The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Shades of Guilt (2002) User Reviews

Thoughtful

[safenoe · 8/10 · 13 January 2022]

I managed to watch Shades of Guilt for the first time this year, 20 years after it debuted under Forest Whitaker's watch. Anyway, it's thought provoking for sure and ponders race and discrimination.

I wonder where the outdoor scenes were filmed.

Warmed Over Plot

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 6 July 2017]

This premise has been used before, even by the Twilight Zone. The issue of race is new here, but the person cursed by his actions goes back to the man who ran the little boy over with his car. A young man won't open his door to a desperate black man who is being pursued by skinheads. He is badly beaten and only asks to get in the car. The man drives away. The next day he begins to change, his skin getting darker and showing signs of being African-American. What can he do? There's something a bit weak about this episode--maybe it's too shallow in its thinking.

"I made a mistake."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 20 February 2023]

The message the screenwriters were trying to get across is a good one, but I think it got diluted by the opening scene. When the panicking John Woodrell (Hill Harper) ran up to Matt McGreevy's (Vincent Ventresca) car, what was McGreevy supposed to think? All he could relate to was a wild man attempting to get into his car. It was only as he drove away that he saw the thugs attack Woodrell and realized that he made a mistake. His initial response may have been partially motivated by the fact that Woodrell was black, but his guilt over leaving the scene afterwards pretty effectively demonstrated that he wasn't racist. The final scene closed the loop on what could have been done the first time around, thereby demonstrating that mistakes can be corrected in The Twilight Zone. What was distracting early in the story was when Matt came home and his wife (Barbara Tyson) saw that he was clearly upset, AND there was no bleeding on his forehead. When Matt went into the bathroom, a cut appeared on the right side of his forehead, but when he came out, his wife helped clean up the cut on the left side of his forehead! Apparently, it didn't occur to ask him how he got cut while in the bathroom. I guess you could chalk that up to the Twilight Zone too, since physical laws didn't apply to this episode at all!

Black like Me

[kapelusznik18 · 6/10 · 2 October 2014]

***SPOILERS*** Waiting for a green light in this high crime neighborhood Matt McGreevey's, Vince Ventresca, car looks as if its about to be carjacked when a desperate looking black man bangs on its windows trying to get in. Claiming that he's being chased by a group of what turned out to be white racist out to do him in Matt just rolls down the windows and steps on the gas leaving the poor man to his fate: Beaten to death with chains and tire irons on the street.

It's later the next day that Matt sees in the paper that the person he left behind, in thinking he was up to no good, was a highly respected black professor John Woodrell, Hill Harper, who authored a number of books on race relations. Before he knows it Matt's skin start to take on a dark shade of color as well as his features that morphs him into the man that he left behind in die in the street John Woodrell!

***SPOILERS*** Matt coming home from work has his shocked wife Hilary-Barbara Tyson-in thinking he's a home invader throw him out of the house and calls the police leaving him with no place to stay. He's now determined to find Wopodrell's family and tell them what happened to him and how sorry he is in letting him get murdered when he had a chance to save his life. At first shocked to see him, in that she attended his funeral just the day before, Woodrell's wife Clare, Mari Morrow, thinks that the now homeless and friendless Matt is some kind of a nut trying to capitalize of her husbands death, in finding a place to stay, and slams the door in his face. It's then driving into the night that Matt gets a second chance and this time he doesn't blow it like he did before. But it took him being in the dead man John Woodhall's shoes or skin and seeing what he went through that turned him, and the car he was driving, around.

Walking In Someone Else's Shoes!!!

[r_l_williams1 · 10/10 · 2 July 2016]

I'll try and write this review as delicately and sensitively as I know how to. As I read the summary of this episode, it tells me that this is a simple case of if a good person chooses not to do something good, or in this case help someone in trouble, then pretty soon that person's inaction is going to come back and bite him in the butt. Such is the case for Matt McGreevy, whose refusal to help John Woodrell, for whatever reason he may have had, forced him to have that inaction come back and hit with a vengeance. That should explain the name of the title of this review, about walking in another person's shoes. McGreevy started getting a taste of what the victim was feeling when he developed the same injuries that killed Woodrell, and then he began to start looking like the victim. I guess he finally realizes where and how his prejudice and apathy would take him--to his final reward. Perhaps we can all learn from watching something like this, since we all live in the real world where things like this actually happen every day. Especially right now with what's happening with shooting deaths of unarmed people all over the U.S. We need to work harder to strengthen our empathy and our compassion, and try not to follow the old adage of "life imitating art", or vice versa. That's how World Wars are started, and who needs 'em?

Rather heavy-handed with how it makes the point.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 12 February 2022]

The idea behind "Shades of Guilt" is pretty good. Unfortunately, it's handled in a very obvious and ham-fisted manner...and looses much of its point as a result.

A white guy sees a black man in distress and instead of stopping to help, he leaves him to a gang of racists who intent on doing him harm. As karma would have it, soon the white guy magically becomes black and finds out what it's like.

There are two problems with the show. First, after the white guy became black, the reactions of the people around him were way over the top. I am NOT denying racism...it does exist. But instead of handling this with subtlety, it's too much and too obvious. It could have been handled better. The other problem is that while many react poorly to him due to racism, a lot of this negative reaction is because of how foolishly and over the top the man behaves...which serves to obsure the message. All in all, about as subtle as a stripper doing her act at a church BBQ...and it had a good point to make but did it rather poorly.

By the way, for a TV episode with a better use of the idea of a white man turning black in order to find out how that feels, see the old "Mission: Impossible" episode "Kitara"....which manages to make the point in a much better way.

Potentially great but one point kills the whole story!

[sgodrich · 2/10 · 13 June 2011]

This episode is about a man who refused to help someone based on the colour of his skin. Well, that's what it is supposed to be about. What it actually does is place someone (who is white) in a situation where a crazy seeming person (who is black) comes running breathless and screaming, banging against the window, even demanding he be allowed to get into the car. Naturally, the car owner drives off (totally startled and afraid) thinking they were about to be carjacked. Skin colour has nothing to do with this.

The episode then moves on to the car owner being turned into a black man and experiencing racism first hand.

This in itself would have made a great episode, the problem I have is that what originally happened WASN'T RACIST! For me, this led to the episode being based on a false premise and destroyed its credibility.

Good message but huge plot hole

[wjgombe · 4/10 · 16 September 2018]

I belive that tge message of avoiding prejudices in( this example racial) is very important and I agree with the other reviews, but the execution is off. While it seems to be a time loop which would be stupid because noone would age and they would be reliving the same day so it might not be. That implies that on the first day John Woodrell dies and our protagonist makes the wrong choice. The next day he turns into him wich is fine but the other Mckinney came out of nowhere. Did he just appear out of thin air? Did someone else turn into him? Why does he change his mind if it's actually the same person? Do the nazis hang out there every day? So mamy questions and no answers...so sadly despite the good message I didn't enjoy it. P.s Forrest Whittaker is kinda not a host and F the greenscreen they used

shades of woke

[talllwoood13 · 5/10 · 16 June 2023]

There is NO WAY this could come out today. It reminds me of the episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force "Shake Like Me" that Adult Swim refuses to play on tv any more.

The premise is great but turning a man black just to prove a point seemed kind of lazy. Especially when they tried to be all like "bet you would have helped him if he was white!". As if everyone is racist. I would have floored it as well and not have bothered because 9 out of 10 if someone is chasing someone or wants to beat them up badly then they probably did something to deserve it. Worst case scenario get mugged or something in a rough city so regardless if they made the man getting beaten a professor or not that wouldn't change a thing.