Witness The Tragedy Of The World’s Last Reader With The Twilight Zone

Old troves and the newly-discovered intrigue around them was sort of our theme today, what with the discovery of decades-old Atari game cartridges in a New Mexico landfill. It’s a theme that always gets me thinking of one of The Twilight Zone’s most influential episodes: “Time Enough at Last.”

Henry Bemis is a beleaguered bookworm living in a pragmatic world he’d rather not interact with. When the vague threat of his era becomes a reality (though it’s never actually shown on screen, a move Rod Serling exercised deftly throughout this show’s many episodes), Henry suddenly has all the time in the world to indulge his bookish tendencies. But nothing ever works out as anticipated in The Twilight Zone.

Truth is, you’ve probably watched this episode a dozen times. Or the delicious plot twist has already been ruined by the many parodies or cultural references it’s inspired. No matter. The visuals may be antiquated, the particulars may be out of date, but the underlying theme is one that will always be applicable: information and society can never really exist without each other.

There’s something soul-satisfying in the bleakness of a good Twilight Zone episode, isn’t there.