![]() While the citizens of Maple Street initially seem skeptical of this idea, misinformation and paranoia quickly spread throughout the community like wildfire. Upon further questioning, the boy reveals that he has read a story about an alien invasion that started with a similar phenomenon and that in the story the invaders had sent scouts in advance, disguised as human beings. Several others decide to head downtown and talk to the police department, only for a young boy to warn them that “they” don’t want them to leave the street. One neighbor goes to see if the neighboring streets have also lost power. The only thing that the meteor brings is a disruption to the consistency of their daily life. ![]() Important to note: none of the residents of Maple Street are physically harmed by this phenomenon nor do they face any sort of physical threat. A few minutes later, all the power on the block has gone out, as well as the phone lines and the radio. On this day though, something out of the ordinary happens: a meteor flies overhead, catching the attention of everyone on Maple Street. It’s the America of the American Dream: well-manicured lawns, cars parked in their driveways, mom in the kitchen, the kids playing outside-and, it should be noted, not a person of color in sight. We open on Maple Street, with an establishing shot that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the likes of Leave It To Beaver. Getting into the episode itself, the first thing that stands out is what an absolute master class the episode is in minimal world-building, escalation, tension, and pacing. Throughout 2022, I plan to revisit a great number of classic Twilight Zone episodes, and there is none more suitable to start the year off with than the episode that arguably remains the most relevant to this day. The episodes of that original run-written with an understanding of the past, an eye towards the future, and a keen, often grim awareness of human nature in both its beauty and its outright ugliness-accomplish something that very few pieces of media achieve: a true sense of timelessness, existing in a world all its own, one that is simultaneously alien and familiar, both nostalgic and all too frighteningly relevant. It’s also why I’ve never been on board with any of the attempts at reviving the series- The Twilight Zone isn’t a show that particularly needs updating, nor does it even necessarily need expanding upon. It’s also my favorite television series of all time, but that’s a personal thing and slightly less relevant to any discussion we might have. It’s one of the all-time landmarks of existential horror and quite possibly the only thing that I could say is philosophical horror-if such a thing exists. Episodes might strongly allude to real-world events and take place in worlds ever-so-slightly removed from the reality we inhabit, but ultimately they’re all stories about us -our ingenuity, our perseverance, our anxieties, and our capacity for both wonders and horrors in how we choose to treat our fellow man. Every episode of The Twilight Zone -the horror ones, the science fiction ones, the supernatural ones-is firmly grounded in the human experience. racially diverse) cities into more idyllic suburban areas-and the increasing momentum of the Civil Rights movement that those same white families saw as a threat to their suburban paradise.īut the beauty of The Twilight Zone -and why no show on television has, in my opinion, ever come close to having its scope or impact-is the universality of the themes and stories presented. ![]() When Rod Serling wrote “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” back in 1960, there were likely two real-world parallels on his mind: the Red Scare and McCarthyism of the late ‘50s, an ugly, often out of control witch hunt led by Senator Joseph McCarthy accusing prominent left-leaning members of the government and of Hollywood of being sympathetic towards communists and the so-called “ white flight” of postwar America, which saw white families increasingly move out of the “unsafe” (i.e.
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