Tuesday 30 April 2019

Night Gallery, Season 1 (1969)



This is an anthology series from Rod Serling, clearly following in the footsteps of this earlier The Twilight Zone, though with a distinctly more supernatural than science fiction bent.

The concept here is that the titular "Night Gallery" is a collection of macabre paintings, each of which has an (at least in theory) equally macabre story behind it, whether that be a murderous magical mannequin, or the shocking truth behind the disappearance of several astronauts on the moon.  Serling appears on screen as the curator of the collection, giving a short introduction to each tale.  There are two to three such entries in each episode, often with significantly varying run times: some tales are less than 10 minutes long; others run for nearly 40.

So does the show live up to its storied predecessor?  Well, to be honest the quality of the stories is fairly uneven: the "shocking truth" of the astronauts' fate is hysterically silly and more likely to evoke giggles than jitters, for instance, while another tale is pretty much just a variation on "The Monkey's Paw".  And you may well get tired of the number of them that revolve around embittered old men.

On the other hand, there are some good entries, too.  Which are "best" will depend on personal tastes, naturally - I wasn't much impressed by the one Emmy-nominated script, for instance, though obviously many people were! - but you probably will find one or two that tickle your interest, assuming you are in any way the target audience.  I liked "The Escape Route", "The House" (in concept at least), and the short form nastiness of both "Room with a View" and "The Last Laurel".

Worth looking at if you're in the target market.

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