I'd assume if ratings are good they will be picked up for a full season.
Ugh, I don't like the third at all (watching on Fox's site, almost done). The slapstick-ridiculous-type-tone is just so different from the previous two episodes. I used to watch X-Files back in the 90s, not a die hard viewer, but I watched it from time to time. So this is what a "monster of the week" episode was? I don't remember the X-Files being this fuckin stupid. Damn. I really wanna turn this crap off but I'll just finish it I guess.
Yeah seems I'm in the minority here in not liking it. Oh well; lookin forward to the next episode though.This was not a traditional X-files monster of the week episode. Throughout the series, they did a bunch of weird/comic/off-kilter episodes, maybe one or two a season, that were usually pretty well received. This episode felt like that. I liked it. I agree, if someone just showed me this episode outside of the Xfiles context, I'd be like what the hell is this? But knowing the characters, its great.
No. I thought it was incredibly stupid. I get the joke but it just wasn't funny - at all. Besides that, the comic book philosophy was just trite rather than interesting or insightful.Yeah seems I'm in the minority here in not liking it. Oh well; lookin forward to the next episode though.
I think so. But to be fair it could have just been bad direction. I've seen Anderson in The Fall and she's very good. Her character there still has a pretty flat affect, but the subtle emotion is there.This new run is ruining the memory of the original X-files for me. Was the acting in the original this bad?
I think so. But to be fair it could have just been bad direction. I've seen Anderson in The Fall and she's very good. Her character there still has a pretty flat affect, but the subtle emotion is there.
Duchovny I haven't seen in Californication so he might be good in that but I've seen Aquarius, a new show about the Manson era that aired this summer, and he also has the same flat affect that you associate with the x-files except I didn't see any real acting there either.
I think Duchovny was probably type cast, by which I mean that he's essentially playing himself. I suspect that if you met him IRL the personality wouldn't be much different. Anderson I give more credit but I could just be reading into her performances.
No. I thought it was incredibly stupid. I get the joke but it just wasn't funny - at all. Besides that, the comic book philosophy was just trite rather than interesting or insightful.
IDK, maybe I just wasn't in the right mood to watch it. But I think I assumed that for a 6 episode run, they'd have some sort of connecting theme that would recast the original series in a new light. For as popular as the x-files was, the episodes were so meandering and often contradictory that they couldn't even put together a consistent, convincing finale.
It must have been the inspiration for LOST.
Californication is overrated as hell. You can watch the first and last episodes of the first season and get everything that show will ever offer. The rest is just blech attempt at being somewhat edgy dark comedy and T&A, which can be ok but I have no idea how the hell that show kept going as it just plain did not evolve. And I liked all the actors and setup, I just felt like they never actually went anywhere with it.
I don't generally have a problem with what I'll call "4th wall" or fan service episodes. I think they have their place. But if what you're producing is something that more or less fits into the "drama" category, and I think that's at least the intention with the x-files, then it has to work w/in that context. You don't just essentially throw out the whole premise of the show to get some ratings and/or yuks.I thought it was good, not spectacular, but good. It was quite a bit more tongue-in-cheek than even similar episodes in the original run. But it and X-Cops (and there's one where a movie gets made based on Mulder and Scully and it gets ridiculous, but is still fun) are great even though they're super cheesy bad at times.
I don't generally have a problem with what I'll call "4th wall" or fan service episodes. I think they have their place. But if what you're producing is something that more or less fits into the "drama" category, and I think that's at least the intention with the x-files, then it has to work w/in that context. You don't just essentially throw out the whole premise of the show to get some ratings and/or yuks.
This episode didn't fit, at least in my opinion. I'll admit that I was never a huge fan of the show but I think I saw most of the episodes when they originally aired. And some of the references you make do sound familiar although I can't really remember the context. So I don't know how closely this resembles the previous 'gag' episodes. But I never noticed their being truly out of place. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention.
I think that's my main objection. But even as a comedic episode, it wasn't very imaginative. I can see how it could be seen as funny, but to just go bizarro-world, man bites dog, w/o much more was disappointing.
Right. I see what you're saying and I don't have a problem with that as long as the joke is consistent with the rest of the series.There used to be a handful of these kinds of episodes every season. I remember one where Mulder and Scully were retelling the same event from different point of views. Luke Wilson guest starred. And they had a black and white episode with like the deformed guy from Goonies and Cher did a concert at the end. I always liked the odd one offs, then the monster of the week episodes. The mythology episodes always were a drag.
Right. I see what you're saying and I don't have a problem with that as long as the joke is consistent with the rest of the series.
I know I'm not making myself clear here and there's probably a term for what I'm trying to say but the best I can do right now is give an example.
Take Supernatural. They do these kinds of episodes too, but Sam and Dean stay in character, mostly, for them. If you watch the show, think of the episode where some people were doing a version of Ghost Hunters. Or maybe the one where they were at a fan convention for the books of the guy who turned out to be a prophet. That's where they met the girl who last season played a hacker chick.
Mulder and Scully where out of character for this episode. It seemed like the writers were trying to keep them in character as much as they could but the premise was just too stupid for them to do that.
Maybe 'stupid' isn't the right word. What I'm trying to say is that the gag overwhelmed the story and the characters and that's really what I didn't like.
edit: An example of the opposite of this is something like Angie Tribeca. There, the characters themselves are jokes so when they do that sort of self-reflective humor, it works. You can't do that with characters you want your viewers to take "seriously." Well, you can, but it's . . . jarring.
I wouldn't really consider those gag episodes. Those were actually consistent with the show's theme and Sam and Dean both stayed in character, but again, mostly.In a way I dont really see it being any different than Supernatural. One episode they are crying about not trusting each other or some shit, then next episode Loki is making it groundhog day or Dean's trying to jerk off to Asian boobie mags. I think the oddball Supernatural episodes are the best, especially the ones written by Ben Edlund.
edit: An example of the opposite of this is something like Angie Tribeca. There, the characters themselves are jokes so when they do that sort of self-reflective humor, it works. You can't do that with characters you want your viewers to take "seriously." Well, you can, but it's . . . jarring.