"The Twilight Zone" Another Life (TV Episode 2003) Poster

(TV Series)

(2003)

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6/10
When I die I wanna be high
sol121818 July 2012
***SPOILERS*** Top hip hop singer & song writer Marvin Garden, Wood Harris, has been having frightening black outs of late where he finds himself back in his old crime ridden housing projects where he grew up as a kid. Being interrogated by the police as being a suspected neighborhood gang banger named Dwayne Grant Marvin is accused of him offing a policeman during a drug raid in his buildings basement. The black outs have become so real that Marvin goes to see psychiatrist Dr. Sinclear, Brian Markenson, for professional help.

Told that he's been working too hard in the studio at his music Dr.Sinclear gives Marvin strong psychotic medication to overcome his very pressing problems. So pressing that their slowly driving him insane and estranging Mavin from his both wife Jasmine, Kimberly Elise, and four year old son Marvin Jr, Meshach Peters. As his black outs become more and more uncontrollable Marvin is even willing to, but doesn't, go down to the local drug pusher to get the "good stuff" to elevate his mind altering hallucinations.

***SPOILERS*** It's when Marvin is brought to the deep end and finally beyond it that the truth shockingly comes out about what he's been suffering through this "Twilight Zone" episode. Marvin has been living like the song says in "Two Different Worlds" one real and one make believe. And it's the world of reality not make believe that in the end finally as well as sadly took control of him and his life. As for the cop that Marvin was accused of, as Dwayne Grant, killing his killer was apprehended and confessed to his crime after it was too late to help Marvin.
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7/10
"This must be getting very painful for you."
classicsoncall16 March 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This episode relies on significant sleight of hand to focus the viewer on Marvin Gardens' (Wood Harris) identity as a successful hip-hop artist with recurring visions of a life bereft of fame and fortune. The psychiatrist's (Brian Markinson) diagnosis of a shift in consciousness resulting in a fugue state was an interesting one, and a quick internet search will verify the existence of such a condition. What we come to learn however in true Twilight Zone fashion, is that Marvin's actual reality exists as a wanted criminal who killed a cop during a robbery attempt. The visions he experienced were those involving a satisfying home life and an aversion to guns and street life as a gang banger. Projecting the view of detective Jasmine (Kimberly Elise) as his supportive wife in an imaginary reality was part of Dwayne Grant's altered fugue state, resulting in a TZ twist more depressing than usual.
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7/10
Depressing.
planktonrules15 February 2022
"Another Life" is a very depressing episode. The theme of this one is police brutality and the show involves a black rapper named Marvin Gardens. Marvin is making it big but suddenly he starts having weird experiences where for short periods of time he finds himself in police custody and being brutalized by them...and then bouncing back to his life as a rapper...again and again. He thinks he's losing his mind and can't figure out what's real and what isn't. And, by the end of the show, it's not 100% certain WHICH reality is real and which isn't...though you assume the final scene is what actually happened to Marvin.

This episode seems less like a "Twilight Zone" show and more a show about how cops sometimes go too far in coercing confessions from black suspects. In other words, it seems more like a political statement than a trip to the Zone. This isn't necessarily a complaint...it just has a different style than you'd normally see on the show. Overall, well made but very sad to watch.
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8/10
It's All In the Song
Hitchcoc10 July 2017
This is as much about the world we live in as a Twilight Zone fabrication. A hip hop artist named Marvin Gardens (yes, the Monopoly property) is arrested on suspicion of killing a cop. There are harsh racial things going on all through this episode as his mind flips between his affluent lifestyle and the street. The problem is all about being black and being accused. He is impressive in his denials but the cops are having none of it. This is almost mainstream rather than fantasy. It's a good story. Whether it belongs in this series, I don't know.
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