Television Pick – Twilight Zone (1959-1964)
While there’s no shortage of creepy television programs available on Netflix (American Horror Story, Alfred Hitchcock Presents), why bother with any of those when you can sit down with the greatest of them all? Yes, I am of course talking about The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling’s iconic anthology series. While not as scary as American Horror Story, it’s tales of oddity and eeriness make for a more enjoyable binge experience.
Originating as a radio show, The Twilight Zone debuted on CBS way back in 1959. Created by the team of Serling, Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson, the show ran for five seasons and received strong critical acclaim throughout its run. Outside of the hour long episodes that made up the entirety of season 4, all other seasons of the program are currently available on Netflix.
As previously mentioned, The Twilight Zone is an anthology program, which means that every episode is its own self-contained story. This allows viewers to jump into any episode they want and not be completely lost. And since the writers for each episode didn’t have to worry about plot threads from previous episodes, they were free to create anything their minds could think of.
The creativeness of each episode is just one of the many reasons why the show is such a masterpiece. What other television program could go from having an episode featuring a man with the ability to change his face to one about a group of humans trying to escape their planet in succession? The Twilight Zone may not be wholly unique, but it’s certainly the best at what it sets out to do.
Another interesting aspect of the series is the amount of famous faces that show up during the run of the show. Whether it be then popular stars such as Burgess Meredith and Buster Keaton or future stars like William Shatner, Robert Duvall and Veronica Cartwright, there are excellent performances to be found in just about every episode of the show.
With Halloween quickly approaching, you could stay in and launch one of the many good (and not so good) horror films found on Netflix. But if you are in search of something a little more strange and a little more eerie, it’s hard to go wrong with The Twilight Zone.