Unpopular Opinions: Nothing in Here but the FBI's Most Unwanted

[AntiBeeSpray]

1) While going through s10, I found out one thing, I REALLY do not like angst. One bit. I can put up with a bit of it... but when it becomes uberangst, I HATE it.

[SmithW6079]

Just a question, Smith, why were you against it?

Because I liked them as platonic, professional partners without the messiness of romance or sex, which has ruined many a show. I saw any "love" between them the way soldiers love their fellow soldiers -- they'd lay down their lives for their "brothers," but it doesn't mean they're sleeping with each other.

With his addiction to porn, I always thought of Mulder as a "monosexual," using masturbation as his sole sexual release.

[Smad]

1) I hate Mulder

2) I love Bill Scully Jr. (except I hate how he treats Sculy).

3) I don't ship M&S because see point 1.

4) I love Reyes and Doggett. I could have supported a Scully ship with either, or both.

5) I don't get the love for Jose Chung either.

6) Requiem is the biggest Mulder ditch and I don't get all the sympathy he gets from fans when he returns in S8.

[festivus]

16 minutes ago, Smad said:

4) I love Reyes and Doggett. I could have supported a Scully ship with either, or both.

Now that's a brave one. I can't say I love Reyes, but I love Doggett. Like really really love him. As much as I am a M/S shipper, I happily ship her with Doggett too. I've read so much fanfic. So, so much fanfic.

[eleanorofaquitaine]

See, my unpopular opinion is that as much as I love Scully, I have always been here for Mulder.  Scully without Mulder and their relationship would not be that interesting a character, in my view. I mean, she is very reserved, and would likely have been a lot more rigid and judgmental without her relationship with Mulder.  (To be sure, I don't hate Scully. I like her! But I unreservedly love Mulder and always will).

My other unpopular opinion - I think that William was a good idea and his existence gives season 10 a reason to exist.  Now granted, I am not sure they executed everything about that plot point well. But William makes sense to me, as a culmination of Scully's desires, as a symbol of Mulder and Scully's relationship, and as a thematic extension of the show's interest in women's reproductive choices.

Edited June 19, 2016 by eleanorofaquitaine

[AntiBeeSpray]

1 hour ago, eleanorofaquitaine said:

See, my unpopular opinion is that as much as I love Scully, I have always been here for Mulder.  Scully without Mulder and their relationship would not be that interesting a character, in my view. I mean, she is very reserved, and would likely have been a lot more rigid and judgmental without her relationship with Mulder.  (To be sure, I don't hate Scully. I like her! But I unreservedly love Mulder and always will).

My other unpopular opinion - I think that William was a good idea and his existence gives season 10 a reason to exist.  Now granted, I am not sure they executed everything about that plot point well. But William makes sense to me, as a culmination of Scully's desires, as a symbol of Mulder and Scully's relationship, and as a thematic extension of the show's interest in women's reproductive choices.

I agree about William and s10. But, I don't like how CC handled things. I think it was the old fashioned way that they had him. A culmination of their love for one another, a miracle.

[Smad]

2 hours ago, festivus said:

Now that's a brave one. I can't say I love Reyes, but I love Doggett. Like really really love him. As much as I am a M/S shipper, I happily ship her with Doggett too. I've read so much fanfic. So, so much fanfic.

Why brave? From what I have read there is a lot of Doggett love and most people have mellowed in regards to Monica. I love them simply because whatever their believes on the job they go above and beyond the call of duty in regards to Scully. And Scully deserves people in her life who treat her right.

2 hours ago, eleanorofaquitaine said:

See, my unpopular opinion is that as much as I love Scully, I have always been here for Mulder.  Scully without Mulder and their relationship would not be that interesting a character, in my view. I mean, she is very reserved, and would likely have been a lot more rigid and judgmental without her relationship with Mulder.  (To be sure, I don't hate Scully. I like her! But I unreservedly love Mulder and always will).

IMO Scully wasn't written that way until after her abduction. The Scully of S1 was social, witty and knew how the crack a smile and tell a joke. Yes she was rigid in terms of rules and science but as a person much more open and approchable. I don't hate Mulder at the beginning of the show, that comes much later.

[eleanorofaquitaine]

37 minutes ago, Smad said:

IMO Scully wasn't written that way until after her abduction. The Scully of S1 was social, witty and knew how the crack a smile and tell a joke. Yes she was rigid in terms of rules and science but as a person much more open and approchable. I don't hate Mulder at the beginning of the show, that comes much later.

Scully was always social, witty, and knew how to crack a smile, even after her abduction.  But she was also always reserved and rigid, even in season 1 - witness Ice and Beyond the Sea.  I mean, it's okay to acknowledge Scully has flaws.

Anyway, you're never going to convince me that Scully was a victim to Mulder or to hate Mulder. I understand the popular opinion at this point in the show's history is to say that Scully is perfect and Mulder is terrible, but personally, I find them both heroic and flawed.

[Smad]

15 minutes ago, eleanorofaquitaine said:

Scully was always social, witty, and knew how to crack a smile, even after her abduction.  But she was also always reserved and rigid, even in season 1 - witness Ice and Beyond the Sea.  I mean, it's okay to acknowledge Scully has flaws.

Of course she sometimes did that after her abduction. But there is a notable change in her. And she definitely wasn't social anymore. Her female friend from Season 1 had completely diasappeared. And nowhere did I say Scully doesn't have flaws. I'd appreciate it if you didn't put words in my mouth.

Quote

Anyway, you're never going to convince me that Scully was a victim to Mulder or to hate Mulder. I understand the popular opinion at this point in the show's history is to say that Scully is perfect and Mulder is terrible, but personally, I find them both heroic and flawed.

Who are you even talking to here? I never said Scully was perfect. And where did I say she was a victim of Mulder's? Sorry but I'm totally confused right now who you are talking to and what you posted even means.

[eleanorofaquitaine]

32 minutes ago, Smad said:

Of course she sometimes did that after her abduction. But there is a notable change in her. And she definitely wasn't social anymore. Her female friend from Season 1 had completely diasappeared. And nowhere did I say Scully doesn't have flaws. I'd appreciate it if you didn't put words in my mouth.

Who are you even talking to here? I never said Scully was perfect. And where did I say she was a victim of Mulder's? Sorry but I'm totally confused right now who you are talking to and what you posted even means.

I'm talking to you. The notion that Scully deserved people in her life who "treated her right" indicates IMO that you do not think Mulder "treated her right," and was a victim to his obsessions, etc. I don't agree with that perspective. And okay you didn't outright say it, but your description of Scully treads dangerously close to seeing her as St. Scully.  I don't agree with that either.

Anyway, I love both characters a lot. I love Mulder a tiny bit more. But at the end of the day, the show to me is Mulder and Scully and their relationship. If I didn't love Mulder and Scully and their relationship, I can't imagine liking the show at all.

[festivus]

2 hours ago, Smad said:

Why brave? From what I have read there is a lot of Doggett love and most people have mellowed in regards to Monica. I love them simply because whatever their believes on the job they go above and beyond the call of duty in regards to Scully. And Scully deserves people in her life who treat her right.

Oh I've just seen people catch crap for shipping Doggett and Scully. Sorry I brought it up.

[Smad]

25 minutes ago, eleanorofaquitaine said:

I'm talking to you. The notion that Scully deserved people in her life who "treated her right" indicates IMO that you do not think Mulder "treated her right," and was a victim to his obsessions, etc. I don't agree with that perspective. And okay you didn't outright say it, but your description of Scully treads dangerously close to seeing her as St. Scully.  I don't agree with that either.

Anyway, I love both characters a lot. I love Mulder a tiny bit more. But at the end of the day, the show to me is Mulder and Scully and their relationship. If I didn't love Mulder and Scully and their relationship, I can't imagine liking the show at all.

I do think there were many times Mulder didn't treat her right. And only a tiny part of that is a consequence of his obsessions as you called them. But I never once called Scully a victim and I certainly never called Scully perfect. So again please refrain from putting words in my mouth. This is the unpopular opinions thread and I stated some of my opinions. That's the point of this thread. So lets just move on.

1 minute ago, festivus said:

Oh I've just seen people catch crap for shipping Doggett and Scully. Sorry I brought it up.

I don't ship them. I don't really have any preferences in regards to this show when it comes to romance. I'm more interested in the friendships, working relationships and familial bonds.

[wanderingstar]

Quote

4) I love Reyes and Doggett. I could have supported a Scully ship with either, or both.

They were great - as individual characters and as partners. 

[AntiBeeSpray]

3 hours ago, Gillian Rosh said:

They were great - as individual characters and as partners. 

Definitely. Too bad CC screwed that up with making Reyes a bad guy in s10. WTH CC?! O_O

[Smad]

9 hours ago, AntiBeeSpray said:

Definitely. Too bad CC screwed that up with making Reyes a bad guy in s10. WTH CC?! O_O

I still haven't watched S10. Everything I've read about it makes me not want to see it. This way Reyes remains a good guy for me.

[festivus]

I'd say that loving Doggett isn't an UO anymore but it was back in 2001. I don't know about Reyes, that might still be unpopular. I can't say that I love her but I certainly don't hate her anymore. I think shipping Doggett and Scully is still very unpopular.

17 hours ago, AntiBeeSpray said:

Definitely. Too bad CC screwed that up with making Reyes a bad guy in s10. WTH CC?! O_O

Yeah, it better have something to do with her wanting to be on the inside to help William or something because I don't buy that Reyes would throw in with CSM just to save her own ass.

Edited June 20, 2016 by festivus

[AntiBeeSpray]

13 hours ago, Smad said:

I still haven't watched S10. Everything I've read about it makes me not want to see it. This way Reyes remains a good guy for me.

Certainly can't blame you there on that one. It's like he just threw almost everything under a bus. O_O I just pretend that his eps from s10 don't exist.

[AntiBeeSpray]

5 hours ago, festivus said:

I'd say that loving Doggett isn't an UO anymore but it was back in 2001. I don't know about Reyes, that might still be unpopular. I can't say that I love her but I certainly don't hate her anymore. I think shipping Doggett and Scully is still very unpopular.

Yeah, it better have something to do with her wanting to be on the inside to help William or something because I don't buy that Reyes would throw in with CSM just to save her own ass.

Me neither. That made me go O_o. I mean, really? It doesn't fit her character at all.

[Smad]

5 hours ago, festivus said:

Yeah, it better have something to do with her wanting to be on the inside to help William or something because I don't buy that Reyes would throw in with CSM just to save her own ass.

 

48 minutes ago, AntiBeeSpray said:

Me neither. That made me go O_o. I mean, really? It doesn't fit her character at all.

The last memory I have of Reyes is her amazing court room scene. That woman is supposed to go dark side and only out for her own best interest? Yeah, how about no freaking way?

51 minutes ago, AntiBeeSpray said:

Certainly can't blame you there on that one. It's like he just threw almost everything under a bus. O_O I just pretend that his eps from s10 don't exist.

When I first heard the news I was cautiously optimistic. Then I found out that someone at FOX is still stupid enough to think it's a good idea to have Carter in charge and even allow him to write. I know realistically it couldn't have happened any other way but that sure put a major damper on my enthusiasm. I decided to wait until the episodes aired and read peoples reactions. And nothing convinced me to watch S10. Now if it had been announced that Vince was at the helm of S10 I would have probably been giddy.

[Blandings]

I didn't like the recent season and felt turned off to the series for awhile, but I'm already back to remembering why it's one of my favorite shows ever to air. It makes me think, it sucks me in every time, and it makes me wish I had grown up to be more like Dana Scully.    

Season 3 is my favorite of the series. For most people I know it seems to be 5 or 6. I like those seasons a lot as well, but Season 3 has my heart. 

I don't like the running joke about Mulder being so into porn. I love Mulder in general, but that part of him is more gross than funny to me. 

I gave up on the mythology episodes a while ago and skip those episodes when I re-watch the series.

The first season is my least favorite of the whole series. I couldn't get into the show when I tried watching it from the beginning and have had trouble converting other people when they start with the first season. It's only when I caught a few episodes from later seasons that I became an X-Phile.  

I love Mulder just as much as I love Scully. 

I love the two main characters, their relationship and the show's ideas, themes and plots, but I think the dialogue can be too stilted and unnatural. 

I never cared about what happened to Samantha Mulder. I feel like a terrible person for writing that.  

[AntiBeeSpray]

4 hours ago, Blandings said:

I didn't like the recent season and felt turned off to the series for awhile, but I'm already back to remembering why it's one of my favorite shows ever to air. It makes me think, it sucks me in every time, and it makes me wish I had grown up to be more like Dana Scully.    

Season 3 is my favorite of the series. For most people I know it seems to be 5 or 6. I like those seasons a lot as well, but Season 3 has my heart. 

I don't like the running joke about Mulder being so into porn. I love Mulder in general, but that part of him is more gross than funny to me. 

I gave up on the mythology episodes a while ago and skip those episodes when I re-watch the series.

The first season is my least favorite of the whole series. I couldn't get into the show when I tried watching it from the beginning and have had trouble converting other people when they start with the first season. It's only when I caught a few episodes from later seasons that I became an X-Phile.  

I love Mulder just as much as I love Scully. 

I love the two main characters, their relationship and the show's ideas, themes and plots, but I think the dialogue can be too stilted and unnatural. 

I never cared about what happened to Samantha Mulder. I feel like a terrible person for writing that.  

Not me. CC's trash writing in s10 ruined it for me :(. I can't view it in the way I once did (not that I really viewed it with rose colored glasses -- it was far from perfect, writing wise, science wise, but at least it made sense). Nor can I get sucked into it now, knowing what it has become.

It's nice that you can still feel that way about it.

I do too! :) So it bugs me that CC has reduced them to caricatures and ruined their characterizations. I don't want to know them or even get to know them now. They pretty much make me sick.

Word. Especially now. I could tolerate his purple prose, but now it's devolved into gibberish. 

[nightwing877]

1. Hate Season 6 and 7 more than 8 and 9

2. I like Reyes and Doggett (only hated what they did to reyes in 10, and wonder if Doggett has appeared, if they would of just dump those new agents and brought these two back as a pair on cases, and just gave Reye's story to CSM to Spender or Marita)

3. Season 8 is in my top 3, and very underrated. It would of been a great final season. 

4. I would of watched a show with Reyes and Doggett, if they ended X-Files and continued with a spin-off after season 9 with them. Not calling it the x files. 

5. I didn't mind Mulder being gone for most of season 8, because it allowed Scully to shine, and being paired with a new partner was so refreshing. 

6. Love Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man

Edited February 10, 2017 by nightwing877

[Sharna Pax]

On 6/1/2015 at 1:01 PM, amensisterfriend said:

This is the place to safely confess the X-files related opinions you've found in your experience to be unpopular or just plain odd :) A few to get us started: 

 

1) Heaven help me, but I really like S7 a lot. 

 

2) While I do really like Bad Blood, it's not among my top five episodes of the series like it is for, say, pretty much every other fan on the planet :) I'm not even sure it's in my top 10! 

 

3) Season 2 may be my very favorite season, or at least the one to which I'm most attached. 

 

4) I actually don't enjoy Season 4 much at all---though Small Potatoes is one of a few notable exceptions.   

 

5) I realize that nine (or even more than three!) seasons of standalone episodes with little to no mytharc would have gotten incredibly monotonous, but I almost ALWAYS prefer the standalones to the mytharc episodes---even back before the mytharc grew maddeningly convoluted :)  

 

6) I don't love Jose Chung's from Outer Space. I generally LOVE the more meta, humorous episodes of this and other genre shows, but somehow Jose Chung just doesn't quite work for me as well as it does for everyone else. 

 

7) A lot of people (understandably!) talk about Mulder and Scully realizing they have feelings for each other in S5 or maybe as early as S4, but I honestly saw it as early as S2...maybe even S1! I get that they weren't ready to act on it yet, but I honestly thought the feelings were there---on both sides---from pretty much the beginning. 

I'm sad that I'm so late to this discussion, but I agree with every single one of your unpopular opinions. I should probably pop over to the S7 thread at some point, because I have lots of thoughts about why I like it so much. Basically, I see it as the only season to engage with the idea that there might be a life for Mulder and Scully outside of the X-Files, and I like that. Mulder and Scully kiss and the world doesn't end, Mulder finally accepts his sister's death and allows himself to stop looking for her, and there's a general sense that both Mulder and Scully are slowly turning away from the X-Files and toward each other. I adore the scene in Requiem where Mulder tells Scully that the costs are too high and there has to be an end. In a way (another unpopular opinion, maybe) I wish the X-Files had just ended there. It would have been such a realistic, human, adult way to end the show, to have Mulder and Scully decide to cut their losses and live a life together while they still have the chance.

Related unpopular opinion: I like Sein und Zeit/ Closure, largely because of Duchovny's acting, which I think turns a nonsensical storyline into something transcendent. Which brings me to unpopular opinion #3:

Although I find Duchovny to be a more uneven actor than Anderson, I also think that Duchovny at his best is better than Anderson at her best. This may be just because Mulder gets better writing and more consistent characterization than Scully does. But when I think of the moments in the X-Files that I find particularly moving, it's often because of the subtleties of Duchovny's performance. In the bed scene in "Plus One," for instance, I think both actors do a great job with pretty terrible writing, but the moment that really sticks in my mind is the way Mulder's voice goes flat on "That's what you mean."

Opinion #4: I know I'm not alone in this, because someone upthread mentioned it, but I find Mulder much more interesting than Scully. (Again, I think that's because the writing for Mulder is generally better. It's Mulder's obsessions that drive the narrative forward, and I think the writers have a hard time figuring out what to do with Scully when she's not reacting to Mulder.)  I will watch Mulder-centric episodes till the cows come home (I even enjoy 3, because I'm a sucker for grief-stricken, self-destructive Mulder), but I find most Scully-centric episodes to be merely depressing without really being interesting.

[eleanorofaquitaine]

21 hours ago, Sharna Pax said:

I'm sad that I'm so late to this discussion, but I agree with every single one of your unpopular opinions. I should probably pop over to the S7 thread at some point, because I have lots of thoughts about why I like it so much. Basically, I see it as the only season to engage with the idea that there might be a life for Mulder and Scully outside of the X-Files, and I like that. Mulder and Scully kiss and the world doesn't end, Mulder finally accepts his sister's death and allows himself to stop looking for her, and there's a general sense that both Mulder and Scully are slowly turning away from the X-Files and toward each other. I adore the scene in Requiem where Mulder tells Scully that the costs are too high and there has to be an end. In a way (another unpopular opinion, maybe) I wish the X-Files had just ended there. It would have been such a realistic, human, adult way to end the show, to have Mulder and Scully decide to cut their losses and live a life together while they still have the chance.

Related unpopular opinion: I like Sein und Zeit/ Closure, largely because of Duchovny's acting, which I think turns a nonsensical storyline into something transcendent. Which brings me to unpopular opinion #3:

Although I find Duchovny to be a more uneven actor than Anderson, I also think that Duchovny at his best is better than Anderson at her best. This may be just because Mulder gets better writing and more consistent characterization than Scully does. But when I think of the moments in the X-Files that I find particularly moving, it's often because of the subtleties of Duchovny's performance. In the bed scene in "Plus One," for instance, I think both actors do a great job with pretty terrible writing, but the moment that really sticks in my mind is the way Mulder's voice goes flat on "That's what you mean."

Opinion #4: I know I'm not alone in this, because someone upthread mentioned it, but I find Mulder much more interesting than Scully. (Again, I think that's because the writing for Mulder is generally better. It's Mulder's obsessions that drive the narrative forward, and I think the writers have a hard time figuring out what to do with Scully when she's not reacting to Mulder.)  I will watch Mulder-centric episodes till the cows come home (I even enjoy 3, because I'm a sucker for grief-stricken, self-destructive Mulder), but I find most Scully-centric episodes to be merely depressing without really being interesting.

You are my person.  (Though I am not sure it is all that unpopular to say that Requiem would have been a good finale).  I ended up liking Closure very much in my rewatch.  And with regard to David Duchovney, my rewatch made me appreciate how wonderful he is with non-verbal communication.  He often ends up conveying a lot through his physical presence (and especially through facial expression).

WRT Mulder - I mean, don't get me wrong, I really love Scully.  But I have always found Mulder to be endlessly fascinating (in ways that I haven't found Scully, though I truly appreciate the way they've made Scully complex in her own right).  At the end of the day, though, I find their dynamic so interesting that I don't know that I would enjoy the show without Scully's presence, just like I didn't really love scene 9 without Mulder.

[Taryn74]

6 hours ago, eleanorofaquitaine said:

And with regard to David Duchovney, my rewatch made me appreciate how wonderful he is with non-verbal communication.  He often ends up conveying a lot through his physical presence (and especially through facial expression).

He is really, really good at that.  Some examples that pop into mind are his suppressed anger (based on fear, IMO) when Scully comes back at the end of En Ami; his helplessness when Scully calls him from the hospital in Memento Mori and asks him to bring her things; him bracing himself before he goes in to ID her body (which thankfully wasn't her) in Irresistible; I could go on and on.

[Sassyfangirl]

Cool thread:) I had to say that I was a mulder fan more than scully. I mean scully was cool but sometimes she came off as bitchy esp in later seasons IMO. I hated doggett when I first watched season 8 and I had no problem with Reyes. Also it seems funny that some people would hate on mulder but act like scully is the best FBI ever . Yeah I like her too but sometimes the hype with her is too much. Anyway I watched the x files cause of mulder and the crazy storylines. Oh and I wasn’t a big Mulder/scully shipper when I first watched the show but now I don’t mind shipping them . But I hate the scully/doggett or scully/skinner ship ugh. I haven’t watched the new season yet but I will catch up. I so watched that c files would crossover with supernatural. I would love to see mulder and scully work with Sam and dean:)