Non-Living

The 3 episodes of the twilight zone that were shown on day 8 of interim were all pretty good.  Each episode had a pretty good plot with good acting and each kept me involved throughout the entire show.  Out of the three episodes my favorite was the “Living Doll”.  I could tell from the beginning of the show I was going to like to like it.  Though the episode was predictable, I was still satisfied with the conclusion.  From the beginning of the episode when the doll told to the step-father that she didn’t like him, I could tell right away that she was going to eventually kill him.  This episode reminds me of the movie Chucky without all the cursing and unnecessary violence.

The second episode “After Hours” was kind of boring and left out a lot of information, but I felt satisfied with its overall plot.  I felt the ending was pretty good because I never would expect that they were manikins.   The last episode “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” was my least favorite of the episodes played but was still enjoyable.  There’s really nothing about this one that stood out and made it special.  The fact that his escape from being hung was a dream was pretty interesting and sad at the same time.  His escape was interesting because he avoided all the gun fire and swims a long distance for safety and freedom, and was sad because he had a wife and kid, but was still killed at the end for the fact that it was all a dream.

Though I enjoyed all three episodes, I felt none of them had an actually point.  They each told a good story, but I don’t feel nothing was to be learned from them.  The first movie was about a killing doll, the second about manikins and the third about dreaming of escaping execution.  None of which in my opinion teaches me a lesson in life.

Time

The two episodes played on day 7 of interim I thought were pretty good.  They both had pretty good plots, and both kept me involved throughout the entire episode.  My favorite between the two were “A Hundred Yards over the Rim”.  I love how the main character accidently crosses over between the two time zones, and how he reacts to the situation.  The ending was my favorite part, when the guy finds the encyclopedia and see’s that his son plays a prominent role in history and then realizes he was there for a reason.  The acting in this episode was also very good.  When the guy realized that he was in the future he didn’t over act or anything, I felt he played his part very good.  Between all the previous episodes we’ve watched this would definitely be on the top of my favorites.

The other episode “The Rip VanWinkle Caper” was also a pretty interesting episode.  It keeps me involved the whole time and throughout the entire show I was trying to figure out the ending.  And the ending I felt was very good and sad.  To know that they did all the work getting the gold and waiting one-hundred years to spend it, to only die and have done it all for something that was worthless was mind-blowing.  I also love the car that pulls up in the desert at the end of the movie.  It’s very fascinating to see how the people from that time predicted how cars would look in the future. 

Skype and Books

Day 6 of “You’re entering the Twilight Zone” was very interesting for the fact that we had a guess speaker.  It was interesting hearing the views of someone directly related to the Twilight Zone.  He seemed very excited to talk about his life dealing with the twilight and I was excited to hear it.  Even though the Skype interview wasn’t very clear, I still understood most of his points, all which I found very interesting.  My favorite part of the interview was when he was telling the story of when he and his wife were visiting Sterling and he was meeting him at a place called the spa or something, so they brought they’re swimming outfit with them to only find out the spa was a diner.

I also thought the episode “Time Enough At Last” was pretty good.  The ending was very sad, which in my opinion made the episode as good as it was.  The main character throughout the entire episode only wanted to read and after the bomb killed mankind, all he wanted to do was read.  After finding an unlimited supply of books he was so happy, and then his glasses broke which blinded him.  I found this ending to be so simple, but yet so satisfying.

Aliens

After day 5 of interim it’s pretty obvious that the writers and producers base a lot of their episodes off the government and alien invasion.  Its’ seems the basis for most episodes are directly related or somewhat related with aliens.  The episodes that were shown last night were the most interesting of the bunch were previously watched.  Every episode that was shown yesterday each had a little twist to the ending, in which I didn’t see coming at all.

Out of the three we watched yesterday I felt that “The Invaders was the most interesting.  I would never have guess, that the lady was the alien and the invaders were human.  With the way the humans were dressed and way the lady was going about her business in the kitchen, and the way she was acting when the humans were in her house, it really caught me by surprised to find out she was the alien.  “Third from the Sun” had pretty much the same plot, in which the people looked and acted like humans but were really aliens.  

Earl Hamner

Twilight zone episodes played on day 7 of interim class were a lot different than the previous we’ve watched.   Earl Hamner has a different ideal when it comes to the twilight zone than the other writers bringing a southern style to most of his episodes.  The only episodes of his I enjoyed were You Drive and Stopover in a Quiet Town, both of which weren’t southern.  I wouldn’t say I would watch these two again but they were the only two that kept my attention throughout the entire episode.

The other Earl Hamner twilight zone episodes were very hard to watch.  I couldn’t stay awake for either “The Hunt” or “Jess Belle” episode.  Neither one was similar to the previous twilight zone shows we watched, and didn’t even have the same premise for its episodes.  Especially “The Hunt”, in which I felt it, was nothing like a twilight zone episode.  I can definitely say that Earl Hamner is one of my least favorite writers for the twilight zone.

Human Nature!!

Day 3 selection of twilight zone episodes has been the most interesting for me so far.  Every episode sort of had the same message about.  It seemed each episode focused on how the human race reacts under pressure, from “Number 12 Looks Just like You” in which everyone looks the same to meet society satisfaction of good looks to “Eye of the Beholder” in which a young lady would do anything to fit in with the norm of society.

Each episode showed flaws in humans in different variations.  Unlike the previous episodes we watched, the five videos that were shown today didn’t have any added features that are so fictional in which it wouldn’t happen in the real world.  For example, in Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, there were a gremlin and gremlins don’t exist and in it’s a Good Life, kids don’t have magical powers.   Each of the five episodes  “Eye of the Beholder”, “The Obsolete Man”, “Number 12 Looks Just Like You” ,“Cold War - historical context”, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”, “The Shelter”, can all easily take place in real life which is a sad look into reality.

Planes, Gremlins, and Monsters

For the second day of my interim class “Your Entering the Twilight Zone” we watch the new and old versions of the episodes Nightmare at 20,000 Feet and it’s a Good Life.  My favorite out of the two was the new version of “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” and the original version of “it’s a Good Life”.  I felt the new and old version of Nightmare at 20,000 was very similar to each other, but the two versions of it’s a Good Life were different.

I liked the new version of Nightmare at 20,000 feet compared to the old for the reason that the acting is better and the creature look more believable.  I also like the ending on the new one because it proves that the man wasn’t crazy compared to the old version in which the man remains to seem insane.  Between the new and old version of it’s a Good Life, the old was in fact my favorable.  The old version was scarier and remained simple throughout the entire story.  I felt the newer version had too many artificial acts.  Throughout the entire episode I was waiting for it end