Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.5

The Twilight Zone: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

In the eye of this beholder? Beautiful.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater November 22, 2010

"You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of the imagination. That's the signpost up ahead. Your next stop, The Twilight Zone."

And what a stop it is. Nowadays, we often think of The Twilight Zone as a quaint mid-century sci-fi show with a penchant for twist endings, but it’s oh-so-much more. Writer/show-runner Rod Serling’s creation, in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, was a kind of Trojan horse for the TV-auteur’s subversively loaded scripts about science and progress, politics and religion, aesthetics and ethics—topics that were generally avoided or hushed on prime-time television. Serling was able to push his social criticisms past the censors in the guise of sci-fi allegories, fantasy fables, and macabre morality plays because, at the time, no one gave much thought to the capacity of “genre” stories—the juvenile domain of kids’ comic books—for harboring serious ideas. While some of Serling’s philosophizing can seem overly didactic by today’s standards, this was envelope-pushing stuff in a paranoid society facing the start of the Cold War. And besides, The Twilight Zone isn’t just a vehicle for ideas, it’s also a home to whip-smart writing, clever storytelling, and no shortage of creepy crawly, heebie-jeebies-inducing scares.

Gravity-defying Rod Serling presents...

In September, Image Entertainment released The Twilight Zone: Season 1, a five-disc Blu-ray set that is, in Twilight Zone terms, the very definition of “definitive.” After several technological generations of home viewing—from hazy TV re-runs and blurry VHS releases to good- but-not-great DVD sets—The Twilight Zone’s Blu-ray debut was and is nothing short of spectacular, with pristine high definition transfers, newly remastered audio, and a bounty of special features. If you picked up that set—and you’ll find our glowing review here—you might reasonably wonder if Image could possibly maintain the same level of audio/video quality, not to mention the sheer quantity of bonus materials, for Season 2. Rest assured, readers, this follow-up, from a technical standpoint, is just as superlative and fully loaded as its predecessor.

Writing-wise, however, the show’s second season—understandably, given the harried production schedule and budget cuts under CBS head honcho James Aubrey’s iron fiscal fist—isn’t quite as innovative or gripping as the first. The Twilight Zone was always unapologetically and effectively formulaic—the cold-open mystery, the slow-burn second act, the neck-snapping, brain-frying twist at the end that recontextualizes everything we’ve just seen—but in season two we start to see Rod Serling repeating himself, borrowing elements from his previous scripts. A good example is the season two opener, “King Nine Will Not Return,” which is almost a wholesale repackaging of the season one premiere, “Where Is Everybody?” Instead of a man wandering through a strangely deserted town, growing increasingly more paranoid, we have a crashed WWII bomber pilot wandering around the strangely deserted wreck of his B-25, growing increasingly more paranoid. And the similarities don’t end there. Fortunately, this is the only time when he blatantly rips off an entire plot from himself; more frequently he chooses to recycle old motifs, to play variations on his favorite themes.

Throughout season two, Serling and his likeminded writers—including Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson—return often to the topic of isolation and its psychological effects. In “Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room,” a small-time crook with a few hours to spare comes face to face with his own reflection and sees a mirror version of himself that’s more confident and ambitious. “The Invaders” follows the mounting terror of a woman trapped alone in a farmhouse with tiny spacemen, and “A Hundred Yards Over the Rim” finds a 19th century settler stumbling through the desert into modern-day New Mexico. Most devastatingly, “The Silence” examines the horrific lengths to which a loquacious man will go when he stands to win half a million bucks on a bet if he can remain quiet for an entire year.

“The Silence” overlaps with another common subject: greed. Serling presents the love of money—and materialism in general—as the root of many evils and a sure-fire way to end up unhappy or dead or worse. When a curio shop owner discovers a wish-granting genie in “The Man in the Bottle,”—an episode that embodies the “be careful what you wish for” mantra—his lack of foresight brings him to a horrific end. A similar fate follows for two thieves who discover “A Most Unusual Camera” that can take photos of the future. And ditto for the poor shmuck in “The Prime Mover” who decides to exploit his business partner’s telekinetic abilities at a Las Vegas casino. These episodes, along with “Nick of Time,”—in which William Shatner plays a young business exec obsessed with a fortune telling machine—also point at the dangers of toying with destiny, of altering the “natural” outcome of events or buying into vague, horoscope-style superstition. Serling is certainly at his most moralistic and preachy when railing against the almighty mammon and the perils of divination, and yet there’s something sadly satisfying about seeing his corrupted characters get what’s coming to ‘em.

Serling’s worldview is a reflection of his times—he’s clearly cynical about the post-WWII optimism of the 1950s, an attitude and era that’s inverted and dissected by The Twilight Zone’s topsy-turvy take on the state of Cold War America. Season closer “The Obsolete Man,” starring Meredith Burgess, presents a bleak vision of a totalitarian future where books are outlawed and executions televised. Technology and its hold on humans is lampooned in “A Thing About Machines,” and “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?” might as well be called “Will the Real Commie Please Stand Up?” Of course, no discussion of season two would be complete without mentioning “The Eye of the Beholder,” a meditation on the perception of beauty and one of the all-time great Twilight Zone episodes.

But it’s not all high-falutin’ ideas. Sometimes you just wanna have the bejeebers scared out of you, and The Twilight Zone: Season 2 definitely has a few tales of goosebump-raising, cold-chill-up-the-spine-provoking terror. Just try to not be creeped out by the Gothic, Satan-trapping insanity of “The Howling Man.” Go ahead, attempt to escape the spiraling, recurring nightmare of “Twenty-Two.” By all means, fight against the mounting, dialing-from-beyond-the-grave dread of “Long Distance Call.” You can’t. You’ll succumb. Resistance is futile.

The Twilight Zone: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Image Entertainment's presentation of The Twilight Zone: Season 1 was just about perfect, and Season 2 is no different. Going back to the original 35mm negatives, all-new 1080p/AVC-encoded transfers—framed in the original 1.33:1 TV aspect ratio—have been struck for each episode, and the picture, quite simply, is stunning. I'm not sure if the source materials themselves were clean to begin with, or if a restoration team went frame- by-frame through each episode, cleaning up damage, but either way, the image is nearly pristine, with only a few scattered white specks on the print, and no major scratches or stains. Even better, the grain structure of the black and white cinematography is fully intact, with no trace of excess filtering, noise reduction, or edge enhancement. Nor are there any overt compression issues, like banding or macroblocking. The picture looks natural and bold, with a crisp monochromatic gradation composed of inky deep blacks, bright but rarely overblown whites, and a rich spectrum of grays. Of course, there's also an enormous leap in clarity from previous home video releases, and there are times when you'll be awed by the amount of detail contained in the 35mm negative. Herringbone suits yield up their woolen patterns, the thin mesh of face-covering bandages is easily visible in "Eye of the Beholder," and skin texture is easily discerned.

If you're a longtime Twilight Zone fan, you'll already know that, as a cost-cutting experiment, six episodes from season two—"The Lateness of the Hour," "Static," "The Whole Truth," "The Night of the Meek," "Twenty Two," and "Long Distance Call"—were shot on videotape and have a distinctly soap opera-ish look to them. Image Entertainment has presented these episodes in 1080i, and while they aren't nearly up to the standard set by the shot-on-film material—the picture is blurry and fine detail indistinct—I'm confident that they look as strong as possible, considering the shortcomings of primitive 1960s videotape. Note that screenshots 18, 19, and 20 are taken from shot-on-video episodes.

The Twilight Zone: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with the first season, Image Entertainment gives us two Linear PCM mono options, both sourced from the original magnetic soundtracks. Each episode defaults to a newly restored and remastered mix that has been digitally cleaned up and optimized. The results are solid; the dialogue is impeccably reproduced, the various sound effects are clean and even dynamically punchy on occasion, and the scores—many by Jerry Goldsmith—sound wonderful. For comparison, you can also select the original, unmastered audio, which is noticeably murkier, with slightly muffled dialogue at times and a low but persistent tape hiss. The remastered mixes are preferable by far, but it's commendable that Image thought to include the untouched audio as well. Each episode also includes white, easy-to-read English SDH subtitles, which are aligned with the lower left corner of picture.

The Twilight Zone: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Episode List and Bonus Features
Like the Season 1 set, Image Entertainment has loaded up Season 2 with an impressive—and informative—array of special features, including, yes, twenty-five commentary tracks with input from a bevy of Twilight Zone experts, audio interviews conducted by The Twilight Zone Companion author Marc Scott Zicree, fifteen radio dramas, isolated scores (in Dolby Digital 2.0), sponsor billboards, and more.

#37 King Nine Will Not Return

• Commentary by Martin Grams, Jr.
• Zicree Interview: Buz Kulik, 1978 (25:55)
• Isolated Score by Fred Steiner

#38 The Man in the Bottle

• Interview with Joseph Ruskin (SD, 13:42)
• Isolated Score
• Sponsor Billboards
• Radio Drama starring Ed Begley, Jr.

#39 Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room

• Commentary by Gary Gerani
• Commentary by Scott Skelton and Jim Benson
• Zicree Interview: Douglas Heyes
• Isolated Score by Jerry Goldsmith
• Sponsor Billboards
• Radio Drama Starring Adam Baldwin

#40 The Thing About Machines

• Commentary by Len Wein and Marc Scott Zicree
• Isolated Score
• Sponsor Billboards

#41 The Howling Man

• Interview with H.M. Wynant (SD, 12:59)
• Commentary by Gary Gerani
• Zicree Interview: Douglas Heyes, 1978
• Sponsor Billboards
• Radio Drama starring Fred Willard

#42 Eye of the Beholder

• Commentary by Donna Douglas
• Commentary by Joseph Dougherty and Marc Scott Zicree
• Commentary by Steven C. Smith and Jon Burlingame
• Commentary by Gary Gerani
• Zicree Interview: Maxine Stuart / Douglas Hayes, 1978
• Isolated Score by Bernard Herrmann
• Alternate End Title
• Rare Color Photos
• Sponsor Billboards

#43 Nick of Time

• Commentary by Matthew Weiner and Marc Scott Zicree
• Sponsor Billboards
• Radio Drama starring Marshall Allmann and Jamie Anne Allman

#44 The Lateness of the Hour

• Original Production Slate
• Sponsor Billboard
• Radio Drama starring Jane Seymour and James Keach

#45 The Trouble with Templeton

• Zicree Interview: Buzz Kulik, 1978
• Isolated Score by Jeff Alexander
• Sponsor Billboards
• Radio Drama starring Michael York

#46 A Most Unusual Camera

• Isolated Score
• Sponsor Billboards

#47 The Night of the Meek

• Commentary by Len Wein and Marc Scott Zicree
• Commentary by Gary Gerani
• Original Production Slate
• Radio Drama starring Chris McDonald

#48 Dust

• Zicree Interview: Douglas Heyes, 1978
• Isolated Score by Jerry Goldsmith
• Sponsor Billboards

#49 Back There

• Isolated Score by Jerry Goldsmith
• Sponsor Billboards
• Radio Drama starring Jim Caviezel

#50 The Whole Truth

• Original Production Slate
• Radio Drama starring Henry Rollins

#51 The Invaders

• Commentary by Michael Nankin and Marc Scott Zicree
• Commentary by Gary Gerani
• Commentary by Jon Burlingame and Gary Gerani
• Zicree Interview: Douglas Heyes, 1978
• Isolated Score by Jerry Goldsmith
• Sponsor Billboards

#52 A Penny for Your Thoughts

• Commentary by George Clayton Johnson and Marc Scott Zicree
• Zicree Interview: George Clayton Johnson, 1978
• Isolated Score
• Sponsor Billboards

#53 Twenty Two

• Isolated Score
• Original Production Slate
• Sponsor Billboard

#54 The Odyssey of Flight 33

• Commentary by Gary Gerani
• Zicree Interview: Robert Serling, 1978
• Isolated Score
• Sponsor Billboards
• Radio Drama starring Daniel J. Travanti

#55 Mr. Dingle, The Strong

• Commentary by Don Rickles
• Commentary by Martin Grams, Jr.
• Isolated Score
• Sponsor Billboards

#56 Static

• Zicree Interview: Buzz Kulik, 1978
• Isolated Score
• Original Production Slate
• Radio Drama starring Stan Freberg

#57 The Prime Mover

• Commentary by George Clayton Johnson and Marc Scott Zicree
• Commentary by Martin Grams, Jr.
• Isolated Score
• Sponsor Billboard

#58 Long Distance Call

• Commentary by Bill Mumy and William Idelson
• Original Production Slate

#59 A Hundred Yards Over the Rim

• Commentary by Cliff Robertson
• Commentary by Scott Skelton and Jim Benson
• Zicree Interview: Buzz Kulik, 1978
• Isolated Score by Fred Steiner
• Sponsor Billboard
• Radio Drama starring Jim Caviezel

#60 A Rip Van Winkle Caper

• Commentary by Scott Skelton and Jim Benson
• Isolated Score
• Sponsor Billboard

#61 The Silence

• Commentary by Marv Wolfman and Marc Scott Zicree
• Sponsor Billboard
• Radio Drama starring Chris McDonald

#62 Shadow Play

• Commentary by Dennis Weaver
• Isolated Score
• Sponsor Billboards

#63 The Mind and the Matter

• Commentary by Shelley Berman
• Isolated Score
• Sponsor Billboards

#64 Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?

• Commentary by Marc Scott Zicree
• Commentary by Gary Gerani
• Isolated Score
• Sponsor Billboards
• Radio Drama starring Richard Kind

#65 The Obsolete Man

• Commentary by Matthew Weiner and Marc Scott Zicree
• Isolated Score
• Sponsor Billboards
• Radio Drama starring Jason Alexander

Additional Bonus Features

• Suspense: "Nightmare at Ground Zero" (SD, 29:27)
• Zicree Interview: George T. Clemens, 1978, Part 2
• Zicree Interview: William Tuttle, 1978

The Twilight Zone: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Image Entertainment has done it again—their release of The Twilight Zone: Season 2 is just as beautiful and bountiful as September's debut of Season 1. All twenty-nine episodes have been given stunning high definition transfers and newly remastered audio, and there's a true wealth of supplementary materials here, including twenty-five all-new commentary tracks, fifteen radio dramas, and an episode of Suspense penned by Rod Serling. For sci-fi geeks, horror hounds, fantasy fans, and lovers of the strange and supernatural, this is a must-have release. Look out for the third season in February!