tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post910501285808558720..comments2024-03-17T07:11:44.454-04:00Comments on John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV: National Twilight Zone: Season Five (Underrated but Great)John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-27164624231887532992016-05-11T20:57:40.519-04:002016-05-11T20:57:40.519-04:00I agree with your choices, and especially with &qu...I agree with your choices, and especially with "Nightmare" as one of the perfect half-hours in TV history. William Shatner gets grief for his supposed overacting, which I've never agreed with--the better written the role, the better he generally is--but his subtlety in this episode is what makes it, in my opinion. That moment when he suddenly suspects the FBI agent of agreeing with him to patronize him is one of the finest penny-dropping moments ever caught on film. <br /><br />It isn't the universality of the fear of flying that makes this episode great; it's the petrifying fear of being thought crazy because of a unique experience. It's the ambiguity of Wilson's precarious state of mind that lends extra stakes to this episode--even he isn't sure whether he's really recovered and actually seeing the gremlin, or having another breakdown. And though the audience finally knows at the end that Wilson's vision was real, we don't know if he is ever cleared.<br /><br />Shatner in the 50's and 60's developed quite a portfolio of playing these trapped, desperate, internalized characters in nearly every available TV series, and Richard Matheson specialized in just that type of central character. I am just as fond of Season Two's "Nick of Time" as of this episode for that reason. What a great screenwriter Matheson was!<br /><br />Sherinoreply@blogger.com