A good Twilight Zoney episode for the series to go out on!
Escapism. When children are faced with their parent's divorce-- a good decision given the parent's toxic relationship-- they choose to dive headfirst into denial, rejection and escapism. They don't want to live in a world where their parents have separated. Yet they are too young to realize the consequences of choosing the alternative, a seemingly perfect fantasyland, and this leaves the episode on an uneasy note.
The granny figure is enigmatic and unsettling to me. On one hand, if the children say they are loved, she seems happy to send them back. However, children having trouble at home are fitfully persuaded to stay there, with her... seemingly forever. Their parents audible cries, calling out to the children, will "fade" over time, she says. The parent's own anguish at their missing children notwithstanding. They were too self-absorbed and combative to provide a good atmosphere for their kids, and now, having paid a very Twilight Zone-y price for it, may never see them again to make up for it.
Do the children grow up here? We didn't see any adults there. These things are left ambiguous. With Hansel and Gretel overtones I'm still not convinced this fairytale figure might not just eat the children eventually.
The one flaw is the little girl's dubbing is a jarringly bad, which is unfortunate but at least a production issue rather than a problem with the story.
Escapism. When children are faced with their parent's divorce-- a good decision given the parent's toxic relationship-- they choose to dive headfirst into denial, rejection and escapism. They don't want to live in a world where their parents have separated. Yet they are too young to realize the consequences of choosing the alternative, a seemingly perfect fantasyland, and this leaves the episode on an uneasy note.
The granny figure is enigmatic and unsettling to me. On one hand, if the children say they are loved, she seems happy to send them back. However, children having trouble at home are fitfully persuaded to stay there, with her... seemingly forever. Their parents audible cries, calling out to the children, will "fade" over time, she says. The parent's own anguish at their missing children notwithstanding. They were too self-absorbed and combative to provide a good atmosphere for their kids, and now, having paid a very Twilight Zone-y price for it, may never see them again to make up for it.
Do the children grow up here? We didn't see any adults there. These things are left ambiguous. With Hansel and Gretel overtones I'm still not convinced this fairytale figure might not just eat the children eventually.
The one flaw is the little girl's dubbing is a jarringly bad, which is unfortunate but at least a production issue rather than a problem with the story.