"Eye Of The Beholder"

[fr00ti]

That episode FREAKS ME OUT!! Does it freak anyone else out?? LOL btw I love TZ!!!

[DarleneIllyria]

Glad you found your way over here.

I love that episode too. It just builds up to so much by not showing the doctors faces until the very last scenes and the episode doesn't disappoint either. The makeup artist on that episode did a damn good job .

[Silver Dark]

Called by some the greatest piece of speculative fiction ever written, Eye of the Beholder dared viewers in the early 1960's to examine what it was to be beautiful, to be "accepted"...and what had been condemned by society as unacceptable. Some claim as well that it helped impact the counter-cultural revolution in its infancy, by showing the notion of Blessed Conformity to be....ugly. The ones who were beautiful, those who the Standard World cast out as "deviant." Unnormal. 40 years after it was filmed, the lesson is still yet to be learned by 80% of our planet...that it is inside, not outside, what counts in a thing, and a people. From The In Crowdish cliques in high school to politically correct-speech in universities to companies threatening workers who straddle the line of official policy (in either direction, for or against anything), people constantly want to feel accepted....but, it seems, they also feel comfortable with REJECTING certain ones in existence. "Others." "Outsiders."

What does acceptance mean? Both when they do let you in...what was it you did right?...and when they cast you out...what did you do wrong? Are there reasons, or just randomness to it, whatever felt right to them at a given moment? Eye of the Beholder asks....no, demands...all these things of those fortunate enough to watch its thirty minute voyage into the Twilight Zone of all twilight zones. Is there a True Beauty in reality? One that's emotional, not physical, or even spiritual, not emotional? Which is better, order or creation? Security or exploration? Perceived Society or perceived Savagery? Aldous Huxley, as well, asked this question...what is it to be civilized or savage? Intellect....or wisdom?

To such a question, I pose that intelligent people helped unlock the power of the sun, to build a weapon of unimaginably horrific power. Curious, that they were racing to acquire it before a nation that preached Blessed Conformity Or Else did.

[Mr. Bevis]

What he said.

This ep just dropped out of my Top 10 list of personal favorites (temporarily perhaps), but because of its social statement, its great twist ending, and its extremely high level of artistry in all areas, it is still my choice as the quintessential Twilight Zone episode, the episode that best defines what the Twilight Zone was all about.

I have to say the ending probably freaks me out less every time I rewatch it, though, because the faces look less and less horrifying to me, and more normal (on their own terms) and even attractive. It's ironic that the truth of one moral of the episode--namely, that normality is relative--should diminish the impact of the episode upon repeated viewings, at least for me. (If normality were not relative--or at least if I weren't able to see it that way--then the moral of the episode might be wrong, but I'd probably get as big a charge out of the ending as ever. Go figure.)

[Zone1]

Mr B, Good to see ya, for me it took abit of time to get used to everything here, but once I did, it was great.

Bevis, u know my opinion of EOTB, its not in my top 50, but I know its special to alot of people, and it has some great elements, so I say its allll good.