A blast from the TV past

[kellinator]

James loves to watch entire runs of TV shows on DVD. Like, I gave him season 5 of Smallville on DVD for Christmas, and before he'd watch it he had to review the past four seasons, though he'd already seen them before. This meant I learned everything you people say about Smallville is true, except for the part about being awesome. Man, I got weeks of snark mileage out of that. 

I can't watch shows back-to-back like that like he does. My attention span isn't long enough. When we watched Firefly together (my first time, his second), he wanted to watch 'em all at once, and I was all "NOOOOOOOO!! There are only THIRTEEN!! We must SAVOR them!" Can't do it. Don't know why. Just can't. Maybe it's because I'm easily distracted and more likely to impulsively pick up a book or surf to a website, rather than pick out DVDs and load them up. That seems like such a time commitment.

So anyway, James has decided he needs to watch all too many seasons of The X-Files. The pilot is on right now, and it looks so dingy and no-budget, and Gillian Anderson's acting is bad, just kind of blankly staring into the screen while she recites her lines, and David Duchovny is, well ...David Duchovny. One of my undergrad professors went to grad school with him (an English Ph.D. program, and you can insert your own joke here), and Duchovny dropped out to go be an actor, and they all laughed at him because they'd seen him in a school play and he sucked, and the prof's story ended "and when you see him on the X-Files, he's not acting, he's just playing himself!" Said prof started the discussion with "I've seen David Duchovny naked" (hitting the showers after playing basketball).

Wow, even in the beginning they were determined to show Gillian in her underwear. This reminds me of the time in mid-to-later years (while was still in college, so probably '98-'99) when an entire episode was just a ruse to show Gillian in her underwear, and ariedana and scarcrest probably remember this, I got so pissed that my signoff of "If I had a dick, Chris Carter could suck it" ended up going out over the Knights discussion list at least a dozen times while people argued.

...Oh shit. That wonderful sexual tension. It's hooking me in again. Nooooooo!!! I know better than this!!! 

Watching this is such an INSANE blast from the past. I was never the hugest X-Files fan, but I followed it on and off for many years, in many different contexts. From watching it by myself on Friday nights at home in high school, to making a weekly event of it in the dorm, to catching it in passing at the Party House and thinking how far it (and I) had fallen. Usually, when I think about the X-Files, I think about how no show has ever jumped the shark so dramatically -- from so good to so ravingly, maddeningly bad. But tonight it's just kind of looking back at all those different times, those different places, those different people, those different mes. Wow. These days it seems like everything is leading me around in ways that let me see, for what feels like the first time, how things really do change.

For my money, I still have trouble picking a better villain than the Cigarette-Smoking Man.

ETA: You know, Mulder only works because David Duchovny plays him. Because you know that in every other possible world, Mulder is really, really smelly. And not in a good way.

Comments

[ilexx.livejournal.com]

for some reason the photo in your icon here totally reminds me of Lost. you need to make a play on that, methinks.

and i'm the same way about dvds/tv series on dvd. i know i must drive mike nuts, because i have to savor it, take breaks, etc. except for buffy there at the end.

[ilexx.livejournal.com]

and i have a client who totally reminds me of david duchovny, in all his cute stupid glory. stupid outweighs the cute, too.

[raistlinbrown.livejournal.com]

Yes, I remember being hooked by Scully in her bra in the pilot. However, I do not know which episode you mean later in the series, which is annoying, because I'm sure I have it on dvd and would now like to revisit it. :- )

[lyneidas.livejournal.com]

McGyver is my version of that. Regarding the watching in order thing, maybe it's a guy thing. My brother does something similar. I've watched shows out of order because that's how they came on TV (and because I haven't ever been bothered to make a commitment to make time for a show, even one I really like). I'll watch it once in order when I get the DVD to make sure I get everything important that's been going on, and then I just dip in to whichever one seems interesting. As much as I enjoy Stargate, there are still a couple of episodes I haven't watched from the early seasons because I looked at the first few minutes and decided they sucked enough to skip. And there was one episode of Firefly I saved for months, and might still not have seen if the gang hadn't come over and voted to see Firefly, and once that had been decided, voted for the saved episode.

Cigarette Man did a good job of killing the "I am the evil guy so I must describe for you in great and not very compelling length how I got that way and what I'm going to do about it" speech. Well, OK, it's not dead--but at least it's no longer necessary.

[missrachael.livejournal.com]

I usually like to stretch out my dvd television viewing, but we've been tearing through seasons 3 and 4 of Angel like nobody's business. Boo on Joss Whedon for creating a huge cliffhanger every 40 minutes - "OH NO HE'S EVIL" - "OH WAIT NO, SHE'S EVIL" - "MAYBE THEY'RE BOTH EVIL" - "BY THE WAY: BABY!" - etc.

[mariness.livejournal.com]

I actually prefer to watch several episodes in order on DVD because it allows me to catch little continuity things -- neat bits and errors alike -- that otherwise I would have missed.

[scarcrest.livejournal.com]

"If I had a dick, Chris Carter could suck it" is one of my all-time favorite Kelly quotes. Just so's ya know.

[the-missy.livejournal.com]

I'm like you, I like to savor. Except for Wonderfalls -- I watched the last 4 or 5 episodes of that DVD in a row, only because I was so angry with all the twists and problems that were going on. (Fortunately, it all got resolved and I was happy at the end.)

[mhickers.livejournal.com]

I think you should allow him to watch X-Files up season seven and then deny the last two seasons ever happened. I mean, once DD left it just got really sad, really fast.

Oh but he was leaving to become a big movie star...

::snicker::

Anyway, when the show was at its peak, it was some of the best stuff ever made. But when it was not so great, it was pretty bad.

I find it interesting that someone would willingly sit through Smallville at least four times (so far). Ugh, I've watched it all exactly once and the show frustrates me no end.....at this point, I have no clue how they can end it and not have everyone in Smallville know that Clark becomes Superman unless there is some magic Krypton spell he can use or something.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

I don't like watching TV shows that way either. And I don't think they were meant to be watched in huge doses. When you do that, the plot holes, the bad acting, and the wangst all build up into ludicrous proportions. My theory is that you really NEED that week or more in between, to forget a little about how silly the show is (because all these shows, even the ones I love, are silly).

[spudmanson.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about James watching dvds like that.

Bob and I do the exact same thing. And Bob watches Smallville, but I don't. So If James wants someone to watch with, maybe we should sit the guys in front of the TV and go do something girly sometime.

[ellimayhem.livejournal.com]

Remember, the Cigarette Smoking Man works for Jack Bauer.

[sertrel.livejournal.com]

The chemistry and banter between GA and DD was what made the show worth watching. Their delivery of dry, cynical sarcasm was surpassed only by Jerry Orbach. "Syzygy" is hilarious for the fun those two had with personality changes. (Mulder and Scully investigate bizarre murders at a high school where two vacuous cheerleaders who have suddenly developed psychic powers due to a peculiar astrological celestial arrangement, and it causes Mulder and Scully to snark practically nonstop. At one point, Scully cuts Mulder off to get in the driver's seat and bitches, "Why do you always have to drive?" and Mulder snipes back, "I didn't think your feet could reach the pedals.")

I actually much preferred the weekly, episodic "investigate weird shit" to the conspiracy episodes. The conspiracy episodes were interesting at first, and then they turned waaaay too ridiculous. Chris Carter drank too much of the Kool-Aid.

[spikepage.livejournal.com]

While on the topic, DON'T waste your time with Twin Peaks.

When I got married, we couldn't afford cable so we watched the first season of that damn show on VHS. I got hooked in..and then the second season I was feeling like there HAD to be a really good ending in store..I mean..why ELSE would somebody put me through all this random stupidity.

So...feeling as though Fire Walk With Me (IIRC cinematic finale to the story) might contain something resembling closure, I watched.

GODDAMMIT I WANT MY FUCKING MONEY BACK!

In conclusion....serialized TV SUCKS!

And if you don't believe me, just try revisiting Firefly in a few years.