The Twilight Zone Hall of Fame

Yes, like I wrote in my review, I like that despite the general sense of the ending being optimistic, Redford's character maintains some sense of menace. After all, he did trick her. And he did deliberately manipulated her in both the look he took on and his circumstance (a young person who has been shot).

I'm drawing a lot of parallels between The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street and what the government, media and various organizations have done with the pandemic:

The 2-week lockdowns to keep hospitals overwhelmed that turned into indefinite & continuous lockdowns in many places that cost millions their jobs & businesses; the economic impact & using it as a campaign tool; the failure to follow the science especially concerning making the most vulnerable a priority, age-targeting, children & school shutdowns; the hypocrisy of gatherings (condemning church services while declaring protests & riots "essential"); the outlawing & demonization of long-established therapeutics based on identity politics; the same people expressing doubts about vaccines then mandating them; the nebulous ever-changing information on masks & mandates for them (again especially for children); the psychological impacts on society, the inconsistencies of vaccine expectations vs. reality; the fact that the vaccinated are still vectors for the virus & the demonization of the non-vaxxed despite the fact that both groups are known vectors; the admission of the CDC that they have not even looked at if people with natural immunity can be contagious; banning people permanently from Internet sites for expressing concern over the lab-leak theory - but then later saying the theory is valid (but not returning banned people's access); the targeting of individuals for spreading "misinformation" when much of the information already distributed by allegedly "trusted" sources has turned out to be incorrect information; OSHA dropping the idea of enforcing vaccine mandates after being charged to do so; the fact that the NIH now admits it funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab; altering our election processes in the name of the pandemic... and on and on and on...

It's the way all this information (along with mountains of unproven, unscientific misinformation) has been exploited, politicized, manipulated, propagandized and used to intentionally sow fear, panic, division & distrust amongst the populace.

It's very much like what the aliens did to the people on Maple St.

I think it's important to note that misinformation does not just belong to any one political side. I have students telling me in earnest that Joe Biden only won the election because North Korea sent boats with fake ballots over the ocean, that "most" people who voted for him were actually dead, etc.

Sowing discord works when you feed into people's fear. Depending on who their target audience is, people know which buttons to push.

Once the people in the neighborhood pick a suspect, the facts become distorted to fit their confirmation bias Ascribing this behavior to just one side of the political spectrum misses the point entirely. Anyone is capable of having our fears amplified. Acting as if it's only the "other side" or other people who would fall into this trap is very dangerous.

Season 5 Episode 31 The Encounter

My opinion of this episode is about the same as it was the last time I watched it. I think it has a good premise and that it starts off really well, but then it missteps a couple times in the second half. As for what I liked about the episode, I found both Fenton and Arthur to be memorable characters. With Fenton, I enjoyed how he still had some remnants of the prejudices he picked up in WW2. For example, he often referred to Arthur as Taro or boy, repeatedly denied him being American, and didn't seem to care about how he killed a soldier who surrendered to him in the war. As for Arthur, he showed that, though WW2 had been over for nearly two decades, he still hadn't fully recovered from it. That he changed his Japanese name to an American name and denied being able to speak Japanese showed that he was trying to distance himself from his heritage as much as possible, perhaps to avoid racial discrimination. I also enjoyed the implication that something was trying to get the two men to fight to the death throughout the episode, hence the inscription on the samurai sword which read "The sword will avenge me". The episode falters though once it introduces guilt to both men. On one hand, Fenton's aforementioned guilt of killing a man who surrendered to him is well-done. Arthur's backstory, on the other hand, is quite problematic. By his account, his father assisted the Japanese with their attack on Pearl Harbor by directing the planes on where to drop their bombs. This backstory plays into a stereotype that was so prevalent during WW2, it lead to many Japanese-Americans being placed in internment camps. Overall, I found it disappointing how the second half of this episode relied on that stereotype. With that being said, I still think the episode is good. Its story was just misguided in some respects and it had potential to be much better.

Next Up: The Invaders

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Agreed. I like the implication that war, in this episode, is almost a living thing that compels these men to be at each others' throats even though they bear each other no specific ill will.

I thought that the episode never quite seemed to commit to whether Arthur and Fenton were being pushed to an extreme of living in their guilt (goaded on by the sword that wants them to fight), or if Arthur was straight-up actually possessed by the sword. By keeping things vague--and by introducing Arthur's backstory that is both silly and damaging in one blow--it muddles its message.

I feel like the first act works so well! It's a great little contained piece about two people who should be able to have a normal, friendly interaction, but the shadow of the war hangs over both of them.

Agreed.

And it would be a cruel irony (Twilight Zone specialty!!) if Arthur, who wanted nothing more than to distance himself from the .

"A Nice Place to Visit" CONTAINS SPOILERS

It's no fun going into a game when you know you're going to lose. This episode asks if the same applies when you know you're going to win. Confession time: this is one of my picks, but I didn't watch it before choosing it. A pastor described the plot in a sermon at a service I went to many years ago and this Hall of Fame gave me as good an excuse as any to watch the episode. Larry Blyden is likably unlikeable, if that makes sense, as Rocky. Besides totally convincing me that Rocky ended up where he should have, his transition from overjoyed at his circumstances to annoyed is relatable and funny. Cabot is also memorable as well as Mr. Pip for how he gives every indication that he is rewarding Rocky until, well...he bluntly indicates that he is not. The lavish and overly perfect look and feel of the apartment and casino sets also add a nice touch. The episode gave me a lot to think about from the afterlife, what it would be like, its purpose, etc. to whether or not we'd really want all of our wishes to be granted. It also provides further confirmation that rewards are not only more satisfying when they're earned, but also when they're delivered unexpectedly. Where this episode falters, though, is that it's too obvious. I'm used to twists in Twilight Zone episodes hitting me like a ton of bricks, but it was clear what this one's was going to be about halfway through, and I don't think this is just because I already knew what was going to happen. Also, while you cannot entirely blame the episode for this, it doesn't help that similar stories have been done in many other TV series since (the Dexter's Laboratory episode "Dee Dee and the Man" is one of my favorite examples). In short, I'm glad I finally watched this episode, but I'd say it's a pretty darn good one, but not a great one.

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The Encounter is probably the only episode I know I have not seen, but that's only because they wouldn't air it on TV.
Does anyone know if it is still banned (or might I one day catch it at 12:30 am on "MeTV")?

Your reaction is very similar to my reaction of the episode. I think they should've just left out the sub-plot concerning Arthur's father and stuck with Fenton's guilt.

In a day and age where random, elderly Asian people are being brutally attacked in the street because they are "responsible" for COVID, are they going to air an episode of a TV show that suggests that Japanese-Americans helped coordinate the bombings at Pearl Harbor? I hope the answer is no.

You've hit on the main criticisms so far. First, the very unfortunate (and totally unfounded) suggestion that Japanese-Americans assisted with Pearl Harbor, and second that the episode never quite nails just what the sword is doing to Arthur: is it possessing him, or just amplifying his anger and guilt to a boiling point?

But the first act and the acting from the two leads are so good!

Season 2 Episode 15: The Invaders

Agnes Moorehead stars as a woman who hears a noise on the roof and investigates, only to find what appears to be some kind of flying saucer with tiny creatures in it. She is forced to defend herself against them. This episode has a very effective use of a small cast and not a lot of dialogue. Moorehead does a great job in conveying emotion without saying anything. And there is a clever twist towards the end that is really well executed. [I hadn't seen this episode before and I enjoyed it.

This is fascinating...I just watched this video interview of George Takei about the controversial episode The Encounter. He explains what was going on with the story and the sword, in a way I hadn't considered. Watch if for yourself it's only 4 minutes.

I watched that clip right after the episode, hoping it would shed a little light. But I don't think it adds much outside of what we see in the episode.

The main surprise to me was that advocacy groups were able to have such pull back in the 60s. Good for them. Can you imagine having survived a concentration camp and then having a show be like, "Hey, what if Japanese Americans helped with the attack on Pearl Harbor?". Fantasy space or not, nope.

Season 3 Episode 8: It's a Good Life

At the start of this episode, we are told that it takes place in a small American town called Peaksville and that the rest of the world has disappeared. A monster made them disappear and he can make anyone and anything disappear at any time just by using his mind. The twist is the monster is a cute little boy! I enjoyed this. We aren't told how the boy is able to do it and I'm fine with that. We aren't told what happens to the boy. We just witness his terrified family saying that everything he does is good, no matter how harmful or wrong it may be. Bill Mumy is fantastic as the powerful naughty boy. The rest of the cast are good too. An interesting and entertaining episode.

I looked this up, and according to Wikipedia, the episode was banned & "withheld from syndication" until 2004 within the U.S. (but aired in other countries without problem).

But I've still never seen it - this may be because certain networks do not use an updated rotation of episodes?

I still think it was a bad idea to include the part about a Japanese American helping the Japanese attack at Pearl Habor. Arthur/Taro (George Takei) instead should've espoused outraged, by the sword's curse, over being put into an interment camp where his father died of dysentery.

But for me, knowing that the writers intended both men to be hallucinating extreme negative emotions so that they would then engage in a deadly fight...at least explains what the writer was thinking with the Pearl Habor inclusion.

It's interesting that George Takei didn't state any objections to that episode in the video. He seemed pretty laid back about it, of course he always seem very mellow and laid back.

I'm not sure that the use of the word "hallucinating" really captures what was happening, at least in the sense that my impression is that we are seeing these men reliving things that did really happen in their lives, and that the sword is heightening their emotions about it or giving them vivid flashbacks. The sword also gives Arthur the ability--somehow--to "see"/infer that the soldier killed the Japanese officer.

I don't think it explains the Pearl Harbor thing at all, as I think that the intention is that this incident (in the context of the episode) really did happen and Arthur gets wrapped up in his emotions about it. Just like the soldier really did murder the surrendering Japanese officer. The episode doesn't really make sense if they're imagining things that didn't really happen.

Actually that's how I seen it too. There's little to no indication in the script that the sword causes hallucinations in order to make the men fight...Except at one point Fenton becomes almost delusional and very threatening when he's holding a knife and going off on a war rant. Then Fenton says he was just recalling how it was in the south pacific and didn't mean it. But for a moment he seemed to be possessed.

I took it that the sword locked the front door and made the two men fight, and that the sword's powers were more evil than about justices. (IMO, the truth is the script is confusing and needed a rewrite. It's a 5th season TZ and some of those episodes weren't the best.)

You're correct, it did give Arthur the ability to see the truth about the killed surrendering officer. Think about this: The sword also kept returning itself to Fenton every time he tried to give it away, even when he threw it in the trash, the garbage man brought it back to him.

Why would George Takei say otherwise? Not that I hold that an actor knows the intention of the story, unless he talked first hand to the writer about it.