the x-files s/d

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he might have brain worms

I kind of assume most old dudes have some sort of brain worms, though. That would make for a decent x-file

alvin noto (mh), Friday, 6 April 2018 00:13 (six years ago) link

Did you see his Amazon pilot from a couple years ago, alledgedly set in the Xfilesverse? Something to do with the apocalypse and the devil in LA. Was major, major yikes.

I haven’t caught up with the reboot at all - just the Darin Morgan episodes and the one Aldo mentions then?

Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 6 April 2018 00:18 (six years ago) link

I sort-of-watched all of last season, and this year just the Darin episode, the Lone Gunmen one by Glen, and the Black Mirror-y one. Your impression is basically right, but save The Lost Art Of Forehead Sweat, this year's Darin ep, for last.

(Or for a real flavour of how awkward S10 was without getting REALLY terrible:
S10e04
S10e03
S10e05
S11e02
S11e07
S11e04
-in that order.)

just noticed tears shaped like florida. (sic), Friday, 6 April 2018 05:16 (six years ago) link

I'll be the militant. S10 & S11 (especially S11) amplified the worst elements of the original series enough that I suspect the entire show was b.s. It's only brilliant on accident when someone managed to write away from Carter. This itself sounds like an X-Files plot.

I'm annoyed that S10 and S11 wasted so much time on embarrassing plots that just kept Mulder and Scully reacting to things. So much what's current in medtech, social psychology, etc. etc. could be the feeder of some potentially great plots.

Elvis Telecom, Friday, 6 April 2018 20:44 (six years ago) link

amplified the worst elements of the original series enough that I suspect the entire show was b.s. It's only brilliant on accident when someone managed to write away from Carter.

Nah: the alien conspiracy episodes were always terrible, and I stopped occasionally watching the show during the original run because you never knew if you'd get a good episode or some mytharc nonsense that you were supposed to have watched 19 non-consecutive previous episodes to follow, except that even if you had, it wouldn't make sense.

Over the last few years, I've done a watch-through of the first six seasons, just watching Darin Morgan and Vince Gilligan episodes, and a few other standalones. But! Carter could actually do good, or fun, or scary, or creative episodes back in the '90s.

The Host (S01e02) set the tone for the monster-of-the-weeks, taking a sci-fi/monster premise and wrapping a procedural, jokes, and development of Mulder & Scully's relationship in it. Syzygy, in S3, is Carter being inspired by Darin Morgan's ability to do outright comedy in the X-Files format, trying it himself, failing but accidentally inventing Buffy. Memento Mori, in S4, is a gang-written script that shows folks didn't NEED to write away from Carter - he could work just as well on a serious standalone as drawing a single co-writer onto his mytharc finales.

And two he directed as well as writing are super-indicators that he saw the oddball, creative, unusual episodes as a primary feature of the series: The Post-Modern Prometheus (S5), the black & white small-town Frankenstein & Cher episodes; and Triangle (S6), the one on a 1939 submarine with all the "unbroken" tracking shots.

(Another S6 all-Carter joint, How The Ghosts Stole Christmas, works fine as a Chrimbo farce.)

just noticed tears shaped like florida. (sic), Friday, 6 April 2018 21:50 (six years ago) link

we'd all have a better time if we just went squatchin'

alvin noto (mh), Friday, 6 April 2018 22:07 (six years ago) link

Carter was always hit or miss as a writer. But aside from that, as series creator he allowed different writers do their own thing with the show, experiment with tone and story, make their own mark. He gave them the space to make absurd comedies one week and mini horror films the next. He came up with the idea but didn't guard it obsessively (unlike some TV creators). XF probably wasn't the first show with an open-minded approach like that, but not every showrunner would allow something like Jose Chung's "From Outer Space" to happen.

Duane Barry, Saturday, 7 April 2018 00:08 (six years ago) link

hmm not sure I can trust a guy with your name making x-files judgments

alvin noto (mh), Saturday, 7 April 2018 05:48 (six years ago) link

oh please, the show has a hit rate way, way above "brilliant on accident". there are over 200 episodes, of course some of them are going to be crap.

erry red flag (f. hazel), Saturday, 7 April 2018 06:29 (six years ago) link

Worth a read: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/x-files-became-a-list-852398

Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 8 April 2018 01:16 (six years ago) link

four months pass...

completely forgot that Detective Munch of Baltimore PD appears in the X-Files

the Wolfverse and X-FIles overlap heck yeah

mh, Friday, 10 August 2018 22:35 (five years ago) link

and Homicide/The Wire

louise ck (milo z), Friday, 10 August 2018 22:57 (five years ago) link

well, yes

mh, Saturday, 11 August 2018 00:03 (five years ago) link

He was also on Law & Order: SWV iirc.

Funkface LLC (Old Lunch), Saturday, 11 August 2018 00:36 (five years ago) link

four weeks pass...

premiered T W E N T Y - F I V E Y E A R S A G O today

i have wasted my life

bitch that’s the tubby custard machine (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 10 September 2018 20:58 (five years ago) link

Ha, yes, I keep remarking on 20th and 25th and 30th anniversaries of things that mark the various stretches of time when I've done little of note or substance.

Like for instance how I still haven't finished watching all of the X-Files. What am I even doing with my time.

I Don't Have Any Ears, I Am Positive (Old Lunch), Monday, 10 September 2018 21:06 (five years ago) link

someone was telling me recently that the real scoop around why x files moved to la from vancouver wasn't to do with david duchovny "hating the rain" or wanting to be closer to his family, instead he'd managed to get himself barred from all the strip clubs in the area, including one ran by the Hell's Angels, and pissed off lots of sex workers.

( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Monday, 10 September 2018 21:10 (five years ago) link

allegedly

( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Monday, 10 September 2018 21:10 (five years ago) link

one year passes...

The Lone Gunmen standalone series is a 'little bit' silly and totally ridiculous and I love it. It's also all available on YT HA!

Ste, Tuesday, 26 May 2020 10:29 (three years ago) link

Also notable for being cancelled after a cliffhanger ending which was resolved in a later X-Files episode.

the grateful dead can dance (anagram), Tuesday, 26 May 2020 12:02 (three years ago) link

and for the WT bomb plot in the pilot episode, whoa.

Ste, Tuesday, 26 May 2020 12:48 (three years ago) link

Mulder travels back in time from 1998 to 1940 : "Hey don't worry the world is at peace, there's a little trouble back at our White House but that'll blow over - so to speak"

Ste, Wednesday, 27 May 2020 15:18 (three years ago) link

Krycek: "you must be losing it mulder, I beat you with one hand"
Mulder: "isn't that how you like to beat yourself?"
Krycek: *points gun*
Mulder: "if those are my last words I can do better"

Ste, Wednesday, 27 May 2020 15:18 (three years ago) link

I rewatched the first six seasons or whatever for like the fiftieth time a couple years ago, maybe this is the time to push through the last three seasons + TLG + Millennium (many episodes of which I've never seen at all let alone more than once).

Fun-Loving and Furry-Curious! (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 27 May 2020 15:41 (three years ago) link

Somehow Satan Got Behind Me is the awesome Millennium episode with Charles Nelson Reilly, don't miss that one

avellano medio inglés (f. hazel), Wednesday, 27 May 2020 15:55 (three years ago) link

oh wait I'm confused, obviously that's Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense, SSGBM is also written by Darin Morgan though

avellano medio inglés (f. hazel), Wednesday, 27 May 2020 15:56 (three years ago) link

Trying to recall if there was anything from the second of the reboot seasons that would make it worth owning (as it's the only thing from that franchise not currently in my possession). Even the Darin Morgan ep was somewhat of a stinker iirc.

Fun-Loving and Furry-Curious! (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 27 May 2020 16:02 (three years ago) link

Via Negativa from the 8th season is creepy and great. I liked the weird little smart-technology morality play in the most recent season.

JoeStork, Wednesday, 27 May 2020 16:20 (three years ago) link

yeah that one wasn't bad, but it was definitely more bleak than funny... but the AI one (memorably titled "Rm9sbG93ZXJz") is pretty great, absolutely spooky in how empty it makes the city, IIRC there's nobody in it except Mulder and Scully at all.

avellano medio inglés (f. hazel), Wednesday, 27 May 2020 16:23 (three years ago) link

I rewatched the first six seasons or whatever for like the fiftieth time a couple years ago, maybe this is the time to push through the last three seasons + TLG + Millennium (many episodes of which I've never seen at all let alone more than once).

I recently finished a first-time-ever watch of the intersting-looking episodes and:

loads of good Vince Gilligan eps in Season 7, the Duchovny-written-and-directed episode is fun, the Anderson-w-and-d one is not but was worth seeing what she was drawn to make in the context of the show.
Lone Gunmen is nearly bad but almost always silly and fun enough not to matter; a few eps are good.
One Vince Gilligan ep in S8. It's... fine.
S9 has a Gilligan spotlight-on-Doggett ep that's notable bcz it's the first thing directed by Michelle Maclaren and has lots of desert-y sunshine, so is a curio years before Breaking Bad. But that's about it. Similarly, the Jackass-referencing episode (by Tommy Schnauz) is fun to see a younger Aaron Paul. Gilligan's ep where the Brady Bunch house is haunted and murdering people is a little better. Carter's episode "Improbable" is fun, like most of his weird stand-alone experiments.
Dunno about Millennium, I only watched the pilot and the two Darin Morgan written-and-directed episodes.

But overall I reckon you can tap out happily at S07e21, the final stand-alone Mulder & Scully ep (it's a Gilligan).

Trying to recall if there was anything from the second of the reboot seasons that would make it worth owning (as it's the only thing from that franchise not currently in my possession). Even the Darin Morgan ep was somewhat of a stinker iirc.

Darin Morgan one was great, Rm9sbG93ZXJz was great, but you'll probably live a fine life without having them on a disc in your house.

Also notable for being cancelled after a cliffhanger ending which was resolved in a later X-Files episode.

Not even! Had a cliffhanger episode (including Michael McKean's X-Files character capturing the Gunmen & telling them their colleague is a bad 'un) end on To Be Continued, then aired an unrelated stand-alone a month later, then put the Lone Gunmen back into the X-Files and pop up across the season making jokes about their show being cancelled, then have McKean's character turn up at the end of the series and tell the feds, unrelated to The Lone Gunmen, that someone the Gunmen used to know is a bad 'un.

massage angry pixels (sic), Thursday, 28 May 2020 07:41 (three years ago) link

I'm dragging through the final series.

Is there a reason why Gillian Anderson constantly whispers or appears to have a gravily throat in most of these episodes?

Ste, Thursday, 28 May 2020 12:07 (three years ago) link

I don't even know why I just asked such a dumb question. ignore.

Ste, Thursday, 28 May 2020 12:08 (three years ago) link

watching that Rm9sbG93ZXJz episode now, best of the series for sure.

Ste, Thursday, 28 May 2020 13:43 (three years ago) link

I have been wondering that about her voice as well. Seems like in the final series they started setting important scenes in churches or courtrooms so that the whispering would seem natural.

I thought Season 11 started out stronger than Season 10 - I genuinely liked Ghouli and Forehead Sweat - but really fell off in the second half except for that silent episode.

The fillyjonk who believed in pandemics (Lily Dale), Thursday, 28 May 2020 15:56 (three years ago) link

nine months pass...

We started a rewatch this week :D

We’re watching on Hulu and damn the show looks good! Mr Veg said he read that they recreated it with the 35mm footage (sorry too lazy to google, sicbot will provide perhaps?)
So it’s still a parade of 90’s floppy hair and brown lipstick & ill fitting suits ... but in gorgeous film-level quality

Scully is not quite yet the Scully I love, she yells a lot more than I remember which is annoying

but it just starts so GOOD right out of the gate, l am glad it holds up.

terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 12 March 2021 01:19 (three years ago) link

also i noticed how, to me anyway, the look & color palette & settting of the first episode is like a venn diagram overlap of Silence of the Lambs + Twin Peaks ... so much my wheelhouse <3

terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 12 March 2021 01:22 (three years ago) link

Yes! so good, even in Season 1. A few dud episodes but still the general atmosphere of the show is just so appealing. And Mulder is at his prettiest.

Lily Dale, Friday, 12 March 2021 01:37 (three years ago) link

The shoulder pads were so large

Joe Bombin (milo z), Friday, 12 March 2021 01:40 (three years ago) link

I started a casual selective rewatch a little while back. I watched the living hell out of all the episodes that were released in those old-school VHS box sets so now I've been occasionally watching the (almost entirely MOTW) episodes that I haven't seen as much. Something so soothing and transportive about M+S mumbling about killer computers against those washed-out Vancouver landscapes.

Stefan Twerkelle (Old Lunch), Friday, 12 March 2021 01:55 (three years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1ninCOmqu0

Joe Bombin (milo z), Friday, 12 March 2021 02:04 (three years ago) link

The remasters do look great! They actually re-edited all the episodes from the original negatives and re-created a lot of the special effects. The first three seasons are converted to widescreen format too... the only real issue is the font on the intro and establishing text is different from the original.

so tonight that I might ramona quimby (f. hazel), Friday, 12 March 2021 02:15 (three years ago) link

Wow, just had a look, the remaster really does look terrific, font notwithstanding (they remastered hundreds of hours of footage but couldn’t get the janky font right?)

I need something like the ds9 spreadsheet so I can just watch the good ones. Last time I rewatched I just stuck to the Vince Gilligan and Darin Morgan episodes

Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 12 March 2021 02:31 (three years ago) link

yeah there's something so satisfying about the way the show tends to start post-credits, hearing the piano and string wash coming up over footage of the misty evergreens of Kansas or Georgia or wherever.

JoeStork, Friday, 12 March 2021 02:32 (three years ago) link

I have a spreadsheet of good 'uns but it's probably 2/3 Gilligan and Darin

(boop beep rm9sbg93zxjz: I haven't seen them but: the blu-ray remastering was outsourced to a rando company, so the widescreen reframing was done without any input from directors or Carter, and Fox would not supply the font to them for the titles; the company also delivered 4:3 versions of the remasters but Fox didn't want them; and yeah there's a mix of upscaling old effects shots and the remaster company's new effects)

armoured van, Holden (sic), Friday, 12 March 2021 02:33 (three years ago) link

xp well, what's your definition of good? Essential/v good from S1 - First 3 episodes, Ice, Eve, Beyond the Sea, E.B.E., Darkness Falls, Tooms, Erlenmeyer Flask. But there are plenty of decent or dumb-but-entertaining episodes. I'd say Space and Fire are painful enough to avoid entirely, and the several vengeful ghost episodes all tend to be boring as hell.

JoeStork, Friday, 12 March 2021 02:38 (three years ago) link

I've said it before, but the rewatch value of X-Files (at least through season six, from seven they moved shooting to LA) is the lush, rainy Vancouver locations, same reason the first two seasons of Twin Peaks are such a pleasure.

so tonight that I might ramona quimby (f. hazel), Friday, 12 March 2021 02:50 (three years ago) link

name a season and have everyone here give their top five from it

so tonight that I might ramona quimby (f. hazel), Friday, 12 March 2021 02:51 (three years ago) link

There’s something about watching these on the sofa with my mum while dad was out playing bridge that can never be remastered

Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 12 March 2021 03:00 (three years ago) link

gonna see if I can break it down to an extent without breaking spoiler tags

Season 1

S01e03 Squeeze - first Monster of the Week, imo mythology eps are deleterious to rewatch enjoyment (nb: I also thought so on first run and gave up occasionally watching bcz I hit too many of them)
S01e08 Ice - Thing riff
S01e13 Beyond The Sea - fun bcz it flips who's sceptical
S01e17 E.B.E. - mythology ep but intros the Lone Gunmen so I recommend it for n00bs
S01e21 Tooms - not only good, and a fun sequel MOTW, but intros Skinner

armoured van, Holden (sic), Friday, 12 March 2021 03:09 (three years ago) link


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