Reliving the Twilight Zone
I hear a lot of people on podcasts talking about the great television of the last twenty years, especially on HBO. For me, I'll stick with The Twilight Zone, which I think has had more effect (positive, of course) on writers of a certain age than any one show. I know it has shaped my short fiction.
Tonight I watched "Mirror Image." At first, I was annoyed while at the same time drawn in and seduced. Is this going to be a "women hysteria" thing? A pre-60s-feminist-woman-with-mental-problems thing? Shame on me for thinking that TTZ would take such a superficial approach to storytelling.
I won't give it away; it's short, on Netflix and other places, and easy to find. Vera Miles is pretty enough to watch, doesn't overdo her part, but isn't movie start I can't believe she's riding a bus glamorous. At the end of the preceding episode of TTZ, Serling admits he doesn't do the female perspective well but that Miss Miles is going to help him tell the story "next week."
The undercurrent of possible female hysteria is there, though. It's debunked in the end, but thee. The old fart who comes this close to saying she's crazy. The knight in shining armor tries to help but eventually hands her over to the police for her own good.
The man gets his comeuppance. At every other minute you think, I know what will happen, and you don't.
One aspect that isn't explored is that the depot may be the place where the two world intersect, collide, overlap, meet, whatever (a depot being a place of transition) and the grumpy ticket seller is really the gatekeeper.
The next episode in the cue is "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street." Although it is somewhat overwrought and seemed like Shirley Jackson wrote it, it's still brilliant, except maybe the end. I think an excellent screenwriting exercise would be to rewrite the end. I propose an indeterminate one. I think it would be more powerful.
So far my favorite in watching through the first season, however, is "Walking Distance." Very powerful.
Tonight I watched "Mirror Image." At first, I was annoyed while at the same time drawn in and seduced. Is this going to be a "women hysteria" thing? A pre-60s-feminist-woman-with-mental-problems thing? Shame on me for thinking that TTZ would take such a superficial approach to storytelling.
I won't give it away; it's short, on Netflix and other places, and easy to find. Vera Miles is pretty enough to watch, doesn't overdo her part, but isn't movie start I can't believe she's riding a bus glamorous. At the end of the preceding episode of TTZ, Serling admits he doesn't do the female perspective well but that Miss Miles is going to help him tell the story "next week."
The undercurrent of possible female hysteria is there, though. It's debunked in the end, but thee. The old fart who comes this close to saying she's crazy. The knight in shining armor tries to help but eventually hands her over to the police for her own good.
The man gets his comeuppance. At every other minute you think, I know what will happen, and you don't.
One aspect that isn't explored is that the depot may be the place where the two world intersect, collide, overlap, meet, whatever (a depot being a place of transition) and the grumpy ticket seller is really the gatekeeper.
The next episode in the cue is "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street." Although it is somewhat overwrought and seemed like Shirley Jackson wrote it, it's still brilliant, except maybe the end. I think an excellent screenwriting exercise would be to rewrite the end. I propose an indeterminate one. I think it would be more powerful.
So far my favorite in watching through the first season, however, is "Walking Distance." Very powerful.
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