The Ray Bradbury Theater The Murderer (1985–1992) Online

I promise... no real spoilers.

While Bradbury has written many great things in the past, I believe it is this short televised story that will remain his most prophetic for the 21st century.

I remember watching this shortly after it's premiere and it's message was quite subtle. It's about "me time". At the time, I just couldn't relate to the message. Where is the line between communication, keeping in touch, and just plain harassment. Now, in 2011, the average person is bombarded with messages all the time. We get texts, cellphone calls, beeps, tweets, alerts, through our iPhones, iPods, laptops, and emails and (insert your least favorite device here).

In 1990, cell phones were a luxury and rarely seen. Bradbury and the producers of this episode were relying on the popular devices at the time - ie: The telephone (lapel phone, precursor to our cells), fax machine, television, radios, pagers, loudspeakers, and conference calls. Bradbury brilliantly illustrates through his interpretation of the human condition where we as people must take a stand and say, "Enough! Too far!" He brings this into shocking relief through simplicity. The illustration and comparison of silence to the ambient noise we're exposed to constantly and have voluntarily desensitized ourselves to. This episode is a must see for anyone who thinks that our communication problem has gone too far.

Bruce Weitz plays a man labeled a "murderer." Actually, he never killed another human being. He is visited by a psychologist who is hoping to rehabilitate him. It turns out that we have leaped into a future (not unlike the one we have now) where people can never get a moment's peace from the their devices. While the devices are slightly different than they are now, they monopolize time and thought and take over our existences. Weitz tells a tale of being constantly attacked with noise from every direction, from his boss, his children, his wife. He get so wound up in his disdain for noise that he decides to start destroying the devices. He even shoots his refrigerator and his oven. Weitz, who played Nick Belker on "Hill Street Blues," is the perfect protagonist. He has that dangerous unbalance that works great in this part. This is certainly a prophetic episode and doesn't even seem that far-fetched these days.