Elegiac entry, tastefully done. Elderly Professor Fowler has taught at boy's school for a half- century. Now the Board of Directors has decided to replace him with a younger scholar. Convinced that his years have failed to reach his students, he contemplates an empty future and suicide.
I like the way Fowler's class of adolescent boys seems remote from his reflections on poetic wisdom. After all, how many hormonally gripped youths will tune into high-falutin' language. Then too, the prof. seems removed from the class as he quotes from pages of the greats. Thus, it appears the two worlds are sliding past one another, fruitlessly. But then we get a TZ reveal showing that things are not always as they seem.
Actor Pleasance manages to avoid a sentimental pitfall—he never gets maudlin. On the other hand, there's no action, nor special effects, or other eye-catchers of the series. I guess, my only reservation is with the crucial visitation scene that seems unduly bland. Anyway the narrative engages with human interest the whole way. And if the half-hour is not exactly memorable, it does remain trans-generational in appeal.
I like the way Fowler's class of adolescent boys seems remote from his reflections on poetic wisdom. After all, how many hormonally gripped youths will tune into high-falutin' language. Then too, the prof. seems removed from the class as he quotes from pages of the greats. Thus, it appears the two worlds are sliding past one another, fruitlessly. But then we get a TZ reveal showing that things are not always as they seem.
Actor Pleasance manages to avoid a sentimental pitfall—he never gets maudlin. On the other hand, there's no action, nor special effects, or other eye-catchers of the series. I guess, my only reservation is with the crucial visitation scene that seems unduly bland. Anyway the narrative engages with human interest the whole way. And if the half-hour is not exactly memorable, it does remain trans-generational in appeal.