MovieChat Forums > Tales from the Darkside (1983) Discussion > Sad episodes?

Sad episodes?

posted 12 years ago by sportdistant
19 replies | jump to latest

Compared to the 80s version of the Twilight Zone, I felt TFTD had a lot of endings that gave you a hollow feeling and didn't really make you feel sorry for the characters, almost as if they deserved their fate.

While in the Twilight Zone, many episodes were very moving, and really made you feel sympathetic to the characters and the situations.

Were there any episodes in TFTD that made you feel a little sad or moved you after watching?

One episode that had sort of a weird somber/sad feeling for me was from the 4th season called "Spirit Photographer", even though it was kind of a happy ending.

[–] shred-com 12 years ago

While The Twilight Zone went for straight emotion shows like Tales From The Crypt went for "They got what they deserved"
I see Tales From The Darkside being more Crypt lite when it comes to it's endings.

[–] trista-902-431742 12 years ago

Miss May Dusa Season 3 episode 12 was sad. A blind man falls in love with a woman and it goes horribly wrong.

[–] elpida18 12 years ago

I can't help saying goodbye was sad.

[–] ButterflyAlias 11 years ago

I totally agree. This one wrecked me!

[–] I_hatenazis 10 years ago

That was incredibly sad. I thought it was one of the best written episodes that I have seen and I was surprised that it was rated in the middle of the pack. Perhaps it was too serious?

* SPOILERS *
There are so many things I liked about that episode
1. I loved the ending how you finally got to see how her premonitions worked. You can empathize with how horrifying they must have been earlier in the show when she was just acting weird.
2. I liked how they noticed the scary kid and even joked about it (she was just misunderstood of course). I hate the horror shows where they act as if nothing is wrong.
3. I felt a real sadness because it just seemed like a big misunderstanding and her death was just so unnecessary.
4. She said the title of the episode in the show, Family Guy made a joke sequence about Movies that did that. This last one was just a minor point.

It was just odd that she seemed to be under the impression that these things were inevitable, she made no effort to warn people or even escape her own fate. She was a little child of course, and they do get strange ideas in their minds but she never reached out an told anyone until it was too late.

I am going to have to rate this episode a 9 on imdb. I can't believe it is only a 6.6.

[–] michael-watkins-laj7 9 years ago

given that it was the darkside, I think the deaths were inevitable. she was merely the messenger.

[–] teebabes25 12 years ago

Sorry right number was a sad one

[–] cmoore5-20-797765 12 years ago

Loved Miss May Dusa. I think it's one of the better episodes of the whole series. It was just very fascinating and strange. Such a sad, melancholy story.

[–] Grindcorp9000 11 years ago

My gf and I looked at each other at the end of Miss May Dusa and were like damn, that was brutal.

It was soul crushing.

[–] ButterflyAlias 11 years ago

Agreed. Just a total bummer ending.

[–] I_hatenazis 9 years ago

After seeing Miss May Dusa, I'd have to say that it does beat out 'I Just Can't Help Saying Goodbye'. Both were excellent episodes but it seemed like the writer was going out of his way to make everything go the worst way possible for MMD at the end.

I pretty much saw the first thing coming
* * SPOILERS * *

That she would go back into a Mannequin (clever twist, Miss May Dusa = Medusa) but then to have the blind guy get shot and die alone in the shop was flat out mean. Also, the way they focused on May Dusa, she was angled as if she would be able to see the guy she loved. There was even an implication that she somehow could see what was happening but was powerless to help. That writer could not be any more mean.

[–] emoneypitt 11 years ago

Sorry, Right Number was probably the saddest one for me. When the woman at the end tries to call her old phone number and realizes that she was the one who called into the past, in a futile attempt to warn herself of her husband's impending death.

[–] wallacesawyer 11 years ago

Season One's "SLIPPAGE" maybe

http://www.freewebs.com/demonictoys/

[–] smileyking1975 10 years ago

The Choice of Dreams. I kept picturing Boris Karloff in that one, especially at the end.

[–] ms-zanadu 10 years ago

I also agree " Miss May Dusa " had a very tragic ending as well  .

Also other " tragic ending episodes of main characters who clearly didn't deserve an unfair ending " were ones like:

" Effect and Cause "
( the artist lady breaking her leg and all other crazy things happening to her leading up to her death  )

" Going Native "
( a woman stuck on a planet that was not her own never to return to her world again  )

" The Apprentice "
( a young woman getting trapped in a past life and sentenced to death  )

" Love Hungry "
( a slightly overweight woman just trying to find a way to lose weight and with an unwilling deadly end  )

" Inside the Closet "
( a young woman needing a place to live yet being harassed and then murdered by a creature in her bedroom closet  )

Of course absolutely no complaints with me on this series IMPO it's one of the best Now Classic Anthology Series on TV  .

Thanks sportdistant for your subject post  .

[–] NeonManiac0 10 years ago

Sorry, Right Number quite easily. Man, just thinking about it makes me sad :(

[–] I_hatenazis 9 years ago

Didn't work for me.

It had the feel of a story where the writer, in this case Stephen King, started out with the punch line and worked backwards. The flow of events was just to nonsensical for me to be impacted. He had his big punch line ready 'IT WAS YOU! THAT'S WHY IT SOUNDED LIKE SOMEONE IN YOUR FAMILY!' Oh now, I have to write an episode for that, oh yeah, let me bang it out.

I am more than willing to accept time travel, dialing a wrong number, etc. However, why did the wife/mother even pick up the phone at the end and even start to dial any number at the end of the episode when she saw the tape? Why did she start to blather about get him to a doctor, he's going to have a heart attack if she didn't even know who she was talking to?

She even said at the end, 'I accidentally dialed our own number'.
The whole episode was written so that we could see the shocked look on her face when she realized that she was talking to herself 10yrs into the future.

[–] michael-watkins-laj7 9 years ago

I think the episode was called 'The Odds.' i don't think it was meant to be sad. but it's the lackey's reaction to his boss dying that got to me.

[–] deepdarkorchid 8 years ago

Miss May Dusa was the saddest, definitely, but lots of people have already mentioned that. I see no one mentioned "In the Cards,"

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

but I thought Dorothy Lyman did a great job of making her character likable, so the ending was sad for me. When she got her fortune read AFTER changing the bad luck pack of cards, I was shouting, "Oh no stop!"