A scattered mishmash post

[umadoshi]

--For the second evening in a row (at least), my brain's refusing to settle on anything terribly useful. I've whittled some tabs down, but so haphazardly that I don't even have the feeling of "at least I got something done". (Not sure how that works, when clearly I have, even if it was something of no particular significance. But hey, I'm down to

Comments

[sabotabby]

Oh man, except for the trash monster and parts of the werelizard, the X-Files has been a complete cringefest. I feel embarrassed for my teenage self who was obsessed with it.

I look forward to the latest because I heard it was terrible in exactly the kind of way I'll enjoy savaging.

[umadoshi]

I look forward to the latest because I heard it was terrible in exactly the kind of way I'll enjoy savaging.

So bad. So, so, so bad. *sobs*

[sabotabby]

OH MY GOD IT WAS AMAZINGLY BAD

I wasn't even prepared for how bad it was

everything was bad

except for the bit where they played Tom Waits because he is my favourite but also now that song will be inextricably linked in my head with BDSM Cigarette Smoking Man, which is, um, weird.

...that talk at the end that went on for half the episode was actually the worst bit for me. I was prepared for the racism and the terrible dancing but not the undergrad philosophy students trying weed for the first time and talking about God.

[umadoshi]

There was NO CONVEYING the awfulness of the episode. GAH. At the end I kept thinking, "Okay, it's over now!" and then it KEPT GOING. Like, three or four times.

[blythechild]

You know, there is a common denominator to the bad episodes in this X-Files reboot... it's Chris Carter. He wrote and directed both this past week's guffaw-fest (line dancing? REALLY???) as well as the inscrutable premiere. He was also responsible for many of the simply TERRIBLE alien conspiracy obsessed eps in the original run as well as the COMPLETELY UN-FUCKING-ACCEPTABLE series finale. Basically, he's a hot mess as a storyteller and he can't even keep his own canon straight (his ever-changing opinions on whether or not Mulder and Scully are in a relationship or not makes me want to find him and ask what he's been smoking for 25 years).

In pretty much every fan list of favorite episodes for this series ever, Chris Carter rates dead last after a slew of other, more capable writers that he had the self-awareness(?) to hire over the show's run.

I'm sorry. It's all Chris's fault.

[umadoshi]

Oh, gosh, yes. Carter is an abysmal writer, and the thing where he was PROUD about not having a series Bible (IT SHOWED, CHRIS. IT REALLY DID)... And then there was the interview I read before this run started where someone asked him about the mytharc and how it didn't make sense, and he was like, "No, it totally made sense! People just weren't thinking about it hard enough/correctly/[some nonsense]," which was one of the least self-aware things I have ever read.

But last night's truly skeevy plotline (which I'm tactfully assuming he meant as some kind of spotlight on or subversion of some awful, racist clichés)...even for him, that was horrible. Like, the premiere was terrible in the sense of "Chris Carter wrote this after marinating in the dubious juices of his own bad ideas for 15-or-whatever years". This was that and worse.

[blythechild]

Yes, my first thought was "Please don't let these guys blow something up, please don't let these guys blow something up..." but then they did and I got pretty fucking mad that I was watching yet another Muslim terrorist storyline on tv as entertainment. And then there was the Not-Srooms headwank scene (so, if he wasn't on srooms, what was THAT?), and fucking Agent Einstein, and then the whole 'let's go for a walk and get metaphysical about God' scene. Truly bad. Bring back the Australian lizard guy because at least he was funny.

[umadoshi]

Literally less than a minute into the episode we were already cringing over where we suspected the episode was going, and then unsurprised but pretty disappointed that it was the OMG MUSLIM TERRORIST awfulness. >.< SO horrible.

[coastal_spirit]

The more I think about Monday's XF episode, the more I dislike it. I found it offensive on many levels, including the insertion of "comedy" into a very serious situation, and the lack of cultural sensitivity. And to clarify, I'm not just talking about the lack of cultural sensitivity toward Islamic and middle-eastern people, which admittedly was pretty horrific; if I was from Texas, I would not be at all happy at how Texans were portrayed. I remember when the Stephen King episode aired, and how I thought, "Wow - they really have no idea about Maine." And yet, that wasn't offensive, really, just rather stereotypical and wrong. But I thought that the way that Texans were portrayed this time was stereotypical, wrong, AND very offensive. Chris Carter just does NOT think, and he never did.

And the Pietà representation. What. the. heck? (and yes, I want to use a stronger expletive, but I don't know who reads your journal, and I don't want to offend anyone.)

Perhaps I'm too sensitive. I don't care. I'll shut up now.

[umadoshi]

It was so unbelievably awful. ;_; And heaven knows the series did some crappy episodes, but this was not the kind of badness I ever expected from it. It was shoddy, incoherent, and blatantly perpetuating harmful bullshit. I'm really disappointed in the showrunning team.