Profile in Silver/Button, Button

PROFILE IN SILVER is a story that mixes time travel and the JFK assassination, a bit like in the recent Stephen King novel, 11/22/63. A historian goes back in time to witness the assassination first hand, but he can't help getting involved, and then he has to live with the consequences of his action. There are plenty more twists in the tale alongside a fun acting performance from HELLRAISER's Andrew Robinson.

BUTTON, BUTTON is interesting because it's an adaptation of the same Richard Matheson short story that was used in the flop Hollywood film THE BOX, with Cameron Diaz. This one's a bit better because Matheson himself wrote the screenplay, and the idea behind the tale is very slight so it works much better in a half-hour episode than it did stretched out in an hour-and-a-half movie. A suburban couple are given a box with a button on it and a deadly deal: if they press the button they'll win a fortune, but somebody somewhere in the world will die. It's moral dilemma time again, with Brad Davis, and it's pretty decent.

Profile in Silver is a sharp, funny, socially significant, unique and creative episode. The characters are fully rounded, real, credible and you feel like you've known them for years. The dialogue is sharp and on point. It's at least as good as, if not better than anything from the original series. The But is for one minor plot point: Oswald didn't do it. I'm sure of that, Oliver Stone is certain and I'm sure Rod Serling was, as well.

I'm sure I saw Button Button when it first aired but I don't remember it. This review and rating are for Profile in Silver.

A time traveler goes back to 1963 to do some visual research on the Kennedy assassination in Dallas. He accidentally prevents Kennedy from being shot and ends up a hero. The problem is that the balance of time has been ripped and Kennedy's survival causes tremendous harm. The immutability of time makes any of these types of portrayals suspect, but this is done with great intelligence and care. Also, the acting is very good. In "Button, Button," Mare Winningham plays a beady eyed, cynical wife to a weak willed man. They tolerate each other and that's about it. One day, a tall, middle aged man brings in a "button unit." It is a single red button under a plastic dome. If the recipient pushes the button, some random person will die and the button pusher will receive 200,000 dollars. The two of them jockey around their disturbing world and try to decide what to do. It's a really cool problem to face.

An interesting episode this one – the second part (which I didn't watch) also exists as a recent film called The Box and, like Profile in Silver, has an interesting concept behind it. It was Profile that I came to watch though because I have an interest in the work of J Neil Schulman – an interest it is worth me declaring. I know him from a low-budget film of his that I thought was terrible and since then I have read one of his books and now also watched this Twilight Zone story which he wrote. Schulman for those that don't know has been a writer for decades and in certain circles is well respected for his sci-fi writing and his libertarian writings. Personally i don't see it myself but part of me checking him out is me looking for the things that others seem to see. Unfortunately I ended this episode still unable to see them but happy to say that he did a "solid" job here.

The plot is a time-travelling historian is sent back on a mission to study his specialist time in history (North America, early 1960's) but, on the day of the assassination, finds that he is unable to prevent himself shouting out an emotional warning and inadvertently saving the President. It is not long before the ramifications of this are all too clear to him. The set-up is a good one but unfortunately it is far too practically written and lacks anything in the way of bite and impact. I recently read Alongside Night and i found the same thing in the writing there – dialogue was often too practical and explanatory and it didn't flow with a natural air. This is how it felt here too – and it gets to that stage very quickly in the opening discussion between the professor and his time-colleague. The dialogue there just dumps everything onto the viewer and it is rather unsatisfactory and unnatural. The rest of the story plays out like this – with ideas just delivered but not refined in a way that makes them work well.

Functional. It is a word I thought before and it is a word that applied here – everything about this story was functional and it didn't engage me and it never let my mind run with it because it just seemed to be matter-of-fact with not much to offer beyond the initial idea. It is a shame because the idea deserves much more but it isn't given the words or the direction to do so in a script that is entirely functional and lacking in flow. Functional – it is a good when discussing a can opener, not so much when it comes to story-telling.