|
marktheando posted:The episode where Scully gets a tattoo Do people really think this was a terrible episode? I rewatched it recently and it seemed middle-of-the-road at worst.
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2014 19:29
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 02:57 |
|
|
marktheando posted:Really? What was so bad about it? It's certainly not a great episode but almost giving up on the show? It was so slow and boring that I felt like I was trapped on the ship too. Speaking of which, what a waste of a cool ambiance, that episode was. Also, it was written as a bottle episode, and so they could use the naval destroyer one more time in an episode. And it shows. "Død Kalm was written to make use of the show's access to a navy destroyer that had previously featured in "Colony" and "End Game." The episode was originally intended as a way to give the production crew a rest after several demanding episodes had been shot..."
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2014 19:30
|
|
|
joepinetree posted:And he is even shown sleeping on it, apparently naked, with Scully getting dressed next door. Moonlighting got a good three seasons out of whether Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd would ever get together. They eventually did, of course, which just proved to be an example of how this sort of thing can end up being ratings death for that kind of show, especially if people are only watching to see if the two lead characters eventually get it on. There's another example I can think of that will possibly resonate with UK goons of a certain age, Press Gang. Some guy called Steven Moffat was behind it. As an aside, it's crazy to think Moonlighting had 60 million viewers at its peak. 60 million! And yet hardly anyone talks about it now. I guess some shows are so of their time that they just kind of fade from the public consciousness when they're done, even if they were a huge cultural phenomenon.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2014 19:44
|
|
|
Castle Radium posted:Moonlighting got a good three seasons out of whether Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd would ever get together. They eventually did, of course, which just proved to be an example of how this sort of thing can end up being ratings death for that kind of show, especially if people are only watching to see if the two lead characters eventually get it on. I've not actually watched Moonlighting but it seems to only ever be mentioned nowadays as a cautionary tale for will they/won't they tv romances. But was it getting them together that killed the show, or was it delaying them getting together for too long that killed the show? I've heard it both ways. haveblue posted:Do people really think this was a terrible episode? I rewatched it recently and it seemed middle-of-the-road at worst. I don't know if my opinion is the popular one, but I really didn't like it. I thought Scully's behaviour was totally out of character, and the whole tattoo possession thing was so stupid.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2014 20:01
|
|
|
Octy posted:I'm sorry. In all the years I've watched this show this is the first thread on it I've seen in forums I frequent. I've had nowhere else to go to ask my inane questions. Same. I finally know I'm apparently the only human being alive to have enjoyed, if not loved, "all things," and bought the 7th season dvd set just because Anderson was involved with the creation of it so heavily. Hell, it's even at the top of a 30-item list of her favourite memories from the show over on her website, here's part; quote:1. Directing "all things."
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2014 20:13
|
|
SoroScrew 
|
haveblue posted:Do people really think this was a terrible episode? I rewatched it recently and it seemed middle-of-the-road at worst. I recall it being really good, especially for how dumb the concept sounds.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2014 20:44
|
|
|
My most prominent memory about the tattoo episode is going nuts over trying to connect the tattoo's voice to a name which I couldnt do until the credits rolled. Jodie Foster 
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2014 21:57
|
|
|
haveblue posted:Do people really think this was a terrible episode? I rewatched it recently and it seemed middle-of-the-road at worst. I feel like most people don't dislike it that much, but I think it's a terrible episode because it seems really, really out of character for Scully.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2014 22:04
|
|
|
Yeah, all things felt to me more like Gillian Anderson doing stuff than Scully.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2014 22:39
|
|
|
I thought it being out of character was the whole point. She's dealing with the cancer and basically goes on a bender.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2014 23:16
|
|
|
cenotaph posted:I thought it being out of character was the whole point. She's dealing with the cancer and basically goes on a bender. Actually the episode was moved, it wasn't originally supposed to be part of the cancer storyline. Gillian Anderson said she would have played it differently if she had known she was supposed to have cancer.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2014 23:32
|
|
|
Welp, that's weird as hell.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2014 01:27
|
|
|
Season 6 has been pretty bland so far. I miss the green rolling hills and snow capped mountains of Canada. It's too weird seeing Mulder in short sleeves all the time. I also feel that the writing just isn't as good, which is stupid because it's the same writers. 'Drive' is decent and the 'Dreamland' episodes were fairly good, but it's been hit and miss and I don't feel any urge to just watch five episodes in a row like I did before. Things could be worse, though. I could be up to Season 9. I don't actually have the last season on disc so it's up in the air whether or not I'll get it for my rewatch or just pretend it never existed. Octy fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Feb 21, 2014 |
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2014 04:47
|
|
|
I think the majority of season 6 is still pretty strong. The Beginning is a pretty weak opener compared to season 4 and 5, but the only episode that stood out to me as terrible as I was watching it was "Alpha". I just wrapped season 8 and that was pretty dire despite the efforts of everyone involved. I don't have a problem with Doggett and Reyes themselves, but the monster of the week stuff has been mostly bland ("Patience", "Surekill" and "Badlaa" standing out as real shitpiles) and the mythology is getting really silly with super soldiers and Scully's Jesus baby.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2014 04:57
|
|
|
Octy posted:Season 6 has been pretty bland so far. I miss the green rolling hills and snow capped mountains of Canada. It's too weird seeing Mulder in short sleeves all the time. I also feel that the writing just isn't as good, which is stupid because it's the same writers. 'Drive' is decent and the 'Dreamland' episodes were fairly good, but it's been hit and miss and I don't feel any urge to just watch five episodes in a row like I did before. I think season 6 starts out very strong with Drive, Dreamland, and Triangle. I'm partial towards How the Ghosts Stole Christmas, but I think that episode is hit or miss with most people. After that, the season slows down a bit, but you still have Monday, Arcadia, The Unnatural, and Field Trip to look forward to. Looking at it, season 6 is really one of the best seasons in terms of MotW episodes. escape artist posted:It was so slow and boring that I felt like I was trapped on the ship too. Speaking of which, what a waste of a cool ambiance, that episode was. I remember really liking Dod Kalm when I first watched it as a kid, but now when I re-watch it, it's just "meh." In comparison to a great bottle episode such as "Ice", it is pretty bland.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2014 06:49
|
|
|
Exploder posted:I think season 6 starts out very strong with Drive, Dreamland, and Triangle. I'm partial towards How the Ghosts Stole Christmas, but I think that episode is hit or miss with most people. After that, the season slows down a bit, but you still have Monday, Arcadia, The Unnatural, and Field Trip to look forward to. Looking at it, season 6 is really one of the best seasons in terms of MotW episodes.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2014 23:57
|
|
|
There's that one dude who's always smoking that back in the day I knew as Cancer Man but as time passed he started being known as Cigarette Smoking Man. But Mulder actually calls him the Cancer Man in one of the early episodes, plus it's a cooler name, so how did his name or alias or whatever end up changing to CSM? Do they start calling him CSM later in the series? I don't think I ever watched more than an ep here and there past the early seasons.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2014 00:08
|
|
|
Fast Luck posted:There's that one dude who's always smoking that back in the day I knew as Cancer Man but as time passed he started being known as Cigarette Smoking Man. But Mulder actually calls him the Cancer Man in one of the early episodes, plus it's a cooler name, so how did his name or alias or whatever end up changing to CSM? Do they start calling him CSM later in the series? I don't think I ever watched more than an ep here and there past the early seasons. I think he was in the credits as Cigarette Smoking Man but wasn't actually referred to on-screen as such. Cancer Man was a popular fan nickname for him that they used on the show a few times. I could be wrong but that's what I always thought.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2014 00:14
|
|
|
That was literally discussed last page, with pretty much the exact same thing you said.david_a posted:Ha... I dug up the thread because I just watched Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man. Awesome episode.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2014 00:46
|
|
|
WarEternal posted:I feel like most people don't dislike it that much, but I think it's a terrible episode because it seems really, really out of character for Scully. howe_sam posted:Yeah, all things felt to me more like Gillian Anderson doing stuff than Scully. cenotaph posted:I thought it being out of character was the whole point. She's dealing with the cancer and basically goes on a bender. marktheando posted:Actually the episode was moved, it wasn't originally supposed to be part of the cancer storyline. Gillian Anderson said she would have played it differently if she had known she was supposed to have cancer. Just to clarify: "all things" is a season 7 episode that starts with the implication that Mulder and Scully slept together, then goes back a week and show that as the end result of Scully having to decide whether or not to go back to a former professor she had a relationship with as a student. "Never again" is a fourth season episode which is the one that was moved and was about a tattoo. Just pointing it out because it seemed to me that the conversation crossed over somewhere. Paradox Personified posted:Same. I finally know I'm apparently the only human being alive to have enjoyed, if not loved, "all things," and bought the 7th season dvd set just because Anderson was involved with the creation of it so heavily. In a different show or a different point in time, that story might have been fine. But I felt that the story felt really out of place and the whole story with Scully being not only still messed up by her relationship with her former professor, but because the alternative medicine part felt really tacked on and contrived. It felt to me like 60% of a good episode: some really strong parts and dialogues, with some stuff that felt more like excuses to get from A to B forced on. And it makes sense that it felt like that, since Anderson herself admits that Carter and Spotnitz came to her to make sure she changed the script to acknowledge Mulder and Scully together. Scully learning to have an open mind once Mulder is away from her is a decent idea. The whole thing being done as a precursor to satisfying shippers felt forced.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2014 01:18
|
|
|
Vogon Poet posted:Don't forget "Tithonus," which is not only a great episode but also has a neat tie-in with Clyde Bruckman's prediction that Scully doesn't die. Yeah, I'll admit 'Tithonus' is good. It has the vibe of a season 1/2 episode. Octy fucked around with this message at 05:02 on Feb 22, 2014 |
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2014 04:52
|
|
|
WarEternal posted:That was literally discussed last page, with pretty much the exact same thing you said.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2014 05:52
|
|
|
I don't get why the Syndicate is so afraid of exposure. They often go on about how they can't risk the slightest exposure, but it's shown time and again throughout the series that nobody, except a select few, believe Mulder's claims about the government conspiracy or aliens. Besides, I get the impression that most people who work for the Syndicate or who are under their influence aren't aware of the true nature of their operations anyway, or they're like Kritschgau and led to believe the aliens are just a big hoax to divert attention from other stuff.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2014 07:24
|
|
|
It's been a few months, but didn't they kind of explain it in season 5? It always seemed like they were able to silence everyone involved, so unless you were a crackpot like Mulder you wouldn't believe it because there was no hard evidence. They set up the fake alien corpse in the Antarctic to goad Mulder into going public with his findings to completely discredit him, whereas before he just kept it to himself and a few like-minded others. Decided that I might as well jump into season 9 head-first. I'm 4 episodes in and so far it's not too bad but Mulder's absence is very noticeable after his really short return at the end of season 8. I liked the opening two-parter, but "Daemonicus" was pretty by-the-numbers while "4-D" was good - it reminded me of "Dreamland" a bit minus any of the funny parts. It could turn around for the worse though; I thought season 8 started strong too before it ran into a string of lovely/mediocre monster episodes.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2014 13:21
|
|
|
The 90's. I've been watching the series from the beginning and am on episode 13 of season one. Scully's talking to a detective about someone who had died after he had sex with someone and she says "it's hard to imagine in this day and age someone having sex with a total stranger." Ho ho ho. How wrong you are Dana Scully. How wrong you are.  
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2014 01:29
|
|
|
I'm on season 4 and in one of the episodes I watched last night, Scully says something along the lines of "Mulder, if you had to go 2 minutes without your cellphone, you'd go insane." Mulder is a millennial, apparently.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2014 01:52
|
|
|
Fox should have gotten the cancer, not Dana.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2014 01:56
|
|
|
Big Mean Jerk posted:I'm on season 4 and in one of the episodes I watched last night, Scully says something along the lines of "Mulder, if you had to go 2 minutes without your cellphone, you'd go insane." X-Files had the greatest cellphones. Standing ten feet underground in a steel shipping container in the middle of the desert? Four bars!
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2014 01:58
|
|
|
Mister Kingdom posted:X-Files had the greatest cellphones. Standing ten feet underground in a steel shipping container in the middle of the desert? Four bars! They don't make them like they used to. EDIT - There are in fact pretty good episodes in mid-to-end Season 6. 'Let me get this straight. A free spirited alien fell in love with baseball and ran away from all the other non-fun-having aliens and made himself black because that would prevent him from getting to the majors because his unspeakable secret might be discovered by an intrusive press and public. You're also implying this baseball playing alien had something to do with the Roswell Crash of 1947, aren't you? Octy fucked around with this message at 07:24 on Feb 24, 2014 |
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2014 02:27
|
|
|
The Unnatural is an amazing episode. Duchovny's second writing credit, Hollywood AD, is one of the few highlights of season 7 as well. I decided to marathon the rest of the show yesterday. Season 9 wasn't as bad as I was expecting. It wasn't turned around entirely, but none of the episodes felt like a chore to watch. Bringing back the comedic episodes was a good move - I really liked "Improbable" and "Sunshine Days" - but the mytharc is toast at this point. Aside from the fact that it's so convoluted by the end, I think part of that is also because it's mostly Mulder's fight and he's gone for the entire season except the finale. I think 7 or 8 is a stronger contender for weakest season, but I don't really regret watching any of the last 3. I can definitely see how this opinion would be different if I had been watching as it aired.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2014 11:55
|
|
|
Season 7 has 'Hungry' and 'X-Cops' too, though. For me there's very little in Season 8 that stands out apart from 'Roadrunners' and nothing at all in Season 9.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2014 12:20
|
|
|
I'd completely forgotten that 'Red Museum' was part of the mytharc. Cultists and slaughterhouses and creepy voyeurs, then suddenly BAM! Purity Control out of nowhere! I've also annoyed the hell out of my girlfriend by improvising lyrics to match both the whistling and the visuals in the opening titles, and now she can't get them out of her head:  A wobbly UFO, A glowing plasma globe. Two germinating seeds, And David Duchovny. With Gillian Anderson, And a white falling man, An eye. Small Strange Bird fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Feb 24, 2014 |
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2014 15:06
|
|
|
I really like season 8. The myth-arc stuff is pretty fun in the back half of that season. Weakest season for me would either be seven or nine. Seven has some really hatable episodes, like Fight Club and First Person Shooter, but season nine is just so loving low energy. The show was running on fumes.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2014 16:28
|
|
|
I'd give the edge to season 7 for having X-Cops and Hollywood AD and still having Mulder and Scully together, although the formula was getting stale by that point. The back half of season 8 is much better than the first, but that was seriously when I wanted to stop my marathon of the show because the first half was just so uninteresting.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2014 21:44
|
|
|
Yeah, 'Hungry' is as good as I remembered it, especially after the convoluted mytharc episodes of the new season. Smug Mulder is the best Mulder.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2014 08:26
|
|
|
So I'm thinking for me (for ME) the best way to do with X-Files these days is to just remember the fun I had watching it as a kid. I tried to watch most of the first season recently and it wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't gripping or compellingly acted compared to the few shows I currently watch. What I may end up doing is just reading a summary of each episode to get the general gist of things, because I do think they put out some rather cool and unique monster of the week ideas for 8 seasons, as well as having a kinda cool mythology. I just can't be arsed to spend an hour watching each episode.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2014 08:40
|
|
|
45 minutes, actually. It's a shame you don't enjoy it as much, though. I still find it just as gripping as I did on my first viewing and I think for the most part it holds up well for its age.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2014 12:37
|
|
|
Octy posted:45 minutes, actually. It's a shame you don't enjoy it as much, though. I still find it just as gripping as I did on my first viewing and I think for the most part it holds up well for its age.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2014 14:39
|
|
|
Drifter posted:So I'm thinking for me (for ME) the best way to do with X-Files these days is to just remember the fun I had watching it as a kid. I tried to watch most of the first season recently and it wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't gripping or compellingly acted compared to the few shows I currently watch. I hear you. Watching 9 full seasons of a show is a massive commitment, and if you're not wild about it, why are you wasting your time with it? I'll probably do something similar once the show moves from Vancouver. All told it will still probably be two years total before I'm done with this show.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2014 15:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 02:57 |
|
|
Drifter posted:So I'm thinking for me (for ME) the best way to do with X-Files these days is to just remember the fun I had watching it as a kid. I tried to watch most of the first season recently and it wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't gripping or compellingly acted compared to the few shows I currently watch. Having never seen this show until recently, I was pretty much of this opinion when I watched season 1. There's a point somewhere, I think in mid/late season 2 where it really starts to handle itself better and the writing and acting lend themselves into something much more than the "scifi homage cop show" it was after season 1, which itself is different from the "spooky cop show" it was for the first few episodes.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2014 17:35
|
|