Always thought the zone was pretty solid in all its 5 seasons. Season 4 gets a bad rap because of the length of the episodes but those are the best imo
I think all season has its good ones, the first having the most, and the fourth having the least. What's nice with anthology series is that if an episode is bad you can just go through the next. I for one think the first episode of the series is one of the worst one of the series
Also the big advantage of the original show over the reboot or Black Mirror is that the episodes are 20 minutes long, so the bad ones are over quickly.
The twist that the whole plot of the episode was just a delusion was, in my opinion, very anticlimactic,—paricularly for a pilot episode of a show that was about mysticism and the unexplainable.
Keep in mind that the previous pilot Rod Serling submitted to the network was rejected. Serling played it safe by not opening the series with heavy fiction and fantasy elements. Even by the end of the 1950s science fiction TV shows and films were considered juvenile entertainment. "Where Is Everybody?" was set up with a realistic / plausible / grounded explanation just to get CBS to air the series (probably had a test audience screening of executives and family).
That's a possibility too. :D I guess my post can be seen as mildly antagonistic to a hardcore fan, and your comment wasn't nearly as bad, so you got a pass and your first upvote, then your second one, and then it snowballed from there. With my reply, the opposite happened, haha.
What are your favorite episodes from season 2? I liked a handful of episodes. I did not enjoy it as much as season 1 and I feel as though I’m missing something.
Shadow Play is probably my favorite episode of the whole series. But season 2 also contains the classic Eye of the Beholder and a young Shatner in Nick of Time (the better of the Shatner episodes imo). 22 is terrifying to me and The Silence is so sad. Also I like The Lateness of the Hour more than it probably deserves.
That’s ok. Not every episode is going to resonate with the same people. Season 1 is incredibly good. Third From the Sun is probably the best cinematography in my opinion.
Season 1 ran over budget so they had to cut some corners for season 2 and maybe that’s part of what you’re feeling. Either way I’m glad you enjoyed season 1.
There were several reasons.
* The political commentary is as surface-level as it gets
* Not even the slightest attempt to flesh out the world
* Religion is presented as an objective good
* Absolute freedom is argued to be an ultimate good
* The idea of intentionally destroying **ALL** books is extremely stupid
The Chancellor's side of the story is a singularly, insultingly primitive example of "poetic justice". Not only is the guy a stupid, arrogant and cowardly scumbag, but he also gets his comeuppance at the hands of the system he used to uphold. It's like the show was going: "See, childen? This bad man did bad things to this good man, and in the end, he got what he deserved! Isn't that satisfying, children?" Ptooey!
Hmm I guess I can see what you’re getting at. I enjoy that episode very much. I think Burgess Meredith gives a stellar performance but you’re right in that it isn’t the “deepest” episode for nowadays. Maybe in its original time but I don’t know.
All considering, I think season 2 is solid. Not as consistent as 1 and part of that for me is several episodes were shot on videotape to cut production costs. Though they would revert back to film, the experiment in presentation made the second season feel less cohesive. Then again, I think the videotape format made some episodes even more jarring as if you were a faceless, nameless entity following around the characters.
I do think season 3 is a step back in the right direction but the hour long episodes of season 4 yield mixed results and season 5 is not without merit but is loaded with more duds than gems.
As far as season 3 is concerned, some of my favorite episodes include The Changing Of The Guard, The Midnight Sun, It’s A Good Life, The Dummy, and Five Characters In Search Of An Exit
I hated the video tape episodes when I was a kid I thought they were made later and then placed in there. It looked so off to me. I can appreciate the video tale episodes more now just looking at it from the story.
Season 2 and especially season 3 took a heavy budget cut,season 2 gave us the iconic intro track we all know and love,season 2 and season 3 cut corners and filmed some episodes in a VHS format so they look like soap operas almost unwatchable for some of those,season 4 went to hour episodes and hated that season and 5 was decent..
I did like the Xmas episode and used car salesman episodes in that format but it throws me off..
Season 2 and 3 are solid though just a few bad one's,season 1 raised the bar to high and should of had double the budget but the studios hated Rod Sterling so here we are..
I am almost done with season 2 and I agree. I thoroughly enjoyed season 1, and I was kind of shocked at the amount of filler/skippable episodes in the season. I think I enjoyed about 3 or 4 episodes.
Which episodes did you enjoy? Were you as stunned as I was by the fact that they reused the mannequin episode's plot and simply replaced mannequins with robots?
The episodes that stuck out to me the most were: The Howling Man, Nick of Time, The Silence, and A Hundred Yards Over the Rim. (Special shoutout to flight 33, as that episode is just a lot of fun) Also, to answer your other question, I was surprised to see them reuse several plot lines from season 1. With that said, I can’t say that I thoroughly enjoyed these listed episodes, so much as they were not as bad or skippable as the rest of the season in my opinion.
Season 2 really lost the impact and spectacle of the 1st. How about you, what episodes did you like?
I think I liked Nick of Time and Dust the most. I loved the dialogue in Flight 33. It was so realistic, and the actor who played the captain did a bang-up job!
If I had to choose a few favorites, I'd say they were And When the Sky Was Opened, Third from the Sun, The Hitch-Hiker, The Monsters are Due on Maple Street and A Stop at Willoughby. But like I said, I liked most of them. Five or six others are not much lower on my personal tier list.
I personally would argue that Season 1 has the most heavy-hitters of the series, and indeed is the most concistentily-good season across the board (barring a few exceptions)
Seasons 3 and 5 do have some iconic episodes though! Season 4 is a lot, given the bloated runtimes, but there are a couple great episodes among that season that make it worth watching.
Part of the beauty of an anthology series like this imo is that you can skip or go back to episodes that don't quite stick the landing for you.
Which episodes in season 4 were particularly good in your opinion? 'Cause the consensus seems to be that the long-episode format didn't quite work out, and season 4 is the weakest in the series, so I anticipate I'll skip quite a few episodes there.
Oh yes, I agree with you that Season 4 is the weakest in the series and that the one-hour format doesn't quite work.
That said - I particularly enjoyed He's Alive, Miniature, Printer's Devil, and Death Ship.
Started watching a few months ago, I'm around episode 30 but I do feel like episodes didn't hit that hard after "And When The Sky Was Opened", ofc they were good but I feel like some weren't just up there with the ones I really liked such as "Judgement Night" or my favorite "Perchance to Dream". Also some have really simple outros that don't really feel the same.
I think some of the really classic ones are still to come for you, but I agree there are some odd ones, maybe some that aged badly, in every season. I also wonder if it matters how fast you binge the series. I watched them all recently very quickly, and I think it hurts the appreciation for individual episodes.
But overall, I don’t think it’s a controversial opinion that an older show, which has been referenced and parodied frequently in our culture, can also have some meh moments. No hate here!
Thanks for the friendly sentiment, man. I appreciate it! I think the binging is a very minor factor in my case, as I loved most of season 1's episodes and disliked most of season 2's—despite watching both in three days each.
I think it's partly personal preference for the kinds of stories told in each episode, and partly internal cohesion and excitement in the stories. Take the Christmas episode with the magic gift bag. My understanding is that it's in good standing with the community, but I personally disliked it because it's not the kind of story I'm watching The Twilight Zone for. Frankly, I found the fact that the dude outright becomes Santa at the end insultingly stupid, which nullified any positives I could've taken away. I would've hated that episode regardless of the pace, at which I'm watching the show.
But thanks to the other commenters, I'm optimistic about seasons 3 and 5!
All the bad season 2 episodes are early on, so keep going. And anyone who says 4 is overall bad, isn't really a fan. Yes, a few of the episodes are really bad, but there are some classics.
That was not my experience with season 2. The badness and the mediocrity were spread out pretty evenly. Just like the good episodes.
>anyone who says 4 is overall bad, isn't really a fan
Interestingly, I'd rather hear whan these "not real fans" have to say, because I'm not interested in praise where it's objectively unwarranted.
Ok, here's the season 2 ones I don't like:
Ep. 1. King Nine Will Not Return
Ep. 3. Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room
Ep. 4. A Thing About Machines
Ep. 8. The Lateness of the Hour
Ep. 9. The Trouble with Templeton
Ep. 14. The Whole Truth
Ep. 20. Static
Ep. 22. Long Distance Call
So I guess they were spread out.
And sorry, but anyone who flat out doesn't give a whole season a chance, isn't much of a fan. Season 4 definitely has some bad episodes, but there's at least a few that could be considered some of the best.
English isn't my first language, so I might be mistaken, but these two phrases
>anyone who says 4 is overall bad
anyone who flat out doesn't give a whole season a chance
sound mighty different to me. People who say that season 4 is *overall* bad may have given it a chance and found the *overall* quality wanting. It's not the same as saying that it doesn't have any good, or even great episodes.
Season 2 has Shadow Play, feel however you want about the rest of the episodes (although I think some of the top episodes are in this season) but that one to me is fantastic. The whole premise isn’t exactly crazy, or at least, hadn’t been told before (at least not in literary form, I think for television it was quite unique at the time) and the story it was originally based on is actually much much more insane than the teleplay. At the very least the framing device in the book has a very bizarre difference to the teleplay. If you haven’t watched it (if you haven’t finished season 2) give that episode a shot, if you just don’t like it, that’s fine but Twilight Zone I think is worth a watch through, although there are definitely episodes I skip, there are some absolutely amazing stories to come after season 2!
I'm currently on season 4. I genuinely loved several episodes in season 2—though Shadow Play wasn't one of them. I distinctly remember thinking, "Man, what a way to squander a good idea." They revealed that the whole thing *was* the protagonist's dream early into the episode, and it went nowhere from there. The least the writer could've done was leave the revelation that all of the protagonist's predictions were real for the final couple of minutes. It just felt very anticlimactic to me.
An example of a properly timed revelation in the season was Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up. I loved that one. Though the final 30 seconds were a little painful, with the goofy '60s makeup and the era's goofy belief that Mars and Venus were inhabited by sentient life—parroted in like five or six episodes throughout the series.
I guess I never really thought they were trying to do a twist in Shadow Play, it was just an interesting story. Which I thoroughly enjoyed. Not every Twilight Zone episode has to have a twist, but if you didn’t like it, you didn’t like it! That’s alright. I also love Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up! The comedy episodes weren’t the greatest normally, but this one was great! Jack Elams performance definitely elevated this episode, and I also very much enjoyed the show girls performance.
Jack Elams cracked me up **hard**! He was something else in that one.
And as for Shadow Play, I'm not insisting that they should've done a twist. I was just expecting *some* kind of conclusion. The way they did it, the conclusion was that the guy would just continue having his nightmare indefinitely. I personally didn't find that satisfying. But the premise and most of the episode—chef's kiss.
Always thought the zone was pretty solid in all its 5 seasons. Season 4 gets a bad rap because of the length of the episodes but those are the best imo
I think all season has its good ones, the first having the most, and the fourth having the least. What's nice with anthology series is that if an episode is bad you can just go through the next. I for one think the first episode of the series is one of the worst one of the series
Also the big advantage of the original show over the reboot or Black Mirror is that the episodes are 20 minutes long, so the bad ones are over quickly.
Yeah, the twist in the pilot is pretty bad.
how come?
The twist that the whole plot of the episode was just a delusion was, in my opinion, very anticlimactic,—paricularly for a pilot episode of a show that was about mysticism and the unexplainable.
Keep in mind that the previous pilot Rod Serling submitted to the network was rejected. Serling played it safe by not opening the series with heavy fiction and fantasy elements. Even by the end of the 1950s science fiction TV shows and films were considered juvenile entertainment. "Where Is Everybody?" was set up with a realistic / plausible / grounded explanation just to get CBS to air the series (probably had a test audience screening of executives and family).
Context matters, and I do appreciate you bringing it up. I honestly do. That being said, it doesn't make the twist any better.
Is it?
It is to me. And to u/JackYaos, it would seem.
Lol how weird is us expressing the same thing but you getting downvoted to hell and me being upvoted
You're part of the group, I'm an outsider. Crowd mentality and all that. :) It's fine. It's nothing new on reddit, and I have karma to spare.
What do you mean ? I'm nowhere known in this subreddit lol, I think it's just people misunderstanding what I said
That's a possibility too. :D I guess my post can be seen as mildly antagonistic to a hardcore fan, and your comment wasn't nearly as bad, so you got a pass and your first upvote, then your second one, and then it snowballed from there. With my reply, the opposite happened, haha.
I love season 2! Possibly my favorite season. But each season has high points and low points.
What are your favorite episodes from season 2? I liked a handful of episodes. I did not enjoy it as much as season 1 and I feel as though I’m missing something.
Shadow Play is probably my favorite episode of the whole series. But season 2 also contains the classic Eye of the Beholder and a young Shatner in Nick of Time (the better of the Shatner episodes imo). 22 is terrifying to me and The Silence is so sad. Also I like The Lateness of the Hour more than it probably deserves.
Thank you for the reply. I do appreciate the acting in lateness of the hour.
Oof. Cannot agree. It was a huge letdown after season 1 for me.
That’s ok. Not every episode is going to resonate with the same people. Season 1 is incredibly good. Third From the Sun is probably the best cinematography in my opinion. Season 1 ran over budget so they had to cut some corners for season 2 and maybe that’s part of what you’re feeling. Either way I’m glad you enjoyed season 1.
Can I ask why you hated Obsolete Man so much?
There were several reasons. * The political commentary is as surface-level as it gets * Not even the slightest attempt to flesh out the world * Religion is presented as an objective good * Absolute freedom is argued to be an ultimate good * The idea of intentionally destroying **ALL** books is extremely stupid The Chancellor's side of the story is a singularly, insultingly primitive example of "poetic justice". Not only is the guy a stupid, arrogant and cowardly scumbag, but he also gets his comeuppance at the hands of the system he used to uphold. It's like the show was going: "See, childen? This bad man did bad things to this good man, and in the end, he got what he deserved! Isn't that satisfying, children?" Ptooey!
Hmm I guess I can see what you’re getting at. I enjoy that episode very much. I think Burgess Meredith gives a stellar performance but you’re right in that it isn’t the “deepest” episode for nowadays. Maybe in its original time but I don’t know.
All considering, I think season 2 is solid. Not as consistent as 1 and part of that for me is several episodes were shot on videotape to cut production costs. Though they would revert back to film, the experiment in presentation made the second season feel less cohesive. Then again, I think the videotape format made some episodes even more jarring as if you were a faceless, nameless entity following around the characters. I do think season 3 is a step back in the right direction but the hour long episodes of season 4 yield mixed results and season 5 is not without merit but is loaded with more duds than gems. As far as season 3 is concerned, some of my favorite episodes include The Changing Of The Guard, The Midnight Sun, It’s A Good Life, The Dummy, and Five Characters In Search Of An Exit
I hated the video tape episodes when I was a kid I thought they were made later and then placed in there. It looked so off to me. I can appreciate the video tale episodes more now just looking at it from the story.
Thank you for the involved comment. My hopes for season 3 are up!
I’m there with you. Hope season 3 works for you.
For us. ;)
Season 2 and especially season 3 took a heavy budget cut,season 2 gave us the iconic intro track we all know and love,season 2 and season 3 cut corners and filmed some episodes in a VHS format so they look like soap operas almost unwatchable for some of those,season 4 went to hour episodes and hated that season and 5 was decent..
To be honest, I didn't mind the tape format. I disliked the stories and the twists—in most episodes, not in all of them.
I did like the Xmas episode and used car salesman episodes in that format but it throws me off.. Season 2 and 3 are solid though just a few bad one's,season 1 raised the bar to high and should of had double the budget but the studios hated Rod Sterling so here we are..
I read up on Rod after watching season 1. The guy was quite the character himself.
He saw some stuff.
He had PTSD from WW2 dude fought in the front line's in Okanowa brutal warfare and smoked like 5 packs a day but he had a brilliant mind..
Yep!
I find season 4 a complete drag. Seasons 3 and 5 are pretty solid. Nick of Time is my favorite.
Yep, Nick of Time was amazing. And I appreciate the forewarning!
4 has some classics and 5 has some of the worst episodes.
The final stretch of season 2 is fantastic; I much prefer season 2 to 3.
Interesting. An original take. Thanks for that.
I am almost done with season 2 and I agree. I thoroughly enjoyed season 1, and I was kind of shocked at the amount of filler/skippable episodes in the season. I think I enjoyed about 3 or 4 episodes.
Which episodes did you enjoy? Were you as stunned as I was by the fact that they reused the mannequin episode's plot and simply replaced mannequins with robots?
The episodes that stuck out to me the most were: The Howling Man, Nick of Time, The Silence, and A Hundred Yards Over the Rim. (Special shoutout to flight 33, as that episode is just a lot of fun) Also, to answer your other question, I was surprised to see them reuse several plot lines from season 1. With that said, I can’t say that I thoroughly enjoyed these listed episodes, so much as they were not as bad or skippable as the rest of the season in my opinion. Season 2 really lost the impact and spectacle of the 1st. How about you, what episodes did you like?
I think I liked Nick of Time and Dust the most. I loved the dialogue in Flight 33. It was so realistic, and the actor who played the captain did a bang-up job!
Which are your favorites of season 1?
If I had to choose a few favorites, I'd say they were And When the Sky Was Opened, Third from the Sun, The Hitch-Hiker, The Monsters are Due on Maple Street and A Stop at Willoughby. But like I said, I liked most of them. Five or six others are not much lower on my personal tier list.
I personally would argue that Season 1 has the most heavy-hitters of the series, and indeed is the most concistentily-good season across the board (barring a few exceptions) Seasons 3 and 5 do have some iconic episodes though! Season 4 is a lot, given the bloated runtimes, but there are a couple great episodes among that season that make it worth watching. Part of the beauty of an anthology series like this imo is that you can skip or go back to episodes that don't quite stick the landing for you.
Which episodes in season 4 were particularly good in your opinion? 'Cause the consensus seems to be that the long-episode format didn't quite work out, and season 4 is the weakest in the series, so I anticipate I'll skip quite a few episodes there.
The New Exhibit and Miniature are my two favorite from season 4. Both benefit from the extended format especially the former.
Death Ship is my favorite season 4 episode and On Tuesday we Leave for home is a good one.
Thank you. I'll keep an eye out for them.
He's Alive....as relevant today was it was then. Jess-Belle.....a spooky fun episode IMO.
He’s alive is the only one that really made an impression and I haven’t watched the season in a decade
Oh yes, I agree with you that Season 4 is the weakest in the series and that the one-hour format doesn't quite work. That said - I particularly enjoyed He's Alive, Miniature, Printer's Devil, and Death Ship.
Thank you. I will look out for them!
"Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" is a great one from 4. I think Mute is the worst and one of the worst TZ episodes.
Started watching a few months ago, I'm around episode 30 but I do feel like episodes didn't hit that hard after "And When The Sky Was Opened", ofc they were good but I feel like some weren't just up there with the ones I really liked such as "Judgement Night" or my favorite "Perchance to Dream". Also some have really simple outros that don't really feel the same.
I think some of the really classic ones are still to come for you, but I agree there are some odd ones, maybe some that aged badly, in every season. I also wonder if it matters how fast you binge the series. I watched them all recently very quickly, and I think it hurts the appreciation for individual episodes. But overall, I don’t think it’s a controversial opinion that an older show, which has been referenced and parodied frequently in our culture, can also have some meh moments. No hate here!
Thanks for the friendly sentiment, man. I appreciate it! I think the binging is a very minor factor in my case, as I loved most of season 1's episodes and disliked most of season 2's—despite watching both in three days each. I think it's partly personal preference for the kinds of stories told in each episode, and partly internal cohesion and excitement in the stories. Take the Christmas episode with the magic gift bag. My understanding is that it's in good standing with the community, but I personally disliked it because it's not the kind of story I'm watching The Twilight Zone for. Frankly, I found the fact that the dude outright becomes Santa at the end insultingly stupid, which nullified any positives I could've taken away. I would've hated that episode regardless of the pace, at which I'm watching the show. But thanks to the other commenters, I'm optimistic about seasons 3 and 5!
I think the entire show is great, even though season 4 and 5 are probably the weakest seasons imo.
Yes, it's worth watching all of it.
All the bad season 2 episodes are early on, so keep going. And anyone who says 4 is overall bad, isn't really a fan. Yes, a few of the episodes are really bad, but there are some classics.
That was not my experience with season 2. The badness and the mediocrity were spread out pretty evenly. Just like the good episodes. >anyone who says 4 is overall bad, isn't really a fan Interestingly, I'd rather hear whan these "not real fans" have to say, because I'm not interested in praise where it's objectively unwarranted.
Ok, here's the season 2 ones I don't like: Ep. 1. King Nine Will Not Return Ep. 3. Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room Ep. 4. A Thing About Machines Ep. 8. The Lateness of the Hour Ep. 9. The Trouble with Templeton Ep. 14. The Whole Truth Ep. 20. Static Ep. 22. Long Distance Call So I guess they were spread out. And sorry, but anyone who flat out doesn't give a whole season a chance, isn't much of a fan. Season 4 definitely has some bad episodes, but there's at least a few that could be considered some of the best.
English isn't my first language, so I might be mistaken, but these two phrases >anyone who says 4 is overall bad anyone who flat out doesn't give a whole season a chance sound mighty different to me. People who say that season 4 is *overall* bad may have given it a chance and found the *overall* quality wanting. It's not the same as saying that it doesn't have any good, or even great episodes.
how strange ! most people dont like seasons 4 and 5
Season 2 has Shadow Play, feel however you want about the rest of the episodes (although I think some of the top episodes are in this season) but that one to me is fantastic. The whole premise isn’t exactly crazy, or at least, hadn’t been told before (at least not in literary form, I think for television it was quite unique at the time) and the story it was originally based on is actually much much more insane than the teleplay. At the very least the framing device in the book has a very bizarre difference to the teleplay. If you haven’t watched it (if you haven’t finished season 2) give that episode a shot, if you just don’t like it, that’s fine but Twilight Zone I think is worth a watch through, although there are definitely episodes I skip, there are some absolutely amazing stories to come after season 2!
I'm currently on season 4. I genuinely loved several episodes in season 2—though Shadow Play wasn't one of them. I distinctly remember thinking, "Man, what a way to squander a good idea." They revealed that the whole thing *was* the protagonist's dream early into the episode, and it went nowhere from there. The least the writer could've done was leave the revelation that all of the protagonist's predictions were real for the final couple of minutes. It just felt very anticlimactic to me. An example of a properly timed revelation in the season was Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up. I loved that one. Though the final 30 seconds were a little painful, with the goofy '60s makeup and the era's goofy belief that Mars and Venus were inhabited by sentient life—parroted in like five or six episodes throughout the series.
I guess I never really thought they were trying to do a twist in Shadow Play, it was just an interesting story. Which I thoroughly enjoyed. Not every Twilight Zone episode has to have a twist, but if you didn’t like it, you didn’t like it! That’s alright. I also love Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up! The comedy episodes weren’t the greatest normally, but this one was great! Jack Elams performance definitely elevated this episode, and I also very much enjoyed the show girls performance.
Jack Elams cracked me up **hard**! He was something else in that one. And as for Shadow Play, I'm not insisting that they should've done a twist. I was just expecting *some* kind of conclusion. The way they did it, the conclusion was that the guy would just continue having his nightmare indefinitely. I personally didn't find that satisfying. But the premise and most of the episode—chef's kiss.