5 best The Twilight Zone Episodes that you should definitely add to your watchlist

Created by Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone, is a supernatural anthology series that aired from 1959 to 1964.

The Twilight Zone was presented by Serling and as an anthology, each episode had its own story.

The episodes usually dealt with macabre and touched upon topics like the supernatural, fantasy, and the science-fiction. The Twilight Zone would also present a moral at the end and featured a variety of actors.

It has remained an iconic part of pop culture and even spawned a movie, various spinoffs, and a recent series by Jordan Peele in 2019. However, the original remains as legendary as ever and here are 5 of the best The Twilight Zone episodes that one must watch.

5 best The Twilight Zone Episodes that one must watch

1. “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?

Still from the show (Image via Channel Awesome)

This episode is the 28th episode from the second season. As the title suggests, there is an alien in hiding among a group of people and the investigation forms the central plot of the story. During a snowstorm, an unidentified object crashes into a pond and two state troopers follow a trail from the pond to a diner.

Everyone in the diner came from a bus but interestingly, there were eight people on the bus but nine in the diner. The episode is a must-watch as it build tension well and is a classic premise for a thrilling mystery.

2. “A Stop at Willoughby”

Serling made sure that he created stories that resonated with the viewers and always had a hidden meaning. In this famous 30th episode from the first season, viewers follow a man called Mr. Williams, who fights with his boss and while on the train home, he falls asleep and enters the titular place from 1888. The mysterious town has a slow pace of life and fulfillment, which Williams craves.

After waking up, he has an argument with his wife and realises that he craves the town of Willoughby, which was ideal and pointed towards a simpler time. Even the train conductor denies ever knowing about a town called Willoughby but the episode wonderfully presents a dream sequence in early television history.

3. “The Obsolete Man”

Another example of how Serling incorporated social messages into his supernatural series, this iconic episode is considered one of the scariest ones and is also one of the most lauded. It is the 29th episode of the second season of the show and focuses on a man called Mr. Wordsworth, who is a librarian and a believer of God and literature.

However, a totalitarian regime has deemed religion obsolete and sentences him to death. The episode is scary because it looks at the real horrors of dystopian governments and how it can trample over individual freedom and the pursuit of knowledge. It is one of the must-watch episodes of the show.

4. “The Monsters are due on Maple Street”

Rod Serling was known for inserting political commentary in The Twilight Zone and no other episode does it as effortlessly as this one. The 22nd episode from the first season of the show looks at the titular street in a quaint American neighbourhood, where electricity goes out and nobody can fix it. Gradually, all the people begin suspecting one another of being an alien and paranoia takes hold.

The episode deals with themes of prejudice and is a sharp look at the contemporary Red Scare, where American began to believe that Soviet spies were amongst them and began to suspect one another. In this episode, the spies are replaced with the supernatural aliens. Filled with political metaphors and a mysterious premise, this one is a must-watch.

5. “Eye of the Beholder”

This episode is the sixth episode from the second season and tackles society’s beauty standards, conformity, and things being relative. In the episode, a conventionally beautiful woman is deemed ugly as she lives among a group of people who have sunken eyes and pig noses.

The episode is popular because it has a famous plot twist and a strong message about the dangers of social conformity. Not only does the episode tackle absurd beauty standards of society on women, but it also has technically perfect camera angles that build suspense.