The Twilight Zone (TV Series) I Am the Night - Color Me Black (1964) User Reviews

"In all this darkness, is there anybody who can make out the truth?"

[classicsoncall · 8/10 · 26 August 2010]

This is one of the more compelling and provocative segments of The Twilight Zone, but it took me a couple of viewings to capture the nuance. Initially it's tough to get a good read on Jagger (Terry Becker), who's murder of a Klan White Knight is positioned as a cover up by the local authorities, including Sheriff Koch (Michael Constantine) and his bigoted Deputy Pierce (George Lindsey). Evidence pointing to a self defense argument has been discredited by witnesses in favor of convicting a man based on a community's bias. Jagger's description of the man he killed is that "He handled the whipping of some poor scared colored guy". So in that respect, Jagger might have been seen as going against the white citizenry at large in the name of racial equality.

But then things take a turn as Jagger is confronted by black Reverend Anderson (Ivan Dixon), who attempts to bridge the divide between men of different faith and different color. As the Reverend tries to comfort Jagger, the doomed man defiantly declares that he WANTED to kill and he enjoyed it. At that point, any evidence to the contrary convinces Reverend Anderson that Jagger WAS guilty. Scriptwise, Serling daringly allows Jagger to describe the lynch mob as 'you muckers', cleverly displacing a single letter to get Jagger's rant past the censors. This might have been one of Serling's more brilliant efforts.

The darkness theme to symbolize 'too much hate' was also cleverly used to place in context the state of the country and the world during this era of the Sixties. With blackness enveloping a busy street in Dallas (the Kennedy assassination), the Berlin Wall (Communism vs the Free World), Birmingham (race riots) and Viet Nam (still an under-reported conflict in a remote corner of the globe), Serling pin-points trouble spots teetering on the edge of the abyss, virtually begging for sanity to prevail and offer the opportunity for light to shine through the darkness.

I had a thought about Michael Constantine as I watched this story. With the right breaks he could have gotten the Rod Steiger role in 1967's "In the Heat of the Night". Not that he fared that badly in the long run, with a respectable career and a ton of TV and movie credits. Similarly, George Lindsey might have gotten the nod as Andy Griffith's deputy instead of winding up a Goober, but he just didn't show the personality here for it. Rounding out the cast, Paul Fix is competent in everything I've ever seen him in (surprised he wasn't the sheriff in this one). As for Terry Becker who portrayed Jagger, perhaps the 'ordinariness' of his appearance works against him; I can't recall a single other vehicle I might have seen him in. It's too bad, because I also can't think of any Western movie or TV character who faced the end of a rope with so much defiance and no regrets.

'A sickness known as hate.'

[darrenpearce111 · 7/10 · 26 December 2013]

Rod Serling had already written episodes that touched on assassinations of American Presidents. 'Back There' was about the night of Abraham Lincoln's murder. 'No Time Like The Past' included a meditation on whether or not to interfere with history by trying to prevent the assassination of James Garfield. Finally came the subject matter Serling did not expect to have - his response to the murder of John F Kennedy.

Without doubt this episode is preachy. At least Serling made sure 'The Twilight Zone' put it's head above the parapet on the subject of civil rights. At it's best the series was superb at revealing the dark side of human nature, though usually in a universal and timeless way. In this case the message concerns the present time and specific places. Michael Constantine holds the production together well as Sheriff Koch, while Terry Becker revels in the role of the condemned man, Jagger. Not a very good drama on the whole, the tone is of uncompromising disgust of racial hatred.

I think Rod Serling was right to pause great story telling and imaginative scenarios and urge reflection on such a great issue at such an important time.

Hate , cowardice and apathy

[kellielulu · 7/10 · 27 January 2023]

I won't go into much detail of the episode it's been covered. It's not an easy episode to watch and there is a feeling by many that it's too heavy handed. I understand it seems over the top or too preachy . I think by now though it's not such a bad thing that it's not subtle. There is definitely room for more subtle versions of how hate shapes society but sometimes it's not and I think that's what Serling was trying to say. It's not just hate either it seems every character has if not hate cowardice , an unwillingness to push back against hate because of their own self interest but also they lack moral backbone or fear unpopularity will ruin their livelihood. Then there is also apathy in particular the sheriff's wife in the opening scene. Not what you expect but it makes a point it's not only hate that is destroying everyone. Some of them feel some guilt they didn't do the right thing but they don't do anything to stop what will happen . So what's the point? Maybe to show it's not just the hate but the lack of bravery, compassion, kindness, altruism and honesty that's causing the darkness to spread and finally deepen. The end doesn't reverse it continues all over the world. There is no stopping it . Of course the literal darkness is a metaphor for what hate does to us something we do have the power to change .

One of the most powerful episodes

[mercury4 · 10/10 · 18 January 2014]

All I can say is what a great episode. It was such a great concept to have the sunlight go away and to have total darkness brought on by hate. This is a phenomenon. It's a happening. Maybe it is an act of God for all we know. But it's certain that people are to blame for the light going out. The writing was great and the ending was powerful. The music and the acting was also great. There were some great performances in here from Paul Fix as Colbey the news editor, Ivan Dixon as the Reverend Anderson, and Terry Becker as Jagger. Even Goober was great as Deputy Pierce.

I always know George Lindsey for playing Goober on The Andy Griffith Show, but in this episode, Lindsey plays someone so mean. This isn't Goober. More like an evil Goober. He perjures himself, hangs a man he knows is innocent, he's glad the man is going to hang, rubs it in, and is probably a racist along with the rest of the townspeople. He really was a good actor to make such a transformation into someone so bad. When he's taking pleasure in watching Jagger die and when he's telling off Colbey in one scene it comes off so convincing. The ending to this was so great and so effective. I also thought Becker gave the best performance next to Goober. Michael Constantine was okay as Sheriff Charlie Koch.

Constantine plays probably the weakest character. An innocent man was hung and he stood by and let it happen. He didn't speak up when there was evidence in the man's defense. He admits in the end how he wanted to get re-elected sheriff. Koch doesn't like that they are going to hang Jagger and knows it's wrong, but his attitude is basically that's just the way that it is. He shows remorse. Pierce shows none. Colbey even takes some responsibility in a way when he admits how he left things out when covering the story when they might've helped Jagger. Jagger was a great character and well played by Terry Becker. Jagger was different than the rest of the townspeople. He killed a Ku Klux Klan member in self-defense. Jagger was probably idealistic and he wasn't a racist. In the end he tells Colbey how the "cross burner and bomb thrower" is the hero to the townspeople and that he is the bad guy. He accepts that to the town, he is the "town kook, a "neurotic," "the one with the causes and banners," and the "village idiot who tries to be his brother's keeper." In the end, Jagger is angry and bitter and full of hate. He has become just as hateful as the people that have condemned him. He is defiant and tries to show his enemies that he's not sorry for what he did and he will accept his fate. But there is a powerful scene when he gets to the noose and looks at it and you can see that he is afraid and he knows it's curtains. Before Jagger is hung, he has an exchange with the Reverend Anderson that is classic. So beautifully written. When Jagger is finally hung, you really feel it. You don't even have to see it. Just the sound of him dropping and the sound of him swinging. Then of course there's also the music, the reaction of Ivan Dixon, and the reaction of the actors playing the mob when they gasp. The townspeople are vengeful and want blood from the start. But when Jagger finally does drop and hang there, all of that disappears. Then, in another great moment, the Reverend Anderson makes a speech to the townspeople to let them know why it's getting so dark. So effective and so beautifully written. Then Rod Serling's great closing narration puts the icing on the cake.

I am the Night- Color Me Black is one of the best episodes of the fifth season of The Twilight Zone and maybe even one of the best episodes of the whole series. It has top-notch writing, acting, directing, and music. I recommend this episode to everyone and especially to a Twilight Zone fan that has never seen it. Definitely check this one out.

Brilliant Timeless Screen Writing by Rod Serling

[jmarchese · 10/10 · 7 June 2014]

It's 7:30 AM and the sun has not risen in a small mid-western village. The village people have turned out in force to witness Jagger (excellently played by Terry Becker) hang for a murder which was probably self defense.

In contemporary times this execution would never take place because of the required automatic supreme court appeals. But it's the early 1960's, a time when racial prejudice dominated parts of our great US of A and jurisdictions did not fool around with murderers.

Dialogue is superb in this episode, a function of great screen writing by Rod Serling. When Deputy Pierce (played by George Lindsey) points out Jagger will be tended to, Sheriff Koch (played by Michael Constantine) in a moment of humility intones a very powerful and moving reply. Koch and Pierce have some excellent interactions while Editor Colbey (played by Paul Fix) digs away at Pierce. The best line however belongs to Reverend Anderson (played by Ivan Dixon) when debating the majority issue with Jagger --- truly timeless verbiage as modern today as then and destined to be for all time !

I'm not used to seeing George Lindsey play the bad guy but he does an excellent job here showing his versatility as an actor. Michael Constantine plays an excellent straight guy and is perfectly cast for the sheriff's role. Paul Fix is downright funny as he antagonizes Lindsey.

I Am The Night - Color Me Black is one of the very best Twilight Zone episodes ever done --- in the 99th percentile. Serling describes darkness covering various areas of the world simultaneously in reference to evil happenings of the era. He speaks a powerful message about a human sickness which all mortals can learn and grow from. If I was teaching a social science class, I'd play this episode for my students.

Again, I do not understand a 7.6 overall composite rating for this episode. Perhaps it reflects the growing secularism of our time.

Just as powerful in 2020 as it was in 1964.

[david-thor · 21 August 2020]

No spoilers; if you haven't taken the time to view this statement on hatred, please do; it's just as relevant now as it was centuries before Rod Serling wrote this, and it will likely, unfortunately, be just as true centuries from now if we manage to somehow not destroy ourselves before then.

A bit too preachy...

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 1 June 2010]

"I am the Night--Color Me Black" is not a particularly inspired episode. Now this is NOT to say that the acting is bad--it's actually quite good. The problem is that the plot comes off as very preachy. Instead of making the point subtly, it hits you over the head like a mallet--again and again.

The show begins with the Sheriff (Michael Constantine) and Deputy (George Lindsey--TV's Goober from "The Andy Griffith Show") readying for a hanging. It seems that a guy killed a White supremacist and Lindsey is taking a lot of pleasure in seeing the guy die! While not explicitly stated, it is inferred that this Deputy lied in order to convict the man of murder instead of manslaughter (or perhaps it was even self-defense). In fact, most of the folks in town seem pretty happy about the hanging--making this a rather horrid town. And, to show that God was not happy, the town is bathed in darkness in the daytime--and the darkness ONLY surrounds this town! Yet, oddly, the town goes ahead and executes the man--who, by the way, isn't repentant at all. Then, at the end of this very preachy show, there is word that other centers of hate around the globe are now bathed in darkness as well. Subtle? Nah!

There is little to note in the show other than a nice chance to see George 'Goober' Lindsey be evil, Ivan Dixon (of "Hogan's Heroes" fame) do a particularly nice job as well as an appearance by a wonderful character actor, Paul Fix, as the owner of a local paper that did nothing to see that justice was meted out that day.

Pointing out hatred is never "preachy"

[rayneal-28366 · 10/10 · 22 December 2021]

While this point of view is probably in the minority, compulsion dictates that this viewer finds this TZ quite poignant. However given the state of society today, no one wants to address hate or even acknowledge that it even exists. Kudos to Mr. Serling for having the "balls" and the temerity to approach the subject. Hopefully there some day may be a cure for the current COVID-19 pandemic but until we all look in the mirror, hate will be ever viral, ever cruel and ever lasting!!!!! Preachy? Depends on one's perspective doesn't it? No one is innocent as long as hate continues to exist!!! A thousand "pardons" if this opinion appears to be "preachy"

Who turned out the lights!

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 9 August 2010]

***Spoilers*** Somewhat preachy and predictable, despite its good intentions, "Twilight Zone" episode involving a man Jagger, Terry Becker, condemned to death and about to be executer for the murder of the town bully and Klu Klux Klan Imperial Wizard. Jagger killed the drunk and raging maniac when he attacked him with a broken beer bottle in a knock down and drag out brawl in the local saloon

As Jagger's execution is about to take place a darkness suddenly descends on the town that's utterly unearthly. It seems that someone upstairs feels that Jagger is being railroaded and want's that message to be known to the townspeople who are more then happy to see Jagger done in at the end of a rope. As the hour nears for Jagger's execution the towns local newspaper editor Colbey, Paul Fix, starts to get under the towns top law enforcer Sheriff Koch's, Michael Contantine, skin by bringing out the fact that the condemned man didn't exactly get a fair trial with Koch and his deputy Pierce, George Lindsey, withholding vital evidence from the jury. That suppressed information would have gotten Jagger off on a self defense defense strategy!

Being that Jagger's victim the Klansman was, from what the townspeople think of him, one hell of a guy Sheriff Koch wouldn't dare have Jagger let off in him having to stand for re-election and sure to lose if he wasn't convicted of nothing short of murder one! Jagger for his part is just sick and tied of all the commotion about his fate and is even more then willing to get it over with just so he can finally have the peace and quite that, with him being the center of attraction in all this, he so rightfully deserves.

Even the reverend of the local black Baptist Church Rev.Anderson, Ian Dixon, gets into the act in trying to get Jagger to repent his sins before, by being hung, he's to meet his maker. This has a by now, in having just abut all he can take of all this sermonizing, Jagger tell the good reverend to go fly a kite and tend to his flock, or congregation, and let justice finally be done! Even if by doing that an innocent man-Jagger-will end up going to the gallows!

***SPOILERS*** It's at exactly 9:30 Am when Jagger finally got his wish, by being executed, that the darkness that engulfed the town started to spread not only across the entire land but the world as well! In places like Dallas Texas Birmingham Alabama the Berlin Wall and even the entire nation of Communist North Vietnam just to name a few! And as this evil darkness started to spread it also intensified to the point that even the most naive of us, who didn't see or realize the meaning of it, finally knew what it meant and where it came from! An unquenchable and destructive evil that comes from the deepest and darkest recesses of our own hearts!

Nothing But The Dark

[telegonus · 10/10 · 14 September 2017]

I Am The Night--Color Me Black is a late fifth season entry of The Twilight Zone, written by Rod Serling, it's one of the many episodes of the series that not only channels the spirit of its time but comments on it. Written shortly after President Kennedy's assassination late in the previous year, and aired in early 1964, the story revolves around the issue of whether a man, guilty of murder, scheduled to be hanged, should be, as the man he killed was universally despised in the community; with the additional issue of the fact that the sun didn't raise that morning, the entire town being in pitch darkness, and what the meaning of all this is to the various characters in the story, notably the sheriff, his deputy,a newspaper editor and a minister, with the last named being black and yet his race not being mentioned as in itself an issue.

The entire episode plays like a nightmare from which one cannot awake, and as I ponder the matter it's consistent with many entries in the series in which people are trapped by circumstances beyond their control, which they do not, indeed cannot, understand, and how they respond to it. This was the case in the first episode broadcast in the series, and here, five years later, the theme is being reworked once again. In I Am The Night the predicament is more overtly symbolic than usual, as the nation was itself still reeling in the darkness of mourning over the death of its president, and in this rare instance author Rod Serling's lack of subtlety as a writer actually works in his favor, as he was the right man for the job of commenting on the malaise the country was in back then, and his straightforward approach to the issue feels now, even more than when this episode was initially shown, the right one for that time, in that moment.

To call I Am The Night--Color Me Black a time capsule would be an insult to all involved in the making of the episode. Even the more neutral snapshot doesn't feel quite right, either. It's too good for that, too powerful. Also, in its deliberate, unsophisticated aspects, in Serling's refusal to cater to the more educated viewer, its daring qualities, are all the more admirable more than a half-century since it was first broadcast.

Overblown Preachy Episode!

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 18 December 2008]

When I was in high school, my friends and I fancied ourselves writers. We often wrote stories, heavy in symbol. They were juvenile and preachy things. This offering is little more than that. The darkness in this thing uses common connections: the racial issue, but more than that, the darkness of the soul. The story has a guy like Rod Serling in jail, the day before his execution for killing a racist. He is a liberal reformer who has apparently taken the law into his own hands. The sheriff who didn't look at the evidence very carefully is full of angst. George "Goober" Lindsay is the deputy (not Barney Fife) who has a psychotic need to do harm and punish. He has also been less than truthful during the trial. He is a man of little moral character. The townspeople are the usual revenge seeking rabble. The kicker is that the sky has turned dark, and even in mid-morning is still black as ink. And it is just over this little town, not the rest of the country. Well, Ivan Dixon (Hogan's Heroes), is a black preacher and he delivers a trite, windy sermon to the town. The topic is serious, but the product is lacking.

Poignant and Candid for its Time

[lisawelchman · 10/10 · 7 September 2019]

Produced in the midst of the political assassinations of the 1960s, this episode of the beloved Twilight Zone series is a standout. When it was filmed and aired, this type of direct political talk about race relations in the US was not the norm for television. It was a brave endeavor and helped make a space for these types of topics to be regularly addressed on prime time television. While the themes and storyline may be obvious in some ways to a contemporary viewer, the subject of this episode is still relevant, and the moral rings true.

Social Plight Provides More Of A Polemic Than It Does A Story.

[rsoonsa · 5/10 · 25 November 2007]

Rod Serling wrote the script to this, the 146th episode of the popular Twilight Zone television series, and it includes the earmarks of most shorter Serling teleplays, i.e., a well-intentioned social consciousness theme (solidly performed here by the cast), in addition to sluggish and sticky narrative pacing, all done with earnestness that is eventually undone by his emphasis upon simplistic symbolism, as well as by a surfeit of zeal. A small-town sheriff (Michael Constantine) along with his deputy (George Lindsey) are making preparations to execute by hanging, in the town's central square, a convicted murderer, Jagger (Terry Becker) who has shot and killed an allegedly racist foe. Jagger, apparently the community's unpopular but primary liberal activist and general troublemaker, declaims of his feelings, as do all principals of the plot, including the local newspaper editor (Paul Fix, who garners the acting laurels), as a motley group of townsfolk gather to watch the administration of justice during a morning when the sun mysteriously fails to rise! Because the moral standards of homicidal Jagger are clearly upon the wrong side of the law in this instance, discussions of rectitude and ethics seem to be moot, with a result that the short (25 minute) film seems to a viewer to be somewhat longer than its actual length, an impression not lessened by pedestrian direction from veteran television hack Abner Biberman. Turning the coin, it must be noted that re-mastering of the piece for its DVD version is a model of visual and aural clarity, as is the case for the entire estimable series.

Powerful Episode

[legrand-walter5 · 10/10 · 1 January 2023]

This is one of my favorite episodes. It shows how racism is a disease that spreads. The darkness is still spreading and it continues to spread even though we live in better times. In a time of interracial relations we still have racism. Christians forget about Christ because of their hate for their fellow man. No matter how many times we see it or look at it in the mirror the darkness continues. Hating people we don't know just because they're different. I guess us hating each other continues to make others wealthy. This episode was powerful because we still have it going on today and it looks like it's never going to end.

Excellent story exempt for some dialog

[sprynx · 18 April 2015]

Before people think that I do not consider this one of my favorite episodes, let me emphatically say that it IS one of my favorites. The storyline was very daring for a television show of this time and the acting was superb by all players.

My only wish was that the dialog wasn't so stilted on certain areas and inappropriate for certain characters. The former was by the sheriff character when he's expressing his bewilderment over the sun not rising. It's only a brief moment but it was noticeable to me and I wish it had been redone a tad. The latter was when the deputy-an obvious redneck mouth breather type-is having an argument with the more educated newspaper editor. The deputy says a couple of lines of diatribe that just seems too linguistically dexterous for that kind of a character.

The dialog of the condemned man did not have such flaws. In fact , on it's own merits ,it makes the episode worth watching over and over again . I only wish there had been more of it, especially when he is revealing his anguish to the reverend and loathing to the crowd at the same time.

Why is Dallas mentioned at the end?

[BriceLSpears · 8/10 · 8 November 2013]

Of course the point is the Sun not rising in places full over Sin/Evil. Interestingly, at the end, they mention other places such as Berlin. Easy to figure out why Berlin was mentioned (b/c only a few years after World War II.) I think Moscow was also mentioned. That is also easy to understand for that timeframe.

But only when I re-watched last year did I figure out why Dallas was mentioned. this would have come out shortly after JFK was shot in Dallas.

So that one bad incident gave Dallas a bad reputation. WOW... Living in Dallas County, I didn't like it when I figure that out. :-(

So overdone it may have the opposite of it's intended effect...

[ronnybee2112 · 5/10 · 29 April 2021]

The best lessons are learned from direct experience. No amount of talk can replace a punch in the nose,for example.

If you are going to try to impart a verbal or video lesson to someone,you have to leave some blanks for the student to fill-in and figure-out for themselves. There IS such a thing as overdoing things,and Mr. Serling had a way of doing this occasionally. Subtlety and nuance are cast aside here and the messages are delivered like a sledgehammer on a rotten egg. Nobody likes being preached to,it is condescending and the preacher makes assumptions about those being preached to that may not be true.

Too Much Hate

[AaronCapenBanner · 5/10 · 8 November 2014]

Terry Becker plays a condemned man who was found guilty in a small town of an unpopular murder. The victim was considered a bully and a racist, but this seems to matter little, and as he faces his hanging, becomes a most embittered man. On the morning of the day in question, there is no dawn, only darkness, which seems to be spreading as the day wears on. The execution goes forward, but the angry and hateful residents have long since sealed their doom... Frustrating episode has a fantastic premise ripe for this series, but it all falls short because there is not one person here to root for, as the enveloping darkness doesn't have much dramatic impact, despite the sermonizing. Well intentioned, but a total misfire; a shame.

Rod Serling at his most didactic

[johandav · 2/10 · 23 March 2018]

Rod Serling was a brilliant man, and a brilliant writer at times. When he let his preachiness get the better of him, though, you can get an episode which is continually hitting you over the head with its message without an ounce of subtlety. In short, you get 'I am the Night - Color Me Black'.

Serling Mounts The Pulpit

[dougdoepke · 20 March 2017]

An inexplicable cloak of night refuses to lift on residents of a small town riven by hatred, while a condemned man awaits execution.

Though well acted, this entry could be the half-hour series' low point. Condemning hate is easy to do, but especially so when done in preachy fashion, as here. Then too, the facile approach connects condemnation with popular political villains of the time as though God is punishing the innocents of those countries and areas too-- Dallas (Kennedy), Berlin, Vietnam, are among those mentioned . Civil rights movements were much in the news at the time (1964) and clearly affect the narrative here. And though the entry's heart is in the right place, TZ's strengths did not lie in political preachments. Thank goodness this headline chaser does not typify that great sci-fi series.

You are the darkness

[Calicodreamin · 5/10 · 24 June 2021]

While a strong message is presented, the lack of effects and long winded speeches don't go with the typical twilight zone theme. Decent acting, but characters lacked the depth needed to make this drama memorable.

Darkness imprisoning us! All that we see, ... absolutely nothing!

[Coventry · 5/10 · 15 December 2022]

This might just be a personal impression of mine, but it seems that many episodes in the fifth season of "The Twilight Zone" have an exaggeratedly open ending (read: not an ending at all). "Steel" and "Black Leather Jackets" are two examples that come to mind, but this "I am the Night - Color me Black" has the most open ending of the entire series. It almost feels as if Rod Serling and his teams partially ran out of inspiration near the end. They still had bright ideas for stories, but not for endings.

And this episode sadly features another one of Serling's big weaknesses, namely that it's overly preachy and moralizing. The concept is fantastic! The sun refusing to rise and shine over a little town that is consumed by hatred, aggression, and wrath. There's the hanging of a man about to take place, but he didn't receive a fair trail and everyone in town who has the power to stand up against it refuses to do so. What happens in such cases in "The Twilight Zone"? Mother Nature stands up.

Again, great basic formula, but the moral of the story is tiresome and excessively used already in previous (and mostly better) episodes.

(Lyrics in the subject line are obviously borrowed from the awesome Metallica song "One")

Hatred and Darkness

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 3 November 2023]

In a small town in the racist Midwest of the USA, the prisoner Jagger will be hanged at 9:30 AM. However, the sun does rise and the town is mysteriously in the dark. While waiting for the scheduled hour, Sheriff Charlie Koch, Newspaper Editor Colbey and Deputy Pierce discuss Jagger's judgment where Deputy Pierce Perjured and Sheriff Koch omitted detail of the crime scene, while Colby did not expose the truth in his newspaper. Soon the time comes and Jagger is hanged in a crowded place. Why the place was taken by the darkness?

"I Am the Night - Color Me Black" is a weak episode of "The Twilight Zone". The main reason is that Rod Serling's story does not offer anybody for the viewers root for. If Jagger claimed innocence, the show would improve a lot. But everybody is corrupt and, in the end, there is only the message of hatred associated to the darkness. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Eu Sou a Noite" ("I Am the Night")

I Am The Viewer - Color Me Bored.

[BA_Harrison · 1/10 · 18 April 2022]

I Am The Night - Color Me Black is another Zone that revolves around a hanging (others being Execution, Dust and An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge), and as its pretentious title suggests, it's a pompous piece, one that struggles to say something profound about the nature of man.

In a small American town, convicted murderer Jagger (Terry Becker) is due to be hanged at precisely 9.30am. But something strange is also happening that morning that no-one can explain: the whole area is cloaked in darkness when it should be daylight.

Rod Serling is in full-on preachy mode for this dreary tale, but his message - that there is too much hate in the world - is merely stating the obvious. Next thing he'll be telling us that war is bad, or that fascism is wrong...

This time it isn't the Twilight Zone, it's the highly "original" Political Propaganda Zone.

[fedor8 · 8 June 2022]

First, I would like to thank the Delete Squad for motivating me to post all the many reviews that I hadn't uploaded yet.

"Dust" wasn't bad enough, so Serling decided to recycle that episode, make an even worse version of it.

Possibly the worst episode, along with the one that it rips off. It's got all the staples of Serling at his downright worst: preachy holier-than-thou monologues, simplistic cardboard characters, it is plodding and monotonous, and as usual it includes cringingly pretentious moralistic patronizing.

The episode is nothing but a very thinly-veiled liberal propaganda piece against the death penalty, portraying its opponents as intelligent and humane, its proponents as evil, dumb and primitive. About as realistic a portrayal of human nature as an Ed Wood film about cross-dressing, and about as perceptive and useful as Tim Leary high on LSD blathering about revolution.

Check out that dumb ending. God punishes humans with "darkness" because they have the death penalty. It's dumb beyond words, but a fitting conclusion to the utterly inept script.

It is a great shame that so many writers feel the need to "educate" their audiences, even within a pure-entertainment genre such as horror which primarily exists in order to ESCAPE from all the daily malarkey - which includes social issues and other baloney. If I wanted an education I'd get one. No, wait... I have one already... So why would I need Serling of all people to teach me how to think, how to vote, and how to be an "upstanding citizen". I need his political opinions in my TZ episodes like I need large angry sharks in my pool.

These righteous "moralists" were always deeply suspect to me. What lies behind this strong urge to preach? Ego-tripping? Fanatical idealism? What? Why can't fantasy and horror writers simply be content with the genre itself? Is the genre itself not enough for them? Do they even LIKE this genre? Must political propaganda and manic-street-preaching be that annoying ingredient in most movies and TV shows? I am so bored with clueless scribblers appointing themselves "the voice of reason".

One can include some basic morality in a story, that's perfectly fine, but what one should never do is use the horror genre to disseminate one's own political views, because frankly, I'm not going to vote how Hollywood's Left tells me to, ever. Never did, never will. They sure keep trying, but at least in my case I can safely say that the barrage of brainwashing I'd been subjected to (in well over 30 years of being a cinephile) have had zero effect. I know that this is NOT the case with most movie-goers and casual TV fans, that most have had their political beliefs finely tuned by confused writers, devious liars and paid propagandists. Such pushovers...

I'm surprised the show's fans didn't give this a much higher rating. It's the kind of "morally sound" nonsense that reviewers love.