"You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension. A dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed into the Twilight Zone."
- Rod Serling
These words start off the notorious "The Twilight Zone," a show that is the absolute perfect blend of horror, thrills, science-fiction, fantasy, and absurdity. Since it's inception, the show has become a pop culture icon, being referenced over and over, in both "Key and Peele" and "Futurama." But why has this amazing show been active in our culture for over fifty years? Is it our love of the creepy and otherworldly feel that Rod Serling gave us? Why does "The Twilight Zone" remain important?
When Rod Serling created "The Twilight Zone," he did so in order to escape the then-issue of censorship of the media, as well as to address his concerns on societal issues. Upon re-watching the show (which is on Netflix, in case anyone is interested), it is hard to find an episode that didn't address a single concern from racism, war, or gender roles. Some episodes addressed these issues through subtle means, whether through an alien encounter, or very bluntly, such as having racism cause a storm cloud to cover the American south. Either way, his point was there.
And a lot of his ideas are still very relevant today, especially his ideas about the human condition. See there are a few rare breed of episode that Serling created. Ones that don't have any type of societal commentary, but rather, more of a psychological one. The best example of this is the episode regarding death, both as a phenomenon and as a character.
In one such episode, an old lady is scared of a person she calls "Mr. Death." She is scared of him coming, coming to whisk her away in the dead of night in some violent manner. But when a young policeman falls ill and she takes him in, he tries and tries to assure her. Of course, in the end, she learns that the polite, young man is actually death, and that she had died hours before. She learns that death is a certainty and that it is not a malevolent force of evil, but rather a peaceful companion, one she wasted too much time to fear. Much like the rest of us as humans, who fear death more than we enjoy life.
Do yourself a giant favor and check out "The Twilight Zone." Take a journey into Rod Serling's own mental dimension, and learn something of humanity while you travel the cosmos through that door, and into your own mind.
