I'm a Twilight Zone fan and I always look for something positive, even in the less successful episodes, but I can't see anything of value in this one because the basic plot premise is completely ridiculous. No one would hide in suspended animation for 100 years with no idea what kind of world they'd be waking up to. This episode was filmed and screened at the height of the Cold War, so it was anybody's guess if civilization would have lasted to 2060 (and frankly it still is today). I know this is a TV show and we need to suspend disbelief sometimes but suspending it this far is too much to ask. Nobody is that stupid. And why on earth was Farwell risking everything and hiding in a cave for a century for a quarter share of $1 million when he was sitting on suspended animation technology that would have made him a billionaire? I'm guessing that Rod Serling (who I admire greatly) was in a desperate rush to meet a deadline and turned in a script that was a hasty first draft. If he'd had time for a second draft he might have made it work. If they'd planned to hide for one year, for example, and something went wrong with the process so they ended up oversleeping by a century, Serling's points about greed and material value could still have been made, and the confusion and fear of people waking up in a world they never expected to see would have been powerful. As it is, it's laughable because they all made such an implausible decision. A missed opportunity and my least favourite episode.
Review of The Rip Van Winkle Caper
