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I liked how the tension slowly mounted, which added to the creepy factor. Phyllis Trexler was fantastic as Virginia, you could feel so many emotions from her.
I felt that Alex never really wanted to grow up. I don't know why he married Virginia in the first place, but I saw her as more domineering than his mother. I also believe that he only agreed to sell his childhood home was to appease Virginia.
My interpretation of the episode was that the mother, who you expected to be a dominating figure, was actually the one being dominated all along by her son's desire to never grow up.
I like the twist in that way, and I think that was what they were going for- or at least that the issue was the son rather than the mother- but it sounds like they went too far setting up the mother to be the issue, rather then that just being the Wife's interpretation as opposed to the Man's issues being the source of all the weirdness.
This exactly. I felt like the mother was somber because her soul hasn't been able to rest because of her son, but we'd been told this whole time that she was a monster. But it turns out her son was just that codependent despite her not ever nurturing him to be that way.
I never thought of that. Perhaps the wife's anger toward the mother was misdirected. Maybe the husband was the one who wouldn't let go of his past and embrace his new life, and she rationalized it by thinking the mother was controlling, and taking it out on her.
@@SnowdropHill Yeah I think that was what at least some of the creative team were going for, with the mother being so sad and saying "It's not my doing" It was the man's feelings spuring on the weirdness, and the Wife spent her efforts against the mom instead of trying to snap her husband out of it, the Mom was sad because it was too late and the wife missed her chance to stop it.
This is a reoccurring theme in the twilight zone. A man pinning for the past, thank God I’m not alone in this sentiment… but, There is no going back. So, I have to think about what to do today to make a better tomorrow. That’s why I love the Twilight Zone it makes you think about life and how you live.
@@troperhghar9898 And Homer even hinted at doing a PSYCHO "homage" with Skinner and his mom, in that regular episode that just so happened to be set on Halloween.
I enjoyed this ep. The way things slowly and creepily revert back to alex’s childhood as he himself mentally reverts back to being a kid while the wife sees it happening and cant do anything about it was good storytelling. Shout out to ma kent!
I love this episode. There's a ton of creepy sequences of the house going back to how it was just like how Alex is going back to how he was. I like the twist. It shows that the son was the reason everything went back because of how dependable he was on his mother. That's part of the twist. It was set up as Henrietta being the bad one when it was Alex all along.
I actually kind of like the twist. I mean you were totally expects the overbearing mother and the ghost of the overbearing mother to try to get her son back, but in the end, it being him, trying to bring her back was kind of cool in my opinion.
Maybe they thought that the mother being disappointed rather than angry would be worse ("I'm not angry; I'm just disappointed") but I agree, it lacks oomph. And, as they say on Reddit: "you don't have a mother-in-law problem; you have a husband problem."
Hmm, weird. While I was a bit disappointed in how the end played out as well I think Walter's idea would ruin it even more. The fact that the mother wasnt overbearing and domineering is the most interesting part of the finale, removing that would make it pretty stock and standard. Id say pivot harder away from it. The finale seems to be implying that Alex was the real villain here. Give Virginia her impassioned speech and then have Henrietta say something like "I begged him to go with you" before being lead off. Drop a few hints where Virginia was treated well enough by Henrietta in person but Alex was the one who said that he didnt think she approved. Maybe do some stunt casting like having both Virginia and Henrietta be played by the same woman in different makeup.
I was about to leave the same comment. The twist isn't that the mother is the possessive villain; it's that Walter was the possessive child that refused to let go of his mother, even in death, and that her ghost is now a prisoner of his obsession and refusal to move forward. I would have her say as much, and then beg the young woman to leave before she becomes a prisoner of her son's possessiveness too. It would be tragic, but at least the ghost would have saved the young woman from her son's behavior. It would have given a little more meaning to the story, at least.
Film her from behind, her shadow creeping the stairs as if a dark unseen power, her voice quivering, “this…. Was not my doing” and then we see the actor going from man to boy. Only then would she be shown as plain as she was, while the evil was in plain sight. That’s how i would have done.
Phyllis Thaxter was definitely the highlight of the episode, giving Virginia's anguish her all. I agree that the ending was a letdown, and Henrietta wasn't threatening enough. You could see it being Alex's doing from the get go, and him reverting back to childhood was also a given.
This one isn’t super eventful for most of it but there’s a creepy undercurrent to it that eventually comes through. This guy is a bit too clingy regarding childhood and for most of it it’s just a sort of undercurrent but then comes out in the third act. It’s pretty effective when it happens, especially once the ending hits. The final note is a bit anticlimactic but the events right before that work. It’s an interesting theme that works and is just interesting. I thought I was in for a dull one at the start but it managed to be a good one.
I think that you're wrong that Mother should've been more aggressive in the finale; instead, she should've been fearful. The whole point is that it's not her haunting her son; it's him choosing to drag her back from the grave rather than build a real life on his own. I think part of the goal here was to make us question whether or not the mother was EVER as bad as she's been described.
There could have been an interesting angle here on Alex being pulled between two possessive people. Make the mother more of a threat at the end like you pointed out. One thing I did like was the set changing through the show. Sometimes obviously, sometimes subtly. Things like the stove or the vacuum changing.
If there are any MST3K fans in the audience tonight, Alex's actor, Alex Nicol, directed the film The Screaming Skull and played Mickey, the gardener, in the movie. I had seen this episode before and remembered that going into this video and it surprised me that here, in my opinion, Nicol looks more like Russell Johnson from Gilligan's Island. Weird.
Yes, “Long Distance Call” felt creepier, in that the stakes were more life- and-death, making the mom seem scarier and the son more in need to f defense, rather than a grown husband being a mama’s boy. Richard Mathewson is good, and has good characterization, but on-paper concepts and “twists” you can see almost from the opening.
Fine and dandy is a great way to describe this episode. Henrietta should have been more possessive Alex or feel sadness but the fact that you won't let her go.
For the wife’s part, showing that she’s turning a blind eye to her husband’s part in enabling how his mother treated her, and him, in life. That he could have shown backbone and supported Virginia, stood up to his mother but that Virginia was stuck in a sunk cost relationship she was always the third wheel in. To put it in terms you’d see on the AITA subreddit, Virginia had a husband problem just as much as if not more than she had a MIL problem.
I see what you're saying about this one. But I don't think the kid actor had enough lines to really be called a good or bad performance. What's more you're right, the mother was overbearing and demanding of her kid in life, but that doesn't necessarily mean her appearance HAD to be more villainous. The Husband was correctly, I think, the villain character because of his refusal to let it go. He had a strong woman who wanted him to be strong rather than dependent. Yet his inability to recognize how his mother wronged him and how he NEEDED to move on as a man is what brought on the tragic ending. A willing rejection of adulthood and independence and embrace of dependency and a self-indulgent childhood. Almost Peter Pan-ish! But like the more mean-spirited side of the character.
I think this episode hits differently as a millennial, especially one watching The Nostalgia Critic's channel. The husband is nostalgic about his childhood? And his mother that died one year ago? And wants to live in his childhood home that's probably paid off by then? The horror. At the very end we learn the mother's spirit is still around, but why would moving to a new house stop that? Also it clashes with the stereotype we're given from society including our parents that saw this as teenagers- we're supposed to cherish, respect and financially support our parents but also forget about them a year after their death and marry someone who hates them?
This episode is relevant to me. I feel the urge to leave my parents and start my own life, but two years since graduating from college, I'm still tugged to my old home thanks to a lack of stable income.
This is vastly different than the issue being handled here, having a basic longing for your childhood home is not anywhere near the same as complete regression to adolescence where you leave your wife...
One of my favorite movies is Rebecca and it has a similar vibe to this where a woman's overwhelming presence just hangs all over the house. It makes for a great atmosphere and I love watching Virginia and Henrietta face off.
The tragedy of all these possessive mothers of sons -- the mom in this story, the grandma in Long Distance Call, even the mother of Ernest Borgnine's Marty -- is that they seem to have forgotten entirely how it felt to be young and in love. It saddens me to see Phyllis Thaxter come out the loser in this battle, since I was rooting for her, but hey, when all is said and done, she probably dodged a bullet.
"Disappointed" is mom for "mad", in the words of Joel McHale on COMMUNITY. It seems the mom made her son TOO dependent on her to function on his own, and thus failed at one of the basic jobs of every parent: preparing her son for life without her.
After watching this review, I kept trying to remember what other TV episode had a guy saying "fine and dandy" all the time. I finally did remember. It was the Bob Newhart Show. Here's one little scene, but he does it throughout the episode. Starting at 1 min. 18 sec.: ruclips.net/video/zpHZ6UOYTd0/видео.html
This episode might have worked better had it explored Alex's conflicting feelings over his mother terrorising him from beyond the grave. Maybe it would have been better had we never seen Henrietta at all, but just heard of her lingering spirit, which was more of a threat. Instead, you kind of feel sorry for Virginia, for losing her husband because he was reluctant to grow up and leave the past behind.
Yup. Either the ghost of Henrietta needed to be more threatening, or they shouldn’t have shown her at all, so that the audience’s imagination could fill in the gaps. Sometimes not seeing the monster is more horrifying than actually seeing it.
I almost forgot to tune in to Twilight-tober zone this year lol. I love your analysis and commentary, this series helped me get into the show in the when you first started a couple years ago!
I feel bad for Virginia in this episode she really wanted her husband to have a happy life without his overbearing mother,What's terrifying to me is who's she's going to tell this to? no one's probably never going to believe her.
Alex is a true mama's boy who never truly moved on with his life. I think he only agreed to sell his childhood home was to appease his manipulative, domineering bride. I also believe that the reason Henrietta had that look of disappointment on her face, is because she didn't like her daughter-in-law. Henrietta is the kind of person that is possessive enough that no woman is good enough for her son.
Well the twist blew my mind away because I saw this episode first, then later I saw “Kick The Can” & “Long Distance Call”. But I do agree our main character, one second he’s man and then whoosh he now a boy again. Yeah that should’ve been handle dramatically with some compositional lighting
It is not Alex's mother's fault in any way for what happens in the end. It was much more Virginia's obssession that he is "finally all hers" that drove him away from her. Old story of mother and son's new wife who just don't along at all to the point of hating each other.
Many, many women have dated a man just like this, who lives in the past and is resentful that he had to grow up. I had an uncle who refused to get married until his mother died. But, he didn't refuse to date - breaking the hearts of several very loyal and long-suffering women. As others have commented, the fact that it was the son manipulating the mother made it much creepier in that Virginia had misinterpreted the true nature of the power dynamic between Alex and his mother the entire time. Virginia had directed her anger at the wrong person from day one. Creepy.
Interesting fact: the main actress(i dont know her name honestly) has a fantastic episode in the alfred hitchcock presents show called never again. I totally recommend everyone to watch that one as well
Again I saw this in a marathon and never knew that this was even the Twilight Zone and then I went well that ending kind of work just like you it has that weird kind of ending it kind of left me wanting more
totally agree on the mother character...what were they thinking? The pictures and the tales build her up as some sort of possessive demon, yet in the episode she looked nice at the moment we expected her to be creepy
I was thinking that was gonna be the twist the guy was pretending to be the mother to scare (or kill the wife) cus I was getting Norman bates vibes from the guy
Alex Walker is clearly stated to be 34, even though it way too obvious that he is alot older than that. Alex Nicol was actually 46 at the time of this episode.
While Twilight Zone has always been associated with ghost appearances in episodes, this is one of only 16 out 156 episodes in which a ghost actually does appear.
Following the death of Phyllis Thaxter in 2012, Rickey Kelman is the sole surviving cast member from this episode. Not surprising since he was a child at the time and alot younger than the rest of the actors.
There’s a saying on Reddit “You don’t have a mother in law problem. You have a husband problem.” Any woman who has been in a relationship with a deeply enmeshed man felt this episode.
I honestly thought the twist was going to be the mother takes over the wife...the wife's "over bearing" attempt to rip him from his mother being the key for the possession....trapping him in yet anothwr relationship with an overbearing woman. Or, we find out that our lead has always been the evil....trapping his mother in a sort of "stay at home" role....
I don't agree with your assessment that the mother should have come across as controlling and possessive, a threat (at 4:29): as the ending implies, this isn't her doing. It's more likely that the desperation to hold onto the mother and the past was, as Henrietta said, not her doing. That her son was always the one that was too attached, that HE couldn't let go of HER. She might never have been the controlling factor as Virginia believed, but rather Alex was just too weak, a mama's boy pure-and-simple. The mother's disappointed look at the end may have been in her own son for not being able to let go, knowing that she herself has been trapped in this haunted house by his will.
Virginia sees a magazine featuring Carol Lombard on the cover. However, the shot right before that shows the same magazine but photo on the cover is very obviously not the same one. However, given the premise of this scene, it is possible that this was done on purpose.
This episode is the opposite of the Martin Sloan character who goes back to his old neighborhood, and finds his parents are alive. All he wanted was one more summer as a kid, but good old dad said you're having none of that. You had that summer, and let the kid who is supposed to be here have it.
Yeah, they needed to up the creep factor, like go full Norman Bates or Oedipus or something, it does fall flat because the mom's just standing there. She's not even looking down her nose at the wife, she just looks bored to be there.
@@bigbay1159 I haven’t really watched it much. I think I saw the monsters are due on maple street once. So things just happen because the writer wrote it then?
The twist should have been the wife becoming his mom as he turned into a child again. Would have kept the same thematic elements, a manchild so under his mother's thumb that his dependency and her malevolent spirit combine to warp reality.
I COMPLETELY DISAGREE, AS A DAUGHTER OF A TRUE NARCISSIST MOTHER, THEIR SUPER POWER IS TO REMAIN CALM AND DISTANT AS YOU FALL APART TRYING TO CONVINCE THEM OF THE TRAMA THEY HAVE CAUSED. THE MOTHER PLAYED THE ROLL AS COLD AND ABTRUSIVE AS POSSIBLE. TO THE NARRATOR, YOU HAVE OBVIOUSLY FELL INTO THE MOTHER'S HANDS TO EXPECT HER TO SHOW ANGER. ABSENCE OF ANGER, IS WORST OF ALL!!!
The sad reality is that in this alternate universe the man probably led a lonely and miserable existence. Socially awkward. I’ve known friends like this who have lived a similar existence.
Thaxter was the best thing in this episode. Actor who played the husband Alex a bit wooden. Similar to an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode where the husband is obsessed with his dead mother
Am I the only one who suspects that the story ending was meant to make the Wife the villain of the story for trying to make him forget his past and the Mother was the great caretaker. Kinda backwards right?
It is seeming like the intention was that he was the overbearing one, and not the mother. I feel like, if they leaned a bit more in that direction, it could’ve worked better.
I feel like it would’ve been a better twist for the husband to revert to childishness, turning his new wife into a pseudo mother figure against her will
I thought the Twilight Zone got the possessive mother down as some mothers between 1930s to now was on the nose as some mothers still mama their sons even when they're middle age and should have moved out from getting a job and meeting someone special and having children of their own. It's the need to be wanted and adored mainly when the husband left them because of their possesses of their sons. It's very nasalism if you think about it.
Thoughts on Young Man's Fancy?
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I liked how the tension slowly mounted, which added to the creepy factor. Phyllis Trexler was fantastic as Virginia, you could feel so many emotions from her.
A lot
I felt that Alex never really wanted to grow up. I don't know why he married Virginia in the first place, but I saw her as more domineering than his mother. I also believe that he only agreed to sell his childhood home was to appease Virginia.
I thought it was fine and dandy.
My interpretation of the episode was that the mother, who you expected to be a dominating figure, was actually the one being dominated all along by her son's desire to never grow up.
That is actually a really interesting angle to take the story and it makes it more interesting.
I like the twist in that way, and I think that was what they were going for- or at least that the issue was the son rather than the mother- but it sounds like they went too far setting up the mother to be the issue, rather then that just being the Wife's interpretation as opposed to the Man's issues being the source of all the weirdness.
This exactly. I felt like the mother was somber because her soul hasn't been able to rest because of her son, but we'd been told this whole time that she was a monster. But it turns out her son was just that codependent despite her not ever nurturing him to be that way.
I never thought of that. Perhaps the wife's anger toward the mother was misdirected. Maybe the husband was the one who wouldn't let go of his past and embrace his new life, and she rationalized it by thinking the mother was controlling, and taking it out on her.
@@SnowdropHill Yeah I think that was what at least some of the creative team were going for, with the mother being so sad and saying "It's not my doing" It was the man's feelings spuring on the weirdness, and the Wife spent her efforts against the mom instead of trying to snap her husband out of it, the Mom was sad because it was too late and the wife missed her chance to stop it.
This is a lesson for all of us: one must eventually grow up and look forward to the future in order to let go of the things of the past.
"Go away lady, we don't need you anymore". Fine and dandy 🫡. Two of the best lines.
This is a reoccurring theme in the twilight zone. A man pinning for the past, thank God I’m not alone in this sentiment… but, There is no going back. So, I have to think about what to do today to make a better tomorrow. That’s why I love the Twilight Zone it makes you think about life and how you live.
This would’ve made for a fun Treehouse of Horror segment between Skinner, Agnus and Mrs. Krabappel
If Mrs. Krabappel was still alive.
Totally, though probably in the earlier seasons, prior to Edna's death.
The fact they never did a Psyco parody is more surprising
@@troperhghar9898 And Homer even hinted at doing a PSYCHO "homage" with Skinner and his mom, in that regular episode that just so happened to be set on Halloween.
@@louisduarte8763 honestly I love "halloween of horror" more then any treehouse of horror
I enjoyed this ep. The way things slowly and creepily revert back to alex’s childhood as he himself mentally reverts back to being a kid while the wife sees it happening and cant do anything about it was good storytelling.
Shout out to ma kent!
Agreed, Virginia's helplessness really adds to the ensuing tension.
This episode was literally fine and dandy!
I love this episode. There's a ton of creepy sequences of the house going back to how it was just like how Alex is going back to how he was. I like the twist. It shows that the son was the reason everything went back because of how dependable he was on his mother. That's part of the twist. It was set up as Henrietta being the bad one when it was Alex all along.
I actually kind of like the twist. I mean you were totally expects the overbearing mother and the ghost of the overbearing mother to try to get her son back, but in the end, it being him, trying to bring her back was kind of cool in my opinion.
My head canon is that the mother ran away with him, leaving behind a father who may've been able to counteract her posessiveness.
Maybe they thought that the mother being disappointed rather than angry would be worse ("I'm not angry; I'm just disappointed") but I agree, it lacks oomph.
And, as they say on Reddit: "you don't have a mother-in-law problem; you have a husband problem."
Always a nice reminder of just how stupid Reddit can be
Yesssss
This one has the original Martha Kent! Twilight Zone has tons of connections to comic book films surprisingly!
Preach, I knew that I recognised her, but couldn't quite think of where, until I read your comment!
Hmm, weird. While I was a bit disappointed in how the end played out as well I think Walter's idea would ruin it even more. The fact that the mother wasnt overbearing and domineering is the most interesting part of the finale, removing that would make it pretty stock and standard. Id say pivot harder away from it. The finale seems to be implying that Alex was the real villain here. Give Virginia her impassioned speech and then have Henrietta say something like "I begged him to go with you" before being lead off. Drop a few hints where Virginia was treated well enough by Henrietta in person but Alex was the one who said that he didnt think she approved. Maybe do some stunt casting like having both Virginia and Henrietta be played by the same woman in different makeup.
I was about to leave the same comment. The twist isn't that the mother is the possessive villain; it's that Walter was the possessive child that refused to let go of his mother, even in death, and that her ghost is now a prisoner of his obsession and refusal to move forward. I would have her say as much, and then beg the young woman to leave before she becomes a prisoner of her son's possessiveness too. It would be tragic, but at least the ghost would have saved the young woman from her son's behavior. It would have given a little more meaning to the story, at least.
Film her from behind, her shadow creeping the stairs as if a dark unseen power, her voice quivering, “this…. Was not my doing” and then we see the actor going from man to boy. Only then would she be shown as plain as she was, while the evil was in plain sight. That’s how i would have done.
Phyllis Thaxter was definitely the highlight of the episode, giving Virginia's anguish her all. I agree that the ending was a letdown, and Henrietta wasn't threatening enough. You could see it being Alex's doing from the get go, and him reverting back to childhood was also a given.
I wish they'd fully released that version of Lady in Red by Eddy Duchin used in this episode, it sounds good.
Him and Desi Arnaz do the best versions of that song.
This one isn’t super eventful for most of it but there’s a creepy undercurrent to it that eventually comes through. This guy is a bit too clingy regarding childhood and for most of it it’s just a sort of undercurrent but then comes out in the third act. It’s pretty effective when it happens, especially once the ending hits. The final note is a bit anticlimactic but the events right before that work. It’s an interesting theme that works and is just interesting. I thought I was in for a dull one at the start but it managed to be a good one.
I think that you're wrong that Mother should've been more aggressive in the finale; instead, she should've been fearful. The whole point is that it's not her haunting her son; it's him choosing to drag her back from the grave rather than build a real life on his own. I think part of the goal here was to make us question whether or not the mother was EVER as bad as she's been described.
There could have been an interesting angle here on Alex being pulled between two possessive people. Make the mother more of a threat at the end like you pointed out.
One thing I did like was the set changing through the show. Sometimes obviously, sometimes subtly. Things like the stove or the vacuum changing.
this had so much potential
If there are any MST3K fans in the audience tonight, Alex's actor, Alex Nicol, directed the film The Screaming Skull and played Mickey, the gardener, in the movie. I had seen this episode before and remembered that going into this video and it surprised me that here, in my opinion, Nicol looks more like Russell Johnson from Gilligan's Island. Weird.
Yes, “Long Distance Call” felt creepier, in that the stakes were more life- and-death, making the mom seem scarier and the son more in need to f defense, rather than a grown husband being a mama’s boy.
Richard Mathewson is good, and has good characterization, but on-paper concepts and “twists” you can see almost from the opening.
My mom is dead but if I could go back and be with her again I would do it in a heartbeat. I wouldn't care what anyone thought.
Fine and dandy is a great way to describe this episode. Henrietta should have been more possessive Alex or feel sadness but the fact that you won't let her go.
For the wife’s part, showing that she’s turning a blind eye to her husband’s part in enabling how his mother treated her, and him, in life. That he could have shown backbone and supported Virginia, stood up to his mother but that Virginia was stuck in a sunk cost relationship she was always the third wheel in. To put it in terms you’d see on the AITA subreddit, Virginia had a husband problem just as much as if not more than she had a MIL problem.
I see what you're saying about this one. But I don't think the kid actor had enough lines to really be called a good or bad performance. What's more you're right, the mother was overbearing and demanding of her kid in life, but that doesn't necessarily mean her appearance HAD to be more villainous. The Husband was correctly, I think, the villain character because of his refusal to let it go. He had a strong woman who wanted him to be strong rather than dependent. Yet his inability to recognize how his mother wronged him and how he NEEDED to move on as a man is what brought on the tragic ending. A willing rejection of adulthood and independence and embrace of dependency and a self-indulgent childhood. Almost Peter Pan-ish! But like the more mean-spirited side of the character.
I think this episode hits differently as a millennial, especially one watching The Nostalgia Critic's channel. The husband is nostalgic about his childhood? And his mother that died one year ago? And wants to live in his childhood home that's probably paid off by then? The horror. At the very end we learn the mother's spirit is still around, but why would moving to a new house stop that? Also it clashes with the stereotype we're given from society including our parents that saw this as teenagers- we're supposed to cherish, respect and financially support our parents but also forget about them a year after their death and marry someone who hates them?
Always a good day this month with these videos! 🖤🖤🖤🧡🧡🧡
Just discovering this today! I love the twilight zone for at least 40 years now.
This episode is relevant to me. I feel the urge to leave my parents and start my own life, but two years since graduating from college, I'm still tugged to my old home thanks to a lack of stable income.
You'll get there. Adulting is hard, but if you want it, you can get it
This is vastly different than the issue being handled here, having a basic longing for your childhood home is not anywhere near the same as complete regression to adolescence where you leave your wife...
Cold contempt strikes me as the right emotion for the mother.
One of my favorite movies is Rebecca and it has a similar vibe to this where a woman's overwhelming presence just hangs all over the house. It makes for a great atmosphere and I love watching Virginia and Henrietta face off.
The tragedy of all these possessive mothers of sons -- the mom in this story, the grandma in Long Distance Call, even the mother of Ernest Borgnine's Marty -- is that they seem to have forgotten entirely how it felt to be young and in love. It saddens me to see Phyllis Thaxter come out the loser in this battle, since I was rooting for her, but hey, when all is said and done, she probably dodged a bullet.
Couldn't it also be a way of showing that, no matter how old you get, a mother will always see uou as a kid
"Disappointed" is mom for "mad", in the words of Joel McHale on COMMUNITY. It seems the mom made her son TOO dependent on her to function on his own, and thus failed at one of the basic jobs of every parent: preparing her son for life without her.
This installment to the Twilight-Tober Zone is Fine and Dandy.
After watching this review, I kept trying to remember what other TV episode had a guy saying "fine and dandy" all the time. I finally did remember. It was the Bob Newhart Show. Here's one little scene, but he does it throughout the episode. Starting at 1 min. 18 sec.: ruclips.net/video/zpHZ6UOYTd0/видео.html
This episode might have worked better had it explored Alex's conflicting feelings over his mother terrorising him from beyond the grave. Maybe it would have been better had we never seen Henrietta at all, but just heard of her lingering spirit, which was more of a threat. Instead, you kind of feel sorry for Virginia, for losing her husband because he was reluctant to grow up and leave the past behind.
Yup. Either the ghost of Henrietta needed to be more threatening, or they shouldn’t have shown her at all, so that the audience’s imagination could fill in the gaps. Sometimes not seeing the monster is more horrifying than actually seeing it.
I almost forgot to tune in to Twilight-tober zone this year lol. I love your analysis and commentary, this series helped me get into the show in the when you first started a couple years ago!
I feel bad for Virginia in this episode she really wanted her husband to have a happy life without his overbearing mother,What's terrifying to me is who's she's going to tell this to? no one's probably never going to believe her.
Alex is a true mama's boy who never truly moved on with his life. I think he only agreed to sell his childhood home was to appease his manipulative, domineering bride. I also believe that the reason Henrietta had that look of disappointment on her face, is because she didn't like her daughter-in-law. Henrietta is the kind of person that is possessive enough that no woman is good enough for her son.
Well the twist blew my mind away because I saw this episode first, then later I saw “Kick The Can” & “Long Distance Call”. But I do agree our main character, one second he’s man and then whoosh he now a boy again. Yeah that should’ve been handle dramatically with some compositional lighting
It is not Alex's mother's fault in any way for what happens in the end. It was much more Virginia's obssession that he is "finally all hers" that drove him away from her. Old story of mother and son's new wife who just don't along at all to the point of hating each other.
Many, many women have dated a man just like this, who lives in the past and is resentful that he had to grow up. I had an uncle who refused to get married until his mother died. But, he didn't refuse to date - breaking the hearts of several very loyal and long-suffering women. As others have commented, the fact that it was the son manipulating the mother made it much creepier in that Virginia had misinterpreted the true nature of the power dynamic between Alex and his mother the entire time. Virginia had directed her anger at the wrong person from day one. Creepy.
What if danny phantom was in ghost buster movies
They'd bust along with the other ghosts
Interesting fact: the main actress(i dont know her name honestly) has a fantastic episode in the alfred hitchcock presents show called never again. I totally recommend everyone to watch that one as well
*Reads title* George Takei: "Oh my!"
Again I saw this in a marathon and never knew that this was even the Twilight Zone and then I went well that ending kind of work just like you it has that weird kind of ending it kind of left me wanting more
What was Rod Serling's favorite food?
I love you're twilight zone reviews!🔥🔥
totally agree on the mother character...what were they thinking? The pictures and the tales build her up as some sort of possessive demon, yet in the episode she looked nice at the moment we expected her to be creepy
Thus it being a twist. It being her doing would've been too predictable, in my opinion.
@@dupersuper1938 like most of the Twilight zone twists, really :)
What does Walter think of the new Twilight Zone series?
D'oh, I hoped it was the short from MST3K teaching young women how to trap men using appliances.
You do get a kind of Norman and Mrs. Bates vibe between Alex and his mother. (Though not quite as disturbing.)
I was thinking that was gonna be the twist the guy was pretending to be the mother to scare (or kill the wife) cus I was getting Norman bates vibes from the guy
I think I would have preferred that twist myself: but this aired after Psycho. The comparisons would probably have come off as too obvious then!
The outdoor shot of the house is the same one used in the very next episode I Sing the Body Electric.
Alex Walker is clearly stated to be 34, even though it way too obvious that he is alot older than that. Alex Nicol was actually 46 at the time of this episode.
While Twilight Zone has always been associated with ghost appearances in episodes, this is one of only 16 out 156 episodes in which a ghost actually does appear.
I think the two actors who play the married couple, also appeared as elderly couple in the Twilight Zone, episode, called, THE TRADE INS.
Following the death of Phyllis Thaxter in 2012, Rickey Kelman is the sole surviving cast member from this episode. Not surprising since he was a child at the time and alot younger than the rest of the actors.
This was pretty good episode. All of them wasn't perfect but i loved twilight zone and only about a handful i couldn't rewatch
If the mother had acted cold and possessive, instead of simply disappointed, this could have been an effective episode, eerily similar to "Psycho."
When will the top 5 for season 2 come on Walter's channel?
I'm not fond of the ending myself, either. It gave me a vibe of "Once a mama's boy, always a mama's boy."
There’s a saying on Reddit
“You don’t have a mother in law problem. You have a husband problem.”
Any woman who has been in a relationship with a deeply enmeshed man felt this episode.
While not outstanding, one might still consider this TZ episode…Fine and Dandy!
I honestly thought the twist was going to be the mother takes over the wife...the wife's "over bearing" attempt to rip him from his mother being the key for the possession....trapping him in yet anothwr relationship with an overbearing woman.
Or, we find out that our lead has always been the evil....trapping his mother in a sort of "stay at home" role....
I don't agree with your assessment that the mother should have come across as controlling and possessive, a threat (at 4:29): as the ending implies, this isn't her doing. It's more likely that the desperation to hold onto the mother and the past was, as Henrietta said, not her doing. That her son was always the one that was too attached, that HE couldn't let go of HER. She might never have been the controlling factor as Virginia believed, but rather Alex was just too weak, a mama's boy pure-and-simple. The mother's disappointed look at the end may have been in her own son for not being able to let go, knowing that she herself has been trapped in this haunted house by his will.
Great video.
I love this channel!
Awesome and cool! ^_^
Virginia sees a magazine featuring Carol Lombard on the cover. However, the shot right before that shows the same magazine but photo on the cover is very obviously not the same one. However, given the premise of this scene, it is possible that this was done on purpose.
This episode is the opposite of the Martin Sloan character who
goes back to his old neighborhood, and finds his parents are
alive. All he wanted was one more summer as a kid, but good
old dad said you're having none of that. You had that summer,
and let the kid who is supposed to be here have it.
I liked the episode.
I've heard of being a mama's boy but damn
To me the twist works since it was the kid's doing, not the mother. Her look of disappointment works because he's a true mama's boy.
The house used in this episode is the same one used in the very next episode I Sing the Body Electric.
I like that dress.
My mother was overbearing and controlling and I hated her for it. This episode is my absolutely worst nightmare come true.
A quite interesting episode
So, what you’re saying is that this is the prequel to the 1960 Psycho, tell the origin of Norman Bate
It, looks like a soap opera plot, where in this case, the mother is the antagonist, meddling in the relationship
Yeah, they needed to up the creep factor, like go full Norman Bates or Oedipus or something, it does fall flat because the mom's just standing there. She's not even looking down her nose at the wife, she just looks bored to be there.
a shame this isn't better remembered
Save Martha!
I’m confused about the ending. How is she suddenly there and why is he suddenly a kid again? Is the house haunted or something?
Someones new to the twilight zone...
@@bigbay1159 I haven’t really watched it much. I think I saw the monsters are due on maple street once. So things just happen because the writer wrote it then?
Rod Serling and Norman Bates walk into a bar…
A momma's boy nightmare!!!
Not a bad episode by any means. Though it's not really clear if we're supposed to hate the wife character or not.
The twist should have been the wife becoming his mom as he turned into a child again. Would have kept the same thematic elements, a manchild so under his mother's thumb that his dependency and her malevolent spirit combine to warp reality.
I COMPLETELY DISAGREE,
AS A DAUGHTER OF A TRUE NARCISSIST MOTHER, THEIR SUPER POWER IS TO REMAIN CALM AND DISTANT AS YOU FALL APART TRYING TO CONVINCE THEM OF THE TRAMA THEY HAVE CAUSED.
THE MOTHER PLAYED THE ROLL AS COLD AND ABTRUSIVE AS POSSIBLE.
TO THE NARRATOR, YOU HAVE OBVIOUSLY FELL INTO THE MOTHER'S HANDS TO EXPECT HER TO SHOW ANGER.
ABSENCE OF ANGER, IS WORST OF ALL!!!
The sad reality is that in this alternate universe the man probably led a lonely and miserable existence. Socially awkward. I’ve known friends like this who have lived a similar existence.
hmm...
Fine and dandy.
~_~
Thaxter was the best thing in this episode. Actor who played the husband Alex a bit wooden. Similar to an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode where the husband is obsessed with his dead mother
Am I the only one who suspects that the story ending was meant to make the Wife the villain of the story for trying to make him forget his past and the Mother was the great caretaker.
Kinda backwards right?
It is seeming like the intention was that he was the overbearing one, and not the mother. I feel like, if they leaned a bit more in that direction, it could’ve worked better.
Why did he leave an outtake toward the beginning, or was flubbing his lines intentional?
It was a joke. He was trying to avoid saying, "Is it my fancy?"
@@sternshadowdude2 Oh, I see.
I feel like it would’ve been a better twist for the husband to revert to childishness, turning his new wife into a pseudo mother figure against her will
I thought the Twilight Zone got the possessive mother down as some mothers between 1930s to now was on the nose as some mothers still mama their sons even when they're middle age and should have moved out from getting a job and meeting someone special and having children of their own. It's the need to be wanted and adored mainly when the husband left them because of their possesses of their sons. It's very nasalism if you think about it.
Yooo
What we could be seeing here is the son's image of the mother, not the mother as she actually was in life.