As if men needed another reason to be horrible… in The Twilight Zone.
If there’s a message in this one, it’s a little lost on me. But I think it’s hard to see the forest for the trees because the trees are pretty damn compelling. This TZ iteration gets the societal dark side of the human condition almost note perfect (In this episode: women who feel weird saying “no,” white knighting as a pretext, men who don’t take no for an answer, etc.), in the way that the original series never could — that is, under network and advertiser scrutiny. It makes me wonder how much further “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” or “The Shelter” would go if they were made today.
The difference is, a lot of those original episodes were about a turn. There was at least an illusion that your neighbors maybe weren’t paranoid or racist or would turn on you, which a strange occurrence would then dispel. But even though tiny meteorites are as good a catalyst as aliens manipulating the power grid or a nuclear false alarm, there’s no surprise in “Not all Men.” There’s no shock as “Not All Men” reveal themselves.
I almost rated the episode lower than I did until I realized: Maybe that’s the point. Maybe this is THE TWILIGHT ZONE of the 21st century, where the real shock is that there wasn’t that much illusion to dispel after all — which makes it poignant on its own terms! On the other hand, I didn’t rate it higher because even if I’m right about the point, I still feel like I had to reach a bit to get to that conclusion.
Other takeaways:
- “The Martians might be coming.” — not the Venusians?’
- Calling someone “a jobsworth” is definitely something worthy of a Serling script.
- All the acts of violence men do, great and small, are all compressed and on display in one episode.
- Patronizing men. And the women who enable it.
- No surprise that Zeke the Geek is an asshole, “He used to be so bullied.”
- “It’s just assholes being assholes.” Boys being boys.
- “I guess I gave him a confusing vibe.”
- “I just didn’t say anything.”
- “At least the men are just as aggressive to each other, too.”
- Yes, even the gay men.
The Jack Elam Score for “Not All Men” (out of 5):
1: “And this lemon-sucker here…”
2: “Ain’t nobody been exonerated yet, that’s for sure!”
3: “Sharp boys, real sharp boys!”
4: “A regular Ray Bradbury!”
5: “CHECK ‘EM FOR WINGS!!!”