Summary
The Twilight Zoneis one of the foundational shows of modern television, and an amazing number of other series take their inspiration from Rod Serling’s brilliant writing. The original black and white show was one of early TV’s most popular shows, and the modern rebootsare a mix of older storiesand totally new ones.
Most of the best Twilight Zones are part of the original series and were created by Serling, and many of them are still famous. For someone new toThe Twilight Zonefranchise, there are a few select episodes that embody the spirit of the show more than others.
7Where Is Everybody?
The Pilot Episode Was Designed To Introduce The Series
The pilot episode ofThe Twilight Zoneperfectly encapsulates one of the show’s underlying themes: the fuzzy linebetween reality and fantasy. The show’s introduction reflects this perspective, and the time of twilight is not quite day or night.
“Where Is Everybody?” is a mix of science fiction, dark fantasy, and psychological horror, which sets the stage for the rest of the series. Like many other stories, this one is about an astronaut, or to be more accurate, someone who aspires to be one. Also like the rest of the series, however, things are not what they seem, and the whole adventure happens in the mind of the protagonist.
6Eye Of The Beholder
A Common Theme Is The Uncommon PoV
Rod Serling understood that the audience would assume certain things about a story based on a typical setting or storyline, and this is what makes the twist at the end of “Eye of the Beholder” so impressive. This is a pattern that appears in a lot ofTwilight Zoneepisodes, and this is one of the best episodes to demonstrate it.
The title of the episode is a clue to how the story unfolds, but it’s chilling from the start and never lets the viewer go. The setting is a hospital, and the main character is a deformed patient whose hideous face is always covered, and since the viewer sees a lot from her PoV the faces of the doctors are also obscured, but closer observation reveals that the camera is deliberately hiding other faces for some mysterious reason.
5Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?
A Twist On The Alien Invasion Concept
Humansfear an alien invasion, but what if the aliens were already here? In fact, what if there was a whole neighborhood of aliens who were fighting over which one of them gets to exploit and colonize Earth, and they accidently met in a roadside cafe after a strange and tragic accident?
It’s a crazy idea that could only come from theTwilight Zone, and as usual, the script plays on tropes and stereotypes that the audience already knows. The story is more of an experimental one that overlaps with the absurd, even though it’s still mainly horror.
4The New Exhibit
An Example Of Fantasy Horror
“The New Exhibit” is one of the best examples of horror and dark fantasy in the whole series, and it’s a fairly simple story that’s easy to follow. Even people who like wax museums think they’re creepy, and this episode leans into that common fear.
As the title suggests, the plot of this episode hinges on a new wax museum exhibit, but this isn’t a depiction of actors or world leaders. The subjects are famous serial killers, and when the museum closes down, the main character takes them home. A series of strange and sordid events follow, and the twist at the end reveals what the viewer might have suspected the whole time.
3The Midnight Sun
The Terror Of Realism
It could be one of the darkest episodes ofThe Twilight Zoneor any show ever, featuring a doomed planet from which there is no escape. After a mysterious celestial event knocks the Earth out of orbit, it spirals closer to the sun on an inevitable crash course. By the time this episode starts, there is no more night, the Earth is slowly burning to a crisp, and humans are struggling to survive.
The whole episode is difficult to watch because things get progressively worse with no possibility of a reprieve, and tragedy follows tragedy as society falls apart.As is tradition withThe Twilight Zone, there’s a twist ending, but there’s no relief or salvation to be found there, either.
2To Serve Man
The Infamous “Friendly Alien” Episode
This is the episode that gave birth to the most infamous phrase in all of television history, and it’s not just the play on words but the twist ending that puts an arrogant humanity firmly in its place. As with many other episodes, the story begins with the appearance of an alien, but this one is friendly and benign.
It insists that the extraterrestrials only want to help humans, to serve them, so to speak, and even carries a book called “To Serve Man” to back up his story. He also wants to enlist some exceptional humans to take back to his planet in a sort of galactic exchange program. The cryptologists working to decipher the book get past the title, however, and by the time they discover the horrible truth, it’s too late to save the brave volunteers from their sordid fate.
1The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street
The Real Moral Of Every Twilight Zone Story
Maple Street is a Norman Rockwell picture of idyllic small-town America until strange events, like flashing streetlights and mysterious noises, start to turn neighbor against neighbor. It only takes a few hours ofthese random disruptionsto turn the formerly amiable townsfolk against each other in a frenzy of panic and violence.
There are aliens in this story, and they do happen to be planning an invasion, but they don’t take the usual role of openly dividing and conquering. They prefer instead to toy with their intended prey, but this isn’t revealed until the end and is more like a reveal than a twist. The real message is that the only true horror is in the human mind, and the only refuge we have is a compassionate society.
