Syfy New Year's Eve Morning Block Twilight Zone 5 - 7 AM

 

Serling introduces The Long Morrow

These were the first episodes of Syfy's New Year's Marathon of 2022, December 31st. I hate that I missed out on this but life has a way of interfering with a big kickoff to a three day marathon. I like that these were the first episodes to start, since most of them aren't perhaps envisioned as the "major league" episodes. But what makes this show so wonderful is that what many might consider "minor league" episodes, others consider their favorites.

A Nice Place to Visit

I think I have probably said this three or four times in the past on the blog, but never more do I feel this way than after tonight's viewing: I think I can safely say that I never have to watch this first season episode again. Blyden nails the part of Valentine because each and every time I have watched the episode, I detest the very sight of him. He's incorrigible which was the intent. When he continues to call angel, Cabot, "fats" or "fatso" I long for Cabot to punch him in the face. Without the thrills of committing crimes and violence, Valentine is restless and bored. Always winning or having what he wants without using evil to get it leaves Valentine feeling unfulfilled. At least Cabot's Pip gets the last laugh while Valentine is trying to get out of his mansion, seemingly trapped inside. His hell is not being able to fence a place and steal from the business owner. Interesting trivia: Blyden was killed in a car wreck in Morocco right before a gameshow gig in 1975. Cabot bleached his hair white and had to wait a while for his black hair to return.

Decades Channel showed this at 1:30 Central in the afternoon, so I think, despite Syfy's odd "thrown them in a blender and see how they come out" strategy of scheduling was ideally better since, this episode kicked off the New Year's marathon early morning before most Twilight Zone fans woke up.

The Chaser

I admittedly find this episode repulsive, one of my least favorites. Grizzard desperately loves Barry, getting a card from O'Malley to visit McIntire at his library for a love potion. McIntire knows Grizzard will come back to him eventually for "the chaser", a poison meant to kill Barry because her adoration and love (after the love potion kicks in) is too much for him! Jesus Christ, that is one WTF plot for a first season episode of Twilight Zone. What haunts me is that this guy will be a father and Barry is forever "altered" by a potion slipped in her drink to be devoted to him! I will say there is a cool heart shaped in cigar smoke puffed out of the sinister McIntire's mouth effect. But the way McIntire talks about how "they keep doing the same thing" as if many men have come to him for the potion only to poison the women they eventually find obnoxious in their attachment to them just leaves me feeling icky. Before the potion, Barry makes it clear she has no interest in Grizzard, just wanting the guy to quit bothering her. So it takes a drug concocted by McIntire (what is he exactly?) to "change her mind". Ugh. Actors and actresses often pop up on both Twilight Zone and Perry Mason. I often go, "Ooo, ooo, there's Barry and O'Malley, I know them from Twilight Zone!" when I'm watching Perry Mason some mornings or nights.

Decades showed this at 2:00 pm on New Year's Eve afternoon. Once again, I think Syfy throwing this on at 5:30 in the morning was ideal. I like the idea of not stumbling on this during the early afternoon as the marathon on Decades kicks into gear!

The Bard

I think Williams is wonderful as Shakespeare, conjured by a desperate Weston to help get his television writing career out of the trenches thanks to a book of black magic that happens to pop off a shelf in a store whose owner follows baseball religiously (including the nicknames of those players with issues on the field). Weston has tired an agent to such a degree that he can get opportunities with some rather lackluster pitches that leave studio execs rejecting all of them obviously. Serling takes this chance to poke fun at sponsors of television in the 60s, and how their practices influenced producers and studios to urge creators to fashion scripts often according their instructions (or, at the very least, demands to make money on products that hawk). I think today politics and ideology dictates and demands what goes out to the public for consumption but then Serling clearly had a creative ax to grind and does so in a comedic and satirical format. While sitcoms in the future used laugh tracks, this episode uses sound effects and music cues to help punch up the comedic jabs and zingers. But this episode remains noteworthy for Burt Reynolds' very impressive mimicry of Brando, and Shakespeare punching him out sort of had me thinking plenty of artists wanted to do that to those method actors bringing a pain to creators with an idea of what they wanted on the screen. All that what's my motivation? jazz Reynolds produces is nailed with such accuracy I wondered if he had some method acting philosophy of his own right! While I didn't personally find the episode as laugh out loud funny as many fans of the episode had been in the past, I do see what Serling was going for and I can't say I blame him for wanting to let off some steam towards those who had made his life hell during the era he was trying to keep Twilight Zone alive despite so much frustration by those in the industry.

Decades did not show this episode for their own two day marathon. I can understand why, since I honestly don't think this is essential Twilight Zone, though, in the past, I've seen it shown by Syfy in the afternoon. I think it could indeed work as an afternoon shakeup after a run of darker, more apocalyptic episodes or some astronaut episodes...Syfy hasn't really put much effort into scheduling strategy in years. They more or less throw up a bunch of one season and a bunch of another with some mix in between for the primetime. But since I don't think The Bard is Twilight Zone at its best, Syfy dropping it early morning on the first day of the marathon is probably as good as any time.

The Long Morrow

God, this episode fucking wrecks me. Sterling didn't always give you the happy ending. In fact, he often gave us a painful truth that life isn't always fair. It just isn't. What this episode does is show us true love. The willingness to surrender your youth, take on 40 years of travel back and forth as an astronaut to an unknown galaxy looking for a planet similar to ours, orbiting a sun similar to ours, looking for a place to potentially colonize. What if you are an astronaut (Lansing) tasked with that mission, had the opportunity to be placed in suspended animation, remaining 31, and fell in love with a young woman of 26 (Hartley), knowing she would be 66 when you return? Could you give up your youth so you could be as her age? But what if suspended animation wasn't just confined to the astronaut on a trip to that galaxy ahead? Returning 71 and seeing Hartley still at 26, the absolute pain on Lansing's aged face hits like a ton of bricks, what an emotional wallop. Much like "The Trade-Ins", I just can't watch this episode a lot. It's too painful.

Decades did not show this episode during their Toast to Twilight New Year's marathon. This is an episode you hardly ever see talked about much. Buried in the 5th season, it seems to be the casualty of a long series, with so many other episodes before it. And how depressing it is certainly doesn't help.