The one where Burgess Meredith plays a henpecked bank teller who finally gets the time to pursue his passion for reading when he becomes the only survivor of a nuclear war. What rating would you give this episode?
sharePretty close to a ten. It's the episode people think of when they think of "The Twilight Zone." It's only drawback is it kicks off the first but certainly not the last use of the shrewish housewife. And if you think Bemis' wife is bad wait until you get a load of Gart William's in "A Stop At Willoughby." Or Gerry Raigan's in "A World of Difference." Or ........
shareI actually found Mrs. Bemis amusing... intriguing even. From what I've seen so far, one could write a paper analyzing the subtext behind the casting of the women of the Twilight Zone. David Wayne's vaguely foreign housewife, Jean Marsh's robot, Ida Lupino's aging starlet, Liz from "Mr. Denton", All have been unusual choices in that none of them have been more than supporting roles, but they all seem to have a weary, weather beaten quality with an unspoken back story rather than selecting traditional beauties.
I feel as though the episode still held up for me, but I wonder what he wanted to say. The story begins with a misanthropic tone, sympathetic to Bemis's plight, yet it seems to imply despite the fact that people are generally soulless with no appreciation for art and only want to make money and warfare... we still need them. Jorge Luis Borges wrote a story called El Sur where the protagonist much like the author lived only in his books and has an epiphany that ends up with him facing certain death in a knife fight. Maybe this is his point, as terrible as people and the world might be, it still is better than living vicariously through texts... or today through computers.
One critic likened "Time" to a Greek Tragedy. It does seem like poor Bemis finds himself in the cross-hairs of Gods for no reason other than he's "a small man in glasses who wanted nothing but time." He should of just been a social butterfly. Then he would have died with the rest of them. Not stumbling around in the after math, becoming easy prey for bored deities.
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