Episode #27, segment 1 - The Storyteller

#27a: THE STORYTELLER (episode #3 of 2nd season)
written by Rockne S. O'Bannon Directed by Paul Lynch

An odd little fable that struck a chord with me; most of it is a flashback to way back in the 1930s, when a young teacher (Glynnis O'Connor) fresh out of the university takes her first job as a teacher in a small town in the Appalachians. One of her students, Mica (David Faustino, later the son in Married With Children), reads to his grandfather every day; yet, it's not really his grandfather; it's his great great great grandfather (Parley Baer) - he's over 140 years old and stays alive because Mica reads him only some of a story each day; the old man's interest in hearing the rest of the story keeps him alive for yet another day.
Yes, it sounds odd and even goofy as a premise, but it's also a paean to the concept & magic of storytelling, perhaps something we lose as we move past childhood. It can also be a commentary on old age, that generally older people would live longer if their interests were kept alive. This takes it to an extreme degree, of course - it can also seem a little creepy to keep a person living endlessly as a very old invalid in a bed, for many decades. Since this is the Zone, this turns the story on itself in the end. BoG's Score: 7 out of 10