Written in response to the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, the episode follows a former SS leader who returns to Dachau and is haunted to insanity by the ghosts of the people he tortured. Serling's anger seeps through "Deaths-Head Revisited," a searing commentary on the lingering impact of the Holocaust. "Deaths-Head Revisited" (Season 3, Episode 9) The episode's most heavy-handed elements are balanced out by a smash-bang conclusion that really ramps up the tension.ġ1. In this case, that man is a librarian named Wordsworth ( Burgess Meredith) who concocts a scheme to use his public execution to undermine the government's authority. "The Obsolete Man" is essentially Serling's Brave New World: the story of a man who rebels against a totalitarian state with an impassioned argument for the value of religion and books. "The Obsolete Man" (Season 2, Episode 29) Jonathan Winters and Jack Klugman, The Twilight Zone CBS Photo Archive, CBS via Getty Imagesġ2. The episode neatly sums up The Twilight Zone's disdain for men who prize winning at all costs. "A Game of Pool" is a talk-heavy story, but it manages not to drag thanks to commanding performances from a world-weary Jonathan Winters and a fitful Jack Klugman. "A Game of Pool" (Season 3, Episode 5)Ī man angling to be the best pool player in the world makes a life-or-death deal with a pool-playing legend, only to learn too late that being the best isn't all it's cracked up to be. "Nothing in the Dark" is a quiet tale about an agoraphobic old woman with an injured soldier (played by Robert Redford) on her doorstep, and it morphs into a sweet consideration of what people really fear about dying.ġ3. This isn't the only episode on this list about a woman being stalked by death, nor is it the most gripping. "Nothing in the Dark" (Season 3, Episode 16) The Twilight Zone CBS Photo Archive, CBS via Getty Imagesġ4. It's not hard to predict where this Mardi Gras fable goes from there, but the characters are so perfectly, realistically grating that the end will have you cheering anyway.Īvailable to stream on CBS All Access, Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime In honor of the iconic sci-fi franchise's return, TV Guide sifted through the original series to find the episodes that aged the best - whether they're newly relevant again or they never went out of style in the first place.Ī dying patriarch promises his toxic relatives their inheritance on one condition: They wear hideous masks until the stroke of midnight. Jordan Peele's The Twilight Zone: What to Watch and What to Skip What The Twilight Zone was really trying to unpack was human nature. Its themes were timely - the original series, which aired from 1959 to 1964, was preoccupied with the space race, nuclear panic, and post-World War II reckoning - but the core idea of the show was timeless. But even if its template is now familiar and some of its its biggest twists have been spoiled by word of mouth, the series hasn't lost its impact.Īt its best, The Twilight Zone nailed a hard-to-duplicate formula, wrapping provocative social commentary in an entertaining package. Rod Serling's classic sci-fi anthology series, now back for an all-new reboot under Jordan Peele, has left its mark on everything from Black Mirror to Star Trek to Peele's Get Out. Few shows have the staying power of The Twilight Zone.
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