The Twilight Zone - The Long Haul...Wishing Gets You Nowhere

 

Serling introduces Man in the Bottle

Episodes about genies and wishes just seem to get folks in either more trouble than their worth or worse. So often wishes just result in disappointment or effects for the one who gets them. The genie (as is the case with Joseph Ruskin's well dressed genie, the hat and cane, and devious, sneaky smile) grants and Arthur can't seem to calculate exactly what comes with each wish. The piece-of-shit IRS man who shows up to tax Arthur and Edna -- you bet if any Average Joe gets a little bit of money, the government will show up to punish him while the very rich just seem to always get away with paying very little -- after they had just given a majority of their cash away to the neighborhood. Now, the second wish regarding 1 million dollars, they have no one to blame but themselves. I'm certainly not against charity, but why didn't the Castles pay off their debts first? That always bothers me. These are such good people, but when you are at the choke of bankruptcy, why not get the bill collectors' hands off your throat before just tossing free cash to every one that passes by the pawn shop. Ruskin cracks me up because he has seen monkey's paw results time and time again. Folks wish and wish, and the results are always typically nightmarish. Wishing for power turning Arthur into Hitler at the end of the war as the Nazis fall. A broken case with fixed glass once again suffering a major crack. The Castles right back to where they were, broke and bills piling up in a pawn shop that will no doubt age them as they had already discussed. Well they are at least laughing at the end with all their misfortune. Good people who deserve better than a pawn shop that will never bring them money. I wish I could feel great about their future. At least with Arthur going back to before all the wishes started, the IRS were denied their pound of flesh. Though, I'm sure they will drain their blood, the vampires they are.