the twilight zone

the twilight zone

Most people ring in the new year by staying up late and getting really drunk.  But there are other ways to complete your year. Don’t let arbitrary traditions get you down.  If you’re not a drinker, or just want to put 2017 to bed in a more peaceful way, we’ve got a suggestion for you.  Why not have some kind of TV or movie marathon?  If that’s more of your jam, we recommend a Twilight Zone marathon.  You can watch these on your own time, through Netflix or Amazon Prime.  We are going to recommend times to watch each episode and which episodes to watch.  If you don’t have an entire day to spend on the Twilight Zone, at least tune into a few episodes.

What’s interesting about the Twilight Zone is that each episode is grounded by questions of morality, which force us to confront our own definitions of right and wrong. After this 16 hour marathon, you will be good and ready to pass out.  Happy new year everyone!

Sunday, December 31st, 4:00 AM ET: The Howling Man

The episode where there’s this dude that howls to be let out of his prison cell but you probably shouldn’t let him out of his prison cell.

Sunday, December 31st, 4:30 AM ET: Where is Everybody?

The episode where a test pilot doesn’t remember where he is and has no idea why the town he’s wandering is vacant.

Sunday, December 31st, 5:00 AM ET: The Thirty-Fathom Grave

The episode where a US Navy crew from the 1960s think they might have found a sunken submarine from World War II.

Sunday, December 31st, 5:30 AM ET: Mirror Image

The episode where a woman waiting for a bus starts seeing her doppelganger at the bus station but she’s not sure what to do about it.

Sunday, December 31st, 6:30 AM ET: The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank

The episode where a man wakes up at his own funeral which is super confusing because everybody thought he was dead.

Sunday, December 31st, 7:00 AM ET: A Piano in the House

The episode where a theater critic buys a player piano and the theater critic has a creepy beard so you can tell he’s a bad dude.

Sunday, December 31st, 7:30 AM ET: The Bard

The episode where TV sponsors literally rewrite Shakespeare and Rod Serling takes some not so subtle jabs at both hack TV writers and the advertisers who want to dictate what he gets to put on the air.

Sunday, December 31st, 8:30 AM ET: The Rip Van Winkle Caper

The episode where criminals steal a bunch of gold and then put themselves in suspended animation so that they can spend their gold in the future and give it to Ron Paul 2012.

Sunday, December 31st, 9:00 AM ET: Escape Clause

The episode where a man sells his soul to the devil in exchange for an incredibly long life which will not backfire on him at all.

Sunday, December 31st, 9:30 AM ET: Shadow Play

The episode where a guy keeps having a nightmare that he’s on Death Row.

Sunday, December 31st, 10:00 AM ET: The Obsolete Man

The episode where a librarian in a futuristic totalitarian dystopia goes on trial.

Sunday, December 31st, 10:30 AM ET: The Mirror

The episode where a guy who looks an awful lot like Fidel Castro discovers that a magic mirror can tell him where his next assassination attempt might be coming from.

Sunday, December 31st, 11:00 AM ET: The Little People

The episode where two astronauts land on a planet of tiny people and one astronaut decides to rule them as a god which goes about as well as you’d expect.

Sunday, December 31st, 11:30 AM ET: A Quality of Mercy

The episode where a ruthless white American soldier finds himself on the other side near the end of World War II.

Sunday, December 31st, 12:00 PM ET: Valley of the Shadow

The episode where a reporter stumbles upon a small town where everybody is acting weird and they’ve all got magic healing and duplicating technology that they won’t share with the outside world.

Sunday, December 31st, 1:00 PM ET: The Prime Mover

The episode where a compulsive gambler goes gambling with a friend who can change things with his mind.

Sunday, December 31st, 1:30 PM ET: Back There

The episode where an accidental time traveler has an opportunity to stop the Lincoln assassination.

Sunday, December 31st, 2:00 PM ET: The Lateness of the Hour

The episode where a woman is horrified by her father’s humanoid robot servants, but it’s all cool because you get to hear Rod Serling pronounce “robot” all funny like they did in the 1960s.

Sunday, December 31st, 2:30 PM ET: The Fever

The episode where a gambler becomes obsessed with a particular slot machine.

Sunday, December 31st, 3:00 PM ET: The Midnight Sun

The episode where the sun never sets and the heat is unbelievably oppressive but there’s a twist and I bet you can’t guess what it is.

Sunday, December 31st, 3:30 PM ET: The Arrival

The episode where a plane lands at an airport without any pilots, passengers or crew.

Sunday, December 31st, 4:00 PM ET: The Grave

The episode where an old lawman visits a grave of an old baddie but really wishes he hadn’t.

Sunday, December 31st, 4:30 PM ET: Five Characters In Search of An Exit

The episode that clearly inspired Saw but without all the super gross stuff, but it does have a creepy clown so there’s that.

Sunday, December 31st, 5:00 PM ET: Nothing in the Dark

The episode where an elderly woman worries that Robert Redford might be Death, finally coming for her.

Sunday, December 31st, 5:30 PM ET: The Lonely

The episode where a prisoner living on an asteroid falls in love with a robot woman.

Sunday, December 31st, 6:00 PM ET: The Bewitchin Pool

The episode where two kids can access a magical land through a portal in the bottom of their swimming pool.

Sunday, December 31st, 6:30 PM ET: Person or Persons Unknown

The episode where a guy wakes up but no one — not even his wife — seems to know who he is.

Sunday, December 31st, 7:00 PM ET: Hocus Pocus and Frisby

The episode where a pathological liar gets abducted by aliens who think he’s the smartest man on Earth.

Sunday, December 31st, 7:30 PM ET: Stopover in a Quiet Town

The episode where a couple wakes up in a strange town and try to figure out what they did last night after partying too hard.

Sunday, December 31st, 8:00 PM ET: It’s a Good Life

The episode where children are again shown to be history’s greatest monsters.

Sunday, December 31st, 8:30 PM ET: A Kind of Stopwatch

The episode where a man has a watch that can stop time.

Sunday, December 31st, 9:00 PM ET: I Sing the Body Electric

The episode where a robot grandmother is written by Ray Bradbury.

Sunday, December 31st, 9:30 PM ET: The Invaders

The episode where a rural woman is terrorized by alien invaders that definitely aren’t from Earth.

Sunday, December 31st, 10:00 PM ET: The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

The episode where everybody turns on each other when mysterious things happen and it’s probably aliens or Communists or something.

Sunday, December 31st, 10:30 PM ET: The Dummy

The episode where a ventriloquist thinks his dummy is alive which seems to be a recurring theme in the Twilight Zone.

Sunday, December 31st, 11:00 PM ET: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet

The episode where Captain Kirk starts seeing something on the wing of a plane that’s probably just a teddy bear that’s come to life oh god why is he shooting at it oh god why.

Sunday, December 31st, 11:30 PM ET: The Masks

The episode where greedy people must wear ugly masks for a night to claim their inheritance.

Monday, January 1st, 12:00 AM ET: Of Late I Think of Cliffordville

The episode where an evil old business tycoon sells his soul to go back in time, return to his hometown, and build his empire all over again, but nothing works out quite the way he thought.

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