The Playground

While he could enhance the sentimentality of childhood, Ray Bradbury also could take on the nightmares of childhood. I'm not sure I understand the ending totally, but the whole portrayal of the playground is frightening. William Shatner's Charlie, a single father, has been traumatized as a childhood. Before the pre-frontal cortex gets its act together, children can do things that lack conventional conscience. Charlie fears the playground and yet is drawn to it. He still lives in the same neighborhood where the kids of his day tormented him, and now his own son wants badly to be a part of the culture. The boy is pretty fearless and innocent. When we see things from Shatner's perspective we see fangs, facial distortions, horrors coming from these beings. At some point one must seek to confront or nothing will change. Charlie/Shatner knows that he will be haunted for his life it he doesn't act. That gets us to the end. Make your own conclusions.

The Ray Bradbury Theater Season 1 Episode 2 "The Playground" Episode aired Jun 4, 1985

All grown-up Charles Underhill (William Shatner) must loosen his parental grip on his son. Yep, it is time to go to the "Playground". Unfortunately, Charles had a bad time thee as a child and does not want his son to experience the same.

He has to find a unique situation to exercise the playground demons. What and see how or if he does this.

We all know this series is cheap and has bad or no CGI. However, "The Playground" is very dark and could stan a flashlight or two.

Take time to see the real Shatner in Shatner in Space (2021).

William Shatner acts well as the dad who doesn't want his son to go to the local playground because of his own childhood trauma. Another universal theme? I remember one time my brothers and I were scared out of the local playground when some big kids came in and started pushing everyone around. The spooky close ups of frightening children make it frightening but the end was confusing. A short story needs a good conclusion.

William Shatner heads a Canadian cast and crew in this unsuccessful adaptation by Ray Bradbury of his short story. It's a one-note nightmarish drama that leaves the viewer with a bad taste in the mouth.

Shatner is well-cast given his over dramatic acting style as a buttoned-up single dad who is overprotective of his young son Steve, living with his sister Carol (Kate Trotter), still living in the family home they were raised in. She criticizes him for not letting the boy grow up normally with other kids, and urges he take the kid to the neighborhood playground.

What happens is a surreal drama in which Shatner imagines himself as a child back in that playground being tormented by bullies. Director William Fruet, who before many horror assignments directed the classic Canadian film "Wedding in White" (starring Carol Kane and Donald Pleasence), tries hard but Bradbury's script is unrelenting and repetitive in stressing (without any interesting subtext or relief) the paranoia Shatner feels. The familiar horror trope of evil children is overbearing and difficult to watch, while the single plot twist only makes matters worse, as there is no relief from tension, just the end credits rolling to signify "That's all, folks!".

Fans may not be aware of it, but this show is a Canadian product, as the credits will confirm. It reminded me how interdependent we are with Canada here in the USA, not just for the products and their parts that flow freely back and forth but in the services and entertainment provided. Living through the nightmare of a lunatic declaring and enforcing a trade war with Canada is now a trauma for everyone, not merely the fiction for Bill Shatner's character Charlie.

Charles Underhill (William Shatner) lives in the suburb with his wife and their five year-old son Steve (Keith Dutson), but he does not allow Steve to go to play in the nearby playground with other children. Charles has a childhood trauma with the bully Ralph (Mirko Malish) and his friends, and he frequently sees his ghost challenging him, until the day he decides to go to the playground with Steve and face the wounds of his past.

I did not understand the conclusion of this intriguing episode. The story has a promising beginning, it is well developed but I was completely disappointed with the weird open conclusion. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "The Playground"