A depressed, bitter man realizes that he is nothing special in the world. He has no lover. His job is commonplace. His days are tedious. He won't be remembered when he dies.
So he decides he will do something to be remember by: murder. Sound familiar?
Well, in 1958, it didn't -- which is why this episode is largely comedic. The premise is meant to be SO outlandish as to be whimsical.
Of course, in modern-day America, the disgruntled loser who decides to gain infamy by committing a mass shooting is a dime a dozen. He isn't looking to be a number in a statistics book, but to get his own Wikipedia page and at least a day of the 24-hour news cycle covering him.
For that reason, this episode that would otherwise be mediocre gets high marks from me. It's bizarre to watch something so horrifically commonplace today be portrayed as comically outlandish. It's like holding a funhouse mirror up to reality.
I will say that the very end of the episode is disturbing for any time period: a suicide played for laughs. It doesn't matter if the guy "had it coming" or whatever -- it's messed up.
My only other complaint is in regards to the treatment of the man's sister and murder victim in this episode. Even though it's made clear that she has taken care of her unappreciative older brother for more than a decade, she's also painted as if she "had it coming" before her murder. It's suggested that she chased women away from her brother and deliberately made him miserable. This reeks of Hitchcock's normal misogynistic slant, where all women in his productions are either bitter old shrews or young, seductive temptresses -- but are all out to make men miserable for some reason. Go to therapy, Hitchcock!
So he decides he will do something to be remember by: murder. Sound familiar?
Well, in 1958, it didn't -- which is why this episode is largely comedic. The premise is meant to be SO outlandish as to be whimsical.
Of course, in modern-day America, the disgruntled loser who decides to gain infamy by committing a mass shooting is a dime a dozen. He isn't looking to be a number in a statistics book, but to get his own Wikipedia page and at least a day of the 24-hour news cycle covering him.
For that reason, this episode that would otherwise be mediocre gets high marks from me. It's bizarre to watch something so horrifically commonplace today be portrayed as comically outlandish. It's like holding a funhouse mirror up to reality.
I will say that the very end of the episode is disturbing for any time period: a suicide played for laughs. It doesn't matter if the guy "had it coming" or whatever -- it's messed up.
My only other complaint is in regards to the treatment of the man's sister and murder victim in this episode. Even though it's made clear that she has taken care of her unappreciative older brother for more than a decade, she's also painted as if she "had it coming" before her murder. It's suggested that she chased women away from her brother and deliberately made him miserable. This reeks of Hitchcock's normal misogynistic slant, where all women in his productions are either bitter old shrews or young, seductive temptresses -- but are all out to make men miserable for some reason. Go to therapy, Hitchcock!