1.01 Evergreen

So it’s here we begin. On September 18th 2002, this was the episode that brought in the new age of Twilight Zone goodness. This - along with One Night at Mercy - was the first peek into TZ’s twenty first century revamp. I have no idea what the rest of the world thought of Evergreen, but this is my opinion on the premier episode of The Twilight Zone’s ultimately doomed resurrection.

The first noticeable thing about this episode is its protagonist. Teenage girls are rarely the focus of classic ‘Zone. In fact, it’s unusual to find many female-dominated episodes in the fifties incarnation at all. This version at least tries to rectify the gender imbalance with a number of female protagonists helming stories. The first is Amber Tamblyn, playing teenage super-bitch Jenna Winslow.

In the opening shot of this episode, Jenna and her family pull up to metal gates and are greeted by a friendly security man. The familiar and fondly remembered ‘doo doo doo doo’ music plays ominously in the background as the first line of the new series is uttered. “It’s so green.” Hmm, not exactly ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’, but I suppose it will have to do.

Goth Jenna has clearly raided Cliches ‘R Us for her wardrobe, which includes dyed hair, tattoos, piercings, slutty clothes and a hellish bad attitude. She goes so far as to helpfully inform the security man that “I have a sunflower on my ass if you’re interested.” The security guard decides he isn’t interested, and the family are told they’ll be living on Maple Street. (Did you get it? If you didn’t, then get out of my blog.)

Forrest Whittaker makes his first appearance as narrator, and though he certainly has presence, he lacks a certain quality that we shall dub Serlingity. The late, great Mr. Serling was not just the face of The Twilight Zone but also its primary creative force. Forrest is merely the presenter and this weakens the concept as a whole in comparison to the original.

Jenna has clearly driven her parents to distraction, and we later learn her crazy antics and awful dress sense have come close to literally killing her father. Jenna seems to care little for the effect she’s having on her family, and the only person Jenna shows any affection to is sweet (but unfortunately named) sister Jules. Their relationship is the most important thematic element in the episode, the good sister/ bad sister binary that gets turned on its head and back again throughout the half hour.

Jenna Winslow may not be the most sympathetic of characters, but the fact we witness her parents spike her orange juice within the first five minutes makes it hard not to sympathise with her, even it is only a miniscule amount. She may not be ideal, but already this seems bizarre and desperate behaviour. As she collapses on a bed, we go into the first title sequence of the new TZ. And remember how awesome the original one was?

This time, not so much. It looks like a prog rock music video from the eighties, and lacks any sense of eerie disjointedness the original managed to create. The logo is pretty bad too.

Jenna awakes after the title sequence to discover her individuality has been completely stripped away. Her parents have removed her dyed hair, tattoos, piercings (how long was she out for?) and replaced the clothes with the same beige and white ensemble that every other Evergreen kid is wearing. A Creepy Bearded Man (as he shall henceforth be referred to) informs Jenna that “Your parents love you very much” and stresses the importance of conformity in Evergreen.

Jenna storms out in time for a little chat with Jules, in which she expresses her desire to run away. When Jules reminds her how much their parents paid to get them to Evergreen, Jenna quips “Maybe they can get a refund.” Unfortunately Jenna, they’re about to. Later on, Jenna meets like-minded Logan (which must be an SF reference, surely?) and hears about the mysterious Arcadia facility. It was inevitable that I would mention the amusing co-incidence that Amber Tamblyn would later go on to star in Joan of Arcadia so here it is. (L0Ls) Logan and Jenna agree to meet in the woods for some good old-fashioned drinking ‘n’ drugs.

This incarnation of The Twilight Zone already has a different feel to its predecessor, no longer constricted to minimal sets and locations. By having a bigger budget and added location filming, it loses something of its charm. Having said that, one very positive element in this episode is the music, which very effectively compliments the scenes. A good example is the score as Jenna walks slowly through a crowd of Evergreen picnickers, all of whom seem happy and jovial while Jenna looks on unnerved. Jenna’s isolation is clear here, she’s not just separated from the residents of Evergreen but from the family unit as a whole. She watches as her sister hands their pleased father a gift.

Later that night, Jenna is watching CBM (see above) asking questions around the neighbourhood when Jules sneaks up on her. Jenna is horrified to find Jules reading Evergreen’s rulebook and throws it away – only for Jules to scurry and pick it up again. This is perhaps the moment which most emphasises Jules’s dependence on the Status Quo, as she clings fiercely to the rules no matter how morally questionable they may be. Tamblyn and Chantal Conlin create a genuine sense of warmth between the two sisters, which makes the approaching betrayal even more shocking and poignant.

Jenna sees Logan running terrified back to his home, banging the windows and shouting for his parents. As the trucks close in, he warns Jenna to ‘Run!’ before getting promptly tasered. This scene feels quite similar to old-school TZ, as we are presented with the idea of terrible things happening in the mundane normality of suburbia.

The following morning, Jenna surfs the web on her presumably forbidden laptop. Because this episode exists in a pre-facebook era, she's researching Arcadia rather than liking someone's status. Downstairs, CBM informs Mr and Mrs Winslow that Logan will be “Turning over a new leaf.” Pun-tastic foreshadowing there.

In a classic spooky/cheesy moment Jenna reveals that Arcadia Military Academy doesn’t actually exist in any form. Ever the conformist, Jules warns her not to do anything rash that would result in their parent’s financial loss and social exclusion from Evergreen.

Jenna ignores this and sneaks out (what were you expecting her to do?), and pops along to the local PTA meeting. Except it’s not so much organising fetes and coffee mornings as deciding whether a teenage delinquent gets to live or not. The sense of mundane suburbia adds to the twisted nature of what they’re doing, using black and white beads to vote whether Logan lives or dies. Jenna watches this with horror, and is miraculously not spotted through her awesome hiding place of a window. We’ll put it down to being a special window found only in….

Creepy Bearded Man makes a chilling speech that really hits home the message of the episode, telling Logan’s grieving parents that “We’ve saved plenty more than we’ve lost” and that even he has had to lose children in Evergreen. It’s the passive acceptance that makes it all the more shocking and unbelievable, when in reality we know this type of behaviour is very believable indeed.

Jenna watches Logan forced into the back of a truck, and Jenna chases after it. Horrified by what she sees, she breathlessly shouts “the sign! the sign!” as he is driven away. We don’t yet know what “the sign!” says, but Amber’s performance really sells it as something to be very scared of. Jenna rushes back for her sister, and they agree to fool the authorities so that the two can meet at the local park. She tells Jules that they’ll find a way out together.

Jenna waits, and Jules does show. But with the full weight of the Evergreen authorities behind her. Jules tearfully explains that ‘you were going to ruin everything again’ allowing her true resentment towards her sisters anti-social behaviour to come to the fore. A screaming Jenna is dragged into the truck, and as the doors close we see those fateful words ‘Arcadia Fertilizer Company.’ That’s right, in a twist only pot heads and pun-lovers could have seen coming; they are turning all the naughty teenagers into fertilizer. Obvious really, when you think about it. In all seriousness, it’s actually so bizarre and pointless that it becomes quite chilling. Poor Jenna is driven away to pastures new….*snigger*

In the final scene, the remaining and murderous Winslow’s are planting ‘Jenna’ while CBM oversees. The parents hold hands, and CBM says that this reminds us that “There’s something good in each and every one of us.” In people such as Jenna, that something good is apparently fertilizer. Papa Winslow strokes Jenna’s hair, and in possibly the most chilling moment of the episode, says “that’s my good girl.” Jenna smiles back, and the episode draws to a close.

CONCLUSION:

Evergreen is an extremely strong contender for best episode of the revamped TZ, exploring its oft-exploited theme of mass-psychology and conformity to authority. Though the unconventional Jenna Winslow initially seems like the ‘bad’ sister, she is justified in her rejection of Evergreen’s rules and is ultimately a logical and sensible character. Jules Winslow, who in contrast initially seems the good daughter, is so devoted to following rules and obeying authority that she causes and condones the murder of her own sister. This seems proof that morals are truly decided by the society in which they exist; in the context of Evergreen, Jules did absolutely nothing wrong and remains the 'good' sister.

It’s not hard to find similar stories in the catalogue of classic ‘Zone, such as Eye of the Beholder or Number 12 Looks Just Like You, which condemns mass conformity and questions who makes these all-important decisions on who gets to fit in and who doesn't. While those episodes focused on cosmetic conformity, Evergreen explores the much-maligned rebellious teenager and the media’s often hysterical reaction to juvenile delinquency. It may be a blasphemous thing to suggest, but I’m tempted to say this is the sort of thing Mr. Serling would have penned had he been writing in the early noughties.

Unloved and Forgotten - Is Twilight Zone .3 worth a second go?

Have you ever heard of that show, The Twilight Zone?

That was a stupid question, because of course you have. It is one of the television programmes of the twentieth century. Influential, challenging, subversive and any other number of sycophantic adjectives can be directed towards the 156 episodes it produced. Its infamous twist endings and intelligent concepts have remained in our collective consciousness for decades after broadcast, with people born years after still having a vague idea of the one where all the nurses look like pigs.

The original Twilight Zone began on October 2^nd 1959 and ended its run almost five years later on June 19^th 1964. This version of the show is widely considered the best and most influential, with many tales becoming televison classics. Think of the little boy with terrifying powers, the aliens causing paranoia in the suburbs or even Captain Kirk seeing gremlins through a plane window. This is the definitive Twilight Zone, and its monochrome tones and contained sets add to the claustrophobic and eerie atmosphere it so successfully created. The series is also largely remembered due to its iconic narrator, smooth-talking, smart-suited smoker Rod Serling. His sharp delivery, dark observations and oblique introductions are as much part of the show as the stories themselves, and his gravitas is enhanced with the knowledge that he also scripted a number of the stories, as well as serving as an executive producer.

The Twilight Zone was hugely influential, but like all good things had to come to its natural conclusion. After a mediocre film in the eighties, it resurfaced as a television show and ran for three seasons. Critical opinion on this seems to be mixed, with most agreeing that it doesn’t hold a light to the original but still has some merits of its own. It would be fourteen years before another revival was attempted, and it is this incarnation of the show that I’ll be looking at in this blog.

In 2002, broadcaster UPN resurrected The Twilight Zone for another throw of the dice. Critical and audience reaction was pretty negative, with many viewing it as a thoroughly pointless remake of a classic show. It’s telling that internet searching throws up very little critical opinion, implying it was greeted with indifference rather than hatred. It’s likely to be forgotten from the annals of television history, judged as an embarrassing blip on The Twilight Zone’s previous record of excellence. It is largely unloved by fans, and appears to have very few championing it.

So wouldn’t it just be a marvellous subject for a blog? Yes, yes I think it would.

I’ll be re-watching all forty four episodes of the 2002 Twilight Zone, and deciding whether it deserves its pretty appalling reputation. Is it worthy of its unloved status or are there some episodes worthy of merit and discussion? Can any of the episodes match up to the classics of the first incarnation and can Forest Whittaker ever replace the legendary Rod Serling as narrator?

You may have made your mind up about this already. And I say you for no particular reason, as I cannot see this blog having many readers. Unfortunately, I think it is doomed to be as unloved as its subject matter and will go largely unnoticed on the world wide interweb. Regardless of who’s reading, this is my attempt to watch every single episode, wiping the dust from my boxset and watching even those episodes that you can gather are awful simply by reading the synopsis.

Everything from pop culture to politics will get a look in as I attempt to analyse the episode, perhaps sometimes finding that there’s nothing worth analysing at all. I’ll be following the order the episodes aired rather than their production order, so starting with Evergreen, rather than The Lineman.

So, this is it.. We're about to journey into a wondrous blog whose boundaries are only that of the imagination. A blog, only found…in The Twilight Zone.