Twilight Zone: Gabe's Story Directed by Allan Kroker

 Twilight Zone: Gabe's Story

Directed by Allan Kroker

Rod Serling first created The Twilight Zone, and it first aired from 1959 to 1964. It was an anthology show, meaning that every episode had different characters and plots that were unconnected to one another (I really hope the readers know what an anthology is…{They do now!}). The show often used science fiction and fantasy elements as a cover to discuss, sometimes in rather threadbare metaphor, various social and political issues of the day. This stands as another reminder that science fiction and fantasy stories are often political in their intent and anyone who screams about getting politics out of science fiction or fantasy, is either pushing their own political agenda or isn't that well-read in the genre (Or for that matter, the concept of art.  Art is always trying to invoke thought or feeling, and this is often political thought or feeling.  Even when not addressing current events, speculative fiction almost always touches on our status or values as human beings, and that is inherently political.  Or, to put it another way:  Fuck off Chuds, Star Trek is Communist. {I don’t see TOS as communist, NextGen maybe(By NextGen yes)}  X-Men is about Civil Rights, and Star Wars is Anti-Fascist.). While it never achieved more than moderate ratings in its first run, its impact on popular culture and its critical success remain massive. Its impact is big enough that odds are you can recite the Twilight opening and you'll hear it in Rod's voice... Even if you've never actually seen a full episode of the Twilight Zone. This is why the series was revived no less than 3 times. The first revival ran from 1985 to 1989, the second ran for a single season, 2002 to 2003. The latest one premiered in April of 2019 and is still running as of this writing.

Gabe's Story was the 22nd episode of the second revival, which was narrated by actor Forest Whitaker. The episode clocked in at about 20 minutes and is about an electronics delivery and installation man named Gabe who can't catch a break. In fact, the story opens with him leaning back in a daze as he was just in a car accident (Poor guy.  Those suck.). It gets worse when he gets home and he finds out his wife hasn't paid the car insurance for three months, because of a lack of funds due to a new baby in the house (You’d think that such a thing would be talked about…{You’d think… I mean I take this as a sign that the trouble in the relationships isn’t all one way(Clearly)}). Gabe is dealing with this when he walks outside and sees a guy in a jumpsuit spraying his yard. This turns out to be a field agent of some mysterious company who runs everyone's lives, who Gabe shouldn't be able to see. Well, this goes into overdrive when Gabe's shifty buddy Luke talks him into letting Luke steal a bunch of electronics from the company truck. This swiftly goes bad as Gabe catches the same jumpsuited man letting air out of Luke's tires and forces him to take him to the company office. There he meets the writer of his life, Roxanne, who is horrified that he isn't being chased down a highway by the cops for theft right now. It's here that I think the episode's short run time acts against the story as Gabe and Roxanne argue here. Roxanne mentions that she's not in charge of the big decisions, and seems to be implying that Gabe made a lot of his own decisions with Roxanne just writing the consequences (Even so, you’ve got a private company writing his life and someone else writing the big decisions. {That’s just it, I’m not sure where they were going with this}). We don't get to delve into that however because there simply isn't time in the 20 minutes run time. Considering that each episode of the show was an hour-long with two different stories I kind of wondered if they might have done better with longer stories. But back to our story here, Gabe decides he's going to hijack his life come hell or high water and simply refuses to leave the office until he talks to someone in charge. At first, the middle manager he ends up with won't hear of it, citing company policy as holy writ. This does make me wonder who the customer is though? It certainly isn't Gabe after all! But Gabe doesn't give up, instead, he offers a bargain, let him take charge of his own life, and it'll reduce everyone's workload, he'll keep his mouth shut. He points out that Roxanne is writing 6000 daily lives, surely she has enough to do already! This certainly sways Roxanne, who is likely thinking that another couple hundred like Gabe and she could even get a coffee break before the end of the century! The manager agrees to try it out, after all, it might reduce his overhead and he can still take credit for anything Gabe does. So the episode closes with Gabe and Luke huddled at his kitchen table where Gabe points out with some hard work and elbow grease they can undercut his old boss by 30% and still turn a profit. I got to point out that between this and the bargaining, this makes Gabe the best capitalist we've had on the review series this year (Ugh.  Though he did steal the initial stock from his boss so whatever.  I’ll take what I can get.{Actually, I think they decided not to steal anything, not sure where they’re getting the start-up capital, maybe Luke has some savings?}). Gabe also manages to talk his wife into not leaving him, pointing out that she stuck with him through all the terrible crap so why not stick around and enjoy the good times to? Which is honestly a pretty good sell.

Speaking of sales, let me talk about another thing that links all of our reviews so far together. I've been bringing up the concept of the Initiate's Journey, which I admit is a phrase you likely won't find elsewhere, is a sorta rip on Joseph Campbell's monomyth theory. Joseph Campbell, a literary professor at Sarah Lawerence College known for his work on comparative mythology and religion helped popularize the idea that there was a single-story structure that could be found in every culture and set of mythologies. Some would go further and say that there's only one story structure in every myth but that's clearly going too far in my opinion. I should note that this is heavily debated and criticized so you shouldn't embrace the Hero's Journey or the Monomyth idea as the whole truth and nothing but the truth but as a possible tool for understanding common themes that pop up cross-culturally. For example, what I call the Initiate's Journey is the story of a person who purposely or accidentally comes into contact with another reality that underlies ours. This other reality can be argued to be more “real” than our own and is often a strange and scary place (Imagine what the Dresden Files would be like from the point of view of say… Butters.). Here the Initiate learns secret knowledge about the world or universe itself (in this case that our lives are mapped out and controlled by outside agencies) and must navigate their way home with this knowledge as well as survive contact with a profound power of this underlying reality. So far we've seen the three basic strategies that the Initiate can employ to get home intact. Ed in Adjustment Tale chose submission, which is usually done in a religious context, although not always. I will note that submission is not a popular modern option, so if you go with it, good luck (Because Fuck That Shit. {As my editor just proved}). David chose resistance and with the help of a mentor figure from that underlying reality stole power from it and used it to win concessions (Much Better.). Resistance usually works best if your Initiate has a mentor or some means of learning the rules of the other reality and can use those rules against the power they are fighting. Last is bargaining, which is what Gabe did. This is often used in classical examples of the Initiate's Journey and can be the focal point of shamanistic or magical traditions, although I should note this isn't universal. Bargaining often has a dark reputation in these stories in the modern-day, possibly due to the overtones of making a deal with the Devil (<Melody of Shaft> Who’s a foolish German man, deals with the devil went real bad?  Faust!  Yeah that’s right). We'll talk more about this next week when we look at Dark City but let's wrap this bad boy up, shall we?

So while as far as I can tell, no there's no admitted influence from Adjustment Team, I think a very clear line can be drawn back to it here. Gabe and Ed parallel each other pretty closely both being Americans working away at jobs until they come into contact with something they shouldn't and how it affects their lives. On top of that, there's the bureaucratic and technological flavoring of this other reality that strips away the traditional mystical elements that would be expected from such an underlying reality. The biggest difference is that Ed from Adjustment Team is rather happy with his life and living a fairly stable and secure one, while Gabe isn't and this frankly is more a sad reflection of the times the stories were created in. The average American is honestly less secure in his livelihood than he used to be and that shows up in our fiction (Capitalists have taken the American Dream from us, and rent it back through debt at interest rates that would make the Medici blush. They force us into precarity and make us compete for the crumbs of our own labor they cast down from their tables.). Interestingly enough though, Gabe is much more ambitious and driven than Ed, willing to strike out for his own well-being and bargain with higher powers for the chance to do so. So to grade Gabe's Story, well as an adaptation, it's actually better than Adjustment Bureau having a lot more in common with Adjustment Team in terms of protagonists and setting, even if the stakes and relationship with the other reality have been changed. That said there are some changes here, most noticeably in how the company is no longer benevolent but just straight out indifferent to humanity and individuals as a whole. Instead of adjusting reality to prevent WWIII for example, people's lives are written because... That's company policy (In much the same way as it is often policy to “write” your life by denying your health insurance claims reflexively to avoid payouts.). So as an adaptation I would give it a C-. As a stand-alone, it's not bad, Gabe makes for a fairly good everyman protagonist, if one who is prone to terrible decisions, and the story and plot are sound they just need more time to explore the implications and ideas presented. So I'm giving Gabe's Story a C as a stand-alone.

I hope you enjoyed this week's review if you did and would like to see more consider joining us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads where for as little as a dollar a month you get a vote on upcoming reviews, themes, and other ideas. At higher tiers you get other benefits like seeing my editor's comments in full, so you can appreciate the depth of my struggle here. Next week, we've been reviewing the movie Dark City and I'll make my case that this is a Film influenced by Mr. Dick whether the creators are fully aware of it or not. Until then, stay safe and as always Keep Reading!

Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Black Text is your reviewer Garvin Anders