I was not a fan of season two of The Twilight Zone. I felt it had a lot of weak scripts, and few new ideas. Thoughts like "Oh it's (famous story)" or "This is like that first season episode" were a far too common experience while watching it.
I'm pleased to say that the third season mostly rights the ship. Which is not to say that every episode is a winner. With 37 separate stories here, that would honestly be too much to hope for. So we still have a few failures here. The conclusion of the episode "The Dummy" is obvious five minutes in, for instance, while the season finale is pretty much just It's A Wonderful Life but done in only half an hour. And the less said about the pointlessness of the twist ending in "The Midnight Sun", the better.
Still, overall, the story quality is definitely a step up. Perhaps this is partly due to there being some extension to the writing pool this season, but I think the key thing is a tonal shift. The Twilight Zone of season three is a less sombre and menacing place than in earlier years. There are still episodes that play out quote grimly, of course, but there are also a lot more tales that embrace whimsy or optimism or even, on several occasions, outright sentimentality. This greater diversity of tone, and the increasing number of humorous scenes or stories, definitely helps alleviate some of the "we've seen this already" feel I got during season two.
I should mention that this is the season that includes the renowned episode "To Serve Man". It is a pretty good one, to be honest, even if the final twist is likely thoroughly spoiled for most viewers by now.
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