posted on May 21, 2001 07:31:02 AM new
Ok, I'll admit it. I cried when they kissed.
I was just reading the message boards over at the X-Files site. There seems to be agreement that Mulder really is the father. When Scully said they were trying to take him away from "us", and naming him after Mulder's father, and the kiss, etc...
I was most disappointed to see Krycek get killed off. He was a great villian. Though the scene between he, Mulder, and AD Skinner was rather cryptic.
The alluding to an "immaculate conception" along with the 3 "Wise Men" bearing gifts, swaddling the baby, star in the sky, etc... was kind of lame, IMO.
This show would have been an excellent *series* finale. I am curious now what season nine will be like. Surely Mulder isn't going to play stay-at-home dad? I read he will maybe do some cameos? But Scully is signed to pretty much a full schedule. It'll be interesting to see how C.C. works all this next year.
But I am glad they kissed. For me it was a nice ending.
posted on May 21, 2001 08:25:31 AM new
I was kind of hoping for more of a Rosemary's Baby ending - little freaky alien, but mom loves it anyway. "Awww, look at his little grey head. Babywaby got four little fingers?"
Rumors are that DD will show up for cameos.
Maybe he'll be a stay at home dad. Then he gets turned in to social services for neglect when neighbors report that while supposedly watching baby, he's actually online 20 hours/day maintaining his alien siting webpage. Scully gets so ticked off she leaves the FBI (it's her last season anyway) and Mulder, and the season finale is her being sucked into a space craft, baby, car and all. Mulder in the middle of the highway, screaming, "I was supposed to go first!"
posted on May 21, 2001 08:40:59 AM newnefish: Dang it! I must have been more tired last night than I thought, but I totally missed the [now] obvious references to the Christ child.
The light in the sky I kept thinking was an alien spacecraft waiting to decend.
I've never thought of the Lone Gunmen as being particularly "wise", so I missed that one, too.
And the lines about "immaculate conception" and "proper swaddling" just blew right past me.
Ah well....
And who said Krycek is dead? Wasn't he "killed" off a couple of times before [at least]? And heck, for that matter, Mulder was "dead" as well not too long ago....
Speaking of Krycek, did you catch how he called Mulder "Brother"? I'm not sure if it was ever resolved that CSM was really Mulder's father or not. I do remember, though, way back when Krycek vigourously denied that he shot Mulder's father. At the time, I thought it meant that an alien replicant did the job [or Krycek was simply lying], but now I'm thinking that Krycek really meant "sure, I shot the man who raised you, but he wasn't your father." Do you think they were BOTH CSM's children???
Oh -- and after the failure of "The Lone Gunmen", Chris Carter may not be returning himself next season.
Barry
---
The opinions expressed above are for comparison purposes only. Your mileage may vary....
posted on May 21, 2001 12:03:42 PM new
I really liked The X-Files the first few seasons, when they were producing award-winnning episodes. Then, the origional writers of the show, the ones that had taken it to the top of the charts, left the show. After that, the show got dumbed-down. In one season opener, Muldar asks Scully, "What's an electrolyte, Scully?" I knew right then and there that the show was going to crash into the cesspools of stupidity. It wasn't long after that I simply stopped watching it altogether.
Now the same thing is happening on the Sci-Fi channel: all the shows are geared towards 8 to 12 year olds; the ones that have stayed on air have been dumbed-down tremendously. That's since Fox Network bought a huge stake in the Sci-Fi Channel.
posted on May 22, 2001 05:05:45 PM new
My daughter, who knows a lot about the show, would like to put in her two cents worth (below are her words, not mine):
Okay, first of all, in Tea Leoni's defense (*note spelling), I have to say that David Duchovny had all along wanted to move to LA. Chris Carter even said the show would move to LA at some point, but they never really got around to it until Tea was pregnant. And can you really blame David for wanting to be with his daughter? Also, Gillian Anderson wanted to relocate to LA because her daughter and her house were down there as well. So it wasn't ALL David's doing. He was just the one to make the final push. (Although I must say, the show did lose a lot of its feel once it relocated... definately not as good without the creepy settings).
And Tea did not weasel her way in... David Duchovny chose to cast her in the episode he wrote and directed, called Hollywood AD.
Now on to the next subject-- the "alien stuff." Granted, some of it gets confusing, outrageous, and convoluted. But that's really what the show is about. I mean, if you go back to the first episode, it's about alien abduction. Although the show is about all aspects of the paranormal, the "alien stuff" (AKA mythology)is still the main focus, and the only tie that really holds the show together, making it a complex on-going plot, rather than a tangle of unconsequential stand-alone episodes only. I must say that I myself don't agree with a lot of the mythology-- mainly post-movie mythology-- but it's still what the show is really about.
But back to David Duchovny being spoiled. He is rather a prima donna. But can you really blame him for wanting to leave the show? I mean, look at the show leading up to the movie. It was really good. Then in season 6 it all got kind of lame, when after all Scully had been through in the movie, she STILL didn't believe. It didn't really make any sense, even for her. The show was still good, but it was obvious they were running out of plots.
Yet Chris Carter opted for a seventh season anyway, being the corporate whore that he is. By this time he's trying to work in all this religious symbolism, which is completely overdone by the entertainment business anyway, the syndicate is dead from season 6, and the only good episodes are either completely off-the-wall (X-COPS, anyone?) or recycled from past episodes (i.e. First Person Shooter, where a computer game kills people... anyone remember Kill Switch? And that episode from season 1 with the computerized building).
Now, the show is still OKAY, but it is obviously going WAY downhill and the idea well is running terribly dry. David Duchovny sees this, sees the show has nothing more to offer, and doesn't really want to be connected with something he can't put his full energy into. He probably also doesn't want to be connected with a crappy show. He even said the only reason he'd stay is for money. So which is worse, letting an already bad show down, or not letting it down, but being dragged down with it simply for financial gain?
Now, here are my overall feelings on the show now:
1. Scully's pregnancy-- Cheap ratings attempt, and an unorigional, impossible one at that. Sorry, she's sterile. Even though we come to find out later that Mulder had her ova all along. It doesn't make it any less crappy.
2. Keeping things from the audience-- I lost all respect I ever had for Chris Carter for this. For the entire run of the show, all 7 years, leading up to Requiem (season 7 finale), we knew what was going on with Mulder and Scully. If something happened to them, we would know, because it would be in the show. Then all of a sudden all this stuff happens that we didn't even see, and we just hear of it later in the next season. So basically he changed the entire format of the show. We don't even know the two main characters anymore! It's just like a soap opera, only with paranormal stuff. Which kind of makes it even WORSE than a soap opera, because it's just so out there.
3. The introduction of a main character in the 8th season-- Okay, NO. The X-Files is not a show where you can have a new main character, it has ALWAYS been just Mulder and Scully, and no matter how close to other characters you get, they still cannot be called Main Characters. It could have worked in the first three seasons, maybe even the 5th if you REALLY push it, but NOT in the 8th season. Once again, it changes the entire format of the show. I mean, I even LIKE Robert Patrick. I think he's a good actor, and his character is well-written, but it's just too late in the show to make him a main guy.
4. Plots-- Up until season 6, the plots were all pretty damn good. Even the really off-the-wall ones had some sort of explanation. And season 6 was good too, although the plots were a little harder to swallow and could have used a more logical approach to some of the solutions (see Arcadia and Milagro). But in season 7, they began to really... well, in a word, SUCK. The only good episodes were recycled or weird, and even they lacked proper explanations. (I do realize I'm repeating myself). And I actually had to stop watching a few episodes into season 8, because the plots were all either religious crap or completely unexplained made-up half-assed monsters (a religious cult that worshipped a spine-dwelling slug... Riiiiiiiiiight...).
5. Characters-- Well, Scully has changed dramatically. Instead of Gillian submerging herself in the character, she subjerged the character in herself. Don't get me wrong, I worship her, but Scully became more Gillian than ever before, and it really didn't fit. Doggett is actually okay, except for the fact that he shouldn't be a main character. Reyes is too perky and needs to be shot in the head. And Mulder is simply not Mulder ever since the abduction. David Duchovny came back and had obviously lost all feeling for the character of Mulder and was completely unconvincing. Broke my heart.
A few other things that bugged me:
Okay, so David left, which left me to think "YAY! They'll finally concentrate on Scully!" But oh, how wrong I was. Instead, Gillian Anderson was once again overshadowed by the male lead, and ended up being either the damsel in distress, or not there at all (In Roadrunners: the slug thing went into her spine and Doggett had to cut it out; in another episode she didn't even appear because Scully had "abdominal pains".)
In the few instances she actually DID get more air-time, she was roming around looking for Mulder, or telling Doggett he was an idiot for not believing in the paranormal (as the pot calls the kettle black...).
All in all, I was so disappointed with this season, I didn't even watch a lot of it (although I tried to keep somewhat updated as to what was going on). I couldn't bring myself to watch something that was once so great fall to pieces because Chris Carter wanted more money (either that or he's too neurotic to let it go... In both cases, I'm deeply saddened.)
Wow, this is long. Brownies to whoever got through this whole thing.
[ edited by uglimouse on May 22, 2001 05:12 PM ]
[ edited by uglimouse on May 22, 2001 05:18 PM ]
posted on May 22, 2001 05:21:49 PM new
Great post, but, with all due respect, your quote of the "alien stuff" (AKA mythology)is still the main focus, and the only tie that really holds the show together is your opinion. The show was billed and labeled paranormal (hence, X FILES). To me (MY opinion), paranormal is anything NOT normal. They alien'd me to death, and I believe Im not the only one.
[ edited by Hepburn on May 22, 2001 05:22 PM ]
posted on May 22, 2001 05:25:55 PM new
I was disappointed when her baby did not immediatly start feeding on the arm of whoever delivered it. A big missed opportunity there.
They run this guy through the garbage truck so he is a bucket of guts and still he lives??? Nobody has the brains to pour a 2 liter of Coke in the bucket, which will stop that nonesense?... No alien life form could survive believe me.
