Twilight Zone - Series 3 (Black & White) [DVD]

With its third season, The Twilight Zone was beginning to get restless. Rod Serling had so much input and influence on the first two seasons that his fatigue was beginning to show. Still, Season Three does feature some excellent episodes.

'A Game of Pool', in which a pool shark (the excellent Jack Klugman) has to defeat a game legend or lose his life, is tightly constructed drama; 'It's A Good Life' is one of the all-time classics, featuring Billy Mumy as a little boy in control of a whole town; 'Deaths-Head Revisited' is an extremely powerful tale of retribution, starring Oscar Beregi and Joseph Schildkraut; 'The Midnight Sun' is a beautifully produced episode in every way with an outstanding musical score.

Other episodes such as 'Five Characters In Search of An Exit', 'Nothing in the Dark', 'To Serve Man' (with one of the most memorable endings in TV history), 'Little Girl Lost', 'Person or Persons Unknown', 'The Trade-Ins', 'The Dummy', and 'The Changing of the Guard' are also high-ranking episodes.

The problem with this season is that the bad episodes really rancour. In the first two seasons, these had been rare and quite forgettable, but in this season the bad episodes stick in your mind. 'The Arrival' is a complete cop-out, 'The Shelter' is pompously written, 'The Passersby' is predictable, 'Showdown with Rance McGrew' is boring. It's sad to think that many of the shows could have been much better. 'The Hunt', 'A Quality of Mercy', 'Dead Man's Shoes', Kick the Can', 'A Piano in the House' all showed much potential, but unfortunately a lot of this is not met.

And unless you're a collector, don't bother with what is surely one of the worst Twilight Zone's ever, 'The Gift'. It's difficult to find a good word to say about it.

In retrospect, Season Three contains some of the shows finest episodes scattered thinly, and it's nowhere near as bad as Season Five. This represented the end of an era. After this season, producer Buck Houghton left to pursue other projects, and Serling's involvement in the show dramatically reduced. With Season Four, Twilight Zone started short-lived hour-long stories.

Despite the misses, Season Three is an essential part of any Twilight Zone fans collection.

I used to love watching The Twilight Zone back in the 80's and 90's taping almost every episode that was shown on TV, most of them were usually in the early hours of the morning! Season 3 comprises of 30 short stories with the highlight of the season being 'The Hellgramite Method' which see's Timothy Bottoms given a capsole to take which is supposed to help fix him of his drinking problem but turns out to be a rather nasty worm that hatches inside him and feeds on the alcohol he consumes making it grow in size in his stomach!! Another good story is 'The Cold Equations' which see's a space pilot of the future having to eject an unfortunate hitch hiker from his ship, heart wrenching stuff!! 'Room 2426' starring Dean Stockwell is another good instalment from the season. In fact, there is not one tale that I didn't like on this DVD.

All in all, I loved this and if you are a fan of short stories with a twist, so will you. I highly recommend that you buy it.

Featured episodes are: Extra Innings, The Trunk, The Crossing, The Curious Case of Edgar Witherspoon, Dream Me A Life, The Hunters, The Hellgramite Method, Memories, The Call, 20/20 Vision, Our Selena Is Dying, The Cold Equations, The Trance, Acts of Terror, There Was An Old Woman, Stranger in Possum Meadows, Appointment on Route 17, Street of Shadows, A Game of Pool, The Wall, Father and Son Game, Room 2426, The Mind of Simon Foster, Something in the Walls, Cat and Mouse, Rendezvous in a Dark Place, Many Many Monkeys, Love is Blind, Special Service and Crazy As A Soup Sandwich.

The bar was raised considerably in Twilight Zone's first two seasons, and it does not dissapoint here.
I'll not repeat what other reviewers have said about the episodes (I can't improve what was said), but I'll
concentrate on the overall package. The episodes have been remastered, and look superb with little or no artefacts, and excellent contrast. I like the fact that the original break bumpers, Rod Serling intros of the next weeks episodes, CBS promos and Public Information Films are all intact. This gives a real sense of context of the times these programmes were first broadcast. The extras are a little thin on the ground, conisting of audio commentaries of selected episodes.

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