Mysterious Ways

Mysterious Ways would be a TV show produced by the members of the CSC in which seemingly life-affirming or miraculous events turn out to be incredibly depressing.

Episode Ideas

The Pink of Health

Two women, friends, get pregtant at about the same time. Unfortunately, one of the foetuses is found to have a birth defect of some sort. After wrestling with her concience, and her religion, the mother decides to abort the foetus. The other woman is sympathetic, and continues with her pregnancy. The delivery scene is very touching, until the doctor holds up the baby, which (after an uncomfortable silence) is revealed (by camera movement) to be the wrong race (eg white parents, black baby). Perhaps casually reference a black friend earlier in the episode.

Twister

A tornado rips through a sleepy midwestern town, destroying most of the homes as well as "The Factory" -- the only large source of employment in the town. A family whose house goes largely untouched feels very blessed, until the company decides to rebuild the factory in a larger city. Due to the more technically advanced state of the new factory, the company can afford to downsize, and the father loses his job at the facotry. The mother loses her job elsewhere soon after, as the town's economy falls apart. While most other families received a house insurrance payment compensating them for their loss and allowing them to move elsewhere, this family does not, since their house was largely untouched. As the town becomes a ghost town. finding new employment becomes an impossible task, and the bank reposesses their home shortly after.

Sudden Deceleration

A woman is in a car crash with a drunk driver, and is seriously injured. She is taken to the hospital, and her next of kin -- her now estranged ex-husband -- is notified. Realising that he still loves his ex-wife, he rushes to the hospital to see her. After a long agonizing wait, she eventually comes out of surgery and into recovery. The man tells his ex-wife that he still cares for her, and that he wants to try again to make things work. As she begins to respond with just enough that it is obvious that she feels the same way, she begins convulsing. The doctors take her into an OR, but return later to inform the man that she died after an uncaught or newly-worsened injury caused massive internal bleeding.

Remission: Impossible

A man with cancer visits his doctor's office, and is told that the cancer he has been fighting is in remission. After this good news, he goes home and gives the news to his family. Everyone is overjoyed that their family will stay whole. To celebrate, they take a small vacation somewhere. While on the trip either to or from the vacation, the car is struck by a drunk driver and pushed into a ditch.

• Although the fire department manages to free the man, all of his family members are killed in the collision, or die before they can be removed from the car.
• The family members are all freed, but the father dies before he can be freed.

The choice here depends on who we want to focus on. If we want to focus on the family and how they aren't losing a father, then the father has to go. If we are focusing on the father, and how he will get to live to see his children grow up, graduate, get married, etc, then the family must die.