Twilight Zone episode review — 1.27 — The Big Tall Wish
Episode 1.27 “The Big Tall Wish”
Original air date: April 8, 1960
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Ron Winston
Rating: 3/10
I think this episode’s heart is in the right place, but it’s still tough to deny that this is one of the weakest entries in the series. It was ahead of its time for its nearly all-black cast, but something about this episode feels very old fashioned, and not in a good way.
Bolie Jackson (Ivan Dixon) is a washed-up boxer who has a unique friendship with a young boy, Henry, in his apartment building. Before his big comeback fight, the boy wishes him luck, and says he’ll make a “big, tall wish” for him to win.
He breaks his knuckles before the fight even begins, and naturally gets his ass handed to him. While he is down and the referee is counting to ten, with Henry by his television set, everything freezes, and suddenly it is Bolie’s opponent that’s on the ground. Bolie wins, to his own amazement.
While he remembers being knocked down, he discovers that he was always in control of the fight. He goes home, greeted by friends on the street, still unable to believe what happened. He meets Henry on the roof and tells him that he thought he had been knocked down and lost the fight. Henry explains that this is what was happening, until his wish kicked in.
Bolie naturally laughs at this notion, but the kid keeps insisting that he needs to believe in the magic. When he chooses not to, everything goes back to as it was, with Bolie on the canvas, losing the fight. It doesn’t end on a completely dou note, though, as he goes and sees Henry at the end.
It’s a weird message to have in an episode. While it’s about the difference in innocence between children and adults, it is overly sentimental for the episode to essentially side with the kid and his belief in magic. That’s not the worse message to have in children’s entertainment, but since when was The Twilight Zone for children? I think the series has significantly better kid-friendly episodes, such as One for the Angels.
