Just watched this last night and I thought the ending was fairly obvious.
However the idea that HELL is a place where you can be rich beyond your dreams, have sex with as many women as you like. Or men if that's your fancy.
Fulfil all your desires with no punishment or repercussions, is HELL?????????
Just because you might get bored???? Come again???
Not a good episode in my view. I rate just 3/10.
As Metallica said: "Boredom comes from a boring mind." Rocky was handed the keys to Heaven but ending up making it a Hell. His lack of imagination was his punishment. He was his own worst enemy.
I like this episode. A seven out of ten for me. Predictable but amusing nonetheless. And the premise gives you something to think about. How would you deal with having it all? Like Rocky? Or would you have the imagination to make something out of so much?
Yes but many people living in poverty, fear and hate, would love a Hell like that. That's where the episode falls flat for me.
Perhaps the ending should have been more severe, like showing the guy this enjoyment wasn't gonna last and he will in fact burn in Hell. Know what I mean...
Yes, people living in poverty might love Rocky's "Hell". But we have to assume that each person's 'hell' is tailor made for him. And for Rocky, hell was having everything handed to him. He didn't want everything given to him. He wanted to steal it, to scheme for it, to get it by his own wits.
There was NO fun in winning every game or having every woman fall at his feet automatically. This was Rocky's idea of hell. Everything was handed to him without any effort on his part. He likes cheating, stealing and lying. An eternity of goodness was HIS hell.
Nevertheless, I thought it was a rather whimsical episode, with no real cool ending other than 'no you're in Hell - not Heaven, which I kinda realised as soon as he got there.
I just expected a bigger surprise. As I said.
Well that's okay too! I admit, when I first saw this episode (many years ago) , I WAS surprised at the ending. It gave me a chill.
shareGood observation about Hell being tailor made. It's like "The Hunt" where Hyder's afterlife is a place of coon hunting and square dances (which sounds to me like a veritable Hell). And for the raccoon Hyder and his dog hunt his afterlife would probably be hunting Hyder and Rip.
share"coon hunting and square dancing", a "veritable Hell" LOL For me, being without all my pets WOULD be hell. But I could do without the square dancing.
shareNo two people are alike so I imagine no two Heavens or Hells would be alike either.
Square dancing does nothing for me. Never had much of a hankering for hunting either. Love animals though.
Funny, I just remembered how I liked square dancing when I was a kid. In the fourth grade, we had a teacher who had a bunch of square dancing records and we would dance during our recess. It was fun, but I don't think I could take an eternity of square dancing. LOL
I would be very sad to spend an eternity without my dogs and my cats. Do they have kennels in heaven? ha!
You might need a kennel if you ventured into someone else's Heaven and they had a strictly no pets policy.
LOL You seem to know my late father. I don't think he would want animals in " his" heaven. He had a lifelong fear of dogs and he barely tolerated all the animals our "dog loving" mom allowed us to have.
I picture dad's heaven as "no animals" allowed as he watched non-stop football games and played pool with his friends.
Are you sure they would love a Hell like that? "Be careful what you wish for," this episode seems to be warning. After all, Rocky was one of those people --- "Rocky and perilous and uphill at a dead run all the way," as Rod describes Rocky's life in his intro. He's given an afterlife that fully compensates him for indigence when he was alive and what happens? He nearly loses his mind from boredom.
As for punishment, the episode does end with Pip revealing where Rocky really is and laughing maniacally. We don't see Rocky suffering but we can glean from this conclusion that things for Rocky are probably going to be pretty rough from here on out.
If it's boredom, then that isn't Hell.
That lifestyle is available to anyone who wins the $480 million Lottery.
I've always thought that was a pretty stupid point. I feel like I could definitely put my eternity to good use in that situation.
sharekr, yes, you could, but ROcky can't, that's the point of an individualized hell.
I recall a similar Night Gallery episode where John Astin as a hippie is in what he thinks is the waiting room to hell, where he's surrounded by a bunch of real squares, like a guy in a Hawaiian shirt who wants to show him home movies of his vacation. Eventually, he learns it's not the waiting room, this is where he'll spend eternity. And that there's an identical room in heaven!
I might have to check that out. The episode, that is, not the room in hell ;)
share