The Twilight Zone

[knives]

Slightly off topic, but what season was the Keaton episode from? That was my first episode and will always remain a nostalgic favorite. (by the way how do we not have a thread dedicated to this show)

[matrixschmatrix]

(Forgive me if there's already a thread for this, I couldn't find one.)

I've got some Amazon credit burning a hole in my virtual pocket and the blu sets are so stacked that it seems irresistible. I haven't watched any episodes of the show since I was a kid, though. Are there any seasons that are noteworthy standouts? Are there any particular episode I should check out to see how well the series will work for me?

[knives]

Outside of season four all of the seasons have about the same level of great to mediocre episode distribution. That said either season one or three would be the best re entry point.

[matrixschmatrix]

I've started working through the first season- some of it's a little clunky, but God Almighty is it gorgeous looking. Plus, Ida Lupina, Martin Landau, Dan Duryea, Thomas Gomez, etc. I can put up with a lot of mildly irritating moralizing for that.

[knives]

There's a reason it's gorgeous looking. They got some grade A level B directors on the show. John Brahm and Robert Florey especially are notable.

[matrixschmatrix]

Yeah, I noticed Michell Leisen directed two of the ones I just watched- I get the feeling there were a lot of very competent (if not well known) people on both sides of the camera. And it was shot on 35mm stock, which obviously helps.

Having gone through four of the early ones now- I was kind of annoyed by Escape Clause, which ducked out on actually examining what immortality would actually mean by having the character behave incredibly stupidly with it, I thought Mr. Denton on Doomsday was charming enough (and it's nice to see Dan Duryea get to play a sympathetic character) though it felt like the Dean Martin role from Rio Bravo grafted onto the plot from like every other Western ever, Sixteen Millimeter Shrine had a hard time getting out from under Sunset Boulevard (though it actually wound up being far less cruel to its Norma Desmond analog, which I appreciated.)

The pilot, Where is Everyone, seems like an absolutely goddamn killer 15 minute short stretched a little thin. Even so, it's killer- the actual twist seems almost irrelevant, but the way it develops the empty world- where all of the artifacts and signifiers of humanity are still all over the place, and scene where he crashes into the mirror seemed for a second like something really disturbing was about to pop out- I knew how the show ended going in, but that part still gave me chills. The growing madness of the piece is marvelously constructed, without feeling hysterical. It's a really disturbing picture of the nuclear age, all machines and objects and no human connections whatsoever. It's also pretty well the only one I've seen so far that implied anything without spelling it out in great detail.

[domino harvey]

(Forgive me if there's already a thread for this, I couldn't find one.)

Some discussion here could probably be moved over to this new thread. I've got the first three seasons on Blu waiting for me to dive in, maybe this thread will inspire me to start working my way through. I loved this series as a kid (as any macabre-loving kid did/would), but I too am anxious about how it holds up to memory

[knives]

The only possible problem I could see somebody have is with the heavy handed moralizing, but once you remember these are mostly children's fables on adult issues that pill becomes easier to swallow. Plus all the classics really deserve their reputation. There really is no anthology series that did television better and even with the occasional weaknesses I don't think the show's been topped in using the medium at least until the '90s boom of serialization began.

[matrixschmatrix]

I'll say this for the show, it is super easy to run a marathon of them- you can slam through six or seven without worrying about it too much, and it works sort of regardless of how closely you're watching it. Weirdly, it's as much of a warm blanket as anything- I didn't even watch it that much as a kid and it still gives me the feeling of being a kid staying up late to see it.

[matrixschmatrix]

I got the first blu set of these- the thing that really strikes me, over and over, is the nuclear paranoia that absolutely swamps this show. Nearly half the episodes are about being the last man on Earth, or fleeing from the end of the world, or even the more indirect paranoia of something like "And When the Sky Was Opened" (which is genuinely a frightening experience) where there's an implied relationship between Space Age technology and the threat of unbeing.

It's something you hear as part of the makeup of 50s pop culture, but it's generally a little more restrained, or saddled with a sense that yes, we've created a monster, but we can use the same technology to put it back to sleep. The Twilight Zone is having none of that- it reminds me of the work of Philip K. Dick, where the threats are always more metaphysical than mundane: not only will the world be destroyed, but there will be no memory of what it once was, either. They can take anything from you.

This is a show I remembered as being safe, reassuring, and almost campy. Maybe it is in later seasons, or through the safe haze of syndication. Right now, though, it's literally giving me nightmares.

[knives]

That safe camp feeling is in my experience from a mixture of fun episodes (Mr. Death) and really as a kid not understanding the implications of everything. I finally had time as a line doesn't really go from campy into scary until you can think through what that means for humanity.

[matrixschmatrix]

Man, this show is full of bad marriages- horrible husbands in Escape Clause and The Fever, horrible wives in Time Enough at Last and A Stop at Willoughby. It serves the plot every time, but it also seems like a subtle attack on the way marriage was constructed.

It's especially noticeable when it's little mousy men with bad wives- they're awful because they want to accomplish things, and move up in the world, and they're stuck with men who only want to retreat. Consciously or not, it sets up a feminist argument, an argument that it's harmful to everyone involved when women aren't allowed to accomplish things in their own right, and implicitly in favor of greater access to divorce.

[ando]

Interesting readings of The Zone. My favorite episodes are those where the ideas are simple but the unfolding is compelling; which means of course, that the acting and cinematography (for which the series is not known) compel you to keep watching. And I have to admit that there aren't many of them. The Hitch-hiker, for instance (which for the longest time I thought was titled Going My Way? ) remains my all time favorite because of the reasons above and also what knives pointed out about the implications for humanity. I also don't think the fear that the main charcater, Nan, goes through running from death in a car is very different from what matrixschmatrix cites as the nuclear paranoia that absolutely swamps this show. Most of the characters in other episodes are in fear of some projected eventuality. Nan, however, is afraid of exactly the state she's already in! When she discovers it there's no alternative but the one staring her in the face (or rear view mirror, as it were). And that's the end of the show. No alternate universe, no waking up from some other state, nothing. End. It's fantastic. If denial is a step further away from reality than paranoia than I suppose its for this reason that I feel Nan's journey is one of the more successful forays into The Zone.

[matrixschmatrix]

Oh my God, I've only watched the prologue for Once Upon a Time (the Buster Keaton episode) and it's already maybe the best thing I've ever seen.

[knives]

I haven't seen it in about five years, but it is probably top five for me. It's basically Midnight in Paris in reverse.

[matrixschmatrix]

Having finished it- it's also one of the best late period Keaton things I've seen, giving him a fair amount of room just to hang out and be Buster Keaton, and a really well done silent homage. Having Norman McLeod direct probably helped- there's a nice Laurel and Hardy tone to the dialogue scenes, and it feels like it understands the silents and early talkies well enough subtly to exaggerate certain things (the 16-20 fps jerkiness, the jokey intertitles, etc.) without ever showing contempt for them.

As much as anything, it's the sweetest love letter to Keaton I've seen produced while he was alive, and it warms my heart to see him be part of it.

[knives]

On TCM a few days ago they actually showed a cute little Director's Playhouse thing with Keaton starring that while not up to the level of this episode is still pretty good and heartwarming. I think in general the '50s and '60s were far kinder to Keaton than the '40s had been with fans of his silent work now grown up and giving him nice bit parts though clearly this episode was the most substantial.

[matrixschmatrix]

Apparently most of the the silent-film sequences were shot with the intention of playing them in normal sound, and then altered in post- it's amazing how well it works- I particularly like some of the little musical jokes in the score (though I can't agree with the guy on the commentary's wish that more silent film scores were Mickey Moused.)

I agree that it seems like the times got more generous to Keaton- look at the difference between his presentation here and in Sunset Boulevard, which not only sticks him in the 'wax museum', but basically mocks the whole art form he worked with.

[knives]

Yeah, that's one reason I didn't warm up to Sunset and really a whole stream of '50s films.

[matrixschmatrix]

Ha, watching the Keaton Shorts set, I just noticed one of the gags in Once Upon a Time was recycled directly from Day Dreams (when Keaton needs pants, puts some on at a second hand clothing shop, then pays for the pants with money he finds in the pocket.) Either Matheson was a seriously huge Keaton fan, or they were letting Buster suggest bits- either way, it's neat.

[ando]

OK, now I've gotta to watch this.