The following is based on actual documented accounts.
I am a terrible Livejournaler. No post in nearly two weeks? Personal record, I think.
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So, uh. Consider this portion of this post as a test drive for my real blog (WHAT? who said that).
Recently I purchased The X Files S1-5 on DVD, which is kind of shocking unto itself in that the only visual XF things I owned prior to this was an original copy of Fight the Future on VHS. WHAT. EVEN. After agonizing over what to watch first - do I indulge in my 500th viewing of "Bad Blood"? - I decided to do this up proper and start from the beginning. The Pilot. Which gave me thoughts.
A- ...about Mad Men. Um?
The thing that surprised the most watching XF 1x01 after all these years was how much I didn't trust Mulder for much of the story. When you turn off knowing where the character goes and what he sees in later seasons - when you watch it pretending you don't know that the aliens are real within the canon of the show, that there is epic alien colonization about and that the events in Bellefleur, OR, are only the tip of the extra-terrestial iceberg - Fox Mulder is an extremely untrustworthy character. There is nothing in his backstory as presented in 1x01 that can't be explained in pure psychological terms - that he never came to terms with his sister's kidnapping, that he turned repressed memories into an invented alien abduction; that he alienated (heh) himself first from his family (by studying abroad at Oxford) and then from an accepted family substitute (the FBI), that's he's become obsessed with proving the impossible and is doomed to fail/have a nervous breakdown. It's not a perfect theory, one that doesn't exist the 9-minute time loss or how Billy Miles ends up in the woods when he's supposed to be a vegetable, but it's a plausible one. I spent those forty-odd minutes wanting to believe Mulder so badly, in much the same way that Scully wants to believe him despite all rational, scientific thought (because she loves him instantly) (no, because that's what someone whose thesis tries to debunk Einstein would do). The most cathartic moment is Scully's giddy, ridiculous laughter in the middle of the pouring rain in the cemetery, because I identified with her. This is absurd. Aliens are absurd. Government conspiracies are absurd. Fox Mulder is absurd.
Until the last scene. Because in the last scene, as the Cigarette Smoking Man slides that implant into a container full of identical implants, you realize - Mulder is right about everything.
In contrast, the first episode of Mad Men tells a different story. Don Draper is an ad man in 1963 - a liar by profession - but if there's one sentiment that reigns throughout all of 1x01 save the last scene, it's that Don Draper is Modern (or - at least more evolved than the characters around him). He genuinely asks for the black waiter's opinion about why he smokes his particular brand of cigarette, where other characters dismiss him. He has an artsy downtown girlfriend in Midge (and those scenes in her apartment, until you're introduced to the interior of Sterling Cooper, you'd be hard-pressed to immediately place them in them in a 60s period piece - Don is worried that he's not prepared for a meeting at work! who cannot identify with that). He rebuffs Peggy's romantic advance in a way that suggests he sees her as a colleague (albeit an inferior one), not just as a lady who works for him that he can sleep with whenever he chooses. He blatantly dismisses Pete altogether (oh, the irony in that, circa S4). Don Draper (as we know him in 1x01) isn't perfect by any measure, but all collected, he comes off like a damned superhero in comparison to the characters around him.
Until the last scene... when you find out that actually he's married, with a wife and kids in the suburbs. That Midge is not his girlfriend, but his girl on the side. That maybe he rejected Peggy because he already had a girl on the side, and mixing pleasure with work was just plain bad when you're also trying to hide it from the wife. In short: Don Draper isn't a liar by profession - Don Draper is just a liar.
(The fact that he is literally a liar, in terms of his identity and name, uh, this fact does not escape me, no.)
I don't know. It's probably a stretch. One made me think of the other! Shut up, okay.
I thought I was going to just hop, skip, and jump through these seasons and watch only my favorites, but then I watched the entire first disc last night so I think a re-watch is definitely in the cards. I want to fall in love with The X Files again, as an adult. I love my show, but the height of my love was in ninth grade, guys. NINTH GRADE. That was (TERRIFYINGLY) a decade ago, and I'm thinking I've collected a couple perception-altering life experiences between then and now, you know?
-
My life is sort of boring. The highlight so far was last Friday, when the Bestest and I had Diamond Club seats (that's behind home plate) for a Phillies game. I'm not a fan per se - I tolerate the Phils because I live here; I'll root for them when they aren't playing the Yankees/they're the only NL team I can stand - but the Bestest is a fan x100, and she had a ball so I was glad. I am completely ruined for baseball, however. Between the girl who brought us drinks at no extra charge, to the fact that I had a wristband, all the way to technical baseball stuff like being able to see balls and strikes as they crossed home plate - RUINED. Absolutely, gosh darned ruined.
Meanwhile, and this is related solely because I just talked about Philadelphia and the Phillies* - the thing I'm most excited for this September is the return of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia? Possibly?
* Did we spend the first three innings shouting things like "CHASE: I LOVE YOUR HAIR. YOU RUN FAST" at the field? No. No, no, no, n- um. Yes. I love my Bestest in this way.
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In conclusion: first new Bones Season 6 promo [spoilers, natch]. Can I acquire a time machine, please? I lied about that Always Sunny business. I WANT THIS BACK. I WANT IT RIGHT NOW.
-
So, uh. Consider this portion of this post as a test drive for my real blog (WHAT? who said that).
Recently I purchased The X Files S1-5 on DVD, which is kind of shocking unto itself in that the only visual XF things I owned prior to this was an original copy of Fight the Future on VHS. WHAT. EVEN. After agonizing over what to watch first - do I indulge in my 500th viewing of "Bad Blood"? - I decided to do this up proper and start from the beginning. The Pilot. Which gave me thoughts.
A- ...about Mad Men. Um?
The thing that surprised the most watching XF 1x01 after all these years was how much I didn't trust Mulder for much of the story. When you turn off knowing where the character goes and what he sees in later seasons - when you watch it pretending you don't know that the aliens are real within the canon of the show, that there is epic alien colonization about and that the events in Bellefleur, OR, are only the tip of the extra-terrestial iceberg - Fox Mulder is an extremely untrustworthy character. There is nothing in his backstory as presented in 1x01 that can't be explained in pure psychological terms - that he never came to terms with his sister's kidnapping, that he turned repressed memories into an invented alien abduction; that he alienated (heh) himself first from his family (by studying abroad at Oxford) and then from an accepted family substitute (the FBI), that's he's become obsessed with proving the impossible and is doomed to fail/have a nervous breakdown. It's not a perfect theory, one that doesn't exist the 9-minute time loss or how Billy Miles ends up in the woods when he's supposed to be a vegetable, but it's a plausible one. I spent those forty-odd minutes wanting to believe Mulder so badly, in much the same way that Scully wants to believe him despite all rational, scientific thought (because she loves him instantly) (no, because that's what someone whose thesis tries to debunk Einstein would do). The most cathartic moment is Scully's giddy, ridiculous laughter in the middle of the pouring rain in the cemetery, because I identified with her. This is absurd. Aliens are absurd. Government conspiracies are absurd. Fox Mulder is absurd.
Until the last scene. Because in the last scene, as the Cigarette Smoking Man slides that implant into a container full of identical implants, you realize - Mulder is right about everything.
In contrast, the first episode of Mad Men tells a different story. Don Draper is an ad man in 1963 - a liar by profession - but if there's one sentiment that reigns throughout all of 1x01 save the last scene, it's that Don Draper is Modern (or - at least more evolved than the characters around him). He genuinely asks for the black waiter's opinion about why he smokes his particular brand of cigarette, where other characters dismiss him. He has an artsy downtown girlfriend in Midge (and those scenes in her apartment, until you're introduced to the interior of Sterling Cooper, you'd be hard-pressed to immediately place them in them in a 60s period piece - Don is worried that he's not prepared for a meeting at work! who cannot identify with that). He rebuffs Peggy's romantic advance in a way that suggests he sees her as a colleague (albeit an inferior one), not just as a lady who works for him that he can sleep with whenever he chooses. He blatantly dismisses Pete altogether (oh, the irony in that, circa S4). Don Draper (as we know him in 1x01) isn't perfect by any measure, but all collected, he comes off like a damned superhero in comparison to the characters around him.
Until the last scene... when you find out that actually he's married, with a wife and kids in the suburbs. That Midge is not his girlfriend, but his girl on the side. That maybe he rejected Peggy because he already had a girl on the side, and mixing pleasure with work was just plain bad when you're also trying to hide it from the wife. In short: Don Draper isn't a liar by profession - Don Draper is just a liar.
(The fact that he is literally a liar, in terms of his identity and name, uh, this fact does not escape me, no.)
I don't know. It's probably a stretch. One made me think of the other! Shut up, okay.
I thought I was going to just hop, skip, and jump through these seasons and watch only my favorites, but then I watched the entire first disc last night so I think a re-watch is definitely in the cards. I want to fall in love with The X Files again, as an adult. I love my show, but the height of my love was in ninth grade, guys. NINTH GRADE. That was (TERRIFYINGLY) a decade ago, and I'm thinking I've collected a couple perception-altering life experiences between then and now, you know?
-
My life is sort of boring. The highlight so far was last Friday, when the Bestest and I had Diamond Club seats (that's behind home plate) for a Phillies game. I'm not a fan per se - I tolerate the Phils because I live here; I'll root for them when they aren't playing the Yankees/they're the only NL team I can stand - but the Bestest is a fan x100, and she had a ball so I was glad. I am completely ruined for baseball, however. Between the girl who brought us drinks at no extra charge, to the fact that I had a wristband, all the way to technical baseball stuff like being able to see balls and strikes as they crossed home plate - RUINED. Absolutely, gosh darned ruined.
Meanwhile, and this is related solely because I just talked about Philadelphia and the Phillies* - the thing I'm most excited for this September is the return of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia? Possibly?
* Did we spend the first three innings shouting things like "CHASE: I LOVE YOUR HAIR. YOU RUN FAST" at the field? No. No, no, no, n- um. Yes. I love my Bestest in this way.
-
In conclusion: first new Bones Season 6 promo [spoilers, natch]. Can I acquire a time machine, please? I lied about that Always Sunny business. I WANT THIS BACK. I WANT IT RIGHT NOW.