The Twilight Zone: Season 1 (1959)

What more can I say about this show, other than it belongs in my personal list of the top 5 television shows, ever? (Alongside "The Simpsons" and "The Sopranos," at least.) It was uncommonly intelligent, even poetic. The stories were dark and cynical and didn't care a whit about coddling viewers or restoring order in the universe. The events in these shows happened to innocent people, for no reason. And perhaps, sometimes, those people weren't so innocent at all. Perhaps none of us is innocent.

The major drawback of "Season One" is that the show's greatest, most memorable episodes are spread out evenly over five seasons, and most likely you'll find yourself remembering and wanting to see one that isn't here. But what is here is pretty great. There's "Walking Distance," about a man who suddenly finds himself revisiting his childhood; "Time Enough at Last," about a lover of books (Burgess Meredith) who finds himself the only survivor after the apocalypse; "Mirror Image," about a woman (Vera Miles) who begins experiencing strange things in a bus station; "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," about an unseen (possibly imagined?) invasion from outer space, "People Are Alike All Over," about an astronaut (Roddy McDowall) who becomes stranded on Mars; and "A Stop at Willoughby," about a man who wishes that life didn't move quite so fast.

Incredibly, Serling wrote most of the episodes himself, revealing an imagination and a high-quality output that most genre novelists could never match. Other great writers, such as Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson, also chipped in. Actors in this first season include Ida Lupino, Dan Duryea, Martin Landau, Richard Conte, Kevin McCarthy, Jack Klugman, Jack Warden, and Keenan Wynn.

Extras on this Blu-Ray set include the unofficial pilot episode, "The Time Element," a bunch of commentary tracks (19 of them brand-new), isolated music scores (some of them by Bernard Herrmann and Jerry Goldsmith), interviews, promos, radio dramas, and plenty of other stuff. This is one of the most essential collections of the year.