This has to be one of the weirdest episodes I have ever seen. A family moves to a place called evergreen, because of there troubled child. Evergreen is a safe haven from rock, rap, ghettos, and the offensive. It is the crime free, hate free community, but far from perfect. There troubled child has tattoos, dyed hair, and is a typical punk. She gets drugged in the lemonade she drank, and had her dye, tattoos, and offensive clothes removed from her. She later sneaks out with a boy who gets dragged of by Arcadia, which he believes is a tough military school. He is not heard of again. His family later plants a tree, though, for a hint. The girl tries to escape to, but is also dragged of by Arcadia, because her little sister told the parents the location of her, who told the community, who told Arcadia. She is locked in the "cell" of a van. Has the truck moves aways, the camera zooms' in on the back of the van, which is labeled "Arcadia Fertilizer Company". Scary, huh? At the end, you actually see her family planting a tree with her has the fertilizer. Overall, this a O.K episode, but the only "freaky" part is when you see the van carrying her off.
13 Reviews
Juvenile justice
safenoe27 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Amber Tamblyn stars in Evergreen, an episode of the second reboot of the Twilight Zone. I notice the reboots happen around every 17 years so I guess an actuary will predict that the fourth reboot will be in 2036 hosted by who knows who. Maybe Eddie Murphy or another distinguished comic.
Anyway, the ending is quite chilling and really puts a new spin on juvenile justice and the root causes (pardon the pun) of it.
Interestingly, comedian David Cross was nearly 40 when this episode was screened. Later on he married Amber Tamblyn, who was nearly 20 when this episode was screened.
Anyway, the ending is quite chilling and really puts a new spin on juvenile justice and the root causes (pardon the pun) of it.
Interestingly, comedian David Cross was nearly 40 when this episode was screened. Later on he married Amber Tamblyn, who was nearly 20 when this episode was screened.
Making good use of bad conduct
kapelusznik1810 December 2015
Warning: Spoilers
****SPOILERS**** In what looks like a futuristic way of straighting out rebellious youths the Winslow family together with their two out of control daughters Jenna & Joyce, Amber Tamblyn & Elleen Pedde, are invited to live in the gated and gulag like Evergreen Estates which will turns things around for them. It costs the Winslow's their entire life savings but if the two girls get over their rebellious attitudes towards society it's well worth it. And if they don't get cured or break the estates rules the Winslows can very well end up the river without a paddle financially!
It's Jenna who refuses to get with the program first getting involved with another youth at the estate Logan,Jesse Moss, who's later taken away fore breaking the 10PM curfew and never seen again to this place called "Arcadia Militery School". Jenna in an attempt to break out of the Evergreen Estates and go back to her previous life of drugs sex and just plain hanging around and doing nothing tries to get her sister Joyce to join her.
***SPOILERS*** Poor and a bit naive Jenna should have learned her lesson in what happened to Logan but as usual, in thinking she's smarter then everyone else, she didn't. Joyce instead of checking out with her reported Jenna to the man who runs the estate Cliff Brooks,Paul Perri. as well as her parents. Now with no place to go Jenna has to face the consequences for her actions. That has her like Logan end up as a potted plant- In perfect military formation- at the Evergreen Eatates to bee watered down daily as well as trimmed and looked after by those fellow rebellious but recovering young people that are confined there.
It's Jenna who refuses to get with the program first getting involved with another youth at the estate Logan,Jesse Moss, who's later taken away fore breaking the 10PM curfew and never seen again to this place called "Arcadia Militery School". Jenna in an attempt to break out of the Evergreen Estates and go back to her previous life of drugs sex and just plain hanging around and doing nothing tries to get her sister Joyce to join her.
***SPOILERS*** Poor and a bit naive Jenna should have learned her lesson in what happened to Logan but as usual, in thinking she's smarter then everyone else, she didn't. Joyce instead of checking out with her reported Jenna to the man who runs the estate Cliff Brooks,Paul Perri. as well as her parents. Now with no place to go Jenna has to face the consequences for her actions. That has her like Logan end up as a potted plant- In perfect military formation- at the Evergreen Eatates to bee watered down daily as well as trimmed and looked after by those fellow rebellious but recovering young people that are confined there.
"... if we have to toss out a few bad apples, I'd say it's worth it."
classicsoncall16 February 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I presume this story in the rebooted Twilight Zone series originally aired as a single episode; I caught a streaming version of it last night where it was combined with 'One Night at Mercy'. It's a compact little story requiring only twenty-one minutes to tell, so it gets to its stunning conclusion rather quickly. You can probably make a mild comparison to the original Rod Serling episode titled 'To Serve Man' for the twist ending, if that's how you want to characterize it. There's also some resemblance to the 1973 film "Soylent Green", which is kind of interesting because this one took place in the heavily gated community of Evergreen, which welcomes its guests with the sign 'Our Children Are Our Greatest Resource'. I thought the penalty for Jenna Winslow's antagonistic behavior was rather extreme, and I don't think Serling would have been comfortable with the idea. Perhaps he would have gone with Arcadia being a military academy, but I think he would have drawn the line against a waste recycling plant.
Desperate Actions
Hitchcoc6 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
So the parents felt that they needed to bring this child (formidable as she was) to this horrible place. We are told they had tried everything, but had they really? Everything plays out as one would suspect. She is not going to accept the rules and consequences of this place (as she sees them, of course). She is going to rebel and her behavior is quite predictable. The parents are utterly to blame here. I'm sure that many would say she had it coming; why wouldn't she conform? Anyway, it doesn't get much more stark than the conclusion of this episode is. She pays the ultimate price and becomes what. This is sick and inhuman.
Arcadia school or something else!!!
elo-equipamentos9 February 2020
As a great fan of the classic Twilight Zone series this opening episode should be better in my opinion, Evergreen is sort of private condominium ruled by severe laws of behavior, the Willows taken his family to live there, hoping refurbish his teenager older girl Jenna from the drugs, tattoos and forestall her of inspiration of devil music, there she meets a neighbor young guy Logan Agar in same status, however soon he is arrest to be trial by the leader's comunity security and send by a reformatory school called Arcadia, then Jenny research about this unknown school and finds anything about, she and his younger sister settles a plain to escape from there, therefore...well see by yourself, sadly not in the same level of the classic Rod Serling's series!!!
Resume:
First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7
Resume:
First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7
The Ending Ruined it for Me
IBodyslamRhinos27 April 2015
Warning: Spoilers
As a fan of the original "The Twilight Zone", I was against the idea of a revival, this led to me avoiding this series for a long period of time, before I eventually sat down and watched the first episode of this series, which is the above titled "Evergreen".
I went into this with a clear view, I wasn't going to immediately judge the episode, I'd watch it all the way through and give it my final thoughts. It wasn't bad... until the ending came.
The ending was a big problem for me. I'm all for seeing bad endings, a lot of the older series episodes had them, generally my problem was with how it was handled overall. In that Jenna, is presented as a rather "innocent" teenager, isn't doing any harm to anybody during all of this. She's your typical teenager that's going through a phase that should eventually pass... only for her to end up in perhaps one of the most gruesome endings within the franchise.
Problem with this for me was, in the original, when someone met a gruesome fate, it was because they really were doing something wrong, they were shown to carry at least one of the Deadly Sins which eventually led to their fate, or they had some sort of flaw to them, that made you want to seem them get their comeuppance because of it. This, isn't the case, you're seeing a rather innocent girl (who didn't really do anything to deserve the ending she got), end up dead.
Now I keep saying the word "innocent" but the episode never shows Jenna doing anything that wrong. In the case of Logan, he was killed because he stabbed and beat up a guard, alright, however that's a lot worse than Jenna trying to escape, outside of that she doesn't present anything that would make reason for such a gruesome kind of ending. I also didn't find logic in the fact that Logan (who beat down a guy) was shown to have a trial to decide his fate and Jenna, is simply dragged into the van and taken away, no trial is shown, she's just taken immediately.
The ending however was the only thing that made this episode less than enjoyable. I loved this episode otherwise, the build up was nice, the character interaction was alright, the writing needed a lot of work though, there were a lot of inconsistencies with this one. The twist at the end was alright, I didn't like how it ended, but I'll give credit to the twist. As well as the twist of the younger sister turning on the older one because she's always 'messing things up', it's sort of ironic, when you consider that Jenna was supposed to be the 'bad seed' when in reality, she's pretty normal, compared to Jules who actually does become the 'bad seed' because of the community around her.
I think the biggest thing that bothered me about this episode might be the struggle that's pretty much shut down completely by the end of it. Jenna throughout the episode attempts to hold onto her personality and who she is, while Jules is the opposite seemingly falling right in line with the line of thinking. There isn't any big lesson, there isn't any development in the character, just the logic of "You're impossible to 'fix' so you must die. You're different, you must die." It certainly comes off as more of a twisted "Eye of the Beholder" (which I find ironic because I noticed this series has a remake of that very episode, go figure). However, the ending does nothing for Jenna, you spend 30-minutes watching her, and the end result just leads to her dying, after watching her claw to maintain her personality. Something as simple as an exact escape would have worked out great, it could have had an even bigger lasting impact on her life, instead she's just killed, which kind of makes the entire episode rather counterproductive.
Performance wise.. Amber Tamblyn steals this episode, while the dialogue can be a little awkward, she managed to work into it a strong performance. Her final scene within the episode was easily the best, almost chillingly real (which I'll admit was partially the reason why the ending did bother me) and hit-the-mark on the big reveal and what was going to happen in the situation.
The episode doesn't really have any moral or message to it, which I was kind of hoping that it might. This episode basically comes down to a creepy tale that honestly did make me think of "Goosebumps" only with an even more twisted kind of ending.
I would have preferred something else to end this episode, this isn't the kind of episode that should end in a death like that, especially considering the character of Jenna doing virtually nothing wrong within this episode. This episode makes for a good kind of scary story, but, I don't feel like this is the kind of episode that works well in this kind of series, it lacks a lot of the elements of what makes "The Twilight Zone, "The Twilight Zone".
All-in-all, just an episode that didn't end well nor fit for me. Good otherwise, but the ending really made an episode that could have been really strong and interesting, very lackluster
I went into this with a clear view, I wasn't going to immediately judge the episode, I'd watch it all the way through and give it my final thoughts. It wasn't bad... until the ending came.
The ending was a big problem for me. I'm all for seeing bad endings, a lot of the older series episodes had them, generally my problem was with how it was handled overall. In that Jenna, is presented as a rather "innocent" teenager, isn't doing any harm to anybody during all of this. She's your typical teenager that's going through a phase that should eventually pass... only for her to end up in perhaps one of the most gruesome endings within the franchise.
Problem with this for me was, in the original, when someone met a gruesome fate, it was because they really were doing something wrong, they were shown to carry at least one of the Deadly Sins which eventually led to their fate, or they had some sort of flaw to them, that made you want to seem them get their comeuppance because of it. This, isn't the case, you're seeing a rather innocent girl (who didn't really do anything to deserve the ending she got), end up dead.
Now I keep saying the word "innocent" but the episode never shows Jenna doing anything that wrong. In the case of Logan, he was killed because he stabbed and beat up a guard, alright, however that's a lot worse than Jenna trying to escape, outside of that she doesn't present anything that would make reason for such a gruesome kind of ending. I also didn't find logic in the fact that Logan (who beat down a guy) was shown to have a trial to decide his fate and Jenna, is simply dragged into the van and taken away, no trial is shown, she's just taken immediately.
The ending however was the only thing that made this episode less than enjoyable. I loved this episode otherwise, the build up was nice, the character interaction was alright, the writing needed a lot of work though, there were a lot of inconsistencies with this one. The twist at the end was alright, I didn't like how it ended, but I'll give credit to the twist. As well as the twist of the younger sister turning on the older one because she's always 'messing things up', it's sort of ironic, when you consider that Jenna was supposed to be the 'bad seed' when in reality, she's pretty normal, compared to Jules who actually does become the 'bad seed' because of the community around her.
I think the biggest thing that bothered me about this episode might be the struggle that's pretty much shut down completely by the end of it. Jenna throughout the episode attempts to hold onto her personality and who she is, while Jules is the opposite seemingly falling right in line with the line of thinking. There isn't any big lesson, there isn't any development in the character, just the logic of "You're impossible to 'fix' so you must die. You're different, you must die." It certainly comes off as more of a twisted "Eye of the Beholder" (which I find ironic because I noticed this series has a remake of that very episode, go figure). However, the ending does nothing for Jenna, you spend 30-minutes watching her, and the end result just leads to her dying, after watching her claw to maintain her personality. Something as simple as an exact escape would have worked out great, it could have had an even bigger lasting impact on her life, instead she's just killed, which kind of makes the entire episode rather counterproductive.
Performance wise.. Amber Tamblyn steals this episode, while the dialogue can be a little awkward, she managed to work into it a strong performance. Her final scene within the episode was easily the best, almost chillingly real (which I'll admit was partially the reason why the ending did bother me) and hit-the-mark on the big reveal and what was going to happen in the situation.
The episode doesn't really have any moral or message to it, which I was kind of hoping that it might. This episode basically comes down to a creepy tale that honestly did make me think of "Goosebumps" only with an even more twisted kind of ending.
I would have preferred something else to end this episode, this isn't the kind of episode that should end in a death like that, especially considering the character of Jenna doing virtually nothing wrong within this episode. This episode makes for a good kind of scary story, but, I don't feel like this is the kind of episode that works well in this kind of series, it lacks a lot of the elements of what makes "The Twilight Zone, "The Twilight Zone".
All-in-all, just an episode that didn't end well nor fit for me. Good otherwise, but the ending really made an episode that could have been really strong and interesting, very lackluster
Much darker than what you would have seen in the original series...and I'm okay with that.
planktonrules12 February 2022
"Evergreen" is a rather shocking and brutal episode of the rebooted early 2000s "Twilight Zone" series. It's the first and only episode I've seen so far and while I did enjoy it very much, it's much more brutal and dark than the shows from the original series.
A family moves into a gated community called Evergreen. It soon becomes obvious that their oldest daughter is a real piece of work. She apparently burned down her school, acts very gothy, is incredibly negative and very rebellious. In short, she's the sort of teen most parents would incarcerate or disown! And, the show did a great job of making you hate her.
From the start, the girl is intent on breaking the rules or escaping what is essentially a compound...or a prison-like 'perfect' community. And, she seems to not care one bit who she hurts to escape...and she obviously is trying to lead her younger sister in the wrong direction. So what's next? Well, I won't say as I don't want to ruin it...but it's shocking!
As a former therapist and teacher, I could actually empathize A LOT with the parents in this one. Some kids just seem to need 'the Evergreen treatment'! Well made and it made me want to see more!
A family moves into a gated community called Evergreen. It soon becomes obvious that their oldest daughter is a real piece of work. She apparently burned down her school, acts very gothy, is incredibly negative and very rebellious. In short, she's the sort of teen most parents would incarcerate or disown! And, the show did a great job of making you hate her.
From the start, the girl is intent on breaking the rules or escaping what is essentially a compound...or a prison-like 'perfect' community. And, she seems to not care one bit who she hurts to escape...and she obviously is trying to lead her younger sister in the wrong direction. So what's next? Well, I won't say as I don't want to ruin it...but it's shocking!
As a former therapist and teacher, I could actually empathize A LOT with the parents in this one. Some kids just seem to need 'the Evergreen treatment'! Well made and it made me want to see more!
Classic opener
lafeber7 December 2019
Bad parenting
sedenhansen-618492 January 2017
Warning: Spoilers
A very old-testament take on how to rear children; sort of Dobson on steroids - forget "dare to discipline", this is "dare to execute"! As other reviewers pointed out, the extremes to which the parents and community of Evergreen go to punish deviations from the imposed norm and infractions to the rules are chilling/horrifying. Plus, it notably lacks the sense of justice or karmic symmetry for which the original series was so famous. All in all, quite a dark tale.
This story bears remarkable similarities to the 1998 film "Disturbing behavior", in which the parents in an isolated town also go to extremes to create "good" kids, and the X-Files episode "Arcadia", in which a planned community's homeowner's rules are enforced though deadly (and supernatural) means.
Lastly, I know budgets are limited, but the episode should have contained something to show or explain why the community is essentially escape-proof; I can't remember if they even showed a fence!
This story bears remarkable similarities to the 1998 film "Disturbing behavior", in which the parents in an isolated town also go to extremes to create "good" kids, and the X-Files episode "Arcadia", in which a planned community's homeowner's rules are enforced though deadly (and supernatural) means.
Lastly, I know budgets are limited, but the episode should have contained something to show or explain why the community is essentially escape-proof; I can't remember if they even showed a fence!
Get with the program or GO IN THE GROUND!
calebcalebwhitney19 August 2023
Warning: Spoilers
In this episode we have a family that moves to a nice, beautiful community where the local cultural enforcement authorities ensure everyone has an optimal experience. One member of the family, Jenna, wants no part of the new, beautiful life and she is determined to get back to her previous life where she disrespected her parents, hung out with a sketch crowd, got all tatted up, while pursuing the fine occupation of meth addict and a street hoor.
***Spoilers Ahead***
Understand, folks, that the show runners present Jenna as the tragic protagonist heroine, righteously rebelling against the white bread, safe, suburban environment. No surprise here, given the zeitgeist where such environments are deemed not just boring or uncool, but actually evil.
So when the surprise ending reveals that Jenna has been taken away and turned into fertilizer for the community's evergreen trees, I believe we're supposed to see that as a reminder that if we venture too far into suburbia, we are doomed.
I saw it differently though. Evergreen is a lovely community and we cannot allow our community experience to be degraded by anarchists. It's reassuring that in the end even those who would diminish the community end up contributing... even it's by becoming fertilizer.
***Spoilers Ahead***
Understand, folks, that the show runners present Jenna as the tragic protagonist heroine, righteously rebelling against the white bread, safe, suburban environment. No surprise here, given the zeitgeist where such environments are deemed not just boring or uncool, but actually evil.
So when the surprise ending reveals that Jenna has been taken away and turned into fertilizer for the community's evergreen trees, I believe we're supposed to see that as a reminder that if we venture too far into suburbia, we are doomed.
I saw it differently though. Evergreen is a lovely community and we cannot allow our community experience to be degraded by anarchists. It's reassuring that in the end even those who would diminish the community end up contributing... even it's by becoming fertilizer.
nothing like the old episodes
mig-514 May 2009
Warning: Spoilers
To me it felt more like a bad episode of goosebumps, written like it where intended for kids and not at all interesting. I don't think it captures any of the atmosphere or charm from the old series. When i saw the old episodes i always got the urge to watch more and more, this new episode just made me wanna cry. It also leaves me with rage when our 2 rebels cant figure out how to climb a 5 foot high wall to escape the brainwashed cult So i say stick to the old ones, because they are so much more interesting, and more adult. I hope the next episodes are better, if I'm going to take the time to watch them. yadadadadadadadadadada
What if Capt. Brainard totaled The Community of Evergreen?
marcusbrainard22 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
I did see the episode and I decided the community should pay the price that God did to Sodom & Gomorrah & Harry Truman did to Hiroshima & Nagasaki thru a spirit of a Navy Captain named Marcus Brainard who died saving his country on the anniversary of "Birmingham Sunday" and became a powerful spirit than he was as a mortal. And the story line is equal to The Bible about getting Lot & his family out of Sodom or Gomorrah. This time it's The Community of Evergreen & Capt. Brainard was going to do it for Jenna Winslow. So he sent two agents Preston Presley & Waldo Magoo (From the 1960-61 Mr. Magoo Series). (Equals of the two angels visiting Lot & his kinfolks) the equal of Lot is a man named Jim Period & his wife & two daughters and a live-in Brother-in-law. Waldo & Presley arrives in Evergreen and tells Jim Period that Operation Apocalypse will hit Evergreen and they should get their gear and their mini van ready to evacuate at all costs. Then the guys of The local "Man's Club" want to ask the agents some questions & do things to them what The Japanese did to their prisoners in WWII. However Jim Period refuses to turn Waldo & Presley to them & decided to take Jim Period's Family instead. However Waldo & Presley shields the house with a blinding light & the "Men's Club" group are blinded. Then at 8:16 AM. Operation Apocalypse is started & there is a mushroom cloud in the sky & at gun point, Jim's brother in law, Casey wants out of the mini-van & the van continues to go & Casey is vaporized & becomes a pillar of salt (Like Lot's wife in the Bible & the victims of Hiroshima, Japan) And ends up being re-located in another community. Capt. Brainard's mission of "Operation Apocalypse" been completed & Jenna Winslow has been avenged. It seemed that Capt. Brainard has taken justice in his own hands again.
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