Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Netflix Synchronicities - or Coincidences

I doubt I could link these Netflix coincidences in any meaningful way, but it was kind of spooky at the time. Some shows we watched, more or less consecutively over a few nights, all had themes of identity change, and they were in no way intentional choices for that reason.

Beginning with a movie, The Cobbler: a fantasy tale with threads of a mild thriller or mystery threaded through it. This film was directed by the same guy, Tom McCarthy, who directed The Station Agent (mentioned in this post).

When his modern stitching machine breaks down, a shoe repairer in New York finds it necessary to use an old pedal-operated stitching machine he found stored in his cellar. He discovers, after repairing a pair of fancy crocodile shoes using the old machine, then trying on the shoes - which happen to be his own size - then catching sight of himself in a mirror, he is, to put it mildly, amazed to find that he has transformed in appearance to the shoes' owner, a snazzily dressed gang hoodlum. The cobbler experiments with other shoes of his size, repaired using the old machine, and finds that he can change appearance in many ways, as long as both borrowed shoes are on his feet. Adventures of various kinds ensue - and a mystery.

It was all a bit Quantum-Leap-ish, not to mention that old saying, "walk a mile in his/her shoes!

The next night we set about watching a 2-part X-Files segment, titled Dreamland in which we were surprised to find that Agent Mulder, after being in line of a wave of time-space warp, had swapped appearance with another individual standing nearby at the time, a man of quite different temperament and aims from Mulder's. Scully isn't aware what has happened... dangerous muddles occur, at length!


Third coincidence, next night - or was it even the same night - don't recall, we decided to watch the pilot episode of a one season series titled Awake. Guess what? No...not exactly changing appearance this time, but a guy (played by Jason Isaacs) involved in a car accident which we are told had killed either his wife or his son (or both?) appears to be living in two different existences, one where his wife is alive but son dead, the other with his son alive and his wife dead. This guy is a police detective (a stumbling block for me), he has a different psychiatrist in each "reality", deals with different cases in each, and has different detective partners in each - but some strand of linkage is always present in the cases involved. The show is shot in two different "hues" too, reddish tinged when wife is alive, greenish when son is alive. The detective wears a red wristband or green one to help both himself (?) and the audience keep track of what's going on.

We can't decide whether this was meant to be heavily disguised sci-fi , or a story that will be rationally explained eventually. It's definitely a series where one's attention must not be allowed to wander! The show didn't receive sufficient interest, so NBC cancelled it after one season. We shall wander through through the 13 available episodes to see how it was all tied up, or if it was. My own pet theory is that the guy remains in a coma and is dreaming it all - highly complex dream though! I shall resist looking for spoiler information online.

10 comments:

mike said...

I haven't viewed "Awake"...I'll await your final critique. I file 13 anything with Adam Sandler...a predetermined lost cause. There are many actors that are locked-in to their typically dumbed-down, crass, comedy-with-bodily-functions, D-grade movies, and Sandler seems one of many. I can't blame the actors for wanting a paycheck, but I have higher hopes for them than the producers of these movies...LOL. Maybe "The Cobbler" is a break from the usual for Sandler?! I'm reluctant to explore "The X-files"...too many episodes, should I find I like the series.

I just started Netflix' new release, "Sense8", and so far, so good. I read a number of reviews prior to the first episode and they are mostly positive, some very positive, with a couple of negative. I suspect some of negative reviews are from the more conservative, as there are a number of risque scenes (ahhh, panting, ooooooh) and characters. Quite different right from the start. Excellent cinematography.

Twilight said...

mike ~ We're plodding through "Awake", an episode per night. I'm not too keen on it, curious more than anything. We're around the half-way mark now.

We avoid Adam Sandler movies like the plague, usually, but "The Cobbler" is different. He turned in a pretty good performance, we thought. I'm not sure who could have carried it off any better, this odd blend of farce and pathos.

I'm well and truly hooked on "The X-Files"!

We began watching the pilot of "Sense8", looking forward to something new in the sci-fi genre. We lasted around 20 minutes into it before dumping. Gratuitous sex scenes are becoming the norm in films - we've got into the habit of timing the first set of heaving body scenes when watching recent movies - usually the first of several happens well within the first 30 minute segment. Maybe I'm growing prudish, but I'm not impressed by the sight of heaving bodies - for no apparent reason other than titillation of the audience. ;-/ I was disappointed in "Sense8" - not my kind of sci-fi at all.

Another sci-fi disappointment and consequent dumping : "Ascension". It seemed fine at first then, once the "penny dropped" we decided - what's the point? (I won't enlarge on that in case anyone wants to watch it for themselves).

We're getting into "Longmire" now, set in rural Wyoming, with the Sheriff as lead character. Anyjazz likes it a lot, I like it well enough but not nearly as much as "Justified" - which has the lovely Timothy Oliphant as Federal Marshal, and several wonderful characters - set in Kentucky.

Anonymous said...

Whenever a someone's weltanschauung changes, I check their Directed planets.

Hmm ... looks like an outer planet changed signs in your chart on Mar 25th.
... Gee ... I wonder what happened then? ... :)
... It looks to be partile conjunct another one in your nativity ... right now.

... Surely a powerful, yet strangely felt influence that is difficult to fathom.
... (now there's a sentence)


kidd.

Anonymous said...

"Whenever a someone's" ... I'm a singing arias now!

Twilight said...

Anon/kidd ~ Erm... (scratches head) "weltanschauung " - the Germans always have a word for it don't they? I've learned a new one today!

March 25 - had to check from an earlier post - that was 2 days after I went, as they say, ass over tits - fell throat down on my camera, leading to all sorts of blood-pressure raising appointments some time later....right up to end of recent Mercury retrograde to be exact.

So...let me see what of mine own could be partile to an outer right now? Mars at 28.54 Scorpio natally and Saturn in transit now at 29-ish Scorpio - is that it? Shucks, and it'll be around there until well into the autumn (I shall not refer to it as Fall, just in case!)

Thank you for digging this bit of astrology up and shining a light on it. :-)

There's something else rather odd/unexpected going on too, I haven't mentioned this on the blog yet. It all began (unknown to me) late last year when two relatives of mine, in the UK, died - not connected in any way, leaving no "heirs" - one an aged aunt, the other a male cousin some 10 years my junior. I and ten or twelve other cousins become beneficiaries. UK lawyers are knee deep in it as yet, it seems, but my cousin at least seems to have left a substantial amount in property and shares - not to get too optimistic though, there's estate tax and layers' bills etc etc etc, and around 12 of us to share - but still, this is all very unexpected. Probably nothing connected to Mars/Saturn, more like Scorpio/Pluto (inheritance is one of their keywords I think).

Twilight said...

Layers' bills?...Well, they do tend to lay down the law quite a bit.

Anonymous said...


It would seem that the most common predictive methods in astrology are ...

- Natal promise (sign, position, motion, application, (rx etc)
- Transits in the sky.
- Progressions (a day for a year etc)
- Directions (Solar Arc, move everything approx 1 deg per year)
- Returns (Solar, Lunar, ruler etc)


Using solar arcs it can be seen that ...
For June 23rd 2015

- uranus at 0.15 leo - is conjuct - natal pluto at 0.14 leo.

For other sign ingresses ...

- ve > pi 6 1/3 years ago (xmas 2008?)
- me > ar 8 1/3 years ago (xmas 2006?)
- np > sag 9+ years ago (11/12/2005?)

You've been Cancer mooning for 11 years (birthday 2004?) and

- Saturn will change signs in .60 years



Does this correlate at all with your experiances?

kidd.

Twilight said...

Anon/kidd ~ I've always dealt only with the first two items on your first list - not a fan of progressions and such... but...credit where credit's due!

In between this comment and my previous one, today's mail brought another letter from UK solicitors dealing with aunt's and cousin's estates. Uranus/Pluto - surprise inheritance likely - that fits exactly!

Those 2004 to 2008 ingresses, I think, mainly correlate roughly with my preparation for, and move to the USA, my long trek and frustrations through US immigration procedures and citizenship procedures.

Thanks again for this!

LB said...

Twilight ~ In a related 'coincidence', my husband and I watched an episode of the BBC series "Lark Rise to Candleford" last night in which one of the main characters, a female resident of the poorer Larkrise hamlet, receives news of a potential inheritance . . . from a wealthy *aunt* she hadn't heard from in years who died without heirs, apparently leaving the fortune to be divided amongst other relatives.

The coincidence is kind of funny.:)

Twilight said...

LB ~ Oh my - that is a little strange!

My aunt wasn't at all wealthy, I'm surprised there's anything at all to distribute between the cousins, I hadn't seen her since my Dad's funeral (she was his youngest sibling), she had been a widow for years. Aged 90 her life came to an end, it appears, in a care home.

My cousin, I met him only once when he was still in university, is a different matter, it seems. I wish I could find more about him, how he died, etc. what he did professionally (I think it was to do with finance or accountancy, or actuarial, and in London). My Dad's side of the family has always been scattered, often never in contact, other than sometimes at weddings, funerals, even less contact as the 10 brothers and sisters have died off. I heard from four of my cousins after sending a copy of my 4 family history posts to one of them at Christmas, and she had passed them on. Each contact was a nice surprise in itself! :-)

I could not be more surprised about all of this! It feels very odd.