June 25, 2023- numbers 84, 85, 86, 87, 88

This was actually the worst stretch of five episodes that I have seen from the series, with a couple of okay ones and a couple really low ones.

Spoilers

“The Hunt”

This was the best of the five episodes during this stretch. A good old country mountain man and his dog. He rather go coon huntin’ than much of anything else.

“An old man and a hound-dog named Rip, off for an evening’s pleasure in quest of raccoon. Usually, these evenings end with one tired old man, one battle-scarred hound dog, and one or more extremely dead raccoons, but as you may suspect, that will not be the case tonight. These hunters won’t be coming home from the hill. They’re headed for the backwoods — of The Twilight Zone.”

Hyder Simpson and his dog Rip went out hunting raccoon despite his wife Rachel’s objections. Rachel’s premonition came true as Rip chased the raccoon into the water and was drowning. Simpson dove in after his beloved dog, but neither came up.

Hyder awoke in the woods and returned to his home only to realize that no one could hear him and that he and Rip was dead. He found a fence that shouldn’t have been there and followed it, finding a gate where a man sat. The man said this was the gate to heaven but Hyder could not take Rip in with him. Hyder refused and decided to keep walking down the road for eternity.

Soon he came across another man who knew who he was and told him that the other guy was on the gate to Hell. This was actually the path to heaven. Hyder asked about the coon hunting in heaven.

An episode for dog lovers everywhere. I found it funny that the dog’s name was Rip (rest in peace).

“Showdown with Rance McGrew”

One of the dumbest episodes I have seen so far.

It appeared to be another Western episode. However, it was a Western TV series being filmed and the star of the show was Rance McGrew, arrogant, pompous, demanding.

“Some one-hundred-odd years ago, a motley collection of tough mustaches galloped across the West and left behind a raft of legends and  legerdemains, and it seems a reasonable conjecture that if there are any television sets up in cowboy heaven and any one of these rough-and-wooly nail-eaters could see with what careless abandon their names and exploits are being bandied about, they’re very likely turning over in their graves—or worse, getting out of them. Which gives you a clue as to the proceedings that will begin in just a moment, when one Mr. Rance McGrew, a 3,000-buck-a-week phoney-baloney discovers that this week’s current edition of make-believe is being shot on location—and that location is the Twilight Zone.”

Like several other episodes, Rance found himself transported to the past in the actual saloon like the show was taping at, but the crew was gone. The real Jesse James (who was the villain in the episode) was looking to make Rance pay. Apparently, Jesse was able to watch Rance on TV and knew all about the career path of the actor.

This got even stupider as well as Jesse wound up back in the present with Rance as his new “agent” and insisted on changes to the script to make the real life Western characters look better.

More comedy attempted. There have been very few comedic episodes of The Twilight Zone that worked.

“Kick the Can”

A nice little episode of the wish for youth and the cliché that you are only as old as you act/feel.

“Sunnyvale Rest, a home for the aged – a dying place, and a common children’s game called kick-the-can, that will shortly become a refuge for a man who knows he will die in this world, if he doesn’t escape into – The Twilight Zone.”

While the episode was harmless and did carry a decent message, there was not much to it as it carried on. The end was fairly expected and the way the staff treated these old people, especially Charles was shameful. The idea that Charles was considered senile because he wanted to stay young by finding the magic in a kid’s game was mean-spirited. The fact that his best friend Ben did not support his friend was quite off too. Admittedly, I did like the end with Ben losing out on the magic.

“A Piano in the House”

Speaking of mean-spirited, the episode ‘A Piano in the House’ is one of the most mean-spirited episodes of The Twilight Zone I have seen. I’m not sure the ending was sufficient of comeuppance for the cruelty shown by lead character, Mr. Fitzgerald Fortune.

“Mr. Fitzgerald Fortune, theater critic and cynic at large, on his way to a birthday party. If he knew what is in store for him he probably wouldn’t go, because before this evening is over that cranky old piano is going to play ‘Those Piano Roll Blues’ with some effects that could happen only in the Twilight Zone.”

Fortune had purchased a player-piano for his young bride’s birthday. Fortune discovered that the music played by the piano had strange effects on the listeners and he planned on using it during the party on some of his guests.

I especially felt bad for Marge Moore, played wonderfully by Muriel Landers, as the piano made her do things intended to humiliate her (and the whole crowd laughed). I am not sure why Fortune targeted Marge outside of simply sadism.

“The Last Rites of Jeff Mytlebank”

Roscoe P. Coltrane is back once again!

That is James Best is back as our titular character, a man who died and, during his funeral, sits up and is apparently alive… two days later!

“Time, the mid-twenties. Place, the Midwest, the southernmost section of the Midwest. We were just witnessing a funeral, a funeral that didn’t come off exactly as planned, due to a slight fallout from the Twilight Zone.”

This episode seemed to be hinting at the fact that people can get themselves riled up and lose common sense when confronted with rumors and speculation, especially when they are not necessarily the brightest of people (that is a relevant comment for today’s political world too).

There was a lot of exposition here, particularly at the very end when Jeff was being confronted by the town people about him being a demon that had taken over the dead body of Jeff. The ending was somewhat lackluster and lacking. This concept felt like it could have been much ore than what it turned out to be.