Fight the Future
May. 28th, 2009 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
salienneSo, let's talk X-Files for a few minutes.
Recently I began rewatching The X-Files, starting with the Pilot and eventually ending with The Truth (or I Want to Believe, if I can bear it). 1 season in 2 days is my record, and that's during Finals time. Yeah, I'm proud of that.
Currently, I just finished "Fight the Future" (the 1st movie, which is awesome), so I thought I'd just check in with my thoughts before moving onward.
First off, no, the show's not perfect. It doesn't make all that much sense that Mulder wasn't just killed off, Scully's persistent skepticism is too contrived, MOTW episodes are oftentimes too removed from the overall character arcs, Scully gets kidnapped waaaaayyyyy too much (at least twice for every time Mulder is taken, and even then, he runs towards trouble; she gets stolen away), and I swear, if one more person starts talking about how this is "Mulder's Quest" and about how the x-files are 'his' or acts like Mulder's the only one who really matters here, I'm going to throw something at Chris Carter. Scully's been half the fight for 5 years now, not just Mulder's sidekick or the person who keeps him going, and the fact that we get maybe 2 or 3 episodes acknowledging this is just silly and more than a little frustrating.
But the characters are *good*, the writing is intelligent, gripping, and sometimes heartbreaking, and the mytharc builds steadily and more or less reasonably, at least for the first 5 seasons (I'll see how I feel after finishing up season 9). Honestly, it's just really hard not to love The X-Files. (And Mulder/Scully, and Skinner, and the Long Gunment, and the way Krycek is a git but a git who has a secret crush on Mulder, but that's all beside the point.)
And "Fight the Future," while a good and exciting Blockbuster in and of itself, just fits. The Mulder and Scully in Antarctica are the same Mulder and Scully whose relatives have been murdered due to their crusade. Their motivations, their inner lives, and how they behave make sense with who they are as people, and they don't just bend for the sake of plot. (Well, there is Mulder's mysteriously renewed belief in extraterrestrials, as he'd spent most of season 5 convinced they didn't exist, but we'll let that slide.)
Also, as part of the mytharc, Fight the Future makes sense in the overall storyline.
Contrast this with "I Want to Believe", the 2nd X-Files movie: the movie itself is a decent Blockbuster--enjoyable, exciting, interesting. A bit sloppy, but hey, that doesn't make it bad.
Then you look at the overall X-Files universe, and it falls apart.
The last time we see our two favorite agents, they're both on the run not just from the FBI but from the government. And they're not planning on sitting on their asses: they know when Colonization is, and they're going to stop it.
Meanwhile, several years later, what do we have instead?
Mulder sits in a room remembering his glory days and throwing pencils at the ceiling. Scully works rather publicly in a hospital, and she lives rather publicly with Mulder. The FBI is the only one after them, and by 'them' I mean Mulder, and by 'after' I mean, "We don't really care that much..." So suddenly, Mulder and Scully aren't concerned about the coming alien apocalypse, the government really doesn't care about these people who could expose them (which makes sense, I suppose, if all Mulder and Scully want to do is play house), and the FBI just thinks Mulder is embarrassing so half-heartedly wants to get him. Which is, you know, totally how law enforcement agencies deal with fugitive suspected murderers.
Seriously, a 12-year-old with a phone book could find Mulder. How has the FBI not done so already?
But, logic aside, what really makes me angry here is how badly the characters have been mutilated.
Mulder wants to truth, he wants to expose these people... so he hides away in some room. His relentless drive to find and expose the truth, to save Scully and his son, to save the damn planet, is gone. Oh sure, it exists for this case, but when it comes to the big picture? When it comes to what he went to New Mexico and secret military bases and Antarctica for?
He's perfectly content to stare at pictures on the computer screen and grow a beard instead.
Meanwhile, Scully has sacrificed and sacrificed and sacrificed to help Mulder and to find the truth and to win against the men behind the various alien-related conspiracies. To protect her son. William is still out there, we're reminded that he's still out there, and Scully is even doing experimental treatments out of some subconscious desire to help him.
Except for where certain slavery or death is concerned, I guess. Because she doesn't seem to give a rat's ass about Colonization, which her son's fate is deeply intertwined with. Apparently, Scully just "doesn't want that darkness in her life anymore," so breaks up with Mulder and decides to move out rather than follow through with this case or follow through in the long term. Which, okay, she has been more willing than Mulder to quit before she's lost everything. She even submits a letter of resignation in "Fight the Future."
The difference is, in FtF, it made sense. The X-Files were closed down, she was getting shipped to some out-of-the-way office, she'd lost so much with nothing but a dead sibling to show for it, and she felt like she was holding Mulder back. She was tired, and she didn't think she could help.
Contrast this with "I Want to Believe": Scully knows Mulder needs her, she can help, she can make a difference. There is hope and a reason to keep going, and her son's life depends on her continuing on facing that darkness. Hell, if she can't take a few murders, how is she going to deal with Colonization?
Leaving Mulder and their work because of this case is just contrived drama, because Scully just wouldn't decide to pretend the less pleasant aspects of the world didn't exist. She couldn't. Because Scully might be a real doctor now (who should be working under a pseudonym, thankyouverymuch), but that doesn't mean she would stick her fingers in her ears and lalala everything unhappy or supernatural away.
Scully worked with the cancer. She worked after losing her sister, after losing Emily, after losing Mulder, and even after losing William. Am I really supposed to believe her character warps this much off-screen?
Am I really supposed to believe she and Mulder sit on their hackles all day and don't do anything to try and prevent Colonization?
It's like the movie decided the mytharc not only shouldn't be mentioned but didn't exist, which is taking the MOTW format and amplifying it to the point that the story just doesn't work.
While the 2nd movie tried to pretend the X-Files mythos didn't exist, the first movie embraced it. While the 2nd movie nudged characters for the sake of plot and drama, the 1st movie balanced the two.
Chris Carter, you could've done better than this...
So, in summary, "Fight the Future" was true to the storylines, the mytharc, and the characters. "I Want to Believe"? Not so much
Now to watch season 6, squee over the self-parody episodes, and giggle over the fact that Chris Carter claimed Mulder and Scully were never supposed to be an item.
Also, really OT, but are there any vets or people who know about cats on my FL? Kitty has been coughing for over a month, is unaffected by antibiotics, and his breathing currently sounds like purring/snoring. No loss of appetite, very playful and active, and he sleeps the typical amount.
Congestion, upper respiratory infection, asthma, allergies, what?
Recently I began rewatching The X-Files, starting with the Pilot and eventually ending with The Truth (or I Want to Believe, if I can bear it). 1 season in 2 days is my record, and that's during Finals time. Yeah, I'm proud of that.
Currently, I just finished "Fight the Future" (the 1st movie, which is awesome), so I thought I'd just check in with my thoughts before moving onward.
First off, no, the show's not perfect. It doesn't make all that much sense that Mulder wasn't just killed off, Scully's persistent skepticism is too contrived, MOTW episodes are oftentimes too removed from the overall character arcs, Scully gets kidnapped waaaaayyyyy too much (at least twice for every time Mulder is taken, and even then, he runs towards trouble; she gets stolen away), and I swear, if one more person starts talking about how this is "Mulder's Quest" and about how the x-files are 'his' or acts like Mulder's the only one who really matters here, I'm going to throw something at Chris Carter. Scully's been half the fight for 5 years now, not just Mulder's sidekick or the person who keeps him going, and the fact that we get maybe 2 or 3 episodes acknowledging this is just silly and more than a little frustrating.
But the characters are *good*, the writing is intelligent, gripping, and sometimes heartbreaking, and the mytharc builds steadily and more or less reasonably, at least for the first 5 seasons (I'll see how I feel after finishing up season 9). Honestly, it's just really hard not to love The X-Files. (And Mulder/Scully, and Skinner, and the Long Gunment, and the way Krycek is a git but a git who has a secret crush on Mulder, but that's all beside the point.)
And "Fight the Future," while a good and exciting Blockbuster in and of itself, just fits. The Mulder and Scully in Antarctica are the same Mulder and Scully whose relatives have been murdered due to their crusade. Their motivations, their inner lives, and how they behave make sense with who they are as people, and they don't just bend for the sake of plot. (Well, there is Mulder's mysteriously renewed belief in extraterrestrials, as he'd spent most of season 5 convinced they didn't exist, but we'll let that slide.)
Also, as part of the mytharc, Fight the Future makes sense in the overall storyline.
Contrast this with "I Want to Believe", the 2nd X-Files movie: the movie itself is a decent Blockbuster--enjoyable, exciting, interesting. A bit sloppy, but hey, that doesn't make it bad.
Then you look at the overall X-Files universe, and it falls apart.
The last time we see our two favorite agents, they're both on the run not just from the FBI but from the government. And they're not planning on sitting on their asses: they know when Colonization is, and they're going to stop it.
Meanwhile, several years later, what do we have instead?
Mulder sits in a room remembering his glory days and throwing pencils at the ceiling. Scully works rather publicly in a hospital, and she lives rather publicly with Mulder. The FBI is the only one after them, and by 'them' I mean Mulder, and by 'after' I mean, "We don't really care that much..." So suddenly, Mulder and Scully aren't concerned about the coming alien apocalypse, the government really doesn't care about these people who could expose them (which makes sense, I suppose, if all Mulder and Scully want to do is play house), and the FBI just thinks Mulder is embarrassing so half-heartedly wants to get him. Which is, you know, totally how law enforcement agencies deal with fugitive suspected murderers.
Seriously, a 12-year-old with a phone book could find Mulder. How has the FBI not done so already?
But, logic aside, what really makes me angry here is how badly the characters have been mutilated.
Mulder wants to truth, he wants to expose these people... so he hides away in some room. His relentless drive to find and expose the truth, to save Scully and his son, to save the damn planet, is gone. Oh sure, it exists for this case, but when it comes to the big picture? When it comes to what he went to New Mexico and secret military bases and Antarctica for?
He's perfectly content to stare at pictures on the computer screen and grow a beard instead.
Meanwhile, Scully has sacrificed and sacrificed and sacrificed to help Mulder and to find the truth and to win against the men behind the various alien-related conspiracies. To protect her son. William is still out there, we're reminded that he's still out there, and Scully is even doing experimental treatments out of some subconscious desire to help him.
Except for where certain slavery or death is concerned, I guess. Because she doesn't seem to give a rat's ass about Colonization, which her son's fate is deeply intertwined with. Apparently, Scully just "doesn't want that darkness in her life anymore," so breaks up with Mulder and decides to move out rather than follow through with this case or follow through in the long term. Which, okay, she has been more willing than Mulder to quit before she's lost everything. She even submits a letter of resignation in "Fight the Future."
The difference is, in FtF, it made sense. The X-Files were closed down, she was getting shipped to some out-of-the-way office, she'd lost so much with nothing but a dead sibling to show for it, and she felt like she was holding Mulder back. She was tired, and she didn't think she could help.
Contrast this with "I Want to Believe": Scully knows Mulder needs her, she can help, she can make a difference. There is hope and a reason to keep going, and her son's life depends on her continuing on facing that darkness. Hell, if she can't take a few murders, how is she going to deal with Colonization?
Leaving Mulder and their work because of this case is just contrived drama, because Scully just wouldn't decide to pretend the less pleasant aspects of the world didn't exist. She couldn't. Because Scully might be a real doctor now (who should be working under a pseudonym, thankyouverymuch), but that doesn't mean she would stick her fingers in her ears and lalala everything unhappy or supernatural away.
Scully worked with the cancer. She worked after losing her sister, after losing Emily, after losing Mulder, and even after losing William. Am I really supposed to believe her character warps this much off-screen?
Am I really supposed to believe she and Mulder sit on their hackles all day and don't do anything to try and prevent Colonization?
It's like the movie decided the mytharc not only shouldn't be mentioned but didn't exist, which is taking the MOTW format and amplifying it to the point that the story just doesn't work.
While the 2nd movie tried to pretend the X-Files mythos didn't exist, the first movie embraced it. While the 2nd movie nudged characters for the sake of plot and drama, the 1st movie balanced the two.
Chris Carter, you could've done better than this...
So, in summary, "Fight the Future" was true to the storylines, the mytharc, and the characters. "I Want to Believe"? Not so much
Now to watch season 6, squee over the self-parody episodes, and giggle over the fact that Chris Carter claimed Mulder and Scully were never supposed to be an item.
Also, really OT, but are there any vets or people who know about cats on my FL? Kitty has been coughing for over a month, is unaffected by antibiotics, and his breathing currently sounds like purring/snoring. No loss of appetite, very playful and active, and he sleeps the typical amount.
Congestion, upper respiratory infection, asthma, allergies, what?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-29 02:57 am (UTC)About your kitty, it's probably respiratory infection. My mom's persian cat had the same thing when she was little. She just took her to the vet who prescribed some medicine for her.