This episode perfectly illustrates why "The Twilight Zone" is the greatest show that ever aired on television. It's not a typical TZ-tale, mind you, since it doesn't feature any supernatural or mystery elements, but it's disturbing, contemporarily accurate, thought-provoking, intelligent and indescribably tense. What a true genius you were, Mr. Rod Serling! Throughout a total of five seasons and 150+ episodes, we've seen stories with a wide variety of greatly horrific subjects (aliens, parallel dimensions, dystopian futures, post-nuclear landscapes, ...) but, in "The Shelter", Serling establishes once and for all that the biggest menace for the survival of our species is, in fact, man itself. The story opens in the living room of the respectable Dr. Stockton, where he and his family are cozily enjoying a diner party with the closest neighbors and friends. Moments after the neighbors jokingly mocked the good doctor for being the sole resident in the area with a bomb shelter in his basements, the party is rudely interrupted by a government announcement. A nuclear attack is imminent and seemingly unavoidable. Suddenly, the idea of being prepared with bomb-proof shelter isn't so funny anymore.
What happens next is jaw-dropping, because it's simultaneously disturbing and realistic. Everybody thinks they are entitled to seek refuge in Dr. Stockton's shelter. Lifelong friends turn into selfish enemies, neighbors who were enjoying a drink together before the news bulletin are now turning violent on each other, and literally everybody feels that his/her life is more valuable than that of another. And, of course, during all this you can't help thinking: "How would I react?". It's easy to assume we are more civilized than this, but ... are we really? Only great cinema/television can evoke these kinds of thoughts, and "The Twilight Zone" is great television! The events and circumstances obviously look dated in 2020, but can you imagine what impact this must have had upon its release in the fall of 1961, at the height of the Cold War paranoia? In fact, I wouldn't even be too surprised if this TV-episode was single-handedly responsible for the sudden construction of hundreds of domestic bomb shelters all across the United States. I have yet to see and review quite a large number of "Twilight Zone" episodes, but I'm already quite sure that "The Shelter" will eventually pop up in my personal top 10.
