I checked the IMDb just now to see if there was trivia about this show being aired, or being pitched, or anything. I wonder if there is a documentary or something about it, because I'd have to imagine it pissed people off, scared people, broke records, the like. There is SO much here. Just so much, whether it's the horror elements, or the more extreme underlying themes. I can't see how this show didn't garrner controversy.
Rod Serling introduces each episode of this well known series, a series which for me introduced me to many actors and was a launching place for really well known writers, directors, actors, and other screen icons. The range is of course all over the place. I had never seen the entire show before now, when I sat down and watched all fucking 5 seasons, but I had seen many of these episodes before. I was spurred on to buy the series because I wanted to see them in order, nazi that I am, and because I had never seen any of the season 4 episodes which changed the show from 30 minutes to an hour. The plots are always something alien, something new, something different from what was being shown on TV at the time, and connected by a theme that they're all otherwordly. Otherworldly because, as said by Rod, this is the Twilight Zone.
A great many of these episodes have stuck with me throughout the years. I've found myself being able to randomly recall such episodes that I saw first such as The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street or Time Enough at Last. What I didn't know when I started watching the whole show was just how many episodes involve time travel, time travel which is usually around 20-30 years spans. That plot came up again and again, as did the whole war thing, having the war come out differently or having something remaining from the war. World War II being only 10 or 20 years in the distance cemented this, and it's not a bad thing or anything. Just unknown to me.
Now that I've seen every episode, including the hour ones, and they were all in order, I wonder a lot about the show as said in my first paragraph. I also wonder if I'll ever watch the whole show again, like I have with The X-Files or Star Trek. I'm confident I might play an episode for someone here and there, but I don't know if some of these I'll ever need to watch again. The show is great, it's tremendous and obvious, but it is a long, long show and it takes a long time to get into it. Sometimes, though, late in the cabin, watching 3-4 episodes in a row, felt really awesome and I'll miss those nights.
There is no rating other than a 5 to give this, it was so far ahead of it's time and so influential in obvious and extreme ways.
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