Post by telegonus on Mar 4, 2017 8:23:57 GMT
The Hitchcock shows are tricky, and even on the old IMDB boards there would be posts on one show on the boards of the other. I'd to see a board for each show here.
Of the two, I'm actually of two minds, as they're different shows. One critic described the half-hour Presents as a jack-in-the box compared to the psychologically "deeper" hour longs, and I suppose there's some truth in that, though there are "deep" half-hours, such as the classic The Glass Eye as well as a few others that deal with relationships, with love, loneliness, hate, greed and even art in ways that I would not call shallow. One that comes to mind that's anything but shallow, The Contest For Aaron Gold, adapted from a Philip Roth Story.
Since I haven't seen a half-hour for a long while I'm more comfortable discussing the hour episodes. They're definitely Sixties in sensibility, in a non-stereotypical way I should add, while the earlier show always felt Fifties, even in its final two or three seasons. That early to mid-Sixites vibe is quite strong in the hour longs, as strong as it is in such very different TV series from the same era as The Fugitive and The Outer Limits. In its final season the Hitch hour came near to becoming a horror show. As with the half-hours, the hour longs were hit and miss, with more hits than misses.
Of the two, I'm actually of two minds, as they're different shows. One critic described the half-hour Presents as a jack-in-the box compared to the psychologically "deeper" hour longs, and I suppose there's some truth in that, though there are "deep" half-hours, such as the classic The Glass Eye as well as a few others that deal with relationships, with love, loneliness, hate, greed and even art in ways that I would not call shallow. One that comes to mind that's anything but shallow, The Contest For Aaron Gold, adapted from a Philip Roth Story.
Since I haven't seen a half-hour for a long while I'm more comfortable discussing the hour episodes. They're definitely Sixties in sensibility, in a non-stereotypical way I should add, while the earlier show always felt Fifties, even in its final two or three seasons. That early to mid-Sixites vibe is quite strong in the hour longs, as strong as it is in such very different TV series from the same era as The Fugitive and The Outer Limits. In its final season the Hitch hour came near to becoming a horror show. As with the half-hours, the hour longs were hit and miss, with more hits than misses.