This little project still works, to judge from the comments here. Viewers still think there is something profound going on. There is, I think, but not in the sophomoric story.
You may find this hard to view, so let me describe it. A man finds himself in a white cube, apparently imprisoned forever. For an hour, people enter and leave this cube and a large number of vignettes are played out. Each one deals with some notion of perception or reality.
Careful watchers will see that these episodes are not coherent. They do not incrementally add to a whole view or comment on being. They are, in fact, random and often contradictory. One involves sex, another race, affirmation, communication, religion, family and so on. Each little episode adopts the path of least theatrical resistance regardless of what went before or after. There is no overarching philosophy that they fit into.
I believe that is precisely the point. Henson wasn't interested in making a point. No, he never was, ever. His interest then was to create and explore a theatrical framework that could be easily read by us. And then within that, he could move small, encapsulated dramas in and out. It was essential to him that they NOT be related in any way.
You see, his goal was to design a channel, not the content of that channel. And he did, only later that year with what became the Muppets. His achievement was to create a sort of framework within which any content or message could be packaged and then delivered wholesale.
Its how he sold it to "educational" TeeVee, as a vehicle for whatever they wanted to cram in there, and to change and test however wildly they wished.
So, when you watch this, look for the deliberate dissonance among all the worldviews of the dozen or so episodes and marvel that such a wrapping framework could make them seem so unified and digestible. At least to most viewers.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
You may find this hard to view, so let me describe it. A man finds himself in a white cube, apparently imprisoned forever. For an hour, people enter and leave this cube and a large number of vignettes are played out. Each one deals with some notion of perception or reality.
Careful watchers will see that these episodes are not coherent. They do not incrementally add to a whole view or comment on being. They are, in fact, random and often contradictory. One involves sex, another race, affirmation, communication, religion, family and so on. Each little episode adopts the path of least theatrical resistance regardless of what went before or after. There is no overarching philosophy that they fit into.
I believe that is precisely the point. Henson wasn't interested in making a point. No, he never was, ever. His interest then was to create and explore a theatrical framework that could be easily read by us. And then within that, he could move small, encapsulated dramas in and out. It was essential to him that they NOT be related in any way.
You see, his goal was to design a channel, not the content of that channel. And he did, only later that year with what became the Muppets. His achievement was to create a sort of framework within which any content or message could be packaged and then delivered wholesale.
Its how he sold it to "educational" TeeVee, as a vehicle for whatever they wanted to cram in there, and to change and test however wildly they wished.
So, when you watch this, look for the deliberate dissonance among all the worldviews of the dozen or so episodes and marvel that such a wrapping framework could make them seem so unified and digestible. At least to most viewers.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.