S1, episodes 14 and 15

Welcome to 1956! Our first two episodes are salvaged by their final twists (both are kind of funny).

1.14.

Aired the night of New Year's Day. AH says he has a cure for insomnia “in capsule form” (bullets) with “handy applicator” (gun). 

A (seemingly) nebbishy office drone is fired from his long time job.  He responds by shooting his boss before leaving for work. Sleeping late the next day, he expects to be greeted by the police. Instead, the office calls to complain that he's late. Weirder still, his boss isn't dead.

The ultimate explanation strains credulity, but there's a very good final twist. In the post-mortem, AH explains that all stories have morals, though he’s not sure which one fits this time.

1.15 

Cornell Woolrich is ID'ed as the writer of this episode. As a crime writer perhaps, he was perhaps a tier below Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler, but is still in print today.

This is a wise guy episode. A dumb hoodlum wants to commit murder and pays a lot of money for a good alibi. I don’t buy this plot and think the "baby" sequence is stupid. But the ending made me smile.

This is also worth seeing for its portrayal of mobsters. As with our earlier cowboy episode, the "hard-boiled" dialogue almost plays for laughs to my ears. 

Period detail: The club has a black bartender (I believe this is the most prominent African-American role we've seen so far).