This show has been a favorite of mine since early childhood when me and my dad would watch rerun marathons on the Sci-Fi Channel. Nearly if not every episode is amazing and thought-provoking! It's almost a mystery within itself how Rod Serling can fit such a seemingly complex plot into twenty minutes time and still wrap it up perfectly.
Although other shows like "The Outer Limits" are good, there's a couple differences that set "The Twighlight Zone" apart from them. For instance, the use of movie-quality film, though seems minor, actually makes a big difference. The serious subjects present within the show are turned up a whole notch under the dark and moody lighting and film quality of a film noir. There are also more picturesque shots in the series, many mise-en-scène, that are not only appealing, but tell the whole story in symbols and pictures in the midst of unraveling mayhem.
A couple of my favorite episodes include "The Obsolete Man" and "The After Hours". In "The Obsolete Man" one of the cinematic decisions I noticed and loved was the use of a stark, towering, and white podium among a void of black with a long table stretched out before it of identical people signifying the council. It well demonstrated the image of an authoritarian and self-righteous government filled with people of the same exact mindsets. What's especially thought-provoking about this episode is the political concept of a dictatorship overthrowing what seemed to once be a republic by burning all prior knowledge in the form of books and sentencing harsh penalties to those who refuse. Although this was supposed to represent the Axis countries in WWII and even Communist countries during the ongoing Cold War, it is amazing to see the effects of these that follow through to today that still make this episode quite relevant.
In "The After Hours", Rod Serling looks less to collective ideas of groups and more towards unspoken ideas of the individual by building an episode entirely off of one illogical but nonetheless real question: "What if mannequins were living beings?" Though possibly only something to make a person say "woah, what if?", it can also be said that there is an underlying feeling of fear that is purposely created. Plenty of people have a fear of mannequins; good lord, what if their worst nightmare came true? It is these deep dives into the human psyche presented with extraordinary situations that make me love this show as much as I do.
Although other shows like "The Outer Limits" are good, there's a couple differences that set "The Twighlight Zone" apart from them. For instance, the use of movie-quality film, though seems minor, actually makes a big difference. The serious subjects present within the show are turned up a whole notch under the dark and moody lighting and film quality of a film noir. There are also more picturesque shots in the series, many mise-en-scène, that are not only appealing, but tell the whole story in symbols and pictures in the midst of unraveling mayhem.
A couple of my favorite episodes include "The Obsolete Man" and "The After Hours". In "The Obsolete Man" one of the cinematic decisions I noticed and loved was the use of a stark, towering, and white podium among a void of black with a long table stretched out before it of identical people signifying the council. It well demonstrated the image of an authoritarian and self-righteous government filled with people of the same exact mindsets. What's especially thought-provoking about this episode is the political concept of a dictatorship overthrowing what seemed to once be a republic by burning all prior knowledge in the form of books and sentencing harsh penalties to those who refuse. Although this was supposed to represent the Axis countries in WWII and even Communist countries during the ongoing Cold War, it is amazing to see the effects of these that follow through to today that still make this episode quite relevant.
In "The After Hours", Rod Serling looks less to collective ideas of groups and more towards unspoken ideas of the individual by building an episode entirely off of one illogical but nonetheless real question: "What if mannequins were living beings?" Though possibly only something to make a person say "woah, what if?", it can also be said that there is an underlying feeling of fear that is purposely created. Plenty of people have a fear of mannequins; good lord, what if their worst nightmare came true? It is these deep dives into the human psyche presented with extraordinary situations that make me love this show as much as I do.