Random Nostalgia: The Twilight Zone
There's no doubt "The Twilight Zone" has had a tremendous impact on us. This was the show of the early 1960s and everyone loved it. Critics everywhere were praising its visual style and its underlying messages attached with each episode. While this show may not seem so special to today's audience due to the effects seeming cheap, the show still holds up surprisingly well but most importantly "The Twilight Zone" tells a tale of humanity. It tells a tale of how humans can be subjugated to horrible conditions given the right amount of pressure. The convoluted plot with the various plot twists kept the audience waiting for the eventual resolution. Every single episode felt unique and distinctive with its own story and narrative. Each episode focused on a new pressure to force everyday people to change drastically. And each episode didn't have to make sense as each person was randomly thrust in the zone. Each person copes with the events at hand in a different way as each episode focused on only one character. That was were the show truly shined since seeing each person confronting the issue was fresh and unique. The protagonist wasn't one you always rooted for and that made the episode more intriguing. Whether or not we liked it, we entered the Twilight Zone for half an hour.
So let's start with the visuals and effects. Like Star Trek, this show doesn't have big CGI effects or a huge budget to project Sterling's grandiose ideas. So we have set designs that are rather cheap and see-through though they provide a nice background for the events of the episode. They don't serve a huge purpose yet they are significant to making each episode dynamic. The intro is also really cheesy in a sense but it still sends shivers down my spine every time I hear that theme song combined with Sterling's calm, collected voice.
Then we've got the stories. All of the episodes are different and follow a different narrative or storyline which allows for a small story to be told in that amount of time. The 30-minute time constraint melts away since the story kind of allows the audience to have this sense of immersion where time stands still, as if the audience itself is in the Twilight Zone. The episodes themselves have a simple, yet complex narrative since the premise seems simple enough though the reveals give a sense of bewilderment. The great thing about each episode is that it could either be simple or it could be complex, depending on who's watching it. On one hand, one can make a claim that these episodes attack the notion that humans are civilized by cracking each individual to show how vulnerable we all are. On the other, one can just enjoy the show for having a weird and stylistic flair to it. Either interpretation is fine since everyone view the Twilight Zone in different lenses. Sure, Sterling did want to convey broad statements for humanity considering the Vietnam War and the panic that was spreading around the world but taken out of context the show still handles its ideas well in our era. And that's the true magic of this show, that it is timeless and forces us into our own Twilight Zone while viewing just so we can eliminate all other dimensions when considering the episode at hand. At times the show is haunting, at times the show is funny, and at times the show doesn't give you proper guidelines on what to feel. Each episode is tantamount to Contemporary art or music since the irregularity allows for different interpretations and different messages taken altogether. "The Twilight Zone" truly transcends most shows for laying every episode as an art work that was meant to be enjoyed on every level. The harrowing messages could either recall memories of the Vietnam War, present-day wars, or mere trifles in our everyday life.
The way I've always seen the show is that the show presents what humans would do given a certain circumstance. It lays down the lone mouse in a controlled experiment and we are the observers. We get to see the mouse suffer yet we can't reach in and stop the experiment. We have to analyze what the experiment means and what we can learn from it. So in the end, we have to let that individual suffer its irrevocable fate. And in the end it really doesn't matter what we take away from this show since it's obvious that we're going to have shortcomings in some areas where our natural instincts just eradicate our sensible ideas. Some episodes are also very subdued though which allows for a different experience altogether with real circumstances. With all this in mind, we know that the Twilight Zone is variable and each experiment with it will result in varying results.
Overall, this was an excellent show and one that I have no problem diving back into. I loved the way it presented itself with the bizarre artistic aspects about it that make it so eccentric that it's near impossible to examine it. Yeah, some episodes were a little out there but every episode still contributed to the overall feeling of the Twilight Zone.
Final Rating: 9.78265447/10
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