Niles Talbot (William Sadler) is an executioner that takes pride in his work, believing his job to be a necessity and a justice for the people. After the death penalty is abolished Talbot continues his work as a freelancer. 

I found this episode to be a fairly weak opener to the series. William Sadler put in a good performance, but is let down by a plot too big for its 20-22 minute time slot. Much like James Glickenhaus' The Exterminator, this episode tells a story of a man who takes justice into his own hands, however was done better in the former. The issue with this episode wasn't the premise, nor direction or editing, but lack of time it has to tell its story. This leads to a rushed third act in which the tables turn on our protagonist who is then executed. With a longer running time the final act could have been told better and the story wrapped up neatly. 

Back to the Future director and series producer, Rober Zemeckis, directs this episode in which a housewife murders her husband and shortly after suffers a home invasion from an escaped maniac dressed as Santa Claus. 

This episode worked a whole lot better than the first episode. Larry Drake plays a truly frightening Santa and Mary Ellen Trainor plays a convincing housewife caught up in a struggle to hide her own murder as well as trying to protect herself and her daughter. The performances are helped by Zemeckis direction, whilst the pace of the edit from Stephen Semel keeps the pot boiling throughout.

Filmed in a 4:3 aspect ration for television, this episode was brilliantly shot by cinematographer Dean Cundey. One particular shot is beautifully shot, in which the wife holds an axe over her dead husband in an attempt to frame the killer Santa, the camera follows it's focus on the axe head as she brings it above her head to her guilt ridden face  and struggles to swing the axe back down into her dead husband's skull.