I haven’t seen all the episodes, but I know enough to know at least which one is considered the best. So I figured either they’re going with…
A. “The five best Twilight Zone episodes not called To Serve Man, because you already know that one and we want you to take another look at the series, because honestly it would be harder to list five episodes worth skipping than it would be to rank the five best. Seriously, they’re all that good. So get watching.” Or,
B. “Three episodes we really like, followed by To Serve Man, with an episode we really like in the top slot so you go watch our favourite episode.”
It was the latter.
Either way, it’s fine, because Twilight Zone was peak television. For anyone who doesn’t know, and especially for those put off by the show being in black-and-white, Twilight Zone crawled so Amazing Stories and Tales From the Crypt could walk, and so American Horror Story and Black Mirror could run. And that’s not even all of the anthology shows, or even all of the good ones named. There’s also The Outer Limits, Red Shoe Diaries (romance), Blue Literature (Japanese), and Midnight Gallery. Also the Amazing Stories revival. Outer Limits also got a revival. There are probably more I’m forgetting or not aware of.
But if you sang along to Heaven is a Place on Earth after being disgusted by the main character of the previous episode (referencing Black Mirror’s third season), you should know there are a ton of anthology series out there, and most of them were pretty good.
As a fan of Japanese culture, I’m going to highlight Blue Literature, especially as anime fans don’t talk about it much. You know all those books you read in high school and probably haven’t thought about since? That’s what Blue Literature is, only it’s Japanese classic novels adapted to animation, starting with No Longer Human, which is a whole other discussion. It’s not a great adaptation (but it’s never been adapted well, and they’ve tried like half a dozen times), but it’s an interesting story to dig into. I just read the book (or rather, an English translation of it, since I can’t read Japanese). Some of the other stories are better (or were adapted better). It’s interesting though, because if you’re not Japanese, chances are you haven’t heard of most/any of those stories.
The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street is the episode that taught me deal with the current times
I love The Twilight Zone. My personal favorite is One for the Angels. Just good old fashioned wholesome.
It’s one of the most famous, but I’ve never thought Nightmare at 20,000 Feet is one of the best. Heck, I don’t thinks it’s even the best Shatner episode, which I’d say is Nick of Time.
If no other changes, if replace that one with Nothing in the Dark, which is phenomenal, with really just two actors, one being a very young Robert Redford.
Oh, on second thought, I’m dumbfounded that they chose The Dummy over It’s a Good Life,, which is one of the most famous and one of the better episodes.
Still, so the ones on the list are good.
Honestly the very first episode, Where is Everybody?, is fantastic. The fact that it’s one guy we follow for about 95% of the episode, and imo he kills it.
Beside the listed “time enough at last”, the only other episode that stuck with me since my childhood, was the one with 5 peoples, a balerina, a policeman, a firefighter… trying to escape a curved room with huge wall and no ceiling.
The end twist: they were toys thrown in a bin
The episode “Nick of Time” is in my top 5.
