"The Bard" is already the last episode of the overall very satisfying fourth season of "The Twilight Zone", so I genuinely wished I had more positive things to write about it. Alas, I found it one of the weakest entries of the season, and once again the poor attempts at inserting too much comedy elements are to blame. I said it before and I'll say it again, the very best TZ-episodes are bleak, disturbing, and frightening. Those just happens to be the last three terms you could use to describe "The Bard".
The idea behind this tale is nonetheless ingenious. An untalented but over-enthusiast aspiring writer with a silly name (what kind of surname is Moomer?) finds a way - via black magic - to teleport none other than William Shakespeare to contemporary Hollywood, and makes use of his still very vivid and genius imagination to write new stories. Shakespeare still got it, of course, but can he deal with modern day obstacles, like censorship, rewrites, stubborn method actors, and producer demands? "The Bard" is watchable but dull, with too many annoying characters (and ditto performances) and an insupportable lack of "Twilight Zone" trademarks. I am, however, giving it one extra point for Burt Reynolds' witty impersonation of Marlon Brando, and for the resemblance of Shakespeare's looks, and the looks of all the other historical figures, during the end sequence.
The idea behind this tale is nonetheless ingenious. An untalented but over-enthusiast aspiring writer with a silly name (what kind of surname is Moomer?) finds a way - via black magic - to teleport none other than William Shakespeare to contemporary Hollywood, and makes use of his still very vivid and genius imagination to write new stories. Shakespeare still got it, of course, but can he deal with modern day obstacles, like censorship, rewrites, stubborn method actors, and producer demands? "The Bard" is watchable but dull, with too many annoying characters (and ditto performances) and an insupportable lack of "Twilight Zone" trademarks. I am, however, giving it one extra point for Burt Reynolds' witty impersonation of Marlon Brando, and for the resemblance of Shakespeare's looks, and the looks of all the other historical figures, during the end sequence.