Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The Twilight Zone: TV Series: Season 1

Episode 1: "Where Is Everbody?"
4 / 5
Actors include: Earl Holliman, James Gregory, Paul Langton

A really interesting tale which appears to be one thing but in reality it's something else entirely. We meet a man who seems to have some sort of amnesia and can't recall his name but he knows he has some money for food. He starts looking around for someone to serve him in the diner only to discover that it's vacant. He begins to look around town and starts to realize that he may be the last man left alive. He of course starts to get desperate and alone and starts to go mad. I can't really give more away, but what a great iconic story to start off one of the best series around.

Episode 5: "Walking Distance"
4 / 5
Actors include: Gig Young, Frank Overton, Irene Tedrow

This one is basically about how you can never go back to childhood nor should you try! Well okay maybe that's just my interpretation. The story is about a young man who learns he's within walking distance to his hometown, so he stops in the malt shop. Soon as he looks around the town he realizes everything is exactly the same and he even runs into himself in the past! It's a pretty neat little tale and I enjoyed the message there too but not one of the best.

Episode 8: "Time Enough At Last"
5 / 5
Actors include: Burgess Meredith, Jacqueline DeWitt, Vaughn Taylor

This is a really cute tale about a man who loves reading nearly anything he can get his hands on. He's a loveable hapless nerd with glasses, but his wife is a different story. She's completely against him reading and nags him nearly all the time. Our nerd ends up in a bank vault when a nuclear explosion happens and he finds out he's the last man on earth. He starts to go crazy and wishes he would die until he finds a library, unfortunately the Twilight Zone has just one more cruel twist for him.

Episode 9: "Perchance To Dream"
3.5 / 5
Actors include: Richard Conte, John Larch, Suzanne Lloyd

This isn't the most exciting episode I've seen, particularly as far as the early episodes go but it was okay. It's about a man who believes that his dreams will kill him. He sees a cat lady who entices him yet threatens his life. He just knows if he falls back asleep he'll die. It's not bad, just kinda surreal and strange but at least it all comes together in the end.

Episode 13: "The Four Of Us Are Dying"
3.5 / 5
Actors include: Harry Townes, Phillip Pine, Don Gordon

This was one mighty bizarre episode, even for this show! It's about a man who's face can morph into anyone's so long as he can concentrate and usually it helps to have a picture. For fun he would pick someone out of the paper that had just died and transform himself into them to fool with their friends and relatives and such. Of course things go awry, but it would have been nice to have some explanation why.

Episode 16: "The Hitch-Hiker"
3.5 / 5
Actors include: Inger Stevens, Adam Williams, Lew Gallo

A woman driving around the country keeps seeing the same hitch-hiker. No matter what the odds are against him being there, he's always lurking nearby. If you've seen Carnival Of Souls than you know exactly what is going on here, but if not it should be quite a surprise!

Episode 22: "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street
5 / 5
Actors include: Claude Atkins, Barry Atwater, Jack Weston

This is a fun little tale of suspicion and hysteria and destruction, who wouldn't love it? I even remember them teaching us this tale when I was in public school so we'd learn about what suspicion can do! What happens is the folks on Maple street notice what looks like a flying saucer land in the distance. A young boy mentions a sci-fi story he heard where aliens came down and infiltrated a neighbourhood and of course everyone starts to suspect everyone. Then the hydro goes out and their vehicles stop working, but periodically the lights will flicker which leads the other folks on the street to start pointing fingers. It's got a fun little ending and it's really a good lesson to learn, great little story!

Episode 32: "A Passage For Trumpet"
3 / 5
Actors include: Jack Klugman, Frank Wolff, John Anderson

One of my least favorite Twilight Zone episodes so far unfortunately. Klugman plays a trumpeter who has issues with alcoholism. He ends up pawning his trumpet (yet again) then steps out on the street and is hit by a car. Nobody seems to recognize him after so he determines that he is dead. He wanders into the old jazz club and meets someone named "Gabriel" who offers him the choice to go back or not. Yeah it's as boring as it sounds seriously, one to skip perhaps.

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