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Jumbo

By Jumbo
in The Tailgate

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RemoveSnyder

RemoveSnyder

Posted
Posted

I'm a little bit disappointed with the X-Files opener. 

 

I didn't feel like they gave enough of a cinematic prologue during the reintroduction of Mulder and Scully. I wanted to see more photographic vignettes, more atmospherics. There is history. 

 

No reason not to bring a legit movie style shooting and pacing to the TV. Already being done widely with British dramas.

 

I wanted a crawl zoom shot of Mulder, directly aft, from behind his shoulders, in a rundown house with half filtered sunlight sweeping across an unlit livingroom, where he's sitting in a chair at a table with cut out newspaper articles, stencil doodle drawings and electric bills laid around, eating Lucky Charms, with strewn beer bottles about, bemoaning his failed relationship with Scully. An air of desperation would have really added to the new relationship we're supposed to embrace between the two. 

 

CGI felt flat and plastic with the first ARV scene and the supposed man-in-the-street vids of saucer/triangle aircraft. Part of the love affair for me with the 90s version were the organic special effects still prevalent of the time and the not so cinematic CGI. But here, it felt disconnected. Like a step backward after going to the cinematic realm.

 

Joel McHale, just a bad choice. Couldn't buy him. Even with suspended disbelief. 

 

Tempo seemed out of control at times. Blowing through scenes with not enough development. Terms and concepts mentioned then spoken over, nothing challenged or sussed out. What was BS and what was not?

 

The tempo undermined the conspiracy theories they were trying to invoke. Particularly the notion of more falseflag OPS with a planned alien invasion, mock ARVs, which dovetails back to the original series where the invasion was basically a main tenet of the series' thesis. 

 

The speed also lead to confusion as to which conspiracies Carter was trying to say were legitimate and which were simply obfuscation and disinformation from the McHale character. 

 

Was Carter trying to laugh at McHale's notion of Martial Law and police force reclamation of registered fire arms, or was he giving credence to the notion? I assumed laughing at it, as we've all basically done. Yet it was blown by so quickly, you really couldn't tell. And since the ARV was detonated and ostensibly the scientists working in the hanger were all murdered, it at least says that McHale's character had a bead onto one thing sensitive. 

 

It just wasn't fulfilling without McHale's character getting publicly undressed on the BS ones. 

 

At first it seemed like they were striking a nice balance between modern social media echo chamber, high on the skepticism, with a handful of 3rd person omnipotent views of the Roswell crash and the supposed alien DNA surgical testing.

 

Early on a decent counterbalance took place with a few shots at low hanging hair-brained conspiracy theories that even Mulder laughed off, along side Mulder's own conspiracy speculations. It was enjoyable to watch Mulder question McHale's character, his knowledge. It should have been heavier, more extensive and continued a bit longer.

 

Scully's scenes at the hospital felt very restricted. It seemed like they used the same set for like three different scenes. The supporting actress, Indian woman (I'm assuming), had like three entrances and each time it was the same room, same orderly gowns, no sense of capturing Scully at different locations or moments beside the prep room to surgery. No office, no hallway, no different time of day. It didn't give the scale that I felt the show deserved.

 
And the come-on attempt by McHale's character to Scully, weird. Wasn't it right infront of Mulder? Well it should have been. To have seen some real anger and jealousy from Mulder, missed opportunity. 
 
And then for the cut scene where Scully is having a glass of champagne in McHale's limo, that just jumped out from nowhere. She was clearly unimpressed with McHale's character, thought he was full of bull, and yet midway into the show she's drinking with him? Again, weird. 

 

For a short time they even made it seem like the Roswell flashbacks were staged events. That the doctor who witnessed the shooting was meant to believe what he saw, become a working pawn. That the ARV was nothing but a magical light show just to coerce Mulder. Destroying the vehicle later on gave credence to it's importance and somewhat validated the zero-point energy claim. But we don't really know.

 

What I don't know, or can't remember, is who the ARV scientists were. I figured it was a planned execution OP from one branch of the government against another branch. 

 

I mean, they weren't random scientists from MIT who somehow got their hands on a fully functional ARV. And as far as I can remember, the detonation scene was 3rd person omnipotent. It would have struck home harder if the explosion / assassination was done while Mulder was there, to witness it, and only barely escape with his life. All for Mulder's benefit to convince him of the vehicle's genuineness and importance, even if it was a fake. I don't think that was well explained.

 

What also didn't make sense was McHale's character's show or webcast being taken off-line or shut down. Like, the shadow government was really concerned about what he was spouting. In our reality, those guys are their own hangmen. Today's climate just laughs those people off. Having them stay on the radio, Alex Jones, or TV or internet just furthers people's skepticism. They eventually can't back up certain things so it undermines all of the claims. That's what we all hold onto in today's climate. 

 

So, I don't follow what Carter was trying to say there. McHale's character wasn't developed enough for me to buy that he was a threat to the establishment, at all. If the audience wasn't even convinced of him, how should the shadow government?

 

The original series dealt heavily with the working theory of a powerful shadow government, we all know that heading into it. I'm not sure why that had to be delineated again in the manner it was. The way Mulder presents it to us, as he dictates it to Scully, is kind-of preachy, at least from Scully's point of view. As if she didn't already know all about it, all about Mulder's base thesis. It just made it lose something. 

 

I preferred the ambiguity they had going on moreso. 

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Destino

Destino

Posted
Posted

Exceptions prove the rule.  Fringe was great though, and John Noble doesn't get as much attention as he should.  He could make ordering off a menu sound like a clever conspiracy or wise advice. 

 

Kind of bummed that Expanse is over and season two is almost a year away.  I need more! 

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Riggo-toni

Riggo-toni

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Anybody else watching "Billions" on Showtime? I'm hooked now. Pretty solid. Check it out, yo.

Liked the first 3 episodes so far. As much as I HATED that actor in Homeland, he is PERFECT for that role. And Paul Giamatti is great. Plus his wife is gawdamm HOTT! That scene with her in the leather teddy. DAYUMN!

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Destino

Destino

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Posted

I know it felt too short, but I was really getting into it. Been also catching up on 12 monkeys (running after expanse the last few weeks.

it awakened a scifi craving I haven't had in a while and I'm annoyed about it.  I'll have to track down a book or show I've wanted to read/see but somehow forgot about.  12 monkeys won't work my entertainment it's not the right kind of scifi. 

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