Twilight Zone Zone Episode 12: “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” and “Nothing in the Dark”

Every week on The Twilight Zone Zone,we go down Donald
Liebenson’s list The 26 Episodes We Talk About When We Talk
About The Twilight Zone from Vanity Fair, chronologically by
release date and compare two episodes and choose which one to
recommend. This week we watched “Five Characters in Search of an
Exit” and “Nothing in the Dark.”


 
“Five Characters in Search of an Exit”

The setup is a little bit Saw and a little
bit Waiting for Godot: an Army major (William Windom) finds
himself in a circular enclosure with no doors, no windows, and no
ceiling. He has no idea who he is or how he got there. And he’s
not alone; present, but more resigned to their situations, are a
clown, a ballerina, a hobo, and a bagpiper. This episode gives
new meaning to the eternal question, “Why are we here?” Your
mileage may vary as to the ultimate answer, but the questions
posed (“How long will we be here?” “What’s up there?”) are
profound in or out of The Twilight Zone.


 
“Nothing in the Dark”

Many actors got their start on the Zone—none more famously
than Robert Redford, who appears here as a policeman
who is shot outside of the door of an elderly woman who refuses
to leave her condemned apartment for fear of being taken by “Mr.
Death.” For more before-they-were-big moments, see Robert
Duvall in “Miniature,” Burt Reynolds in “The Bard,” and
Charles Bronson in “Two.”


 
There are many paths in life, but which one will you travel
down in the Twilight Zone, Zone…

Host: Nic Hoffmann


Panel: Matthew, Jeremy and Daniel