10 Greatest Episodes Of The Twilight Zone

The Obsolete Man takes place in a totalitarian society where all those who are deemed obsolete by the state are put to death. This government has eliminated all literature, and therefore Wordsworth, a librarian, is declared obsolete. He ends up in a room with a Chancellor and a bomb that’s set to go off at midnight. While Wordsworth is calm and prepared for death, the Chancellor is shown to be a complete fraud, and in the final moments, the state turns on him and declares him obsolete.

The Obsolete Man is a pure work of art which is like a nightmarish combination of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, accomplishing so much in just a brief 25 minutes. The presence of the bomb gives the half hour a great sense of impeding doom on par with some of the best of Hitchcock.

The visuals in the opening and closing are also haunting, with that long table extending across the room and a man awaiting his punishment from the powers that be. The episode is a clear expression of the dangers of totalitarianism and of a massive state encroaching on freedom of speech, but it's also a fascinating character study of these two men placed in a high stakes situation. It might not be particularly subtle, but among all the overtly political episodes, it’s definitely one of the most memorable.