"Darkroom" takes a hard-left turn from monster horror to the type of pitch-black comedy that was the stock in trade of shows like "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and writers like Roald Dahl. The result is what may arguably be the best episode of the series.
Bert and Margo Haskell (Akins and Lockhart) are an upper-middle age couple who care for their elderly Uncle George. Because Bert is unable to work due to his heart, he and Margo are desperately reliant upon Uncle George's monthly pension check to survive; so, when Uncle George finally dies, the two take the extraordinary step of recruiting a skid row bum (Taylor) to impersonate Uncle George to keep the checks coming.
As indicated above, this episode is one of the series' high points, due in no small part to Fischer's ("Columbo", "Murder, She Wrote") superb script. He effectively lays out the desperation of all three characters from the moment we meet them, and creates people who are seemingly willing to offer the other(s) anything in order to get what they need. In doing so, it's never clear to the audience until the last moment exactly which character is going to have the rug pulled out from under them, setting up a knockout ending.
The performers help immensely. On the one hand, Akins and Lockhart come off as so nice and genuine, that it's hard to believe they'd need anything more than for Taylor to simply play a part; on the other, Taylor comes off a so delighted to escape his own desperate circumstances, that he couldn't possibly be after anything else, or could he?
From a directing standpoint, Rosenthal takes the smart course by having the story and the actors do the heavy lifting, and minimizing the directorial flourish. This understated direction helps to sell the shocker ending by letting the simple sight (and sound) of a key prop do all the work -- that is, making the viewer's blood run cold. Both Hitchcock and Dahl would have been proud.
Bert and Margo Haskell (Akins and Lockhart) are an upper-middle age couple who care for their elderly Uncle George. Because Bert is unable to work due to his heart, he and Margo are desperately reliant upon Uncle George's monthly pension check to survive; so, when Uncle George finally dies, the two take the extraordinary step of recruiting a skid row bum (Taylor) to impersonate Uncle George to keep the checks coming.
As indicated above, this episode is one of the series' high points, due in no small part to Fischer's ("Columbo", "Murder, She Wrote") superb script. He effectively lays out the desperation of all three characters from the moment we meet them, and creates people who are seemingly willing to offer the other(s) anything in order to get what they need. In doing so, it's never clear to the audience until the last moment exactly which character is going to have the rug pulled out from under them, setting up a knockout ending.
The performers help immensely. On the one hand, Akins and Lockhart come off as so nice and genuine, that it's hard to believe they'd need anything more than for Taylor to simply play a part; on the other, Taylor comes off a so delighted to escape his own desperate circumstances, that he couldn't possibly be after anything else, or could he?
From a directing standpoint, Rosenthal takes the smart course by having the story and the actors do the heavy lifting, and minimizing the directorial flourish. This understated direction helps to sell the shocker ending by letting the simple sight (and sound) of a key prop do all the work -- that is, making the viewer's blood run cold. Both Hitchcock and Dahl would have been proud.
