The Twilight Zone: The Complete Second Season DVD Review

Written by John Colianni

DVD released by Image Entertainment

Hosted by Rod Serling
Written and directed by various
1961, Region 1 (NTSC), 749 minutes, Not Rated
DVD released on June 4th, 2013

Starring:
Various

Review:

Classics will always be classics. That much is undeniable in the world of scifi and horror cinema. As the years come and go, I've always kept my hopes high for the next breakthrough film that will change the way we as lovers of these genres appreciate the blood, gore, scares and plot twists that leave us craving more. But as the years pass, so many of us forget that no matter the number of decades or generations pass us by, those early pieces will forever be the backbone of all out favorites to date. So much of this is true with Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone. Over a six year period, The Twilight Zone captured the fears and paranoia of ordinary people caught in extraordinary situations and under the most bizarre and impossible circumstances. I had the utmost pleasure in reviewing Season 2 and relived a part of my childhood that left me craving more and more.

The Twilight Zone is balanced between time and content, conveying a message and captivating the viewer without needing to devote an hour's worth of your time. Perfectly condensed, it's an amazing sensory overload of character development and plot twists that plays out like a short movie and usually more satisfying as an end result. I was excited to find out that many of the episodes I grew up falling in love with were conveniently brought back to my attention. Because this season happens to have 29 episodes and I'm sure no one wants to read me going fan boy crazy over each one, I figure that highlighting certain themes seemed more appropriate (and less crazy).

I'm always impressed with the level of depth that each episode is able to achieve in just a span of twenty-five minutes or so. Starting the season with the episode “King Nine Will Not Return”, about a crashed WWII bomber in the African desert, it throws audiences right into the mix with extreme isolationism and fear of the unknown. This a massive reoccurring theme throughout many plots of The Twilight Zone. In “The Obsolete Man”, a futuristic society has outlawed books and God, a world that none in our time could possible imagine, and a man is sentenced to death for his insolence. “The Lateness of the Hour” stars a daughter of an inventor of machines, who never felt truly right in her own skin. Most of the characters that are featured are us, the everyday man and woman that have been thrust into bizarre and unusual events that lead them to ultimate self discovery or to their demise.

If you haven't had a chance to at least sit down and enjoy a few episodes here and there, you are truly depriving yourself of amazingly written stories that are brought to life without the modern flash of CGI or even color. Usually with a very minimal cast and few set changes, The Twilight Zone achieves what few shows over 40 years later only dream of: the ability to captivate an audience without the need for expensive costumes and scenery or the use of shocking imagery and language to attract an audience. Allow yourself to travel back through time to the days before The Outer Limits and Tales From the Crypt, all brought to you by a host with literally the bushiest eyebrows the world of television has ever known.

Video and Audio:

The Twilight Zone: The Complete Second Season is presented in black and white as well as its original 1:33:1 aspect ratio, to give you that “goddamn, grandma, update your TV already!” feeling.

Special Features:

There are no special features because, honestly, after over twelve hours of awesome weirdness and Rod Serling's ridiculous eyebrows, who needs it?

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