The following is based on actual documented accounts.

[daygloparker]

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

Comments

[suzvoy]

*cuddles X-Files DVDs*

It is quite disturbing how young I was when that show started airing.

[daygloparker]

One of the chyrons in the pilot reads "1992."

[suzvoy]

*horrified*

[eolivet]

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.

That's so interesting. I really love the parallels with "Mad Men" (though I've only seen one ep and it wasn't that), because to me, it illustrates how (IMHO) Pilots with reveals at the end lose their luster once you know the secret. That Robin isn't the mother, that Mulder is right about everything, that Don Draper is a liar. It's a great set-up for those who are watching the show for the first time, but thanks to the power of the Internet/word of mouth, most people don't discover shows that way.

I guess I was fascinated by your reaction to XF, because I first watched the Pilot three seasons in, having sort of heard about it through a combination of friends/the TV media. So I knew immediately that Mulder was telling the truth. The same way I'm sure when my brother and his girlfriend started "Mad Men" from the beginning, they knew instantly Don Draper had a wife and kids. (which would beg the question of

[daygloparker]

Mad Men is one of the rare things that I've watched since it started, live, and I'll tell you this: I (lover of mysteries and always keen to figure things out) was completely floored by the last scene. To me, the episode does not telegraph this revelation AT ALL (Don Draper does not wear a wedding ring) - if anything, the emotional kick you're expecting is that, after making a miraculously ballsy pitch to the Lucky Strike execs and saving the account by being Awesome At His Job, Don's life is hollow and empty outside of work (just like an ad doesn't really mean anything - it's just an ad). That he, I don't know, lives in a shitty apartment downtown and drinks himself to sleep every night (a la Draper NOW, in S4). So in this way, I don't think this particular reveal loses its luster because it's a lot like finding out finding out in the last scene that Superman is actually Clark Kent - it is the story of the series.

HIMYM: I didn't know that Robin wasn't the mother when I first watched the pilot (I had already seen a handful of S3

[beege22]

I find your comments - particularly on the x-files - interesting because they touch on how the way we interpret stories is affected by the fact that we *know* they're stories. Mulder in ep 1 is a great example because rationally it's far more credible that he's a damaged man with serious issues than that aliens are real. But when you know he's a character in a story certain tropes kick in, like the one that says that the lone crazy man who no-one believes is always the only person who knows the truth, so with a show like the x-files a first time viewer isn't likely to get that dramatic tension even if they are unspoiled for the show.

That's what makes the Mad Men pilot so much smarter. With the x-files, the possibility/probability that there's another shoe to drop is inherent to the premise. With Mad Men we really believe that we've gotten the whole story and then that last scene drops like an anvil and our understanding of what we've been watching gets turned upside down.

[ohvienna]

The end scene of the Mad Men pilot might just be probably maybe my favorite ending to a pilot...of all time. Definitely top 5. Top 3. I should likely throw the end of the XF pilot up in there, too. Still caught in the middle of a recent rewatch (at the beginning of s4) as one of the roommates...has never seen it. I know. I know. How does that even happen.

[daygloparker]

Am I allowed to cheat and call the BSG mini-series a pilot episode? IT'S KINDA LIKE ONE. Only... 3 hours long?

I'm excited for a rewatch! What will hold up? What won't? Will Tooms and Donnie Pfaster both still creep me the fuck out? How extremely ridiculous were Scully's pantsuits? Will I still be able to tell episodes in which, obviously, David and Gillian were totally doing it in their trailers between takes (I STILL BELIEVE IN THIS)?

[ohvienna]

Donnie will indeed, just. IS YOUR HAIR CHEMICALLY TREATED?? "Irresistible" is one of the scariest episodes...ever, and I never scared easily at The X-Files (I don't even know. Basement. In the dark. Starting in the 3rd grade? Was totally fine a great majority of the time). I still dug "Orison," too. Tooms, however, in concept, surely, but IDK if now I'd be able to think of him without putting Horace's 70s hair on his head? I might sporfle and then get creeped out, simultaneously?

THE PLAID ONES. ANYTIME THERE ARE PLAID SUITS. Hearts.

[daygloparker]

TOOMS IS HORACE GOODSPEED. TOOMS IS HORACE GOODSPEED OH MY GOD WHY AM I JUST FIGURING THIS OUT NOW? The Dharma Initiative recruiting policies are terrible. :/

I cannot wait to mock "Jersey Devil" senselessly for the fact that the brush Pine Barrens outside Atlantic City look so LEAFY and VANCOUVER-LIKE.

[snarkhunter]

Plus, let's face it, Fox Mulder of XF 1x01 is, uh, batshit crazy. Completely over-the-top fucking insane.

It's one of the things that is annoying about pilots, I think. The characters are ultimately caricatures of themselves or who they will develop into. DD was playing that part really broadly, and though it's Mulder, it's like Mulder on speed.

[daygloparker]

Hysterically, you know who Mulder reminds me of the most in 1x01? The Mulder in Scully's version of events in "Bad Blood." Maybe first impressions are important...