I’m old enough to remember when Miami Vice was still on the air, but I never watched it on a regular basis and I only distinctly remember one episode because at the end Crockett shoots Ted Nugent and the song in the background is “Cry” by Godley and Creme.
So, tonight I’m trying to watch something on TV and nothing is on, but I see an episode of Miami Vice is showing on a channel. I didn’t look at the synopsis on Dish. I have no idea if I may have seen it before. I just click on it, maybe out of nostalgia or whatever. It’s half over. But I watch it.
And I’ll be hornswaggled. It happens to be the only episode I actually remember. What are the chances?
Has this ever happened to you? I mean have you ever watched a rerun that you remember from what, over two decades ago, and it just happens to be the only one you remember that you actually watched by chance in the first place?
When I saw the title of your thread I had to respond. I was a fan of the show for the entire time it was on. My favorite episode of the whole series is the Ted Nugent episode. Roughly a year ago the very same thing happened to me. I was channel surfing and came across a Miami Vice marathon. I clicked on it and it was the Ted Nugent episode. Freaked me out too.
Excellent. Just think of all the stuff that didn’t happen. You were thinking about your uncle, and he didn’t just happen to call. Your back was bothering you and an advertisement for a back-pain medication didn’t just happen to play on the radio. Ad infinitum.
It happens often enough that Jung thought it was a fundamental phenomenon of the universe: synchronicity. A principle in which events could be meaningfully related even if completely independent of each other causally and totally coincidental.
Of course, as others have said, an equally valid explanation is confirmation bias: when it happens, you notice, and you ascribe meaning to it. When it doesn’t, you don’t notice, and nothing happens to counterbalance the significance you attached to the time or times it did happen. It’s a counter than can only increment.
Someone says, “Hey, are you watching XYZ? It’s the best thing on TV right now.” So, I tune in to watch the show, but I’m not impressed, and I don’t ever watch it again. Then, the following summer, I think, why don’t I give XYZ another try? And I tune in, and watch a rerun of the only episode of that show that I have already seen.
It’s not just confirmation bias. Sometimes it really is just an odd coincidence.
I never watched The Cosby Show, but twice I was flipping channels and the show was on, and I stayed long enough to see what all the fuss was. It was the same episode both times. I’ve never tried to watch an episode again, less I risk revealing some secret of the universe best left undiscovered.
And “Definitely Miami” is definitely the best episode of Miami Vice!
And sometimes it is really spooky weird. I was talking to a friend about a specific Star trek episode, and during the discussion, I remembered that Star Trek was actually on at that time (syndicated). I said, “let’s turn on the TV and see” - and that episode was on. Really freaky.
I had not checked the listings before hand or anything. It was a random conversation. It was just a really rare coincidence.
All those years ago when violent prison drama OZ started the premise didn’t interest me at first but then the reviews sounded intriguing so I started watching. However I missed the very first episode.
Just recently a channel started running trailers announcing it was going to repeat OZ. Been nearly 20 years so I wasn’t that keen but then I thought that it would be interesting to see whether it held up plus, of course, it was a chance to finally catch that first episode.
But I procrastinated and - you’ve guessed it - my digital recorder has episodes starting with episode 2…