't spend too much time exploring the kind of principles or philosophies Pidott stands for (unlike the ToT version), and Fred is an unlikable character we're just waiting to see punished, despite him being an effective threat that keeps us engaged. Both versions are appealing for their own reasons, but I like that the ToT version leans more towards being a morality tale that leaves us pondering whether the peddler/shopowner was in the right for messing with people's fate. Plus, I don't like how in the TZ version, the woman was given an opportunity for love, but the ex-baseball player (a man) was given a new job. Ugh, '50s gender roles!

I think that Fred Renard being an easy villain was part of the problem too because had he been more sympathetic, his desperate need for an easy way out more relatable, then his desperate quest to get something valuable out of Pidott would have been more a lot more engaging, his ultimate fate all the more tragic (perhaps instead of intentionally murdering Pidott, it could be changed to a manslaughter), not to mention having the more profound message of easy solutions not being the answer to life. As it is, especially during a rewatch, while it is fun to see Fred testing out Pidott's talent for future sight, it's just not nearly as gripping a tale and leaves me waiting for his karmic retribution.

That being said, 4/5 for the TZ version and 3.5/5 for the ToT just because the former is better written and more succinct; the ToT version clearly shows its age from the clunky writing and poor pacing.

However, I might want to check out Tales of Tomorrow someday as it also features other classic stories like Frankenstein and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Okay, yeah, never mind. Turns out that the actor from the Frankenstein episode was drunk while filming the show, and all the other episodes from the show are full of campy and just downright bad writing that's a product of its time. May be best leaving this relic alone...

Side note: Because of Fred Renard's skepticism towards Pidott's gifts, Zack Handlen of the AV Club called him "an asshole version of Dana Scully." LMAO 🤣

Side side note: Stephen King wrote a similar short story later on titled I Know What You Need. A Kickstarter indie film adapted the story and was set to be released. Here's the trailer from 2022:

 

Edited April 2, 2023 by MagnusHex

[Annber03]

5 hours ago, MagnusHex said:

Plus, I don't like how in the TZ version, the woman was given an opportunity for love, but the ex-baseball player (a man) was given a new job. Ugh, '50s gender roles!

Heh, yeah, that's something that pops up in quite a few of these episodes - for as progressive and forward-thinking as the show was in so many ways, there are still definitely moments that remind you that, oh, right, this series was also a product of its time, too. I don't know how much of that was network interference or how much of that was the various writers' feelings seeping in or what, but yeah, it does make for a noticeable contrast. 

I've always liked "What You Need" - the tension and the back and forth between Fred and Pidott was good, and while I agree it would've been interesting to see a more sympathetic portrayal of Fred as a desperate man, I also like the fact that he's just so greedy and can't ever be satisfied, and that being his downfall, too. 

I've never seen "Tales of Tomorrow", but now I kinda want to check it out, even with your comments about the camp and bad writing. If anything, that just has me more curious to give it a look, LOL. 

I like "And When the Sky was Opened", just 'cause the whole concept is creepy and intriguing, but I can also agree with your critiques of the episode. I agree with your point, too, that some episodes tend to lend themselves to further and deeper discussion than others. 

[MagnusHex]

The Four of Us Are Dying

Another idiot who squanders a useful power. Maybe try not turning into a criminal, huh? If Arch Hammer needed money, why not perform a gig as the resurrected Johnny Foster or something? Hell, there could have been a dozen other ways. Archie wasn't just cheap; he lacked imagination.

This episode shares the same problem with both And When the Sky was Opened and What You Need: cool gimmick for the plot to hinge on, but barely enough substance in their characters to keep the audience emotionally invested. These stories work better as a pulpy short film or short story you'd consume once from an adult magazine or late night TV (when there's nothing better on) and forget about, rarely meant for a revisit. At least in something like Mr. Denton on Doomsday, for example, you could sympathize with Al Denton for his trauma of having shot a kid as a gunslinger, so there's a little more meat there.

Why does Archie want to hook up with Maggie, for example? One could speculate from what little we've seen in the episode that he merely wants to get laid or perhaps have the company of a woman for a night, but there's not much to go on from there to make me care, especially in a rewatch, and especially because we're quickly forced to care about a different set of scenario: Virgil Sterig the mob boss trying to get even. And then there's this random father and son story out of nowhere. As Emily St. James observed at the AV Club, it feels like Rod was trying to tell too many stories at once and ended up shortchanging all of them. All one could care about is the cool gimmick of the face-shifting powers, and even then, not so much during a rewatch.

That being said, you also have to remind yourself what kind of show this is and why some of us are watching it in the first place. This is not Mad Men. The whole appeal of the show is the cool gimmicks happening, so we could get weirded out by the bizarre and the supernatural. As I've mentioned, these stories sometimes work better as pulp material to be consumed and forgotten, and Rod might even have intended them that way, considering DVDs and blu-rays weren't invented yet (not to mention TiVo and DVRs), so you really have to view this show through the production habits from that era. So, as I've mentioned in my reviews for Supernatural, we do have to adjust our expectations accordingly. Archie changing faces into anyone is indeed a cool concept, admittedly. The fact that there isn't a more substantial story to be found isn't restricted to this episode alone, and it's a trait and a trademark of the entire show even: episodes with cool gimmicks and nothing more. Perhaps we ought to be satisfied with that.

I really wanted to like this episode though because frankly, I do love the way cool and strange phenomenon or even super powers keep popping up on this show. But perhaps I was disappointed because I was also expecting to feel some kind of pathos or sympathy for Archie's foolishness when I saw this episode was coming up next, but in the end, he's a villain who deserves his fate. There's nothing in the episode that made me root for him, much like Fred Renard in What You Need, making the "tragic and ironic conclusion" feel empty, something to be shrugged at.

2.5/5

Side note: A young Jerry Goldsmith composed the score for this episode. I'm more of a John Williams guy, but I really like his score from The Mummy (the Brendan Fraser version) and Mulan. The synthesizer during the haircut scene was brilliant and cathartic.

Third from the Sun

Now here's an episode I can get behind with, and it helps that there's 1) a clear and immediate theme we could relate with: fear of nuclear warfare present in the '50s, and 2) a relatable protagonist who's possibly responsible, albeit partly, for contributing to said warfare, our Oppenheimer of the story, ladies and gents (anyone else looking forward to Nolan's film?). The strength of the episode is that the brilliant twist isn't all that the episode has to offer; it's merely the cherry on top of a fascinating and disturbing discussion on whether our Earth would someday share a similar fate. Plus, the moment you saw the UFO, or hell, the strange design of the telephone, the cat's out of the bag, which was the intention, of course, to let audience in on the joke (evidenced by the strange camera choices of Dutch angels and that claustrophobic feel). Good looking for aliens though. My theory is that they weren't from Mars or a distant planet, but an entirely different parallel dimension, and they have merely flew through a portal or some kind of space-warp phenomenon (I have no idea what I'm talking about).

And of course, it's not just nuclear anxiety that was relevant to the time of the episode's release, but also McCarthyism that occurred just a little around a decade prior, that fear of people listening in and policing your conversations, that very Orwellian 1984 sort of fear (which was published 1949, in the midst of McCarthyism). This episode has layers in its themes that go beyond Rod's usual trauma from WWII in other episodes, which is what really make it such a strong and compelling entry.

As noted by David Simkins on the commentary track (alongside Marc Scott Zicree), we the audience didn't know what time period the Sturka and Riden families were landing on Earth, but presuming it's the '60s, then they also had the Cuban missile crisis to worry about. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the nightmarish fire of the '60s (racial and gender roles issues and the Kennedy/MLK/Malcolm X assassinations on top of the Cuban crisis). Maybe they had an even worse stroke of luck and landed on Earth, 2020... Time to hop aboard on another ship, fellows.

4.5/5 for a very tense (how about that playing card scene? felt like a "bomb under the table" Hitchcock scene more like) and well-written episode filled with fascinating themes we take for granted today (the preciousness of life amidst nuclear warfare, McCarthyism, etc.).

A beauty about this whole series is that each episode, at least for the first few seasons, is only half an hour long, so even if there's a dud, you could easily watch it once and skip to the next one. For other anthology shows, however, this proves more challenging, especially a show like American Horror Story where if a season's concept is something you find dull, you'd have to sit through an entire season to know if it's worth watching, or if there's at least something worthwhile to sit through, however little. That's probably just one of the problems that would surface for Twilight Zone as well when it switches to an hour format, along with other contemporary anthology shows that have a similar format like Black Mirror. And the problem with that format, aside from testing the audience's patience with bad episodes, is that they can be expensive to make, so you might only get three episodes out of a very bad Black Mirror season and nothing else. I'm guessing for TZ, it might have been different or found some way to cut costs.

[Annber03]

I love "Third from the Sun". That ending still gets me every time. And I like how subtle the lead up to that ending is, too. 

I also love Serling's monologue at the end, with the line about "a doomed planet on the verge of suicide". What a stark, haunting image. The man truly had a way with words. 

[MagnusHex]

1 hour ago, Annber03 said:

The man truly had a way with words. 

Makes sense, considering he was inspired by Ray Bradbury's works, the famous author of Fahrenheit 451.

[MagnusHex]

I Shot an Arrow into the Air

Took a break from watching as I was distracted playing The Dark Pictures Anthology games. lol Not all of these games came with a twist, but as someone who's a fan of TZ, you might enjoy Man of Medan and Little Hope for their twisty conclusions (House of Ashes too to a lesser extent). Plus, I came down with a bad case of fever, muscle aches, and dry coughs, possibly symptoms of covid even. But I'm feeling better now, thankfully (food's still tasteless though).

Now onto our episode tonight: 

Spoiler

IT WAS EARTH ALL ALOOONG!!! *cue laugh track*

 

Seriously though, despite knowing the twist ending, I still enjoyed myself rewatching the episode. It's not the best character writing since Pierson goes off-screen midway, Donlin (while likable for his cool and honor under pressure) is a bit too stiff to be interesting, not to mention an idiot for leaving his gun around Corey whom he accused of murderous intent, and Corey is one of those selfish dicks every survival situations gotta have with no redeeming values. That said, before the reveal, one would be justified in thinking that Corey's viewpoint is, at the very least, a sympathetic one: trapped on some unknown asteroid with no way of knowing if you'd be able to get home in less than four years (the time it took to build the ship that brought them there), a weak man's "every man for himself" instincts would inevitably kick in. These don't seem to be the hardass marine types (SEMPER FI, OORAH!) so loyalty in life or death situations is unlikely to be a thing on a TV show.

Of course, that cruel twist ending flipped everything around, and that's what made the episode work even in a rewatch. Knowing the twist actually makes the prior build-up towards it more fascinating to watch since you're just watching smugly as Corey seals his own fate by murdering his comrades. The trope presented in the ending is not nearly as polished as Planet of the Apes (with a screenplay that poses far darker implications of humanity's sins as written by your very own Rod Serling), and I couldn't care enough about Corey to feel like the ending is cruel irony rather than karmic retribution. That said, I'm all for downer (or even nihilistic) endings more than the feel-good ones, even when the episode isn't particularly well-written.

3/5

The Hitch-Hiker

I've always found hitchhiking a fascinating concept because it's not a thing in Singapore. Sure, we have a service called Grab nowadays which is a ridesharing company like Uber (they also provide food and shopping deliveries), but it doesn't pose quite the same danger as hailing a ride from a stranger you meet on the road, hoping he doesn't kill you. At least the Grab app has an emergency "HELP ME I'M BEING ATTACKED BY A SERIAL KILLER" button that lets you call for aid, so it's not really the same.

And of course, America knows this and has spent decades mining from this would-be horror tale with its many hitchhiking slasher movies, one of the more famous ones being The Hitcher (Google literally gave me a result with "77 Best Horror Movies About Hitchhiking" at the top). It's a tale as old as killer in a cabin in the woods and brain-sucking zombies in the horror genre. I also couldn't help but think of the "Thanks for the ride, lady!" guy from Creepshow 2 watching this episode. lol

Of course, that's not really what this episode is about, a killer hitchhiker. Quite the opposite, really, though I kinda saw it coming and predicted whom the hitchhiker was (kinda forgot what the twist is during my rewatch tbh). It's a nice twist, but what makes it work better than most TZ episodes is the amount of time we get to spend with Nan Adams (Inger Stevens) and explore her justified fear of this stranger stalking her, a very real fear even today. It also helps that Nan carries enough charm and wit in her dialogue instead of just going through the motions of the plot till the inevitable twist ending; she feels like a real person that way. There's quite an amount of what one might consider padding, but unlike Time Enough At Last, the many scenes of Inger looking confused and frightful is thematically linked to the story at hand: a lone woman stranded in the middle of nowhere trying to get away from a phantom stalker constantly on her tail, giving her that sense of uneasiness (I particularly like how the music score when she's on the run bears resemblance to Hitchcock's Psycho, which was also scored by Bernard Herrmann). She couldn't quite explain why she felt this way even though the hitchhiker didn't really do much aside from just standing there like the mousey little man he is. It's a nice build up to the end where that anxiety finally makes sense, and tranquility sets in upon revelation. It's a solid and coherent narrative where each scene builds on top of another to reach the climactic twist reveal. Even the scene with the sailor adds a nice spooky touch that leaves us wondering if Nan is really just seeing things. I also like how the sailor was acting rather intimate with her despite being strangers, making us wondering if it's such a good idea for her to pick this lecher up. Of course, as we would come to learn, it's not Nan that's seeing things after all, and the sailor, for all his counted blessings of hitching a ride with a pretty lady with the looks of a movie star, got more than what he bargained for as he freaked the heck out.

This reminds me of that perfect episode from season 2 of Supernatural, "Roadkill" (probably my favorite episode of all time to be honest), which also features a woman (played by Tricia Helfer) whom also isn't quite aware of what her state of mortality is. It's a trope that has been used a couple of times, the spirit not knowing they're a spirit, but I think it works because of its roots in folklore regarding wandering spirits unable to pass on to the afterlife due to some unfinished business. It also allows for great tragedies to be played out most of the time. In particular, I like this episode's closing, where Rod gave a very succinct but impactful narration (as opposed to his usual closing remarks in other episodes): "Nan Adams, age twenty-seven. She was driving to California; to Los Angeles. She didn't make it. There was a detour... through the Twilight Zone." It's a real shot through the heart when Rod punctuated what was already revealed earlier as the audience is still grappling with the tragic truth, "She didn't make it." It's simple yet clear in a rather somber way, like a coroner coldly pronouncing someone's time of death. Curtains.

Two final notes to end this great episode on. If this was filmed today:

1) The episode would be much shorter due to cellphones.
2) There would be a contrived flashback to earlier scenes showing the people Nan talked to, and how they were talking to nobody but an empty space.

4.5/5

[Annber03]

"The Hitchhiker" is one of my favorite "Twilight Zone" episodes. It creeps me out so much. I read that the original story, which was a radio play, had a man in the main role, but they switched it to a woman for the show 'cause they thought a woman might be more sympathetic. 

And yeah, hitchhiking was a big thing in the early 20th century here in the States, but people don't do it nearly as much anymore. Probably because of stories like this :p. And there have been real life horror stories of hitchhiking gone horribly wrong, too. 

(Another fun fact: the main character, Nan, was named after Rod Serling's daughter, Anne. "Nan" was his nickname for her. She was kind of weirded out ad a kid to find out this character shared her nickname :p).

I like your point about how different this episode would play if it were made today. I also think they would've made that sailor that she picks up super creepy in his own right - I genuinely thought that's where they were going to go with him when I first saw this episode, but nope, he just turns out to be a totally chill guy who winds up in a car with a woman who wants to run down a ghostly hitchhiker she keeps seeing everywhere :p. I always laugh at the part where she's like, "I was trying to kill him. Yes. I thought if I could kill him, I could make him stop."

Then she sees him starting to get out of the car and is like, "Wait, where are you going?" XD. Gee, I dunno, lady, where do you think? 

(It hit me, too, that this is an interesting twist on the old urban legend of someone picking up a woman who needs a ride, and it turns out she's a ghost. In this story, the driver is the ghost, not the passenger.) 

10 hours ago, MagnusHex said:

In particular, I like this episode's closing, where Rod gave a very succinct but impactful narration (as opposed to his usual closing remarks in other episodes): "Nan Adams, age twenty-seven. She was driving to California; to Los Angeles. She didn't make it. There was a detour... through the Twilight Zone." It's a real shot through the heart when Rod punctuated what was already revealed earlier as the audience is still grappling with the tragic truth, "She didn't make it." It's simple yet clear in a rather somber way, like a coroner coldly pronouncing someone's time of death. Curtains.

 

I love that ending, too, for the very reason you note. So matter-of-fact. 

As for "I Shot an Arrow Into the Air", I like that episode, too, and its twist. 

Quote

Of course, that cruel twist ending flipped everything around, and that's what made the episode work even in a rewatch. Knowing the twist actually makes the prior build-up towards it more fascinating to watch since you're just watching smugly as Corey seals his own fate by murdering his comrades.

Yes! That was a great thing about this show - yeah, it had the twist endings, but it didn't rely solely on them to tell the story, and sometimes knowing the twist made the rewatch that much better, precisely for reasons like this. 

[MagnusHex]

The Fever

I still remember my experience playing Marvel Snap. It's a free to play mobile game that got great reviews for how fun it can be for players without paying a dime. Of course, the truth isn't all that ideal, as it can become increasingly challenging to get better cards the more lootbox you open. With each opened lootbox, your "Collection Level" increases, and you'll be matched with opponents of the same CL that might have been lucky enough to have better cards than you, thus leading you to a bad time and tempting you to essentially... "pay to win."

There have actually been far worse and predatory schemes from other mobile games, but much like Mr. Franklin Gibbs (Everett Sloane), I can easily fall into addiction with games like these and would end up paying quite a big sum (though thankfully never into the thousands). You hear of how much one has to pay to get the top gear in Diablo: Immortal, after all, and you'd wonder "Why not daylight robbery, Blizzard?"

The point is that addiction and gambling can come in many forms, even today, and our contemporary "pay-to-win" gambling addiction might just be as damaging as your more traditional slot machine kind too.

While Emily St. James of the AVClub might have considered this a "bad" episode - and I agree to a certain extent due to the repetitive nature of the script that didn't really go anywhere meaningful - I still like the message and what Rod Serling was trying to say. It lacks subtlety and mostly revolves around Franklin being an unlikable twat who verbally abuses his wife while he pulls on the one-armed bandit, but there's enough variety here to keep things from becoming completely one-dimensional, such as the amusing scene of the coins calling out to Franklin, or even the unintentionally hilarious design of the slot machine that's stalking him in his delusion. There were a few things I would try to improve (if I'm actually a talented writer like Rod instead of just some hack on an Internet forum) like making the machine design creepier or have the moment where the casino owner hangs the "out of order" sign over the machine be more disturbing (instead of just quirky in a dark comedy kind of way like it is now), but for the most part, the episode delivered the message Rod was trying to say quite decently, even if it's not very entertaining compared to many other episodes. I particularly like the way Franklin's addiction felt relatable and realistic, with him rationalizing at first why he has to play the slot machine (to get rid of the ill-gotten money). This is classic addiction behavior 101, and I've lived through it.

What does hurt the episode, however, is that it's not very Twilight Zoney. The only supernatural element of the story is the machine with a supposed mind of its own, which is way too silly of a concept to be taken seriously (not to mention shifting the blame of addiction onto slot machines or video games). Plus, its goofy voice is less Austrian T-800 and more Mr. Spell. I think that weak link to the core of the show (supernatural things with ironic twists) is the same reason why episodes like this fail, because that's not why we tuned into the show and why we liked it in the first place (for another example, see the campier and goofier episodes of Batman: The Animated Series divorcing themselves from the darker, more psychological elements of the caped crusader). Or at least not for me.

Something else I've noticed about the Twilight Zone universe: it has fragile windows.

3/5 I kinda have a soft spot for it just because it touched on a topic I care about.

The Last Flight

This was a really well-written one, far superior than the previous one obviously, but time travel stories are so abundant nowadays that I'm spoiled, and it becomes challenging being that impressed by one anymore, regardless of how good the twist is.

But thankfully, this episode's appeal for me is less about the twist and more about the character of Flight Lieutenant Decker (Kenneth Haigh) and his journey to discover his courage in the face of fate. I love how the episode is slowly built up to peel away Decker's character and what he's lying about to Major Wilson (Simon Scott's mannerism as Wilson makes me feel like Clancy Brown could play Wilson in a modern iteration of the episode). Information about him is gradually fed to the audience piece by piece so as to build intrigue, but I also like how natural it feels; he's a coward who deserted his mission and comrade in arms, so he had every reason to lie.

What's a bit of a cheat, however, is his sudden crisis of conscience and willingness to suddenly sacrifice his life, even though he hasn't even witnessed for himself the good Mackaye would have done had he lived. It's not the worst transition ever though, and it merely requires a little suspension of disbelief for a half hour show that needs to wrap things up quickly. In a longer episode, the ending might have the three men at the American airbase hold a tribute to Decker (and the beginning would show Decker and Mackaye bonding together) or something hokey like that, so perhaps that's a good thing. It's short enough that it leaves you pondering on your own the pathos of Decker's fate and how he became a hero that day.

4/5

[Annber03]

I love your take on "The Fever". Yeah, it's a goofy episode in a lot of ways, for the reasons you note (the machine literally stalking Franklin and all), but I still kinda like that one, too, because, like you said, there's a good message in there. I've never gotten into gambling, myself, but I can still appreciate the general message of the story and I'm still interested in the characters and how they deal with all of this. And even the cheesiness of the machine following him...I mean, if I turned around in my hotel room and saw a machine standing there calling out my name in a taunting, beckoning manner, I'd freak the fuck out, too, so... There is a weird creepiness there. That's the thing about this show, even the lesser episodes are still worth watching, because they have good actors or a good scene or some good writing or whatever that manage to save the goofy premise. 

I also laughed at this, because, holy shit, so true...

5 hours ago, MagnusHex said:

Something else I've noticed about the Twilight Zone universe: it has fragile windows.

I saw a comment from someone elsewhere once where they said something similar: "If there's a window on this show, someone is going to go through it at some point." XD. 

Your comments about how the story in "Last Flight" might've played out hat the episode been an hour long are interesting, and have me now wondering how some of these other stories might've fared in the hour-long format. There were some good episodes in the season where they did expand to an hour, but yeah, I think the half hour setting fits well for these kinds of stories in general. Packs a little more of a punch and keeps things moving, which is a good skill to have in a horror/fantasy story. 

[MagnusHex]

The Purple Testament

"Man, war stinks!" - Rod Serling's attempt at subtlety

Given Rod's experience in WWII, we've once again touched on the haunting memories of war and its many casualties and sacrifice, and it makes sense why Rod would have fantasies about having to predict death that he could have stopped if given the chance. I couldn't quite grasp the meaning of Rod's closing narration (even after Googling), so I won't bother (besides, it's Richard II, not Richard III).

But what I'll say is that being a seer who could predict death, especially in a warzone, really sucks. It's not a power I would desire, at least not in this form where I wouldn't have any other power to stop the death. If you tell me it's like the opposite of Death Note or something where I could write down something to prevent someone else's death, that would at least provide me comfort. But to be able to tell someone's upcoming death like it's the coming attractions at the cinema, but only able to the watch idly at the death coming to pass, then that sounds like a nightmare of its own (see Final Destination). Hell, even Death in those Final Destination movies gave the protagonist a better deal by leaving breadcrumbs and clues on how to prevent the death.

And even putting aside the technicality of preventing deaths, it's a warzone, so the soldiers were kinda prepared for this sort of inevitability happening someday. Fitzgerald (William Reynolds) wouldn't have been able to tell his soldiers who might be dead to stay back at the basecamp like a coward or deserter, and that's why Phil Riker (Dick York) leaving base despite what Fitzgerald told him made sense; he had a duty as a soldier, so he could only leave his belongings behind hoping for the best. It's also why I like the scene where Freeman (Marc Cavell) asks Fitzgerald to work his fortune-telling magic on them to see who won't make it back but he refuses, because while he could very well save everyone who might die in the battlefield, the bigger question is should he interfere and play god that way, thus depriving the battlefield of soldiers necessary to stop the enemy forces?

As mentioned, this episode is essentially just one of Rod's many meditations on the horrors of war once again, and the episode does well to convey that helplessness Rod must have felt witnessing all that death in the battlefield. Fitzgerald is burdened with knowledge, and the tranquil look on his face at the end was appropriately creepy and uncomfortable as he rode his final carriage to the afterlife, finally at peace from the horrors of war. Of course, he did drag one innocent soul down by not informing the driver to be more careful of the mines.

That lack of attempt to prevent even the driver's death weakens the episode a little bit and weakens the impact of Fitz's powers if he's not even gonna bother to move an inch to tell the driver to take a detour or something. But that might not matter if you read the episode as a metaphor for the numbness of war and all its death tolls, thus explaining Fitz's apathy to everything by the end of the episode (you could even say he's stepped into the heart of darkness in an Apocalypse Now kind of way). The way he and Riker kinda just accepted their fate in the face of war felt thematically appropriate, and it gives the whole episode an otherworldly and surreal feeling, like they're in Purgatory reliving the final days of their life as they remember those Hellish days at war.

One other goofy moment (aside from the above jeep driver's fate) is that at the end, the sergeant (William Phipps) warned the driver about the mines that would ultimately kill him and Fitzgerald. When they later hear the explosion, he went, "It must be just thunder." WHAT?! 😂 You just told them about the mines! Why don't you go check first before declaring it's thunder? That moment really took me out of the episode, but I'm starting to sound like CinemaSins, so I'll stop.

3.5/5

Elegy

I knew it was a wax museum kind of deal. Kinda forgot about the twist for a while, as I did for many of these episodes, but I was hoping it was something sinister. Guess I got my wish.

But in spite of the horrible fate of our protagonists, this episode through and through has a quirky and whimsical feeling, including the whacky antagonist whose only sinister moment came from one of the last shots where he declared "Humanity is a threat to peace!" Case in point, a modern TZ remake might have Jared Padalecki's skin peeling off his bloodied flesh in a wax museum.

I think what amplifies that feeling is that the actors' attempt at the longest game of Red Light, Green Light (SQUID GAME!) failed miserably in some aspects, with some of the actors obviously blinking or accidentally shift their pose a little bit. It's not a dealbreaker as the plot is fun enough on its own, and it in facts adds to the creepiness of the world, making me ask: Are they really dead like Jeremy Wickwire (Cecil Kellaway) said? Or are they just trapped in stasis for eternity like that woman in Wishmaster who wished to be beautiful forever but got turned into a living mannequin? The latter fate is obviously more horrifying, but also most probably not the intended one in the script. But between criticizing Rod Serling's attempt with 1960s effects or just make up my own headcanon to explain away the goof-up with a far more delightful twist, the latter sounds more appealing.

Still, more details filing in the gaps and less astronauts with bland personality wandering around like tourists would have been kinda nice. They keep pointing to the war that destroyed old Earth in the 1980s, but never bothered to relate how their modern Earth in the 2180s look like compared to this recreated 20th Century Earth. Sure, one of them says the recreated Earth looks peaceful, thus implying that Earthlings still haven't got their shit together by 2180, but what about their politics? Their environment? Their technology? I'm guessing for that last one, not much progression is there either as these three men walked onto an alien environment without so much as a laser weapon to fire off at Wickwire moments before their death. All we got in terms of insight is guesses and implications from Wickwire's contempt at Earthlings (but then why bother recreating their lifestyle?), so the plot does feel a little thin before the twist ending, much like many TZ episodes I had problems with.

And I keep circling back to the lack of explanation for Wickwire's action that makes this episode hard to review and appreciate without picking it apart. I guess in the simplest terms, he's a caretaker merely defending his cemetery from humans that he consider to be hostile, war-like and dangerous? But then why work at a place that seems to celebrate the comforts of humans? Is it some kind of avant garde ironic piece by some bored billionaire aliens?

But I suppose none of it really matters because the episode's tone is creepy enough even with the whimsical music. Just a whole bunch of people standing around frozen in time, leaving your mind to run wild about the countless possible horrific scenarios. Perhaps like all good horror stories, the explanation your mind comes up with is the scariest. It's a little cheap and pretentious when I put it that way, but I don't really have appreciation for confusing "arthouse cinema" that "leaves the ambiguity to the audience's imagination."

3/5

[Annber03]

I like your point about "Purple Testament" and whether or not Fitzgerald should've warned others about their deaths, or whether he just became numb to and accepting of all the fates, including his own. His expression when he sees the light on his own face towards the end...even if you know it's coming, it's still a gut punch to see that inevitable and tragic fate playing out. 

I remember reading that when Serling served in WW2, he and his fellow soldiers actually witnessed a pretty horrific death of one of their comrades once - they had a bit of downtime one day, and so one soldier was standing in front of everyone, cracking jokes and telling funny stories to lighten the mood...

...and then some crate or something fell from a plane or something of that sort, and the guy up front literally got decapitated in front of everyone :/. I can't even begin to imagine the horrible things Serling witnessed while serving, and then when you consider the larger impacts of WW2 and what was going on over in Europe and the horrors of the concentration camps that were eventually discovered as well...yeah. I really think this show was a huge source of therapy for Serling, and any of his fellow writers who served or knew people who did or so on. 

But yeah, I like this episode mainly because of the intriguing premise and because it's fun to see Dick York in this, pre-"Bewitched". And this isn't the only TZ episode he shows up in, either! "Bewitched" is one of my mom's favorite shows, so it's always a kick to see an episode with someone from that cast in here, 'cause it's a nice little connection of sorts between a show I like and a show my mom likes :). 

As for "Elegy", I like your theory about the frozen people inhabiting this world, and what their backstory might be, and how plausible and varied the explanations could be. It really is a creepy premise when you stop to think about it, and the fact that this little old guy is so matter-of-fact and almost cheerful as he tends to this world just adds to the creepiness. 

Also, I like the scene when the guy stumbles upon that beauty pageant, and sees the woman who won. I like that she doesn't look like the typical kind of winner one might expect to win something like this. 

[MagnusHex]

Mirror Image

In this special episode of Fringe...

I've never actually seen Fringe, but I've read that this episode would fit right in due to the show's premise. Doppelgangers should inherently be a fun concept as another you, by logic, wouldn't want to harm you. I know I would have wanted to hang out with another me who knows and likes the same things I know and like, play the same video games together, etc. But of course, the concept itself can be frightening too when you think about it: if that person is to murder you and replace you, who's going to know?

That latter, not so fun scenario of doppelgangers is at the heart of this episode where poor Millicent Barnes (Vera Miles) becomes threatened by the existence of another her messing with her mind. What began as seemingly harmless pranks of her suitcase materializing elsewhere soon spiraled into something more sinister. Vera played up Millicent's manic behavior well enough that her sanity felt questionable very early on. Since this is The Twilight Zone, I felt inclined to believe she was telling the truth and not just having a delusion, but her expression of bewilderment as she stared into blank space when Paul Grinstead (Martin Milner) called out to her in one scene did make it seem like Millicent was losing her grip on reality (despite Rod's insistence in the opening narration that she's supposed to be this level-headed woman). Therefore, I couldn't really blame Paul at first for calling the cops for her, thinking he was doing her a favor, but when he later discovered that he had fallen into the same fate Millicent was raving about earlier, it kinda feels like karmic retribution, especially when you consider the way society associated improper women with mental illness even in the '60s (see Mad Men for more evidence). I personally wouldn't have called the cops and would merely offer to send Millicent home or something. But the way everyone clicked their tongue at this crazy lady does make you wonder if these reactions to Millicent's claims is either meant to be a critique of gender roles in the '60s... or Rod was just out of touch when it comes to writing women. It's worth noting that in the preview to Mirror Image (played at the end of the last episode, Elegy), Rod has claimed that Mirror Image was his attempt to disprove the claim that he's "not at his best" when writing women. Ironically, from how Millicent is treated as a mental nutcase by everyone this episode, I could see how those claims surfaced.

The problematic treatment of Millicent aside, this episode feels stretched out at a solid pace despite being only half an hour, with enough time spent with both Millicent and Paul that you feel for each character and their fears and anxiety. Compared to previous episodes where the script seems eager to jump from one plot point to another, this one feels like it's taking its time enough that both Vera and Martin have ample opportunities to really tell the story through their expressions of worry, concern and anxiety shown to each other. There's an intimacy in their interaction, which makes Paul's actions in the end seem all the more pitiable.

Aside from its well-paced structure, there's also the creepy framing of both Millicent and Paul's doppelgangers, one with her evil grin from the bus window and the other clearly trolling Paul as he led him on a merry chase. Though expositions would usually be a cheat, Millicent and Paul's discussions of what the doppelgangers might be - beings from a parallel universe here to replace them - paired well with the suspense of the episode, bringing to surface Millicent's fears (of the bizarre situation) harboring around her mind.

3.5/5

The Monsters are Due on Maple Street

AKA That legendary episode everyone knows even despite never having seen the show.

However, despite its acclaimed status, I initially didn't really enjoy this episode as much as everyone else. I found it a little too over-the-top, its characters' actions somewhat ridiculous (and moronic). One thing that bothered me, for example, was how quick they were to believe in the fantasies of a child whom they accused of having read one too many comic books in the first place. Instead of trying to find a solution for the power outage, it felt like they were looking for an excuse to turn on each other, especially when they called out on as innocent an act as stepping out to your lawn in the middle of the night to... stargaze?

It took me another rewatch to eventually not take the episode so literally and accept it as a commentary on not just the McCarthyism attitude that occurred during the Red Scare, but also that sense of persecution hidden within each of us that's still prevalent today. It's a simple but effective metaphor of how easy it is for us to turn on each other on a whim, and how we cast our prejudice against those "different" from us (a sentiment that's probably just as relevant for Rod during the '60s amidst the civil rights movement). Obviously, the message of the episode remains as timeless as ever, especially with recent political events and figures causing a stir among our versions of Maple Streets, with people quick to bear arms against each other in the ensuing chaos.

I'm a cynic and a misanthrope at heart who doesn't really like people much, and yet, despite having gleeful fun at the sight of the Maple Street citizens turning on each other in this episode, I was also a big fan of that ferry scene from The Dark Knight. "What were you trying to prove? That deep down, everyone is as ugly as you?" Great, great line and scene. If only the denizens of Maple Street were as optimistic towards each other's humanity as Gotham citizens.

3.5/5

[Annber03]

20 hours ago, MagnusHex said:

Since this is The Twilight Zone, I felt inclined to believe she was telling the truth and not just having a delusion, but her expression of bewilderment as she stared into blank space when Paul Grinstead (Martin Milner) called out to her in one scene did make it seem like Millicent was losing her grip on reality (despite Rod's insistence in the opening narration that she's supposed to be this level-headed woman). Therefore, I couldn't really blame Paul at first for calling the cops for her, thinking he was doing her a favor, but when he later discovered that he had fallen into the same fate Millicent was raving about earlier, it kinda feels like karmic retribution, especially when you consider the way society associated improper women with mental illness even in the '60s (see Mad Men for more evidence). I personally wouldn't have called the cops and would merely offer to send Millicent home or something. But the way everyone clicked their tongue at this crazy lady does make you wonder if these reactions to Millicent's claims is either meant to be a critique of gender roles in the '60s... or Rod was just out of touch when it comes to writing women. It's worth noting that in the preview to Mirror Image (played at the end of the last episode, Elegy), Rod has claimed that Mirror Image was his attempt to disprove the claim that he's "not at his best" when writing women. Ironically, from how Millicent is treated as a mental nutcase by everyone this episode, I could see how those claims surfaced.

I really like this analysis of this episode and her character. I can definitely see there being some truth to the fact that men just seem to struggle writing women in general, 'cause, well...*Gestures at the history of how men often tend to write women in stories*. But I much prefer this take - it makes the story that much creepier, and makes Millicent's struggle that much more sympathetic. 

I also had to laugh at your "Since this is the Twilight Zone..." comment at the beginning, 'cause, seriously, once you're in this world, when someone tells you something is off, with a few exceptions here and there, it's generally a good idea to believe they're likely telling the truth :p. 

But yeah, this is a very eerie episode, indeed. I always get freaked out by the bit where she's in the bathroom and sees her doppelganger when she looks in the mirror. Done right, you just can't beat the age old "something creepy appearing behind you when looking in the mirror" trope :D. 

As for "Monsters", I'm definitely among those who've loved this episode from the jump - I actually first saw this one in my ninth grade English class. That's how significant the underlying message and historical context is for this episode, it's actually been shown in schools as an educational tool. 

Quote

One thing that bothered me, for example, was how quick they were to believe in the fantasies of a child whom they accused of having read one too many comic books in the first place. Instead of trying to find a solution for the power outage, it felt like they were looking for an excuse to turn on each other, especially when they called out on as innocent an act as stepping out to your lawn in the middle of the night to... stargaze?

Heh, at one time I might've agreed that this was, but given the insane stuff people have so easily believed in recent years...let's just say it's not that bizarre/unlikely a possibility to me anymore :p. 

But yeah, as silly as the premise may seem on its face, the message it sends is a very powerful one, and sometimes you need the silly to draw people in. Plus, the seemingly innocuous thing of people listening to a kid ramble on about aliens invading at the beginning makes what happens later that much more disturbing and dark. It's very much a, "...well, that escalated quickly!" sort of episode, for sure. 

I also need to quote the ending monologue here, because it's just so straightforward and heartbreaking: 

Quote

The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices... to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill... and suspicion can destroy... and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own—for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone.

 

[MagnusHex]

13 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

I also need to quote the ending monologue here, because it's just so straightforward and heartbreaking: 

13 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices... to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill... and suspicion can destroy... and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own—for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone.

Yeah, that was pretty heartbreaking when you considered the time Rod lived in. Not that our modern time was any better at dispelling prejudice, but when you consider the perspective Rod must have while writing that quote, it just makes the episode feel that much more depressing.

 

15 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

But yeah, as silly as the premise may seem on its face, the message it sends is a very powerful one,

Agreed. As mentioned, sometimes I shouldn't really take these episodes at face value since they work better as metaphorical analogies of real world issues. Sometimes a powerful message can be worth ignoring a few plot holes.

[Annber03]

6 minutes ago, MagnusHex said:

Agreed. As mentioned, sometimes I shouldn't really take these episodes at face value since they work better as metaphorical analogies of real world issues. Sometimes a powerful message can be worth ignoring a few plot holes.

For what it's worth, I appreciate your analysis, both the deeper context and the face value stuff you touch on :). Sci-fi/fantasy shows tend to have silly premises a lot of the time as it is, no matter how brilliantly they execute that premise, so yeah, always fun to acknowledge that aspect and discuss it as well :D. Mind, sometimes the hokey/cheesy/silly aspects are part of a show's charm, but still :p!

[MagnusHex]

A World of Difference

Here's yet another case where, if this is the real world and not The Twilight Zone, the protagonist would be considered quite insane with no possibility for otherwise. It's interesting that in the commentary track by director Ted Post, Post didn't say that Arthur Curtis (Howard Duff) was trapped in another dimension nor did he offer some otherworldly, supernatural explanation like that; Post merely said that Arthur was a schizophreniac. In other words, according to the director's word anyway, this is all a delusion, not an alternate reality.

Of course, that doesn't quite explain the ending where Arthur suddenly disappears back into the fictional universe of the movie world, so the audience is left to interpret what the true meaning of Arthur's delusion really meant. The straightforward answer, of course, is that he might have deluded himself into thinking that he's back in the movie world when in reality, he's probably wandering the street somewhere dancing like a looney hobo (before being captured by the same police officers that sent Millicent Barnes to the madhouse). The more interesting answer is that he sent himself back to the other reality through sheer willpower alone.

Writer Richard Matheson offered a good reason why someone like Gerald "Gerry" Raigan would fall under the spell of insanity. Eileen Ryan played the "shrill harpy" Nora Raigan, one of TZ's many unpleasant wives, and she played up the sheer dreadfulness of the woman very well, enough to make us see just why Gerry would crack under pressure. And usually, I'm not a fan of these TZ stories where the protagonist/s wander around for most of the episode waiting for the plot twist to reveal itself at the end, but Howard played up the sincerity of Arthur's confusion well enough that I was rarely bored with his quest to seek the truth of his existence, especially after having me convinced that, at the very least, that Gerry believed he's truly Arthur Curtis, and for all we know in the Twilight Zone universe, that might even very well be the truth.

Lastly, I'm reminded of the Sixteen Millimeter Shrine when thinking about this episode's theme, that need to escape from the tediousness of reality into a simpler world. It's interesting that, in most TZ stories, the fictional universe often seems more appealing whereas in other similar stories where a character escapes into our world (see Last Action Hero), the fiction is often undesirable as the character had been written with all sorts of drama that made their life a pain (Spider-Man took it surprisingly well when he met Stan Lee in the animated series). The movie script Gerry Raigan is starring in seems to be an odd one as well because there doesn't seem to be any dramatic hook to the script beyond "a man having a wonderful life and a wonderful job." Then again, I guess that's like half the sitcoms back in the '50s and '60s, which means it also makes sense why fiction was more desirable back then compared to the darker stories down the road in the '80s and '90s.

3.5/5 A decent script and intriguing concept held together by Howard Duff's convincing performance.

Long Live Walter Jameson

"All magic comes with a price." - Rumpelstiltskin, Once Upon A Time

Or at Kansas put it, "All we are is dust in the wind."

Much like in Escape Clause, I see no downside to immortality as I've lived a lonely life anyway. Unlike Walter Bedeker, however, Walter Jameson/Tom Bowen/Hugh Skelton had the right idea of making full use of his gift for as long as possible, even when he had grown to loathe the consequences of such a gift. Despite his morally reprehensible actions towards his wives (resulting in a much deserved fate), I shared his desire for knowledge from across the ages. What a waste it is indeed for a human to have such a short life and never to experience all the different technological advancements we've made across the 300 millenniums of human history... and of course, all the wonderful TV shows we've created over the past millennium. Yes, for me, it always comes down to the infinite amount of TV shows, movies and video games I would miss when I'm gone. What can I say? I'm a pop culture nerd at heart who prefers fiction over the company of real people.

But of course, Walter was a fool to have made enemies that could end his life. If you're going to live forever, maybe don't make enemies, especially if your immortality deal doesn't come with invulnerability.

One thing I like about the script is that Walter admitted he didn't gain any wisdom from his 2000 year life; he merely kept on living. Kevin offers a nice exhaustion to his voice that goes beyond the usual angst of immortals seeing their loved ones die; he also seems to be going through the motions as he replaces one wife after the next, having more care about living his next sexual pursuit than pondering about any grand meaning of having lived 2000 years on Earth. It's an interesting contrast from your usual immortals in stories where they have gained some higher form of perspective normal humans wouldn't have. Then again, Dorian Gray led a similar life of carnal pleasure, and look how he turned out in the end. I suppose there's a reason why the protagonists of these stories (and not just immortals, but also invisible men) end up becoming the monster: moral decay seems inevitable when you're given absolute power.

The episode also didn't waste any time in having Prof. Samuel Kittridge (Edgar Stehli) waste any time in discovering the mystery of the twist like in other TZ stories. Almost right off the bat, the immortality is revealed, so we get ample time to discuss and ponder on the philosophical values and consequences of such a powerful gift humanity has dreamed of. I quite enjoy such a structure of getting to the meat of the sci-fi concept so soon so we could explore it in greater detail, and I hope that I'd get to see many more episodes with such a plot structure (beyond just waiting around for the twist).

4/5

[Annber03]

The idea of living forever freaks me out, honestly. Sure, I can see many positive sides to it, and like you note, the amount of pop culture and things you can discover and observe would be cool...

...but then I also think about the horrible things one would continue to witness, too, and then, like, in this episode, the idea that eternal life would get so tedious even with all this new stuff to see out there that you'd need to figure out how to entertain yourself all the time... I too do appreciate that they touched on that aspect here. 

The backstory regarding Arthur in "A World of Difference" is interesting, the idea that this is just him suffering from a mental illness and not the result of him getting caught up in some weird grand universe scheme beyond his understanding. Hm. 

Also, the mention of Richard Matheson reminds me that I really like his writing for this show. He wrote some truly classic episodes, and I've seen episodes he wrote for other shows as well, and then there's the movie Duel, which came from a story of his... I know he wrote books as well, I really should check them out sometime. 

[MagnusHex]

People are Alike All Over

I could've sworn I saw an episode of Futurama parodying this, but I guess I was probably thinking about Codename: Kids Next Door.

This was a pretty solid episode for a number of reasons, but when I rewatched it just now, I had a sense of déjà vu, checking if I was playing the wrong episode. Then I realized they used the same set at the beginning for Third from the Sun. The living room set too.

Regardless, this was probably one of the few episodes that had a more meaty character for me to sink my teeth into, with Rod giving Sam Conrad (Rod McDowall) more personality than previous TZ protagonists and having a character arc of sorts. It's not something easily done in a half hour show, which makes it all the more special when a protagonist is more than just a vehicle for the episode's plot twist. Sam's fear of the unknown isn't new by this point of the series, but it's nonetheless a thematically appropriate one that gave that ending the extra punch. I also like the exchange between Sam and Warren Marcusson (Paul Comi) as it felt like it was building up a false optimism for Sam, so that he would outgrow his paranoia and prejudice (only to have Sam ironically proven right).

The twist was pretty cool too. You could tell something is off just moments after Sam meets Teenya (Susan Oliver), and I remembered what the twist is around that first meeting too, but I still love how wicked the twist is and how it comments on our captivity of animals, sometimes oftentimes for our own amusements (shame on you, SeaWorld; I saw the Blackfish trailer!).

I kinda wish we could've seen a sequel to this tale though, how Sam is living off as a captive human in the martians' world. You could easily make a mini-series out of this, Westworld style. This is probably one episode that would have benefitted from the later one hour runtime to expand upon the universe.

4/5

Execution

I like this episode, but man, everyone's an idiot in this one: Professor Manion (Russell Johnson) for bringing back a random stranger, Joe Caswell (Albert Salmi) for killing the only one who could guide him to the strange new world, and Paul Johnson (Than Wyenn), the burglar at the end who recklessly entering a contraption he has no knowledge about. Joe's viciousness and Paul's curiosity, I could at least excuse those, but what was the professor thinking?

Still, despite the questionable character motives, I quite enjoyed this one, even the conveniently karmic ending that feels a little forced. Twilight Zone is a show of karmic fables, so didactic karmic retributions are pretty much in the show's blood. The whole sequence of Joe being a fish out of water was hilarious too and a lot of fun to watch, particularly when he had a showdown with a cowboy on TV.

I also like that Joe shows no remorse for his heinous actions, unlike the myriad "sympathetic villains" nowadays trying to gain pity from the heroes. He might not be sympathetic or likable at all, but I could at least respect him for sticking to his corrupted ideals, willing to lie and cheat to get his way no matter the cost (and ultimately getting a much-deserved fate anyway). I think one reason I feel this way is because I see just a little bit of him in me, someone who's bitter at the world and ends up becoming a rather selfish, petty and misanthropic man who doesn't care for other people's lives very much.

Unfortunately, reading up on AV Club's review of this episode, I found out about Albert Salmi's tragic fate (killed his wife, before killing himself). That's two TZ actors now whose means of death kinda leave their roles in a poor taste. Albert did a great job with his lively and amusing performance as Joe, so it's a shame it turned out that way.

4/5

[Annber03]

54 minutes ago, MagnusHex said:

This was a pretty solid episode for a number of reasons, but when I rewatched it just now, I had a sense of déjà vu, checking if I was playing the wrong episode. Then I realized they used the same set at the beginning for Third from the Sun. The living room set too.

I know, obviously, that the real world explanation is that they did stuff like this for budget reasons, but with this show in particular, I kind of like that detail, because it feels like there's some kind of connection/similarity between the various stories on this show ;D. That, and it just seems to make sense and seems appropriate that in a place as surreal as the Twilight Zone, the same scenery would show up over and over again, regardless of the characters involved :p. 

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I also like the exchange between Sam and Warren Marcusson (Paul Comi) as it felt like it was building up a false optimism for Sam, so that he would outgrow his paranoia and prejudice (only to have Sam ironically proven right).

Yeah, those are always some of the most unsettling ones, when they get that bit of hope that things are going to be okay, only for the rug to be violently yanked out from under them (Henry Bemis says hi). 

I'm glad to see your write-ups again for this show, I agree with your take on both these stories :).

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Unfortunately, reading up on AV Club's review of this episode, I found out about Albert Salmi's tragic fate (killed his wife, before killing himself). That's two TZ actors now whose means of death kinda leave their roles in a poor taste. Albert did a great job with his lively and amusing performance as Joe, so it's a shame it turned out that way.

Oh, wow, I just went and read the Wiki about him and dang. That is tragic. I do remember reading the AV Club reviews of this show, but I must've missed that one. 

[MagnusHex]

The Big Tall Wish

I really love stories that deal with the replacement of childhood innocence with adult cynicism. 2003's Peter Pan live action flick, probably my favorite adaptation of the classic tale (as it felt like the most sensible way of telling a story about a boy who never grows up), dealt with similar themes of children being forced to grow up and learn to accept the harshness of reality, and it kinda had an opposite (and perhaps less tragic) lesson to teach about that acceptance than what Big Tall Wish had to offer. it wouldn't be ludicrous from me to recommend watching that film as a thematic/spiritual successor to this episode since it expanded on the episode's questions of "What do you do if wishes aren't real in reality? How do you accept that?"

But my digression from the episode aside, it's a theme like this that makes me really connect to this episode so well, even though I'm no boxing fan. The whole idea of becoming too old and embittered by the constant beatings of life - both metaphorical and literal ones for Bolie Jackson (Ivan Dixon) - is just such a heartfelt topic to explore, especially when you're over 30 like me and not really have much to celebrate in your life. That feeling of fatigue and those desires of giving up and hanging up the gloves, I could relate to them very much. And the thing that really speaks true to me is that, if I was in Bolie's shoes, I wouldn't have the confidence in myself to believe that the world's giving me a lucky break too, and I would've probably ended up disbelieving like Bolie did. It's just not that easy to get back that childlike faith in the goodness of the world once you've lost it and seen the ugly parts.

What further makes this episode great is that Bolie is probably one of the most well-developed characters in the series. As mentioned before, characters in TZ rarely have room to develop much in those 30 minutes or less as the script builds up towards the plot twist. What usually works best on the show is when Rod integrates the twist with the protagonist's journey, like how this episode beautifully made the twist part of Bolie's discoveries about life and his incapability to believe in anything remotely miraculous. The bittersweet (or even outright tragic) ending of young Henry Temple (Stephen Perry) becoming influenced by Bolie's cynicism is an extra kick to the guts that I appreciate, even if Bolie ultimately tried to sweeten things up with some remorseful words about not enough people believing in miracles. It might not be the happiest ending, but it's sure an impactful and memorable one that leaves me pondering on what could've been and what's to come in Bolie's life.

Again, this is a pretty depressing ending even if you interpret Bolie's last words in an optimistic light. But I think that's why I love it so much because there's so much to say and expand upon for the message the episode is conveying, how it becomes difficult, impossible even for certain people to have faith in life anymore as you get older. There's beauty in such poignancy because it provokes me to search for a better and more hopeful answer to that, and I personally believe that kind of provocation is what great art should do.

One last thing that's sort of worth pointing out ("sort of" because pointing it out kinda contradicts the beautiful subtlety of it all): we have an all-black cast this episode in a '60s show. That's something impressive.

5/5

[Annber03]

19 hours ago, MagnusHex said:

But my digression from the episode aside, it's a theme like this that makes me really connect to this episode so well, even though I'm no boxing fan. 

Yeah, I always appreciate it when a show can take anything relating to sports, a topic that I have little to no interest in, and make a story about it engrossing and interesting and relatable. This show was definitely a prime example of that. I know Serling was a boxer when he was in the military, so it makes sense that would filter into his work to some degree as a result. 

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The bittersweet (or even outright tragic) ending of young Henry Temple (Stephen Perry) becoming influenced by Bolie's cynicism is an extra kick to the guts that I appreciate, even if Bolie ultimately tried to sweeten things up with some remorseful words about not enough people believing in miracles. It might not be the happiest ending, but it's sure an impactful and memorable one that leaves me pondering on what could've been and what's to come in Bolie's life.

I think you've hit on precisely why this show appeals to me so much - yeah, they had a lot of very unhappy/bittersweet/horrifying endings on this show, but they never did it just to do it, just to be grim and dark for the sake of being grim and dark. There was always a point, a reason for the story ending that way, and even in the bleakest moments, there was still a hint of hope, or a plea to people to be better than this, or things of that sort. It was realistic without being nihilistic. I appreciate that. And I think your post about this episode perfectly summed up how well this show was able to pull off that balance with its storytelling. 

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One last thing that's sort of worth pointing out ("sort of" because pointing it out kinda contradicts the beautiful subtlety of it all): we have an all-black cast this episode in a '60s show. That's something impressive.

Yeah, this show was, overall, pretty good at not just talking the talk in that regard. 

[Cobb Salad]

H&I is showing the Twilight Zone marathon during Independence Day weekend 

https://www.handitv.com/stories/h-i-celebrates-the-twilight-zone-with-a-special-rod-white-blue-marathon

 

[Snow Apple]

I recently saw The Fugitive again. It's the one about a young girl named Jenny and her friend, the elderly man named Ben. I loved this episode when I was young because I loved most of the episodes with children, and this one had a happy ending for Jenny and Ben.

But watching as an adult, I'm can't help but feel horrified for the aunt. She's not the warmest person but she took care of Jenny and just want her to be safe. And now Jenny has disappeared and a picture of an unknown man is under her pillow. She must have spent the rest of her life thinking Jenny was kidnapped and going through who knows what.

[MagnusHex]

A Nice Place to Visit

The Good Place, anyone? I haven't even watched the series (only seen one episode in scriptwriting class) and that show immediately came to mind watching this episode. lol

Honestly though, this is another case of value dissonance, another case of not being able to relate to the protagonist's conflict. If I could get everything I ever wanted for all of eternity, there's no way in Hell I would consider it a living Hell. If anything, Rocky lacks imagination, just like Walter Bedeker in Escape Clause. Being able to summon anything you wish for at your whim? Just summon something novel to keep yourself from getting bored! Though for me, I'd probably just sit on the couch and watch TV shows all day in my own private Hell. lmao

That being said, I kinda get it though. I used to aspire to be a filmmaker, and if I'm in Francis Valentine's shoes, being able to shoot any film I want with everyone worshipping me as some legendary filmmaker... that would've been a hollow experience as well. I get it. But even so, there are ways to enjoy that kind of pleasure, even if it's simulated pleasure. At risk of sounding crude, it's pure masturbation, but people do get pleasure from that.

In other words, this version of Hell might sound unpleasant on paper, but in practice, when you think about it... not really that bad compared to fires and brimstones. I guess it would be kinda boring since the Internet hadn't came out yet in the '60s, but with a computer and Internet access, I could probably get used to The Bad Place easily. Pip certainly seems eager to please and willing to go along with whatever Rocky demands, so a request of having different entertainment content everyday for the rest of eternity would probably not be impossible.

7/10 Interesting concept, but the message gets a little silly under closer examination.

[Annber03]

Haha, yeah, I've never seen "The Good Place", either, but when people started explaining the concept of the first season and mentioned there was a twist, even without explaining what the twist was, I figured it out, 'cause, well, "Twilight Zone" :p. I'm also guessing there were other shows and movies and books that explored this concept before "The Good Place" did, too. 

Anywho, as for the premise, I agree with you that this is a pretty tame version of Hell, all things considered, and I too wouldn't complain about getting what I wanted every day.

But at the same time, I'm also not a criminal who needs some new excitement in my life every single day just to shake things up, the way Valentine did, and the fact that he KNOWS he doesn't deserve this good stuff, because of his lifestyle, and yet he's getting it anyway, and is stuck getting it for all eternity besides, with no change in the routine, and having his nose continuously rubbed in the fact that he doesn't deserve this, and all that...I can see where that would get to him, and where that would be a pretty crappy punishment in and of itself. 

Plus, if this is what he's getting in Hell, then you know he's going to be wondering what Heaven would have to offer. He was so greedy in his life, he was never satisfied, and now he's stuck wondering what else he could've had, had he gone to the right place. And the fact he'll never know...that alone would be enough to drive him nuts. 

12 minutes ago, MagnusHex said:

Pip certainly seems eager to please and willing to go along with whatever Rocky demands, so a request of having different entertainment content everyday for the rest of eternity would probably not be impossible.

The guy was wiling to set up a bank robbery for Valentine just to make him happy! Yeah, he would absolutely roll with whatever you wanted. 

I just get a kick out of seeing the actor playing Pip in this episode, 'cause, hey, Mr. French from "Family Affair"!

[MagnusHex]

5 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

But at the same time, I'm also not a criminal who needs some new excitement in my life every single day just to shake things up, the way Valentine did, and the fact that he KNOWS he doesn't deserve this good stuff, because of his lifestyle, and yet he's getting it anyway, and is stuck getting it for all eternity besides, with no change in the routine, and having his nose continuously rubbed in the fact that he doesn't deserve this, and all that...I can see where that would get to him, and where that would be a pretty crappy punishment in and of itself. 

Plus, if this is what he's getting in Hell, then you know he's going to be wondering what Heaven would have to offer. He was so greedy in his life, he was never satisfied, and now he's stuck wondering what else he could've had, had he gone to the right place. And the fact he'll never know...that alone would be enough to drive him nuts. 

Yeah, I read in the AV Club review a similar theory about the point of the episode, that the Hell feels so tame to us the audience because this is Rocky's own personal version of Hell. He's an empty person who seeks thrills, which is why predictable pleasure is his punishment. On the other hand, if the person being punished is me, I doubt I would get the same treatment and something more unpleasant would be in store for me (probably a lot of pointy sticks and eternal inferno).

[Snow Apple]

Yeah, just give me a tv and books and I'll be happy. But since it's a personal hell arrange for each individual, it will probably be an eternity of the same few shows and books which will get boring, or an endless supply of new stuff that I hate or don't understand. LOL

[Annber03]

Can we also talk, too, about the fact that they don't actually say the term "Hell" on this show? They refer to it as "the other place". I get why, of course, '60s censorship and all, but still, it is funny that, on a show that's tackled some pretty hefty, dark, disturbing topics, actually saying "Hell" was just a bridge too far for the censors :p. 

[Twilight Man]

"The Encounter" is now available for streaming on Paramount+.

The banned episode was shown during the 2016 New Years marathon,

but many people have still not seen it.