(no subject)
Me me me: I have talked about this before but who remembers these things, so I will say again that I watched the X-Files for the first time in the most haphazard possible way, it was completely out of order because I was watching reruns on three different channels at once (.........at least?), but every so often I would ~treat myself~, as 15-year-olds do, to a rented DVD from the Video Station. "all things" was the first time I did that. I guess it is kind of special to me because of that. (by the way, even though I have had the DVDs for years now, I still have not watched the last holdout of my messy first run of the X-Files, 4x16 "Requited". So you might say I am still in the process of watching the X-Files for the first time. It's been almost six years, IDK I'M NOT READY TO BE DONE FOREVER LIKE THAT.)
Anyway veils and I watched it tonight, our conversation was mostly v. deep and insightful.
In our defense:
Anyway usually if you ask me how I feel about "all things" the phrases that will come out are "so comforting" and "I like to have it on in the background!!!!" (possibly with intermittent "I LOVE IT", "I don't care about anyone else's feelings", and "I know it's kind of dumb but"). I think there are a lot of reasons I feel that way.
Anyway today I guess I want to focus on "I like to have it on in the background", because there is a reason for that.
UGH DANIEL WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS
SERIOUSLY OH MY GOD SHE JUST WALKED IN THE ROOM, YOU HAVEN'T SEEN HER IN LIKE TEN YEARS, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU
In a lot of ways a picspam is a way of removing sound, seeing a scene without the sounds behind it. And I wanted to separate the two here, so you can see the acting -- THE ACTING!!!!!! -- separately from the horrifically stilted dialogue and bad exposition that is this scene. ("I scare you... because I represent that which is ingrained not only in your mind but in your heart-- that which you secretly long for." LIKE, REALLY. WHO WOULD SAY THAT. NO ONE. There are also, throughout the episode, these staccato lines that are just, I don't know, awkward and arrhythmic, and by the way my least favorite line in the episode is the one in which crop circle cancer lady, who has just met Scully, implies that car accidents ~mean~ something about how you are not paying attention to something in your life. YEAH LIKE THE ROAD, also seriously PEOPLE DO NOT TALK LIKE THAT. That is not how dialogue works, GOOD NIGHT.)
I guess what interests me about that though is that this episode is so completely something that is written by an actress. Not a writer, not a director, but an actress. Who likes to act. I think the comparisons to Duchovny's episodes are inevitable, but I think it's ultimately telling that his episodes don't call on his acting skills (but his dialogue is punchier and -- I think -- much better, although my sister thinks it gets out of hand, and that the Unnatural bookends are ultimately worthless because they don't feel like Mulder and Scully. I DISAGREE, but it's interesting to think about) when her one is ultimately centered around her ability as an actress. I also think it is sweet that both of them decided to write their characters as closer to themselves -- Mulder and baseball, Scully and the new agey shit -- because it is a reflection of how close they feel to Mulder and Scully.
Now, ultimately, this scene is really stupid, and out of character:
But -- and I guess this is where the comforting bit comes in -- there is something weirdly sweet to me, about Gillian pushing her own belief system onto Scully. Because all this new age mumbo jumbo is where Gillian Anderson came to find her peace, I guess, and this episode is about how much Gillian wants Scully to stop hurting. To find her peace. I DON'T KNOW I THINK IT'S REALLY SWEET, IT'S TOO BAD SEASON 8'S COMING UP, because no one can have inner peace while season 8 exists, but Scully especially would have some difficulty there.
Also:
Yeah.
Anyway veils and I watched it tonight, our conversation was mostly v. deep and insightful.
In our defense:
Anyway usually if you ask me how I feel about "all things" the phrases that will come out are "so comforting" and "I like to have it on in the background!!!!" (possibly with intermittent "I LOVE IT", "I don't care about anyone else's feelings", and "I know it's kind of dumb but"). I think there are a lot of reasons I feel that way.
Anyway today I guess I want to focus on "I like to have it on in the background", because there is a reason for that.
UGH DANIEL WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS
SERIOUSLY OH MY GOD SHE JUST WALKED IN THE ROOM, YOU HAVEN'T SEEN HER IN LIKE TEN YEARS, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU
In a lot of ways a picspam is a way of removing sound, seeing a scene without the sounds behind it. And I wanted to separate the two here, so you can see the acting -- THE ACTING!!!!!! -- separately from the horrifically stilted dialogue and bad exposition that is this scene. ("I scare you... because I represent that which is ingrained not only in your mind but in your heart-- that which you secretly long for." LIKE, REALLY. WHO WOULD SAY THAT. NO ONE. There are also, throughout the episode, these staccato lines that are just, I don't know, awkward and arrhythmic, and by the way my least favorite line in the episode is the one in which crop circle cancer lady, who has just met Scully, implies that car accidents ~mean~ something about how you are not paying attention to something in your life. YEAH LIKE THE ROAD, also seriously PEOPLE DO NOT TALK LIKE THAT. That is not how dialogue works, GOOD NIGHT.)
I guess what interests me about that though is that this episode is so completely something that is written by an actress. Not a writer, not a director, but an actress. Who likes to act. I think the comparisons to Duchovny's episodes are inevitable, but I think it's ultimately telling that his episodes don't call on his acting skills (but his dialogue is punchier and -- I think -- much better, although my sister thinks it gets out of hand, and that the Unnatural bookends are ultimately worthless because they don't feel like Mulder and Scully. I DISAGREE, but it's interesting to think about) when her one is ultimately centered around her ability as an actress. I also think it is sweet that both of them decided to write their characters as closer to themselves -- Mulder and baseball, Scully and the new agey shit -- because it is a reflection of how close they feel to Mulder and Scully.
Now, ultimately, this scene is really stupid, and out of character:
But -- and I guess this is where the comforting bit comes in -- there is something weirdly sweet to me, about Gillian pushing her own belief system onto Scully. Because all this new age mumbo jumbo is where Gillian Anderson came to find her peace, I guess, and this episode is about how much Gillian wants Scully to stop hurting. To find her peace. I DON'T KNOW I THINK IT'S REALLY SWEET, IT'S TOO BAD SEASON 8'S COMING UP, because no one can have inner peace while season 8 exists, but Scully especially would have some difficulty there.
Also:
Yeah.