***Obvious Spoilers are Obvious***
Okay so I figured there should be a thread for what aired last night. I always considered X-files to be important and noteworthy in Geek culture even if it wasn't always great.
I watched it religiously with my dad in the 90s and loved it but lets not pretend all the episodes were great. Hell even the last few seasons after Mulder left were absolute ass and not worth watching.
I'd say the good episodes are still good but the bad episodes are somehow worse.
But I digress. Last night's episode was...interesting.
The good: It was so satisfying to see Mulder and Scully together again, even if their on/off relationship has taken a mawkish turn towards the sloppy and silly.
It was so amazing to hear that theme again. I even liked that the opening footage was from the original show nearly 10 years ago. Made it feel like as far as the canon is concerned these are just more episodes.
I like how they modernized it, with drone surveillance, social media, YouTube vloggers, the militarized police state. And Mulder's paranoia somehow works well with modern political/human rights concerns.
The Okay: The acting was exactly what we've come to expect. Serviceable but not exceptional. Wooded, but its a very nice rich wood you can appreciate.
I even enjoyed Skinner and the Smoking Man being alive again. Them dying was a stupid plot-choice and it was fun to see Skinner and Mulder buck heads without missing a single beat from the last decade.
Joel McHale was an interesting character. Pseudo Bill O'Reilly but with more...I guess millennial-ness. I will say him flirting(at least I think it was) with Scully was off-putting, mostly because it came from and went nowhere. I mean she's in his limo, drinking his champagne. Are they heading back to his place to have sex? Scully never struck me as the type of person who sleeps with men she's just met that morning and who are what, 15 years younger than her?!
The Bad: I'm not sure what the plot was supposed to be.
First off with all she's experienced you'd think Scully would cut Mulder some more slack. Here she is lambasting him for his conspiracy theories and obsession when she herself has fallen victim to the very evil forces she's telling him don't exist.
Also I remember liking Mulder more and him being less dumb. He just felt like a central-park blindfolded horse the entire time. Being led by the nose and believing the opinion of the last person he talked to, even if it contradicts everything he had believed and personally experienced about aliens.
Speaking of, aliens aren't real anymore? Or at least not active? So the American government has been using UFO abductions as a smoke-screen to cover up normal human abductions for nefarious reasons.
Sure! Good! Great!
But what about the actual aliens from the show? I mean here we have Fox Mulder, alien believer, saying he doesn't think aliens are behind abductions anymore when he himself has been abducted! For fucks sake he rescued Scully from a giant alien ship in the first movie! And they've seen alien hybrids, stopped invasions, found out about Government conspiracies, and fought more ghosts, zombies, monsters and daemons than Scooby and the Gang!
And Scully really needs to get her head out of her ass. Not believing Joel, Fox or the one chick about aliens when she's been abducted like 4 times, was artificially impregnated during one abduction and has fought and killed multiple aliens through the show and movies. Hell, she watched a giant UFO fly over her after her abduction in the first movie.
And yes at the end she confirms that the canon did in fact happen and that she remembers being abducted, but that was like the last 2 minutes. For the rest of the episode you'd be forgiven for thinking she's forgotten the entire show ever happened.
Oh saying Mulder has depression which simply explains everything was weak.
And the great conspiracy is that what, taking over America? A. How Saturday Morning Cartoon-show of them and B. wait, the American Government is trying to take over the Government? Correct me if I'm wrong but if this shadowy elite organization already controls the Presidency, the Pentagon, the entire Military, the Police, news organizations and almost all corporations then how are they not already in charge? And how are they not just the Government as normal?
Mulder himself points out the Government lies and does illegal things all the time. And yet here we have Scully and Mulder in a plot to stop the Government from using the Government to lie and do illegal things?
When she gave her big "this is stupid" speech I fully expected Scully to bring something like that up. The Government already exists. Uncovering lies is one thing, but you can't stop the government from taking over the government. And she should have pointed out that Aliens are in fact real because she's fought and killed them before and both she and Mulder have been actually abducted by ?grays?.
The conclusion: For the sake of the show I'm eager to see where they're going with this. I do think the script needed another draft to tighten things up.
But it was a delight to see Mulder and Scully doing their thing and I'm eager to see them investigating the paranormal again!
Okay so I figured there should be a thread for what aired last night. I always considered X-files to be important and noteworthy in Geek culture even if it wasn't always great.
I watched it religiously with my dad in the 90s and loved it but lets not pretend all the episodes were great. Hell even the last few seasons after Mulder left were absolute ass and not worth watching.
I'd say the good episodes are still good but the bad episodes are somehow worse.
But I digress. Last night's episode was...interesting.
The good: It was so satisfying to see Mulder and Scully together again, even if their on/off relationship has taken a mawkish turn towards the sloppy and silly.
It was so amazing to hear that theme again. I even liked that the opening footage was from the original show nearly 10 years ago. Made it feel like as far as the canon is concerned these are just more episodes.
I like how they modernized it, with drone surveillance, social media, YouTube vloggers, the militarized police state. And Mulder's paranoia somehow works well with modern political/human rights concerns.
The Okay: The acting was exactly what we've come to expect. Serviceable but not exceptional. Wooded, but its a very nice rich wood you can appreciate.
I even enjoyed Skinner and the Smoking Man being alive again. Them dying was a stupid plot-choice and it was fun to see Skinner and Mulder buck heads without missing a single beat from the last decade.
Joel McHale was an interesting character. Pseudo Bill O'Reilly but with more...I guess millennial-ness. I will say him flirting(at least I think it was) with Scully was off-putting, mostly because it came from and went nowhere. I mean she's in his limo, drinking his champagne. Are they heading back to his place to have sex? Scully never struck me as the type of person who sleeps with men she's just met that morning and who are what, 15 years younger than her?!
The Bad: I'm not sure what the plot was supposed to be.
First off with all she's experienced you'd think Scully would cut Mulder some more slack. Here she is lambasting him for his conspiracy theories and obsession when she herself has fallen victim to the very evil forces she's telling him don't exist.
Also I remember liking Mulder more and him being less dumb. He just felt like a central-park blindfolded horse the entire time. Being led by the nose and believing the opinion of the last person he talked to, even if it contradicts everything he had believed and personally experienced about aliens.
Speaking of, aliens aren't real anymore? Or at least not active? So the American government has been using UFO abductions as a smoke-screen to cover up normal human abductions for nefarious reasons.
Sure! Good! Great!
But what about the actual aliens from the show? I mean here we have Fox Mulder, alien believer, saying he doesn't think aliens are behind abductions anymore when he himself has been abducted! For fucks sake he rescued Scully from a giant alien ship in the first movie! And they've seen alien hybrids, stopped invasions, found out about Government conspiracies, and fought more ghosts, zombies, monsters and daemons than Scooby and the Gang!
And Scully really needs to get her head out of her ass. Not believing Joel, Fox or the one chick about aliens when she's been abducted like 4 times, was artificially impregnated during one abduction and has fought and killed multiple aliens through the show and movies. Hell, she watched a giant UFO fly over her after her abduction in the first movie.
And yes at the end she confirms that the canon did in fact happen and that she remembers being abducted, but that was like the last 2 minutes. For the rest of the episode you'd be forgiven for thinking she's forgotten the entire show ever happened.
Oh saying Mulder has depression which simply explains everything was weak.
And the great conspiracy is that what, taking over America? A. How Saturday Morning Cartoon-show of them and B. wait, the American Government is trying to take over the Government? Correct me if I'm wrong but if this shadowy elite organization already controls the Presidency, the Pentagon, the entire Military, the Police, news organizations and almost all corporations then how are they not already in charge? And how are they not just the Government as normal?
Mulder himself points out the Government lies and does illegal things all the time. And yet here we have Scully and Mulder in a plot to stop the Government from using the Government to lie and do illegal things?
When she gave her big "this is stupid" speech I fully expected Scully to bring something like that up. The Government already exists. Uncovering lies is one thing, but you can't stop the government from taking over the government. And she should have pointed out that Aliens are in fact real because she's fought and killed them before and both she and Mulder have been actually abducted by ?grays?.
The conclusion: For the sake of the show I'm eager to see where they're going with this. I do think the script needed another draft to tighten things up.
But it was a delight to see Mulder and Scully doing their thing and I'm eager to see them investigating the paranormal again!
