Hoping to catch up soon.

ride the ghost of that ship

I agree with Michael. Judgement Night is the first episode of in last several I've really enjoyed. The narration in the beginning is strong writing and sets the tone for the rest of the story, which is played out slowly and builds the tension right through until the final scene. There are clues as to Lancer's identity but I felt uncertain of who he really was even when he see him giving orders from the submarine. 

The last few minutes embark on a bit of moralizing. But it doesn't feel condescending. Instead, it suggests that the consequences of a person's actions (in war, but probably in life too) are something that they will have to live with forever. 

------

I'm excited about this project again. I have to leave for work soon but I'll probably catch up with a few more episodes tonight after work while everyone else is watching Spring Breakers. 

3 weeks is too long...

What happened to all our enthusiastic steam!! An explanation would be the crappy episodes sucked out our will to post about TZ, but 2 out of the previous 3 i thought were REALLY good. And yet, still none of us were inspired to post in a timely fashion. Let's get with it peeps! Myself included!

Let's start with "Judgement Night". FINALLY a GOOD episode!! This is the first episode in a WHILE that didn't feel rushed. They had an idea, presented their characters, created confusion and turmoil, explained its origin and sealed with gloom and doom. Tight and to the point. Effective. Really enjoyed this one. I was satisfied with the contents, but almost wish an hour long version of this existed so we can have a little back story on the passengers. Otherwise, Sterling and Co. brought their A game

Side note--- while I'm typing this I'm listening to the latest Third Man Records Vault Package Release. For those unfamiliar Jack White's label 'Third Man Records' has a quarterly Vault membership that gets you limited Vinyl releases to Vault Club members. Includes 1 LP, 1 45 and a special gift of some sort every quarter year. Packaging is top notch and the vinyls are GREAT quality. His whole label really has some good stuff... back to the TZ.

'And When the Sky was Opened' I thought again utilized it's time frame superbly. With this episode we see the theme of space travel/flight returning. This time though our story remains grounded here on earth. We don't know what the pilots were doing, where they were going, or their mission  We only know that for a brief minute the astronauts disappeared and then reappeared. Popular movie scenarios would suggest some sort of extra-terrestrial involvement providing alien abduction/possession or impregnation. We never get to learn what happens in that time frame, but we don't need to. All we need to know is regardless of WHAT happened these astronauts were NOT supposed to make it back, yet somehow they did and are now being selectively ERASED from existence. Creepy dark stuff. Loved it.

.....'What You Need'.. What i needed was this episode to end as soon as it began. The worst part is i don;t even know WHY i didn't like it. Something about the characters just didn't mesh with me right off the bat. I just didn't care. How many sweet old men are gonna get taken advantage of in this series anyway? MEH.

Tired Zone

Mike's right again, of course. The last few episodes have been okay at best (but I have a real soft spot for Time Enough). And Mike nails what the primary problem is: everything seems rushed. Serling & Co. come up with a great idea, then rush through to the next big idea, never spending the time to unpack the idea at length. This is, so far, the TZ's biggest weakness. It's ironic, too, because the show's short running time is often one of its best features, packing an enormous emotional or intellectual wallop into a tight little 20-odd-minutes package. At its best, everything is focused and distilled into some primal articulation of half-thought fears and dreams.

"Time Enough at Last" is a deservedly classic TZ episode, if only because it is here in this episode that we realize how cruel a place the TZ can be. So far, in the series, we've seen a pilot go crazy in a simulation, a salesman make the pitch of his life, a town drunk find redemption, an aging actress discover a happier if not healthier place for herself to retire to, a trip to the past and lessons learned, the dangers of dealing with the devil, and leaving life on an asteroid after having you robot girlfriend shot. There have been twists and upsets and all sorts of strangeness, but never before have Rod and crew been this low-down disgustingly mean and sadistic. I wish I could remember how I felt watching this as a child. I wish I could have been there to see this broadcast for the first time in 1959. Because it's a nasty sucker punch to the gut, especially for us bibliophiles.

"Perchance to Dream" is a silly episode and the twist at the end is silly. BUT, there is that Maya the Cat Lady dance. So, there's that.

Another 2'fer

I don't know if its the quality of episode that has given me no inspiration to write stuff or what. These last 4 episodes have been from meh to horrible as far as entertaining goes.

"Time Enough at Least" started with potential. You cant go wrong with Burgess Meredith and yet somehow The TZ did. Wiki shows this episode as the first NOT to be written by Sterling himself. He merely adapted the screenplay. I'd like to think maybe this is where it went wrong but the 3 of the last 4 episodes WERE written by Sterling and they all sucked. Its almost as if they run out of time in each episode. Everything seems rushed. Maybe i'm just used to having stories presented in hour long formats. There is time for fluff and to work things out. Anyway, this was our first truly TRAGIC episode. Nothing bad should have happened to Meredith's Henry Bemis. He was harmless. All the man wanted to do was read and his overbearing, wretched wife wouldn't let him. His dickhead boss wouldn't let him. BOOM everyone's gone, all the time in world to read. Glasses break, wtf. WTF. REALLY? NOT FAIR. Low blow TZ, very low blow.

"Perchance to Dream"..... *grumble*. I really don't have much to say about this one besides I could watch Suzanne Lloyd dance around as Maya the Cat Lady all day. I did have a good giggle when the psychiatrist showed absolutely NO emotion what so ever when a man died on his couch.

She would have made one hell of a Bond girl no??

Bring on the next episode. I need a good ONE!!!

2 For the Blog of One

It seems we all weren't too impressed with these past 2 episodes. The main characters were annoying, plot was paper thin, relationships not fleshed out. Just a mess. I really don't want to spend much time in thought on these 2 episodes. so I'm gonna keep this short and sweet.

As far as "Escape Clause" is concerned, as lackluster as this episode is i do believe it gave me my favorite one-liner of The TZ thus far delivered by out protagonist Walter.

 "Go drown yourself in the tub Ethyl"

In fact all of his insults towards his wife had me chuckle a bit. Other than that... MEH.

I really wish the relationship between man and machine was explored a bit more in "The Lonely . John, I have to agree that being given your own personal asteroid as a "punishment"...... doesn't seem to bad considering the alternative of federal "pound-me-in-the-ass" prisons.

Since i am being crass, if this episode was made by today's standards, the issue of of sex would have been front and center. If a man exiled for years on a lonely asteroid was given an attractive android woman, the first damn thing he would do when the patrol rocket filled with the only humans for millions of miles blasted off into the sky would be to check if his new "playmate" was a "pleasure bot" model.


                                                   He sure as hell wouldnt do this........

                                               Which of course leads to...

                                                                           THIS

                                                                 

                                               But somehow we managed to make nice and do

                                                                         THIS

                                                                Which ultimately led to

                                                                            THIS!

                                                                        

                                                                       

I'm done.

Bring on episode 8 tomorrow and hopefully we have better things to discuss.

The Lonely

"The Lonely" is a frustrating episode. I want to like it, but I got annoyed right from the beginning by the implausible premise. In the future, we're spending billions of dollars on rocket fuel and space travel to deliver supplies to prisoners who have been given their own asteroids?!?

Then, the mechanical girl part flys by. There's no real emotional development that makes us grieve or think at all when the end comes.

The episode isn't all bad. At the very least, it reminded me of this song, which I first heard performed by Bobby Bare....

Shel Silverstein: Ever Lovin Machine
http://youtu.be/uaQGRkmhKB8

You're a Potato Pancake

My heart hasn't been in this lately.

I'm putting a post up just to put a post up.

I was tired of "Escape Clause" before the first scene ended. Nothing later in the episode changed my opinion. A whiny hypochondriac who turns into whiny murderer is hardly a tragic arc. I wanted the dude to die from the first moment he opened his mouth. So, why did I care so little when the inevitable conclusion arrived? Because I had to watch that whiny jerk for all the time in between. I was wishing for my own escape clause to get me out of watching the episode.

Another dud as far as I'm concerned.

Escape Clause

This one was frustrating to watch from a personal standpoint, though I think that it makes a pointed observation about how those who don't appreciate a little won't appreciate a lot.
I would never have sold my soul, but if I had, I would have made much better use of my time than he did. Getting himself into accidents? What the hell? That's about the stupidest thing you could do with immortality. It was hard to watch him make such terrible decisons with such a wonderful gift. It's like he didn't trust his immortality like he didn't trust his health. I commented to my family while watching that "the devil knows his victims." He made the offer to Walter knowing full well that he would squander it. The devil would never offer me immortality for my soul, because he knows he would lose out big time on the deal. That's not to say that there aren't other ways he could trick me...Regardless, my soul isn't for sale anyway.

Walking Distance

I was all set to rave about my favorite episode so far, but you two took the wind out of my sails! First of all, regardless of how it's used, I LOVE time travel as a plot device. It doesn't matter how lame it is, it gets my imagination going. Frankly, walking is a lovely mode of time travel because it keeps things simple. No complicated pseudo-science here; you're walking into the friggin' Twlight Zone, baby!

For me, it wasn't the moral-of-the-story aspect of it that I loved so much. I mean, it's not clear what the lesson was that he was supposed to have learned. Maybe, "Accept the life that you've lived with dignity"? "You only get once shot at childhood, and won't realize it or appreciate it until long after the fact"? "Remember that creeper you ran into at the playground when you were six? He might have been your future self"? So, whatever about that. But the nostalgia part of it--I could go for that.

What I liked the most about the episode was the notion of seeing your past from a new perspective. Our memory is faulty, biased, and has lots of holes. Who hasn't daydreamed about going back to important events from your life and seeing how things really went down? Who hasn't thought about having the ability to intepret one's own childhood culture from an adult perspective--not just schoolyard antics, but fashion, toys, media, and all that? You're going to laugh, but wouldn't it be great to go into a department store and see rows and rows of brand new Empire Strikes Back figures on the racks? Or, for that matter, see it in the theater when it was first run? To watch MTV and Nickelodeon before they were tired mainstream channels, to eavesdrop on playground chatter with its ejaculations of "boss" and "gnarly" and "rad." And then to go a step further, and to watch yourself playing as a child--the things you could learn and understand about yourself! I'll tell you that I've daydreamed of talking to myself as a child--telling my younger self things I wished an adult had. Of course, TZ gets that part right--chances are your grown up self would scare the bejesus out of your kid self. It would be tough to make that connection. But I'd still want to try, hopefully in a less dramatic way than our hero from the episode...

I have a story that illustrates this, actually. When I was about 26 or so, I rented a car and drove to the house in Connecticut where my parents split up. I had not been there (that I remembered) since we moved out when I was four or five. Dreamlike images of the house and the street were burned into my brain, and I had referred to them often over the years. Because of the time in my life they represented, they were powerful images and held a certain sway over me.

I parked my car across the street from the house. The neighborhood was formerly Navy housing, so all the houses were small and uniform in their appearance. I was not expecting the house I lived in to be so small; it loomed so large in my mind. And of course, to a four-year-old it *had* been much larger. The backyard where I played was tiny. I wanted to knock on the door to see inside, but whoever lived there was having company, so I had to settle for seeing it from the outside. I peered around the side to the window of the guest room. My dad had been using that as his room when he moved out of the shared bedroom, and my mother tells me I would go in there often looking for him (he usually wasn't there). In my mind's eye and in my psyche it was a huge space, and I felt small when I went in there as a child.

Now, as an adult, all I could think was, "This is it?" It was not even a little intimidating or overwhelming. I could handle this house, and the memories that came with it. On top of that, all the lights were on at the house, and there were cars in the driveway and on the street. I could see shadows moving across the drawn curtains. New memories were being made here. The house had moved on, and so could I.

Sometimes going back can help you to move forward. "Walking Distance" illustrates that nicely.

Anywhere you can hang your head.

Dang it, I'm behind again. I watched this episode last Tuesday, then did nothing about it.

"Homewood" is a terrible mess of an episode. First of all, it had the worst time travel machine I've ever seen in a time travel movie. Walking? Sheesh. Second, I'm not big on nostalgia. I have some fond childhood memories, but there's no temptation to go back to some golden era. Because there was no golden era. And going back and living in the past only gets you a gimpy leg.

This episode is a dud as far as I'm concerned.

Meh.

Homewood...really?

There's not much to be said about this episode that hasn't already been said, or question that hasn't already been asked. It seems to be one of the most revered episodes of TZ with praises coming form all sorts of media outlets and personalities, including, a personal favorite of mine, J.J. Abrams. Supposedly this is his favorite twilight episode even including an homage to it in his feature film 'Super8' (a movie I immensely  enjoyed and seem to be in the minority in doing so). However, with that said, i wasn't really a big fan of this one. I guess my biggest problem is my dislike of the main character Martin. The man just irks me, i don't know why. He was being a dick right off the bat to the gas station attendant and i guess it just rubbed me the wrong way. He didn't deserve to go back to his childhood and experience that whole ordeal. It's not like he took anything away from it aside form a bum leg. He's still content to live his life the way hes living, maybe he had a happier childhood because of it.... maybe he didn't, who knows... and to be honest.. I don't care.

HOWEVER...

                       WHO IS THIS MAGNIFICENT CREATURE???

What a beauty!

I don't think she's credited so if anyone can tell me who she is... it would be GREATLY appreciated.

Living in the Past

I didn't end up watching both episodes, as my son wanted to end on an episode of Portlandia (which has actually been our pattern after TZ episodes) because the Twilight Zone is "creepy." At least he's watching them with us. Who knows how long that will last.

So an aging actress can't cope with reality. As unlikeable as she was, I still couldn't help but feel sorry for her, as I feel sorry for anyone who is not able to endure loss in life and resorts to escapism. Best case scenario, she is able to adjust and accept and embrace what is, and forge a new identity for herself. But barring that, she's really better off disappearing into a fantasy world (in the TZ for real) and sparing those around her from her continuing misery.

Messing Everything Up

I can't believe the time got away from me already! I don't know what I was doing last week, but I missed TZ Tuesday. And here it is another one already.

A brief word about the western one before I watch two tonight to catch up.

I thought the elixir guy was a bad guy at first, setting up the drunk gunslinger for even more trouble. So I was a little surprised at the ending. Unlike Michael, I like westerns, but this one was ultimately unsatisfying. I guess I thought it was going to be more complex than it was, that there was going to be more of a twist. I don't know. However, I did like John's thoughts on the episode, and reading them made me appreciate it more.

My Ida Lupino Shrine

"Sixteen Millimeter Shrine"

This episode feels slight after the previous three episodes. Even so, it stars the never old Ida Lupino in what was surely a personal role. It's a well-known fact that Hollywood actresses rarely aged in their careers successfully. The next young thing was always ready to take over. Some of the lucky ones made it into TV. Many ended their careers early. This TZ episode is a sad acknowledgment and respectful nod of the head at all of these women cut off in their careers much too early.

"The poor man's Bette Davis"

Meet Barbara Trenton. Classy actress and belle of the ball. On top of the world starring in movies with the hottest actors and probably attending every high luxury party in Hollywood. However, this is not the Ms. Trenton we are introduced too. We meet Barbara 20+ years after her prime. An aging actress cutting herself off from a world who has forgotten her and living in her OWN world where she is still relevant. Still proud, still a lady. Even if shes pounding cocktails at noon. She would NEVER refer to herself as the "Poor man's Bette Davis". And yet, this is the way Ida Lupino (the woman playing Ms. Trenton) described herself in her career. Some quick research actually turns up that Ida Lupino was constantly at odds with the movie studios and was adamant about not taking on roles she felt were “beneath her dignity as an actress.” Coincidence? I think not. I cant help but think Ida was purposely picked for this role because of her likeness to the character. Who knows, maybe Trenton was written differently in the original script and when Ida got her hands on it she changed the motivation behind the character. Whatever the case, the performance is believable.

By the end of the episode things have gone supernatural which i don't think any of us were surprised about. This IS The Twilight Zone. However, this episode felt to me like an episode of "Amazing Stories" (which i guess is really a twilight zone ripoff). And not even just the "twist",  something about the pacing of it. I cant really describe it. Amazing Stories was MY Twilight Zone having grown up in the 80's.  One particular episode entitled "Welcome to My Nightmare" a teenager, through his love for horror movies, is transported into Hitchcock's "Psycho". Kind of the same premise our leading lady has here. I wonder how many episodes will have similar themes between the 2.

and..

Martin Balsam will always be Detective Balsam in Ezzio Greggio's "Silence of the Hams". Which also happens to involve "Psycho"...and "Silence of the Lambs".... and its genius.


Rating-- 4 out of 5 *'s

The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine

This week we get an episode much different than the first three. It doesn't have to do with science fictional concepts or philosophical problems like death and fate. Rather, episode 4 is about the human mind and an unwillingness to move forward.

Barbara Dean Trenton is an aging actress who spends most of her time secluded away reliving her life through the films she made 15 or 20 years ago. Throughout this episode Barbara is confronted with the reality of present day in the form of the sunlight bursting through the windows and old enemies and friends. But she refuses to accept any of it. Consciously and loudly, Barbara decides to seclude herself and to live in the past. I think this is part of the problem with the episode. Barbara tells us that she refuses to recognize reality and it seems too melodramatic and unreasonable. Unconsciously slipping into the past is one thing. Making an effort to do so seems like another.

I think that this is our first truly depressing and unhappy ending. There is a little bit about how Barbara will be happier living in her fantasy world. But do we believe that? Is it really better to take the blue pill? Is she even in this fantasy world or is she just lost even more deeply in her mind?

So, while there were some interesting things going on in this episode, it isn't going to be a memorable one for me. It's a bit tedious and overdone.

You and me....12:00.... at the Bike Rack

“Love Your Fate, which is in fact your life.” 
― Friedrich Nietzsche

Im not exactly a fan of westerns, never was. I just don't care i guess. I struggle to connect with characters, locations and motivations in westerns. It's very foreign to me, in fact more foreign than a sci-fi epic taking place on a distant planet, or a fantasy land of trolls and wizards, or even an alternate reality within dimensions beyond our own. These places and settings ARE  quite different form our own reality. A "civilization" far removed from what we call the real life. Citizens in these places play by a foreign set of rules and claim victory, or defeat,  with a foreign sense of pride, or shame , respectively,.. BUT, in some way... its always familiar.  Our heroes in these stories are heroes for a reason. KILL, KILL, KILL! the monster for the horrible things it's done to the "innocents". Are the innocent REALLY innocent? Or do we just sympathize with them, because they are the standard "Good" guys. The heroes. US.. PEOPLE.....HEROES... or sometimes common men functioning at a level  higher than the status quo. A "virtuistic" attempt to thwart do-badders, no matter what the cost. DESTROY the MONSTER. At first the "monsters" motivation for killing, maiming  hurting, taking, scaring, tearing, ripping, loathing etc.....  are unknown to us. We have no connection and no sympathy for the "monster". Why should we?? We've all grown to hate and fear the "monster". However, more often than not.... (especially in current story telling arcs and scripts) ...by the end of our journey we usually have an explanation of motivation behind the "monsters" heinous actions. We UNDERSTAND the emotion, or lack of emotion, that guides the "monsters" to act the way they have acted. We may not AGREE with it, but we UNDERSTAND it.

Here lies my issues with westerns.

I don't UNDERSTAND why the bad guys are bad. And to be quite honest, i don't UNDERSTAND why the good guys are good. Gunfights and showdowns and Quick Draw McGraw type actions at High Noon are a myth. The setting is real, the locations are real, hell.. even sometimes the MEN are real.. but the actions.. aren't. Hollywood made westerns what they are, or at least what I'VE come to know them as. Its a format where you KNOW who the BAD guys are and KNOW who the GOOD guys are and that's ALL you need to know. For some, that's enough. For MOST, that's enough and i am sure at some point during some movie it's even been enough for me... BUT not this time. It's the one thing i think of when watching a western and unfortunately it more often distracts me from the story then intrigues me. I just don't CARE what peoples motivations are because 9 times out of 10 we don't get to find out.

Im being harsh on westerns and feel bad about it. This episode just was a bore to me and didnt feel like delving into why without explaing my reasons for it. That would be the "Western" way out...... Bastard Westerns.

Rating-- 2 out of 5 *'s.

fate can work that way

Well, I've learned my lesson. If I don't write about the episode immediately after watching it, I put it off until the last day. It's even harder when John has already written some great thoughts.

Did anyone not like this episode?

Doomsday

Is it any surprise that this is my favorite episode so far?

Twilight Zone + Westerns = TV Gold

Here is the Twilight Zone near its best. As an audience, we're dragged through a full range of emotions, all of them earned.

Al Denton, when introduced, is pathetic. We witness as Denton will suffer any humiliation for a drop of drink. And those of us who have had any experience with addictions know that this moment is true. A silly song is a small price to pay for a moment's peace.

But, it's only ever a moment.

When Fate steps in, Mr. Denton stands up tall and strong once more. We learn how and why he was ever brought so low. And, again, we sympathize. And it feels good as Denton cleans up, gaining strength as he confesses his woes.

I'll stop walking through the plot.

What was amazing to me is how happy this all ends. Fate, often so callous and cruel, here hangs around simply to give a helping hand to two troubled souls.

"Mr. Henry Fate, dealer in utensils and pots and pans, linaments and potions. A fanciful little man in a black frock coat who can help a man climbing out of a pit—or another man from falling into one. Because, you see, Fate can work that way...in the Twilight Zone."

Even more amazing is that Serling gets away with this title, Mr. Denton on Doomsday. There is no mention of any Doomsday during the episode. There is no end of the world scenario at all. It's much more personal than that. This is Mr. Denton on Mr. Denton's Doomsday. The end of an entire world and way of life for one man. In a sense, Denton had been living out a "Doomslife," a slow torment of a life in which not-feeling and not-acting were preferable to anything else. When the "final" Doomsday comes that Fate arranges for Mr. Denton, well, Al Denton sees things through to the other side. After Doomsday? New Life.

Final thought. Dan Duryea was no stranger to western films. I've seen him in two great westerns (Night Passage, Winchester '73; and I've seen him in a small role in Lang's so-so noir Ministry of Fear). As far as I know, he always played supporting roles. Only in the Twilight Zone could he take center stage. (EDIT: It only took me a minute to look it up after posting this. Duryea did indeed have a star role in at least one western, Al Jennings of Oklahoma, in which he plays Al Jennings of Oklahoma! Now, I'm really wanting to see that movie!).