baileythedog

I was in NY last fall working on a film in which M. Emmet Walsh appeared. Obviously, I knew he was cast and had to make an effort to not completely lose my sh#t, being the obnoxious fan that overwhelms talent when they're on set. As it worked out, though, I became onset buddies with Walsh who is cranky and crusty and a huge delight, in my opinion. After I'd known him a while, I got a little more brave and felt comfortable letting him know that I absolutely loved him for his roles in one of my favorite movies ("Raising Arizona") and his part in "The X-Files" on "The Unnatural." The guy has a super long resume and clearly has worked excessively, even since "The Unnatural" so I wasn't sure how much he'd even remember about a job that probably had him on set for, at best, 3 days. But he recalled it immediately and said something to the effect of, "Yeah, they really wanted that other guy...." and started snapping his fingers as though he couldn't remember his name. I filled in "Darren McGavin?" He said, "Yes, Darren McGavin. I guess he was sick or something." He then looked at me very seriously and told me if I knew that level of detail I seriously needed to get a life. Ha! I love Emmet, seriously, just love him. Also, on the first day of shooting, he gives everyone on set--cast and crew alike--a crisp $2 bill. I just love the idea that he goes to the bank to fulfill this quirk of his and makes sure that every bill appears freshly minted. He's just great.

On the whole, I love S6 but "Alpha" is certainly one of the worst episodes, not only of the season but of the series. And no, it makes absolutely zero sense. I recall reading that it was a Jeffrey Bell script that was hastily thrown together at the very last minute and it definitely shows. Aside from the fact that the case makes no sense, you have crazy dog lady the one replacing Mulder's "I Want To Believe" poster. Why, show, why? Why should this non-sensical and totally insignificant character be the one to partially restore Mulder's natural place in the world and in his office?

And you haven't even gotten to "The Rain King" yet.

I gather from various interviews that Gillian had some difficulty structuring the story---and originally it was much longer. While I think she definitely has great ideas about who Scully is and what she's about, I don't think Gillian is a natural writer which somewhat accounts for "all things" being such a mish-mash. But I have read various places that what got trimmed from her outline was the idea that Scully left Daniel without actually having slept with him. She walked out just on the idea that if she slept with him things would be bad. I'm really glad that they trimmed this down and left the audience with the notion that Scully actually did have a physical affair with her instructor. In my mind, this makes Scully a far more complicated character and it certainly adds a little plausibility to the daughter's complete overreaction. If Scully had left Daniel without actually sleeping with him, I think that would have unnecessarily contributed to that "St. Scully" syndrome of the show. It's actually a little odd to me that the actress herself would have contemplated this dynamic for her character.

It kind of begs the question of what "all things" would really be about had the producers not tagged that scene onto Gillian's story. My guess is that it would have been an unmitigated mess. It's kind of a mess of an episode anyway, although it does attempt to reveal a few interesting things about Scully and her personal history. But absent Scully's revelation about Mulder I'm not sure the episode has all that much to recommend it. And would there be any other revelation other than the fact they've been sleeping together?

A few things: 1.) Someone has helpfully uploaded all of the The Lone Gunmen episodes to youtube, so you don't have to search to hard to get your hands on them. 2.) TrustNo1 was creepy for a number of reasons: 1. That Mulder and Scully send terribly sappy emails to each other. 2. That head supersoldier guy has been eavesdropping on all aspect of Scully's life for years. Ew. 3.) Prov / Prov were easily the worst mythology episodes of the entire series. And I'll even include My Struggle I/II in that calculation. One of those eps literally included the line: "Bring me the head of Fox Mulder." Ugh. But more importantly, even if Scully is both afraid for and of her son, giving him up for adoption was truly a terrible character moment for her. Clearly whoever is after her son can find him by other, non-earthly, means. So she's stuck her son with people who would have no idea what kind of antagonists are after William and would have zero idea how to protect him. And being afraid OF her son just means she's pawned the burden on to someone else. 4.) As much as I completely loathed S9---Mulder pointlessly on the run, Scully giving up William for adoption, at least both IWTB and S10 squarely addressed the issue to give it some resonance. It still seems like character assassination to me but they've layered it into middle-aged Mulder and Scully nicely. 5.) I don't think the chip in Scully's neck would have restored her fertility. If it did, the IVF probably would have worked. Must be something else at play.

I haven't pulled out my DVD of the IWTB movie to do a strict compare / contrast -- is it the same house that Mulder lives in in S10 or did they just find something close to it for the new season?

That was always my take away. That despite being in a state of coma (and being metaphorically untethered) she had heard Mulder as an anchor to this world. I assume that Glen Morgan felt the same way since he referenced this scene in "Home Again". Scully draws a lot on her own experiences in a coma (she tells her brother that their mom's living will was based on Scully's experience) and when she's speaking to her mom she tells her "I know you can hear me." It may also be a prompt for her in "Babylon" to help Miller/ Einstein try to reach the comatose would-be bomber, i.e., she thinks that it is actually possible to not only reach him but perhaps even hear something back.

True, he did initially reject Melissa, but in the end he kind of came around to her way of thinking anyway. Mulder did want to do something but realized doing something wasn't going to resolve anything. I don't know how much positive thinking Mulder actually put into his bedside visit with Scully in "One Breath" but he certainly gave up trying to do something in vengeance in favor of being present for her.

I like S8 better now in retrospect than I did when it was airing. I was really okay with S7 being the final season. Regardless, I thought S8 ended strong even though there were at least two episodes I could have done without--"Empedocles" and "Alone." (I found "Alone" really to be a cloying, obnoxious mess and yes, I do understand the whole fan service point of the episode.) Essence and Existence were a really thrilling bookend to the season, though, and even though at the end of S7 it seemed doubtful there would (or should) be further seasons, the last two episodes nailed it. And the end of "Existence" is absolutely, truly where the show should have ended. S9 just seemed like needless character assassination for both Mulder and Scully.

I don't have time to watch it all at the moment but a couple thoughts: 1. Awesome that she's wearing the "Moist in the Anteroom" t-shirt. Honestly, that Kimmel interview w/ she and David slayed me and was one of the best bits of video I've seen so far in 2016. 2. Weird editing on the video. Lots of X-Files, then cuts to other roles, then back to X-Files, then other roles and....well, creates a very odd momentum.

Yeah, I think this is definitely an agree to disagree moment. I won't argue that they stretched out the "how did it happen?" all throughout season 8. But then they were so obvious in answering that question at the end of the season and Scully and Mulder have an entire conversation about "the truth we both know." I can see why a man raising children that weren't biologically his would still refer to them as his "sons" (particularly if he'd adopted them or married their mother or whatever) but that wasn't the case with Mulder at all. He quite famously didn't raise William at all so there would be zero reason to refer to him as his son if he weren't.

I don't think the episode was at all indicating that the children with the various diseases were so debilitated due to alien influence. Rather, I think the show was suggesting that a legitimate doctor treating real patients with genetic manipulation also had the perfect cover for possibly experimenting on other children. The syndromes that the parade of sad kids were all real, whereas the wonder twins with the ability to telepathically communicate and cause piercing sounds in other people were the result of experimentation.

Ha. I had to literally refrain myself from including that in my post as well. I guess I'm just confused at this point as to how people can still be confused and what other information they'd truly need to process this. ??

They confirmed Mulder's paternity in several ways throughout the original series and again in "I Want to Believe." Obviously naming him after Mulder's father (and not the myriad of other Williams on the show) was the first confirmation. In "The Truth" the prosecutor tries to impeach Scully by querying on her having Mulder's love child. Mulder had earlier told the interrogators that he was thinking about "his son and his mother." Also in that episode she tells Mulder that she gave William up for adoption and refers to him as "our son." The movie later confirmed this as both Mulder and Scully refer to William as "our son." The only question the show has kept in the air is how Scully was medically able to conceive, not how she got pregnant.

I agree with all of this. I didn't bail on S8 and S9 when they aired---at least I didn't bail on S8 and S9 I watched selectively, depending on how prominently Scully (i.e. off-screen Mulder) was going to be featured. There are still a couple of MOTW from S9 that I've never seen and likely never will. At the time I wasn't totally put out by the Scully-being-pregnant storyline -- after all, that had been fairly well telegraphed starting in "Home", really, and in bits and pieces throughout the remainder of the series, most notably in "Christmas Carol" and "Emily", etc. In fact, I thought it had been so well developed that by the time it got to S9 and William was put up for adoption, it seemed like the worst writing decision ever. And frankly, it still is. The decision to get rid of William seems entirely bound up in David Duchovny's permanent exit from the show and the fact that they no longer knew how to write Scully, still inexplicably on the show, with William and continue to infer that off-screen Mulder's life is still always in danger. I suspect at the time they really did think they could milk even more seasons out of the show and William's presence was going to be a barrier and constant reminder that the more interesting character of Mulder was still off-screen while Doggett and Reyes with help from Scully ran the show. Fast forward and I agree wholeheartedly that both IWTB and S10 have handled the William storyline as well as they possibly could. They did manage to resurrect one of the worst errors of the original series and put a new spin and some polish on it. And I think there are some very specific ideas in play as to how to bring William more into the foreground. But my unpopular opinion is that William better be willing to do this of his own volition---possibly because he's still got the spidey sense and knows something is going down---because the idea of M&S tracking William down because they need stem cells from him is really appalling in its own right.

It actually does hang together pretty well. Never understood people who thought it spiraled out of control and became a mess. It isn't perfect but it does pretty much make sense. Having said that, I'm one of those fans that are also okay with the change in the direction in took in S10 as well--I don't think it contradicts near as much as others insist.

Sometimes the casting / character decisions at 1013 really and truly puzzle me. Who on earth thought Kathy Griffin, in full obnoxious mode, was a great idea for a character? And then decided to double down on that and give her double the appearance time? I'm certain I am part of a not small representation of fans who cannot bear watching her on screen in any capacity. Her appearance alone made "Fight Club" totally unwatchable for me. It's almost as if 1013 finds the most hideous representation of women and then likes to force them upon the viewer. Einstein fell into this category for me as well. Probably not too surprising that the Miller / Einstein and Kathy Griffin characters were both meant to somewhat be mirrors to Mulder and Scully. I think at this point the concept doesn't wholly work. Overall, I'm a pretty big fan of S7 and don't track with a lot of the abuse the season gets from many fans. It was clear to me throughout the season that they were attempting to wind things down and it would be the final season...until it wasn't. But the fact that both "Fight Club" and "First Person Shooter" are a part of that final season definitely sandbags the season even if, generally, I liked the season.

Season 10 thread title ideas: 1. "I've been waiting 23 years to say that." 2. "Believe me, you can't unsee that." 3. "Daggoo!" 4. "It's this new camera app." 5. "I'm here."

Gillian interview in Rolling Stone. Note: this interview expresses the idea that doing more episodes would actually be challenging for her: http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/exit-interview-gillian-anderson-on-the-future-of-the-x-files-20160223

That was a really weird and unsettling movie (and also undoubtedly brought Mimi Rogers to the X-Files.) I remember seeing it back in the day (I think for some reason I actually saw it in the theaters; Ebert really liked it.) But I don't remember a whole lot about it other than Mimi Roger's gradual descent into Rapture-like thinking and David getting shot at the end. Did the movie feature the trumpets? I wonder if I should re-visit that movie someday.

I can understand sticking with Joel McHale because although CNN would be covering the "breaking news" aspect of it, because that "lamestream media" had ignored everything else, they would have no context to their reporting at all.

I'm sorry, but I just laughed out loud for about 10 straight minutes after this... I'm a west coaster, so rambling thoughts here, but two totally disparate things jumped out at me: 1. That look of disdain on Monica's face as she has to insert the cigarette in/out of CSM's trachea. How annoyed is she when he asks her to jerk him off because you know that's number two on his list of things that Monica has to do for him in exchange for saving her life. 2. Scully....I love her, but seriously, the moment Mulder is ill she thinks about using William to harvest his stem cells? Really the height of hypocrisy when it comes to adopting out your kid. If Mulder had kidney failure, would she be looking to William to provide as a long distance donor farm? More thoughts on this crazy episode later. My heart was racing the entire time, so it had my attention. But screw Chris Carter and his total unwillingness to actual write Mulder and Scully together in the same scene. That was the primary reason that "Founder's Mutation" worked so well. We hadn't actually seen them working together since S7 and it was a breath of fresh air.

I'm a little late to this---and because I'm West Coast haven't seen the finale yet anyway---but DD had a Q&A on facebook after the episode aired: https://www.facebook.com/DavidDuchovnyOfficial/

Egads. I don't watch daytime TV or talkshows in general, so only see Ellen when a clip is posted. But holy crap, what a terrible show. How do people watch that dreck? Her interview with him was barely interesting and the game portion unwatchable. Thanks for going into the belly of the beast of stupid people for us, DD. I guess.