The X-Files: "I've Been Getting My Ass Chewed"

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > The X-Files: "I've Been Getting My Ass Chewed"

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

howe_sam posted:

Get hosed for saying the moon landing was faked Carter.

In this alternate reality where everything is either magic or aliens? Even if there was a real moon landing in the X-Files universe, it would probably also have been faked to cover up all the aliens they saw while they were up there.

sticklefifer posted:

I didn't think it was all that bad, just incredibly breakneck paced. The entire episode felt like it was supposed to be a reasonably paced 90 minute episode that got compressed into a plot point montage.

What plot though? Nothing happened.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2018 10:07

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 04:08

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

Gobbeldygook posted:

Am I the only person who sees a permanently unread post in this thread in their bookmarks and no other thread?

Nope, the thread is definitely broken. I'm also seeing your post as unread as I'm writing this reply, even though I clicked the "quote" button on it to get here. And when the last post was the end of a page it was showing an additional page which, when I tried to go to it, turned out not to exist.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2018 11:24

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

Alien science.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2018 11:53

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

Parakeet vs. Phone posted:

Mulder and Scully trapped in the Black Mirror universe. I think I like it.

It's like Black Mirror only good. The problem with Black Mirror is that it takes itself so seriously, which means that all the bits that don't make sense or are extremely unlikely stand out and ruin it. This so clearly wasn't meant to be taken seriously that you can easily ignore how none of it makes sense and both enjoy it and appreciate the message. It's a really good bit of television.

Popelmon posted:

Why is her house so much nicer than Mulder's?

That line was perfect. :roflolmao:

LividLiquid posted:

I am so goddamned sick of television shows condescendingly telling me to put my phone away.

While that's not an incorrect reading (because there's no such thing) it's pretty clearly not the intended one. There's about four lines of dialogue in the entire episode and one of them directly spells out the author's intent: "we have to be better teachers." It's not saying technology is bad - it's not even really about technology - technology is just the vehicle used to deliver the message, which is essentially that we reap what we sow. If we make the world into a nasty, selfish place then that's the world we have to live in. It doesn't matter if our children are flesh and blood or machines, they'll do to us as we do to each other, because that's what they'll learn.

LividLiquid posted:

Old people fear change and project their fading relevance onto whatever the new thing is and if you're going to do it, at least do what Black Mirror does and go a little further beyond "scientific advancement bad."

That is basically all Black Mirror does. That and the edgy cynicism of "people are poo poo and there's nothing you can do about it".

Mendrian posted:

Extremely heavy-handed "get off your phone" bit here. Especially since there is no inter-character dialog halfway through the episode. I don't know if I get "tip your waiter" vibes from this because there was no actual waiter for Mulder to tip.

The episode had no real motivation. A restaurant tried to kill Mulder for not tipping. It's not a rogue AI or a ghost of a dead hacker. It isn't even a proper X-File, it just kind of happens to them like it's something that could happen to anyone, for no reason. This is the episode my mother would have come up with after going out to dinner with my sister.

It's not about what Mulder or Scully do, per se. It's about what we all do. The fact that's it's something that could happen to anyone for no reason is kind of the point. It's the callous disregard we have for people we don't personally know. It's the way we put our own convenience and luxury before other people's health and safety. It's the two of them suffering the consequences of what all of us have done.

TheGamerGuy23 posted:

It really bothers me since neither Fox nor Scully were ever the "constantly on their phones" type of people. Fox especially, I mean him not being able to take a picture with his phone was literally a plot point of an episode last season. And since when did Scully live in this uber-technology house anyway? It kind of felt like the writers never actually watched an episode of the X-Files before.

They practically had Mulder come right out and say "we know this doesn't really make sense but it's funny and there's a point to it so please just go with it, OK?"

Mendrian posted:

The idea of Mulder and Scully just being the poor saps that anything happens to strains my sense of disbelief.

That strains credibility but all the aliens and conspiracies are totally plausible? If you can accept that this could happen to someone then why can't that someone be Mulder and Scully?

Mendrian posted:

Look, I get it. The episode is trying to tap into fears of what happens when the human element is removed from the equation. And at times, it succeeds in that way; but it does so in some silly, silly ways.

It's not about the danger of removing the human element though. It's using AI as shorthand for "the future" because you'd need a lot more exposition to get the message across if the future people were just ordinary humans. The message is about what lessons we teach those who will run the world after us, whether that be human beings or robots - they're going to learn from those of us who are here now and we're going to be relying on them to treat us well. If you teach your kids to care only for themselves and treat others like poo poo then don't be surprised when they care only for themselves and treat you like poo poo.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2018 15:49

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

Mendrian posted:

Refusing to tip a robot who can't spend money is not the same as treating them like poo poo.

It's not about what Mulder and Scully did. It's about what everyone is doing. Mulder and Scully just happened to suffer the consequences of humanity's actions. It doesn't matter if you personally are nice if everyone else is poo poo, because the future will still be poo poo. The robot wasn't harassing Mulder because Mulder taught it to do that. It was harassing Mulder because humanity taught it to do that. The point isn't "be nice to the robots so they'll be nice to you in the future", it's "we should all try to make the world a better place because we have to live in it."

# ¿ Mar 5, 2018 16:47

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

Mendrian posted:

Okay but that technology doesn't just happen like a force of nature - somebody made it and their presence is utterly deleted from the episode.

Yes, quite deliberately. Because it's not about any one person it's about all of us and the kind of society we're creating. The robots aren't there because "someone made evil robots for some reason", they're just there to represent "the future". The episode isn't saying "watch out for technology" it's saying "we all need to be better people because one day the things we're doing now will come back to bite us". It's not about AI, it's about society.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2018 23:43

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

Gobbeldygook posted:

You could have dropped this episode into any show with a MOTW format, so I guessed it was a spec script that was reborn as an X-Files episode.

I was thinking as I watched it that it could easily have been an episode of Supernatural. Probably with Sam as Mulder and Dean as Scully and almost no changes to the dialogue.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2018 09:57

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

Accretionist posted:

I thought it was going to be a joke.

My Struggle? Mein Kampf?

I though it was going to a Hitler joke.

Was the Hitler reference intentional? It's all I can think of when I see/hear those titles, but I don't know why they'd want to make that association.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2018 05:19

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 04:08

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

OldMemes posted:

William is off the table

No he isn't. He just faked his death.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2018 07:44

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > The X-Files: "I've Been Getting My Ass Chewed"