pubs
The X-Files‘ time really is past. When I was in high school and college I adored it as I had never adored a piece of pop culture — except maybe the Sega Genesis. Between “Shapes” (the werewolf episode, and the first I saw) and the middle of season eight, I only missed two episodes on first broadcast. Then I just stopped, and have never made up the final season and a half. I really liked the first movie, and I’ve got the full set of action figures. Three Scullies, even, in two outfits! Yet I can’t even watch the original show now.
In tone and pacing and theme, the show is such a 1990s phenomenon. A product of the Clinton era (which the new movie seems to wink at), and an age just before people figured out how to write for television. Yes, it helped to bring this age on; that doesn’t make it part of it. And the new movie is an epilogue to the TV show. It’s shot the same way; it uses the same subtitles; it’s got the same ambling Chris Carter pace and tone and cluttered sense of theme to it.
It works as a movie; it works as an afterthought to the TV show. It is distinctly not a relaunch of the franchise. It’s tired, and it makes no attempt to be current or vital, or even to reach outside its core audience. It’s basically just saying goodbye, and wrapping up some character threads. After an hour and a half of genial if not particularly interesting story, the best part is hidden after the credits. In context especially, it alone is near worth the admission — provided you care for the characters.
I went to the 9:45 showing at the Grand Lake. They had free popcorn, and a balcony! And flirtatious concession stand women. I think there were three other people besides me, and none who stayed through the credits for the Cracker Jack prize. One of the ushers came in toward the end and sat in the rear corner; when it was over and I stood up, he bade me good night. And… it was 11:40 exactly. It’s a twenty-minute walk from the theater. I walked in silence. Though I had my mp3 player, midnight in Oakland is no time for clouded senses.
Quiet is never so loud as when there is no noise.
I think work is progressing…
I heard it acts like that whole cliffhanger in the series finale never happened.
Which is probably OK on one level, since the series finale was pretty stupid even by X-Files standards. But it does contribute to the general sense that Chris Carter was pulling that whole elaborate series myth arc out of his butt and had no idea what he was doing.
There was a lot of that going around at the time–people making TV series that attempted to give the sense of a Babylon 5-sized arc without really having one. In hindsight, I think Joss Whedon’s great realization with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that one arc per year was the right length, was a huge innovation.
I’ve heard some loopy things about the last couple of episodes, including certain villains suddenly being alive again, only so they can be ultra-killed. Half of me keeps meaning to look up that last season and a half. The other half grunts whenever the first half brings it up.
I think it’s only around season seven that Carter’s flailing starts to get obnoxious. Up until then he juggled things pretty well. Then there was this big rush to tie things up within a year — and that didn’t work well. Then the show got renewed for two more years, and it felt like no one really wanted to do it anymore.
In retrospect, though, everything about the show feels creaky now. The world view, the photography, the use of exposition, the characterization. Even the title music seems stilted. Little things like Mulder’s pencils in the ceiling, that passed for cute character notes in 1994, now seem empty.
I think a lot of the show’s writing and production was based on being one step ahead of, or just exactly in tune with, hip cultural sensibilities of the time. It was a very knowing-wink reference show. But it was also based in the pre-Internet age. Or rather, the very young Internet age — thus allowing it to seem one step ahead of most shows.
Now when I look at the references it makes, and the way it carries them out, I sort of think of Ricky Gervais’ character in The Office, when he points out the stuffed monkey to everyone who visits. He pauses and waggles his eyebrows. ‘Ey, look! Look! It’s a monkey! Waho, we’re crazy here! See that!
I’m guessing the monster-of-the-week episodes will tend to hold up better. I want to see “Darkness Falls” again.
There were a few great episodes. I’d bet “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” still holds up.
fat little white nazi storm trooper
Actually just watched that episode on the DVD last week. And it’s still excellent.