The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Take My Life... Please!/Devil's Alphabet/The Library (1986) User Reviews

We Are Mere Mortals

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 25 April 2017]

The first episode does make on think about what eternity would be as an insensitive and conniving standup comic is killed when confronted by a man he stole from. He finds himself in a hell where he has to do his act and can only get a laugh when he admits some of his horrible acts, including causing the death of his mother. It is really painful to watch. The second is a fin de siecle group of spoiled college boys, led by an arrogant jerk, who have formed some sore of pact to continue their ridiculous antics, even beyond death. The whole thing seems lacking in storytelling. The third is the most creative as a plain young woman gets a job in a very strange library. She comes to realize that the books in the library are the life stories of all people living on earth. The thing is, she can make changes and does so for selfish reasons. This leads to great distress. Very original idea.

Bad times for stand up comedy

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 25 May 2015]

TAKE MY LIFE...PLEASE! is a relatively engaging segment of THE NEW TWILIGHT ZONE, broadcast at the tail end of the first season. It's a blackly humorous storyline about a stand-up comic (Tim Thomerson, good value for money) who dies in a car accident, only to "come back" in a nightclub in purgatory where he is forced to perform psychologically painful acts over and over again.

Much of the episode relies on Thomerson's charisma and sense of humour to get by, while a youthful Xander Berkeley turns up in a minor role. The ending is one of the bleakest of the series, yet also one of the funniest.

The Twilight Zone - Take My Life Please!

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 22 August 2016]

Tim Thomerson is really good as a rotter enjoying a rise in popularity as a comic who stole material from a down-on-his-luck married man (Xander Berkeley, early, early, early in his career) looking for advice. When Berkeley surprises him in the backseat with a gun, a wreck introduces Thomerson to a new club audience he'll need to charm and amuse…and this could turn out to be a special kind of hell! Thomerson trying club material on the denizens of hell is quite a farce, and his character's catalogue of cruelty in previous human life ultimately creating belly laughs for them that his past material doesn't is quite clever. Thomerson also has a second part in the episode (his face darkened) as a spectator in the audience serving as the comic's guilty conscience, calling attention to all the transgressions that peppered his ugly existence before this unique afterlife. Satirical jabs at the comedy club scene, presenting it as a type of pressure-cooker hell, seems fitting. Thomerson sweats away and really nails the anxieties and increasing disgust with his own past, having to truly address all the nasty things he done in life…the twist regarding this "gig" as possibly eternal is especially suitable to his character. Having to relive your nefarious activities over and over for a salivating audience couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Thomerson got a real showcase here; hope his fans seek this out.

Tim Thomerson is outstanding as a shameless hack stand-up comedian

[Woodyanders · 9/10 · 27 June 2007]

I've been a huge fan of Tim Thomerson every since he portrayed tough-as-nails detective Jack Deth in "Trancers." He's one of my all-time favorite character actors who's appeared in such excellent movies as "Uncommon Valor," "Near Dark," "Nemesis," and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." He usually plays laconic rough'n'tumble macho guys or goofy tongue-in-cheek parts, but Tim really shows his substantial dramatic range here as shameless hack stand-up comedian Billy Diamond, who steals whole bits and pieces of his act from other comics' routines. One fateful day Diamond gets fatally shot by a struggling comic he stole a gag from. He winds up in a particularly ironic kind of hell in which he's forced to talk about the worst things that happened in his life while an audience laughs uproariously at his abject pain and misery. Thomerson was a stand-up comedian prior to embarking on his acting career. He brings a real pathos and conviction to the role of the smarmy Diamond that's both surprising and impressive. His acting in this terrific episode rates highly as some of the best he's ever done and offers proof positive that Tim Thomerson is one tremendously talented and versatile actor who doesn't get the attention and accolades he deserves as often as he should.

The comedic ninth gate of confessions/letter society/rewrite everyone's book of life!

[blanbrn · 8/10 · 28 March 2011]

This TZ episode 22 from season one was a pretty good one only the second segment was a drag as the first and last segments were interesting and entertaining as each teach a lesson.

First up and the best is "Take My Life...Please!" a tale of a stand up comedian who meets his fatal fate of dying in a car crash, only he wakes up to a big surprise he's in a club of the dead. It's like the last gate before heaven and hell! Only scary and tough is that he will have to perform endlessly, and get this the crowd will only laugh when he reveals his most painful and truthful confessions of life that hurt his soul. It's like being trapped in an underworld of never ending revealing guilt! Second segment and the dullest one is "Devil's Alphabet" a tale which is set back in the 1800's involving a secret society group who are after new members by having them to sign oaths. Really this tale was nothing special a bore! Last and somewhat interesting is "The Library" it involves a woman who begins a new job as a keeper of books at a strange library which contains oddly enough a book on every living person. And to suit herself and others around her she starts to make changes and rewrites to the books! Only she will find out that fate will write it's own self out as you really should not try to rewrite a person's life! Overall good episode only the second segment was a drag.

Two original, unusual premises. No recycling.

[fedor8 · 21 May 2022]

"Devil's" 8/10:

A very unusual premise, the problem being that I didn't understand why the two charter members got killed in the carriage. The plot is somewhat jumbled, things happen for unexplained or vague reasons. Still, the originality and the setting are the advantages.

"Library" 8/10: A clever episode about the Butterfly Effect, certainly far more intelligent than the cretinous movie of the same name. Intelligently conceived, with several fun twists and turns that had the main character's head spinning.