The Worst Episode Of The Twilight Zone, In accordance To IMDb

We speak rather a lot round right here about the very best episodes of “The Twilight Zone,” an influential and heartfelt present that perfected the moralizing style story greater than half a century in the past. There is no scarcity of nice episodes of Rod Serling’s fantastical anthology collection, from still-timely political allegories like “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Road” to progressive twist-filled tales like “The After Hours” and “Eye of the Beholder” to episodes with nice punchlines, like “Time Sufficient at Final” (which was Serling’s private favourite) and “To Serve Man.” In relation to the query of which “Twilight Zone” episode is the very best one, there are a dozen or extra right solutions, however there’s one other query value asking that is equally loaded: what’s the single worst episode of “The Twilight Zone”?

You in all probability have a solution to this query in thoughts already. Regardless of its standing as among the best anthology collection of all time (and the greatest TV anthology collection, in our estimation), “The Twilight Zone” has loads of episodes that fall flatter than the toy soldier who topples to earth in “5 Characters in Search of an Exit.” The present’s fourth season particularly is filled with so-so episodes that stretch the bounds of viewers consideration spans whereas stretching compact tales into longer runtimes. Serling’s comical episodes usually miss the mark far more than its extra dramatic outings, relying an excessive amount of on foolish musical cues and clownish, overdone performances whereas scripts endure. Effectively over a dozen episodes of the landmark collection have been ranked with a 6.5 ranking or decrease by viewers on IMDb, however there’s one episode of “The Twilight Zone” that is extra hated by followers than every other: “The Bard.”

Because the present’s season 4 finale, “The Bard” is a fruits of each the present’s experiment with overlong episodes and years of misguided comedic efforts. The episode has an impressively poor 5.6 ranking on IMDb, with over 1600 viewers weighing in. Its closest competitors within the race to the underside is “Sounds and Silences,” a grating season 5 episode about an obnoxiously loud man whose sense of sound turns into disturbed after his spouse leaves him.

“The Bard” might not really be the worst episode of the collection (personally, I feel season 1’s “Mr. Bevis,” the laugh-tracked “Cavender is Coming,” the tasteless “I Dream of Genie,” and the awkwardly dubbed “The Bewitchin’ Pool” are all worse), however it’s fairly dangerous, and its placement on the finish of an exhausting season makes it really feel like a ultimate straw. The plot considerations a hack screenwriter (Jack Weston) who by chance will get into black magic, utilizing it to summon William Shakespeare (sure, actually) to write down the script for a TV present on his behalf. Shakespeare, performed by “Dial M For Homicide” actor John Williams, loses it when he finds out concerning the modifications made to his script on set, and the episode ends with the author conjuring up a complete host of historic figures — together with Ben Franklin, Robert E. Lee, and Pocahontas — for his subsequent undertaking. Additionally, Burt Reynolds exhibits up enjoying a personality named Rocky Rhodes.

Whereas some “Twilight Zone” episodes fall quick of their cultural commentary and others are painfully unfunny regardless of their comedic trappings, “The Bard” is generally simply witless. The protagonist’s motivations and logic really feel compelled, and the episode spends too lengthy hamming it up about Shakespeare’s current day look and making an attempt to make us snort with pushy, “humorous” sound results and music. If the fable has any lesson in any respect, it is about not taking shortcuts or maybe concerning the addictive pull of success and the strain of translating nice literary works to display screen (as Serling typically did). But, our foremost character learns nothing at story’s finish, and regardless of its ample runtime, the story feels underwritten, unfinished, and (the collection’ worst recurring sin) corny.

Regardless of its poor fashionable reception, “The Bard” hasn’t all the time been completely hated. In his authoritative e-book on the collection, “The Twilight Zone Companion,” creator Marc Scott Zicree praised the episode greater than as soon as. “With ‘The Bard,’ Serling pokes enjoyable on the medium of tv — the writers, the actors, the brokers, the executives and sponsors,” he wrote within the 1982 companion e-book. “Serling is on his residence turf right here, and one feels he took a scrumptious pleasure in penning this pleasant episode.” Zicree additionally calls the episode “each entertaining and correct,” however viewers at present clearly do not appear to agree. However regardless of all its faults, there may be at the very least a method during which “The Bard” has lately develop into extra prescient than painful: its ridiculous plot sounds identical to an advert for generative AI.