Shark Puppet

Welcome back to Channel Chaser! If you watch a lot of TV like me, then you’ve probably had a similar experience to this pretty often: you’re watching a new show and you see a face in the background or in passing, usually a more minor character, that looks very familiar. You’re convinced you’ve seen them somewhere before, and you wrack your brain for days and days trying to figure it out, only to blurt out at some completely random other time, “Oh my God! It’s (so and so) from (so and so)!”

As a writer and a TV critic, I’ve always been greatly interested in minor and side characters because how they are handled is a big testament to how good a show is on the whole. And the fact is that a lot of those times, the same men and women get cast in those passing roles. So for this week, I’ve attempted to compile a handful of faces you may have seen pretty often over the years, but never been able to put a name to. Some are better known than others, but they’ve all been pretty prolific in terms of roles. And if you still don’t know who they are…well, you might have rethink your membership in the TV Fan club.

 

Robert Picardo

Best Known As: Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) “The Doctor” (Star Trek: Voyager)

Also Seen As: Coach Cutlip (The Wonder Years), Dr. Dick Richard (China Beach), Richard Woolsey (Stargate), Jason Cooper (The Mentalist)

Character Type: While he definitely has more of a range than some of other people on the list, Picardo usually takes on the role of someone in authority, i.e. doctor, teacher, government official, and usually one who has a bit of cultured nature to them. He’s also very, very good at acting condescending and snobby, though his characters usually have good hearts in spite of this.

 

Mark Sheppard

Best Know As: Demon and later “King of Hell” Crowley (Supernatural)

Also Seen As: Canton Everett Delaware III (Doctor Who), Romo Lampkin (Battlestar Galactica), Badger (Firefly) Jim Sterling (Leverage), Benedict Valda (Warehouse 13)

Character Type: Sarcasm, sass, and dry British-style humor are Sheppard’s trademarks in most of his roles. He usually plays a criminal, villain, or just morally gray kind of character, and his motivations are often difficult to guess. A rogue in the finest sense of the word, alternatively shifting between rough and charming with ease.

 

Nathan Fillion

Best Known As: Author and crime-solver Richard Castle (Castle)

Also Seen As: Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly), Captain Hammer (Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog), Johnny Donnelly (Two Guys and a Girl), Hal Jordan/Green Lantern (Justice League)

Character Type: Fillion seems to prefer characters that have a bit of self-confidence (or self-overconfidence) and swagger, but these traits usually mask much more complicated inner issues. While he can do serious, his roles usually have a middling to large element of comedy associated with them, as his characters are mostly sharp, but he can easily play the buffoon as well.

 

Kavan Smith

Best Known As: Prominent SGC B-teamer Major Evan Lorne (Stargate)

Also Seen As: Deputy Andy 2.0 (Eureka), Agent Jed Garrity (The 4400), Cuthbert Sinclair/Magnus (Supernatural), Wade Mahaney (Smallville)

Character Type: Probably the actor with the largest and most diverse range on this list, and in some of the smallest parts, Smith’s roles are usually confined to sci-fi/fantasy genres in minor or recurring roles. He specializes in minor characters who are quirky, flippant, or have some kind of eccentricities, and even in more dramatic roles is usually seen to crack a joke or two.

 

Tricia Helfer

Best Known As: Cylon infiltrator/angel “Number Six/Caprica” (Battlestar Galactica)

Also Seen As: Carla (Burn Notice), Alex Rice (Dark Blue), Captain Veronica Dare (Halo 3: ODST), EDI (Mass Effect)

Character Type: The damsel in distress, but always with a twist. Usually, said twist involves her characters proving to be more than capable of taking care of themselves in a fight or just playing mind games with those around her. Known for being a pretty but powerful female, in a lead role or otherwise. Ironically enough, you’ll probably know Helfer’s voice better than her face (see above).

 

Lance Reddick

Best Known As: Morally gray Baltimore Police officer Cedric Daniels (The Wire)

Also Seen As: Agent/Colonel Phillip Broyles (Fringe), Matthew Abaddon (Lost), Papa Legba (American Horror Story), Deputy Chief Irvin Irving (Bosch)

Character Type: Generally portrays law enforcement or government operatives, sometimes, but not always, with shady back-stories. Reddick also has an enigmatic and sort of creepy aura down pat, often landing him roles where his character motivations are unclear.

 

Ty Olsson

Best Known As: Actor who portrayed real-life 9/11 victim Mark Bingham (Flight 93)

Also Seen As: Deputy Andy 1.0 (Eureka), Colonel Barnes (Stargate), Captain Aaron Kelly (Battlestar Galactica), Benny (Supernatural), Detective Pratt (iZombie)

Character Type: Roles are often military men or members of the police, with gruff personalities and rigid principles, though he can be seen to go looser once in a while and take on roles that are a bit more out there. The very definition of a background actor, but he’s been in so many places that you notice him almost immediately. Parts usually have some kind of dark side to them as well, so watch out for that.

 

Colin Cunningham

Best Known As: Mad Max-type survivalist and resistance fighter John Pope (Falling Skies)

Also Seen As: Major Paul Davis (Stargate), Ryan Powell (The 4400), Detective Brian Curtis (Da Vinci’s Inquest/Da Vinci’s City Hall), Herb Colodny (Beggars and Choosers)

Character Type: Has quite a bit of variety, from tough, clean-cut and no-nonsense military men to the aforementioned road-warrior rebel roles. In any case, usually plays neither a hero nor a villain, but just comparatively normal guys just trying to get along in whatever world they happen to be placed in. Well, mostly normal, anyway.

 

Summer Glau

Best Known As: Mentally disturbed and partially psychic fugitive River Tam (Firefly)

Also Seen As: Isabelle Rochev (Arrow), Tess Doerner (The 4400), Cameron (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Jamie Flemming/Orwell (The Cape), Crystal Burns (The Unit)

Character Type: Adept at portraying female roles who are in some way otherworldly, odd, or otherwise removed from general society. This can extend to roles both as a heroine and a villainess, sometimes with physical strength and mental cunning hidden by her characters’ spacey behavior. Parts usually involve conflicted emotions and are full of surprises.

 

Garry Chalk

Best Known As: Canadian Inspector Andrew Pawlachuck (Cold Squad)

Also Seen As: Optimus Prime (Transformers), James Stillson (The Dead Zone), Colonel Chekov (Stargate), Colonel Briggs (Eureka)

Character Type: Usually sticks to cops or soldiers, be they alien robots or just normal humans. He’s probably played a small-town sheriff more times than anyone else I could name, and he has just the right air of the local police good old boy to do it. Also frequently plays a Russian character, most notably on the aforementioned Stargate.

 

Channel Chaser is written by Kyle Robertson. You can check out more of his work on his website. Check back every Wednesday for new articles.

Yeah, I was really trying hard to come up with that title…

Anyway, welcome to another edition of Channel Chaser! As you may have guessed (or not) from the title of today’s review, I’ll be taking a look at USA’s short-lived sci-fi series The 4400. While this show pretty much flew under the radar both before and since its release, and was cancelled after an incomplete run of four relatively short seasons, I really can’t wait another second to talk about this absolute gem of a series.

Set in the present day, which in the context of this show is 2004, the show details the aftermath of a mysterious ball of light appearing from space and landing in the woods outside Seattle, Washington. Contrary to what most people would expect, said ball of light doesn’t carry aliens: instead, it brings back 4,400 human beings, each of whom vanished under strange circumstances over the past 60 years. With help and supervision from a special team of national security agents, the members of the “4400” attempt to reintegrate into society and rebuild their old lives, some with more difficulty than others. And some with even more difficulty than that, because they appear to be developing special abilities: telekinesis, mind reading, healing, you name it. Agents Tom Baldwin and Diana Skouris are partnered up to handle these cases and track down rogue 4400s, while also dealing with international conspiracies and the future of the human race.

Okay, so it’s not an original idea for a plot. In fact, it’s ripped straight out of Mulder and Scully’s days from the classic mystery serial The X-Files, complete with the personally involved, faith and gut instincts male agent versus the cool, intellectual, and skeptical female partner. Even the format of the show is similar, often with Tom and Diana tracking down a new super-powered returnee every week. But there are many reasons why I think The 4400 not only matches The X-Files in these things, but also does it better than the ‘90s show ever did.

First of all, in spite of appearances, no aliens are involved in The 4400: none whatsoever. It’s way cooler than that. It gradually becomes apparent that the 4400 were not abducted by extraterrestrials, but by other humans from mankind’s own future, where they were genetically altered and sent back into the past in order to prevent an unnamed great catastrophe that will destroy civilization as we know it. And while the intricacies of this time-travel premise are greatly explored throughout the series, the show manages to avoid most of the more obvious issues and clichés that usually come with it by concentrating not on how changing the past directly affects future events, but rather the principle of the “ripple effect.” In other words, the actions of enhanced 4400s in the past don’t directly change things, but have larger impacts on society or certain groups of people in general: for example, a super-strong vigilante inspiring people to clean up their crime-ridden neighborhood themselves, even after his death.

This of course makes for a fascinating study of how the smallest actions can create massive global changes, and how important and special each individual person can be. It also ensures that its mutant-of-the-week style never bogs down the show. Because of the ripple principle and the show’s own overarching plot, there’s no such thing in The 4400 as the painful, dragging filler that so plagued The X-Files.

From a character and acting standpoint as well, Tom and Diana make for a better Mulder and Scully team-up than…well, Mulder and Scully. Tom has a personal stake in the 4400 cases from the get-go, as his long-lost nephew is among the returned and his son was put into a coma by future forces for unknown reasons. Additionally, Diana eventually overcomes her cold, standoffish personality and takes Maia, a young girl who is one of the 4400, into her own home and comes to love her like a daughter…granted, a daughter who dreams the future, but still. Big shout-outs are due to actors Joel Gretsch and Jacqueline McKenzie as well for the humor, interplay, and essential humanity they bring to their parts as government agents frequently dealing with ridiculous situations. It’s not quite as goofy as some similar shows, but it’s a heck of a lot better than the melodramatic, over-serious snore-fest of a relationship that was The X-Files.

Additionally, The 4400 makes great use of recurring characters and just good characterization overall to make the returnees, despite their unusual powers and quirks, seem just as human and relatable as anyone else. Although if there is a weak spot in the show’s armor, it’s Jordan Collier. The 4400 former businessman-turned-messiah quickly becomes a figurehead for the movement despite his less-than-perfect qualities and the lust for power, and just plain lust, that he so clearly suffers from. Granted, some of it is due to actor Billy Campbell’s own spotty schedule–he had to have his character assassinated and then brought back to life when he took some time off–but I just don’t buy Jordan’s supposed transformation into the righteous leader he’s portrayed as by the end of the series. But that’s the thing about The 4400: all the characters are so morally grey that by the end, you’re not sure whose side you should be on.

From a plot standpoint, the scope of The 4400 is actually quite epic, starting from the initial confusion surrounding the return and powers in the first season to global conspiracies, the fate of mankind, and making 4400 abilities available to the general public through special injections (although users should be warned that they have a 50/50 chance of just dying outright). Not confined to the scope of real-world events, the show creates its own almost apocalyptic vision of the present day that really sucks you into the world of the characters. After all, if crazy things like these were happening in the real world, you’d better believe things would seriously have to change. The fact that the cancelled series ends on a massive cliffhanger, with no solution in sight, to me actually seems more appropriate than it being tied up in a neat little bow. The show is all about choices, fate versus free will, and how nothing is ever certain, so the audience being left to draw their own conclusions about what should happen and who the good guys really are should give viewers something real to wrestle with.

 

My Rating: 4/5

While it’s not quite a perfect show and there are a few flaws to its logic, The 4400 is still an incredibly solid series that it was a crime to ever cancel in the first place. If you like The X-Files, I assure you you’ll probably like this show even more. And despite the lack of a nice, neat ending, the final episode actually leaves us with quite a dilemma. The future people say their time is a wasteland with only one city (Seattle) still standing, and that dominated by a ruling class of elites while everyone else suffers. But if the 4400 are supposed to save the world by annexing Seattle and turning it into a new Jerusalem by the end of the show, aren’t they just playing right into what the future would be anyway? It’s a question that you’d need to be able to see the future to answer.

 

Channel Chaser is written by Kyle Robertson. You can check out more of his work on his website. Check back every Wednesday for new articles.

Welcome to another edition of Channel Chaser! Because it seems that all I’ve talked about recently is how great the shows out there right now based on DC Comics characters are, it’s time to give Marvel another shot at the small screen, and the perfect opportunity has presented itself with Daredevil, the first Netflix-exclusive series in Marvel’s arsenal.

Now I have to say, of all the possible superheroes that Marvel could have chosen to spin into a TV series, I would never have expected Daredevil to be the one that got picked…but that’s probably because he’s one of Marvel’s lesser-known properties (with the possible exception of that terrible movie with Ben Affleck a while back). The show is actually quite notable in that it’s the first of Marvel’s new properties to feature a disabled superhero, in that the titular character does all his crime fighting without the use of his sight.

The backstory established here is pretty close to Batman and all those other gritty genre-dramas: as the son of a hard-living boxer, Matt Murdock is blinded by chemicals as a young boy and forced to adapt to life as a blind man in the middle of New York City. After his father is murdered for refusing to throw a fight, Murdock’s grief and anger toward the criminal element in his city inspires him to train in martial arts and use his unique talents to become a masked vigilante. As Daredevil, Murdock takes on all manner of criminals, from corrupt officials to mobsters and street hooligans, and even Wilson Fisk, leader of a vast underworld organization who plots to take over the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood and use it for his own ends.

Before I get into my problems with the show, I’d like to state of the record that everything I’m about to say is not a reflection on the actors themselves. In fact, I would venture to say that Daredevil is probably one of the best-acted installments in the Marvel brand yet, with incredibly solid performances by the lead characters, supporting cast, and even the villains. Special credit goes out to Elden Henson as Murdock’s legal partner Foggy Nelson, who provides a solid counterpoint as the grounded everyman to Murdock’s idealism and brooding. For once, here’s a sidekick (of sorts) that doesn’t feel inferior to the main hero, gets just as much screen time, and is actually more likeable in a lot of ways. Doubly so for Deborah Ann Woll as secretary and former client Karen Page: far from being the standard damsel-in-distress, she actively seeks out trouble as she tries to do her own part in exposing corruption and murder in Hell’s Kitchen. Compared to them, it’s often Charlie Cox’s action-packed exploits that seem like the secondary storyline to the more down-to-earth human drama and interplay between the characters and the secrets they keep from each other.

Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also say that Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk (a.k.a. “The Kingpin” if you’re a comics fan) creates a villain who is at once understandable and also utterly terrifying. While I do tend to enjoy Marvel movies, I have to admit that the one thing they don’t normally do is flesh out their bad guys and make the viewer actively care about them and their motivations. Granted, there’s not always time to do that in a movie, but I still think they could do a much better job. That said, Daredevil provides a breath of fresh air here by developing Fisk’s character just as much, if not more than, Murdock: we see how despite his being an obvious genius for criminal activities, Fisk is really just a child inside who desperately wants to be loved and make something of himself, throwing murderous temper tantrums when he doesn’t get his way. The time the series spends delving into Fisk’s psychology, as well as how is relationship with gallery worker Vanessa changes him, is really something unprecedented in Marvel’s history.

Also, Bob Gunton (Warden Norton from “The Shawshank Redemption” for any movie buffs) deserves a small shout-out for the relatively minor role of wisecracking criminal accountant Leland Owlsley. But despite my high hopes from when he first appeared, the writers saw fit to kill him off at the end of the season. It’s disappointing, but I guess we won’t be seeing Daredevil take on The Owl anytime soon.

While all this is true, I still have a number of problems with Daredevil. For one thing, are we sure that this is really in the Marvel universe? Granted, the fact that it’s a Netflix show lets the producers get into all kinds of nasty, violent battle scenes that the family-friendly Marvel films really couldn’t show, and I don’t have a problem with that in principle. But the fact is that this just doesn’t feel like a Marvel show. Where’s the sense of humor and heart that has really defined the Marvel universe up until this point? It seems the writers were just so preoccupied with going somewhere they hadn’t been before and exploring new territory that they forgot where they came from. As it is, Daredevil feels more like a skeleton outline of a Marvel show than an actual entertainment piece. Frankly, I’m sort of surprised a guy like Stan Lee signed off on a show like this.

The show also lacks any tangible connection to the rest of Marvel’s franchises, which further confuses the picture. Sure, the characters drop a few references here and there about the devastation of the Avengers’ battle in New York or the existence of superhumans, but that’s hardly a strong link. If only we could see these things they were talking about, then it might seem more real. And finally, despite the novelty of having a blind superhero–which is admittedly very cool–it just doesn’t feel like Daredevil did anything new to separate itself from the likes of Arrow and similarly dark superhero dramas. Honestly, if you’ve seen one fight between Murdock and some hapless criminals, you’ve seen them all.

 

My Rating: 3/5

I’m not disputing that Daredevil is solid entertainment, or that it has a darker tone than most other Marvel properties up until now: that’s not the issue here. My main problem is not that the show is breaking away from the pack, it’s that 1) it didn’t do enough to distinguish itself from other shows and 2) it just didn’t jive at all with what we’ve come to expect from Marvel up to this point, which was quite distracting. I don’t have a problem with Marvel trying to explore new possibilities; I just think that they could have made a stronger effort than this. But who knows? Maybe season two will get better. We might even get really lucky and have Bullseye or The Punisher come along to give Daredevil some more things to do.

 

Channel Chaser is written by Kyle Robertson. You can check out more of his work on his website. Check back every Wednesday for new articles.

Welcome back to Channel Chaser! Most TV shows out there are, as well all know very well, works of fiction. But what happens when fictional worlds develop fictions of their own? It actually happens a lot more than you’d think.

There are a lot of ways that a fictional show, no matter how far separated it may be from real life, can ground itself enough to remain relatable to its audience. And what better way to do that than with a TV show within a TV show? By that I mean a show that characters within a certain show are seen repeatedly watching or referencing. This kind of thing is particularly effective because, as we know, real people watch TV as well: in fact, you’re doing it right now!

Below are just a few examples of what I mean, conveniently listed in the order of my amusement, and possibly the order with which I feel like they made a significant contribution to the larger show and fictional world that they were a part of.

 

“Terrance and Phillip” (South Park)

The flatulent, foul-mouthed, puppet-like Canadians have been a fixture of the raunchy cartoon sitcom South Park since the very beginning, even serving as the primary motivator for the plot of several episodes, as well as the show’s only movie so far. Terrance and Phillip even had entire episodes devoted to them, and as with many of these listed fictional shows, the characters themselves often crossed over into the lives of the also fictional residents of South Park (see “Behind the Blow” and “The South Park Movie”). They’ve even had full episodes devoted to them (see “Royal Pudding” and “Not Without My Anus”).

While the humor is crude and not really all that funny (besides the obvious parody of the two being Canadians), Terrance and Phillip are a metaphor for the entirely of South Park in that it’s a children’s world turned on its head and gone terribly – although humorously – wrong. The clearly adult content of the program is probably where the kids of South Park get their own dirty minds and language. A subtle commentary on the pervasive influence of media, perhaps? Then again, maybe I’m just overthinking the fart jokes.

 

“Expose`” (Lost)

This is one that if you weren’t watching really carefully, you probably missed, and I honestly wouldn’t blame you for it. “Expose`” was literally the focus of one whole episode – probably the one fans of the show cared about least out of six seasons, and believe me, that’s saying a lot. The episode of the same name tried and failed to introduce fellow crash survivors Nikki and Paolo to the main cast, only to kill them off at the end of the episode. Oh, if you’re wondering how the show ties into that at all, it’s just that Nikki was a star on the show before being marooned on the island.

Despite the failure of the characters, “Expose`’s” influence lived on in Lost, every once in a while making the subtle appearance behind the scenes or off the camera that just screamed the producers saying, “Yeah, we know you didn’t like it, but we’re keeping it anyway. In your face!” Hurley even testified on several occasions that it was one of his favorite shows. It really had nothing to do with the plot of Lost whatsoever, but “Expose`” definitely wins an award for the most annoyingly pervasive inside joke on the long-running series.

 

“The Scary Door” (Futurama)

Now this is one that always has me busting a gut. As a huge fan of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, I was naturally very interested to find that among all its other spoofs on the sci-fi genre, Futurama featured a fictional TV show that was a hilarious parody of everything the classic series stood for – as well as some of its more quirky characteristics. Much like its source material, “The Scary Door” was made up of short stories with moral lessons – the catch being that the lessons rarely made any sense whatsoever, and the whole program was structured to be almost deliberately nonsensical and confusing.

The best part is always the narration, however: “The Scary Door’s” introductions expertly skewer Serling’s often over-complicated explanations and contradictory metaphors, as well as his ubiquitous presence on the show itself. You may not know what’s going on, but you can bet it will make you laugh regardless. Just remember that the next time you’re in “the vicinity of an area adjacent to a location…”

 

“Wormhole X-Treme!” (Stargate SG-1)

Time to get serious again… well, sort of. For non-fans of the cult sci-fi series SG-1, “Wormhole X-Treme” was a cheesy, over-the-top, low-budget fictional TV show that was in many ways a spot-on match to the “real-life” adventures of Stargate Command. And for good reason, too: the producer of the show, while he didn’t remember it at the time, is an alien who’s been through the Stargate himself! The cast members were also quite similar to the main characters of the SGC, although with their character traits played up to the max and deliberately corny dialogue.

This one has a special place in my heart as well because “Wormhole X-Treme’s” impact isn’t limited to one episode: its existence is frequently used throughout the series as the Air Force’s cover story for leaks about the SGC, and it featured prominently in SG-1’s landmark 200th episode as a major plot device (the gang had to stay on base and help its producer come up with a movie script). It’s a perfect piece of comic relief for a show that, come to think of it, actually didn’t have a short supply of that kind of thing to begin with.

 

“The Muppet Show” (The Muppets)

Of course, no list of this kind would be complete without mentioning the world-famous Muppets. The various television programs featuring the puppet creatures over the past few decades have always centered on the production of the fictional “Muppet Show”, a variety program featuring all the characters at their wacky and wonderful finest. For me, the highlight of the show was always Kermit the Frog playing guitar and singing one of his iconic songs.

The Muppets made the top of my list because, in a sense, the “Show” pretty much is the show. You probably wouldn’t be able to tell at all except for some added humor here and there where the bits of the different characters infringe on the others. But nevertheless, this fictional program-within-a-program just goes to show that it may not be easy being green – but the Muppets sure make it look like it is.

 

Channel Chaser is written by Kyle Robertson. You can check out more of his work on his website. Check back every Wednesday for new articles.

Welcome back to Channel Chaser! Recently I’ve been a bit unwilling to commit to starting any new show, so as often happens, I’ve fallen back on re-watching some old favorites of mine. And without a doubt, one of the perennial choices that I can never get tired of seeing is the classic 1950s series The Twilight Zone.

There’s a lot of reasons why The Twilight Zone is so near and dear to my heart, not least of which is because it was one of my first introductions into the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and so many other ideas that it’s hard to keep count of them all. But the most compelling of them is that The Twilight Zone tackles some of the most challenging and uniquely human questions that face us in during our lives: questions of morality, history, duty, psychology, and countless other subjects.

Since The Twilight Zone isn’t really a coherent series with an overarching narrative and is completely made up of separate vignette stories, it’s difficult to review it like I would any other show. To that end, I’ve decided instead to give you some of my favorite episodes and explain why I think they’re the best the show has to offer.

You won’t find classics like “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”, “The Obsolete Man”, or “Eye of the Beholder” on here–at least, not in every place. The stories that I picked are ones that have resonated with me the most on an emotional and intellectual level throughout the years, and are ones that I felt had the strongest moral lessons that changed the way I looked at both fiction and the real world. So now, without further ado, another journey through that famed land of shadow and substance begins.

 

Honorable Mention: “What You Need”

This episode is here not because it has a deep moral lesson, but simply because I love the whole idea of it, as well as the twist at the end. The story is one of an old peddler who can seemingly predict exactly what item people will need, no matter how crazy or unlikely it may be. This ability eventually attracts the attention of a young bully who terrorizes the man into helping him win money and avoid accidents. In the end, though, a pair of new shoes leads him to slip in the street and get hit by a passing car. As he lays dying, the old man looks at him sadly and says, “They were what I needed.”

It’s a chilling but fitting reminder that some gifts aren’t meant to be abused, and that bullies always get their comeuppance, but on the other side, it encourages us to appreciate more the things we often take for granted in our lives. You never know when one of them might be the thing that saves your life.

 

#5: “The Silence”

This episode seems incredibly trivial and silly at first, until the devastating and unexpected ending. A tasteless, chatty airhead is challenged by his country club rival to remain silent for an entire year: a test of the young man’s honor versus the older man’s money. And so the ordeal begins for the young man, trapped in a glass cage wired for sound and observed at all times. Defying all the odds and everyone’s expectations, he doesn’t say a word until he is released twelve months later…only to find that his enemy was lying, and has no money to give. At this, the young man bursts into tears–still silent–and reveals that he had his vocal cords severed so he couldn’t possibly lose: the ultimate gesture in competitive spirit and pride, all for naught.

The warning of this episode is clear: too much competition is a very bad thing, and pride goeth before the fall. But it also clearly demonstrates that no matter how much you may dislike someone, you have no idea of what people are capable of when their backs are against the wall. And if you challenge them, you may get more than you wagered on.

 

#4: “A Nice Place to Visit”

In this tale, an apparent reversal of fortune lands a dead criminal in a luxurious realm where he has everything he ever wanted: women, money, status, and an ever-present servant named Pip. Confused as to how he made it into Heaven after doing only bad things during his life, he starts to realize that he’s still not happy: he wins at every game, can do whatever he wants with no consequences, and everything is boring and predictable. Desperate, he begs Pip to be taken instead to “the other place,” to which the supposed angel retorts, “Whatever gave you the idea this was Heaven? This is the other place!”

This episode raises some interesting philosophical points. We always imagine Hell as a place of flames, torment, and pitchforks, but what if it’s just a place where sameness eventually drives you crazy for eternity? In my view, the greatest torture in the universe is boredom and loneliness, and the way this story flips the traditional model of the celestial balance on its head is particularly effective.

 

#3: “A Stop at Willoughby”

What does a man do when he’s unhappy with his drab, dog-eat-dog, constantly moving modern life? He longs for simpler days, of course: in the case of this episode’s main character, that’s an idyllic, pastoral 1800s town called “Willoughby” that he sees as a train stop in his dreams. Seeking to escape from his ambitious, hen-pecking wife and the business world he despises, the man eventually leaps off a train to his death and is carted away to the local funeral home…Willoughby and Son.

Coincidence? Maybe. But message? It’s a double-header from this one. On one hand, the episode very strongly hints that maybe life was better back in the day when things were simpler and the world moved slower. But on the other hand, if the modern man lives his life looking backward instead of forward, he should be ready for the cost of too much nostalgia. The past is gone, and those who seek to relive it only end up disappointed… or worse.

 

#2: “People are Alike All Over”

Ah, the iconic mission to Mars. It takes on a different spin in this episode, where a two-man team lands in a rocket to explore the Red Planet. With his dying friend encouraging him to open the door to the unknown because “people are alike all over,” a frightened astronaut ventures out to find Martians who look and talk exactly like humans. Feeling more at ease, he is taken to a home specially built for him…only to find it’s actually a cage, and he’s in a Martian zoo because, indeed, people are alike all over: they fear what they don’t understand.

It’s a simple, yet highly effective point. Mankind’s boundless optimism and taste for adventure is our greatest strength, but what if the people we meet out there also shared our greatest weakness? And what would alien beings think of us if they looked at our minds, our history, and could see all the darkest moments of humanity? They’d probably be terrified of us. And they’d be right to be.

 

#1: “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”

You had to know that while I promised mostly no standards, my favorite episode is also the critically acclaimed “best of The Twilight Zone” episode. Like the previous choice and many other stories in the series, this one focuses on human frailty: how quickly we turn on those we considered friends and revert to our barbarous animal instincts to kill or be killed when our sense of normalcy and order are disrupted. We watch in horror as the quiet suburban neighborhood of Maple Street becomes a bloodbath as the residents suspect each other of being alien invaders due to intermittent power fluctuations, while all the while the true aliens observe from afar. Their commander notes that in order to conquer humanity, they won’t have to do anything: they’ll just let us destroy ourselves.

There’s a reason why this episode is considered the greatest: it captures the entire essence of The Twilight Zone as a show, depicting human beings at their very best and their very worst, showing how far we’ve come, but how far we still have to go. And maybe, someday, we’ll actually learn something from it.

 

Channel Chaser is written by Kyle Robertson. You can check out more of his work on his website. Check back every Wednesday for new articles.