Twilight Zone Zone Episode 12: “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” and “Nothing in the Dark”

Every week on The Twilight Zone Zone,we go down Donald Liebenson’s list The 26 Episodes We Talk About When We Talk About The Twilight Zone from Vanity Fair, chronologically by release date and compare two episodes and choose which one to recommend. This week we watched “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” and “Nothing in the Dark.”

 

“Five Characters in Search of an Exit”

The setup is a little bit Saw and a little bit Waiting for Godot: an Army major (William Windom) finds himself in a circular enclosure with no doors, no windows, and no ceiling. He has no idea who he is or how he got there. And he’s not alone; present, but more resigned to their situations, are a clown, a ballerina, a hobo, and a bagpiper. This episode gives new meaning to the eternal question, “Why are we here?” Your mileage may vary as to the ultimate answer, but the questions posed (“How long will we be here?” “What’s up there?”) are profound in or out of The Twilight Zone.

 

“Nothing in the Dark”

Many actors got their start on the Zone—none more famously than Robert Redford, who appears here as a policeman who is shot outside of the door of an elderly woman who refuses to leave her condemned apartment for fear of being taken by “Mr. Death.” For more before-they-were-big moments, see Robert Duvall in “Miniature,” Burt Reynolds in “The Bard,” and Charles Bronson in “Two.”

 

There are many paths in life, but which one will you travel down in the Twilight Zone, Zone…

Host: Nic Hoffmann

Panel: Matthew, Jeremy and Daniel