initiated by john on September 17, 2008 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734718/)
This was one of the more interesting episodes of the New Twilight Zone that lasted a whole half hour, but especially since this was an original work. Imagine that you enter a bar with Ken Medema (oh, all right, if you don't know who he is, he's a blind inspirationalist singer/pianist who's a genius at improvising songs based on stories heard on the spot since 1973) performing on his instrument, wh more
This was one of the more interesting episodes of the New Twilight Zone that lasted a whole half hour, but especially since this was an original work. Imagine that you enter a bar with Ken Medema (oh, all right, if you don't know who he is, he's a blind inspirationalist singer/pianist who's a genius at improvising songs based on stories heard on the spot since 1973) performing on his instrument, when he suddenly plays a song that accurately describes your relationship at home - not just generally, but to every detail. If you're wondering what to do to reconcile with your other half, he'll run through the myriad of possibilities you've already examined. If you're unsure how to gently say the relationship is at a standstill and you desperately want out, he'll go through what you've considered saying but will also mention the reasons you can't say them, how long you've been together. And, if like Jack Haines (Ben Murphy), you've overheard a phone conversation and arrive intending to shoot the man your wife is meeting, the night's blind guitarist will sing a song to his wife (though he doesn't specify that) of a decade, saying he regrets the emotions he feels and choice he feels led to based on what he overheard on the telephone. After, he approaches Jack by name and asks him how he liked the song. Jack is even more bewildered when he explains that he knew specifically about Jack's situation and that was why he sang it, and desperately advises him to recant his decision. Jack encourages him to leave him and confront another, but the guitarist explains the reason he was called to the bar apparently was Jack - when he lost his eyesight, he gained the gift of realizing strong enough thoughts and also to become a skilled musician, partly for those people...which is why he knows nothing of Jack's wife or the man she'll meet, and not just because they haven't arrived yet. Jack doubts the man is blind, but snatching off the dark lenses he wears, he learns he is. This is a really amazing story, definitely memorable. The battle of wits between the two main characters is clever and well-done, the acting is great, and the last few scenes - the action scene which had an unexpected result which I won't spoil, the way the blind guitarist kept showing up, what was learned about Jack's best friend afterward, and the last ability the songs are revealed to hold was incredible. My congratulations to the writer on this gem. I wish there were more like it - in almost every way possible, it reminds me of what a title reading The Twilight Zone should contain.
