‘Serling’ Review: Doc on ‘Twilight Zone’ Creator Captures Rod Serling the Visionary, but Rarely Rod Serling the Man

Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text Jonah Tulis’ Serling , a new 98-minute documentary about The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling , is good, but it’s mostly a good shell. Persuasively showing that Rod Serling was one of the medium’s true prophets, a prolific thinker capable of seeing the world around him and using it as a prism to look both backward and forward, Serling proves less deft in examining Rod Serling as a man. Despite interviews with Serling’s wife and daughters, as well as several collaborators, this remains a portrait of the artist as a very wise fortune cookie instead of a flesh-and-blood storyteller whose work still thrills us in a way that countless contemporaries, however acclaimed, never achieved. Related Stories Movies 'Drag' Review: Lizzy Caplan Headlines a Twisted, Tongue-in-Cheek Robbery Thriller That Overstays Its Welcome Movies 'Family Movie' Review: At Least Kevin Bacon and His Family Are Having Fun Serling The Bottom Line A worthwhile if somewhat shallow dive into a deep man. Venue: SXSW Film Festival (Documentary Spotlight) Director: Jonah Tulis 1 hour 38 minutes One of Tulis’ central aesthetic conceits is a bunch of re-enactments in which Serling is featured either as a blurred face, a smoking profile or a silhouette, and that’s how he ultimately comes across in the film. He’s a suit and a cigarette and an impeccable hair-do, rarely a person. Watching Serling made me want to binge The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery , but more than that, it made me crave a four-hour documentary capable of a greater level of humanizing and specificity. I learned some things from Serling , but the primary thing I learned is that Rod Serling loved a dictaphone. Serling apparently dictated letters and scripts and general observations on the industry he helpe...