tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post4587718437061811899..comments2024-03-27T10:27:59.266-04:00Comments on John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV: National Twilight Zone Day: "Nick of Time"John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-45035704188258825912017-05-11T14:06:34.754-04:002017-05-11T14:06:34.754-04:00What I appreciate most about "Nick of Time&qu...What I appreciate most about "Nick of Time" is that Don only overcomes his obsession when his wife expresses her contempt for his powerlessness. He hears her encouragement, understands her argument that the bobblehead speaks in generalities he receives as specific, but he only really listens to her at the point where her disdain makes it clear she will leave him if he doesn't seize control of his own mind and take responsibility for his actions and his life. Keeping her is finally more important to Don than his obsession to know the unknowable.<br /><br />Like many of Matheson's best stories, "Nick of Time" preys not just on human nature but on common experiences. Who hasn't toyed with Ouija boards and Magic Eight Balls, visited a carnival fortune teller or participated in a seance, had a rabbit's foot hanging from a keychain or rearview mirror, worn a St. Christopher's medal or kept a miniature statue of Jesus or Saint Mary on the dashboard? Even a silly, fun excursion into the supernatural becomes malignant at the point where our obsession to know the unknowable robs us of our agency.<br /><br />The Mystic Seer doesn't just issue ambiguous fortune-cookie generalities like the Magic Eightball, but is in and of itself ambiguous in design: he's a winking, smiling, jug-eared genie with a devil's horns, fangs, and eyebrows! The Seer is really shot from just about every angle, and of course the viewer's sense of his menace varies with angle and distance. When he's filmed in extreme closeup are those instances where his messages seem to exert the most direct and least ambivalent power on Don's mind; the napkin dispenser is eliminated from the frame and the Seer seems to be just hanging in space, laughing maniacally at Don.<br /><br />Sherinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-85607311622286627342017-05-11T13:39:54.568-04:002017-05-11T13:39:54.568-04:00John, great review, pre-Kirk Shatner was good in t...John, great review, pre-Kirk Shatner was good in this episode.<br /><br />SGBSGBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07137406272001346149noreply@blogger.com