X-Files 7.22 "Requiem" Full On Rant

In this week's "Entertainment Weekly," Chris Carter says he believes the
show could go on for several years--with or without David and Gillian,
mind you--I guess he's pretty sure we're going to JUST LOOOVE Scully's new
partner next year, eh? The thing that drove me nuts is Carter said he
can see the show go on for years because there are "more stories" to tell.
Really? REALLY. Because, if that's true...why didn't you tell any of
them this year? He also claimed that he ended the show this year the same way
he would have if this were the end of the series, which I find HIGHLY
dubious. I also feel this year was just plain chickens*&$. They didn't
know what was going to happen with David so NOTHING HAPPENED all year.
No revelations, no character developments. Except in this last
episode--Scully's pregnant! Sigh. I'll get to that later.

I don't think Chris Carter cares about anything beyond the truckloads of
cash Fox has given him. We had some great years, but I don't believe he
knows where we're going or what's going to happen or anything. I'm glad
he invented the show, and these characters, but I'm not confident that he
knows what's best for it now. This is similar to my feelings for George
Lucas, who has completely forgotten how to make a great movie. I'm so
grateful to him for "Star Wars" and "Empire" and certain parts of "Jedi"
but then he goes back to re-release them and inserts pointless and
disruptive scenes into the middle of a film that won his ex-wife an Oscar
for editing and is quoted as saying it's been bothering for twenty years
that there weren't enough cute little creatures running around in the
background and it makes me want to scream. "Phantom Menace" had some
cool stuff in it, but it was, like much of "Jedi" too cute. He claims this is
to make it "kid friendly," but Star Wars was a wonderful experience for
me at six, when I saw it for the first time, yet it isn't a kids movie.

Maybe success just clouds your vision. Maybe no one's telling Chris
Carter how dumb his show is, or else he isn't listening to them if they are.
The Season Finale was better than much of the year, in that it was scary
at times and brought us back to what made the show cool and addictive in the
first place, namely the serious business of evil and aliens. It brought
back all kinds of X-Files lore: deadly alien goo, cars losing power and
the always popular "lost time." It brought us back to the Pilot episode in
fictitious Bellefluer, Oregon (Bellefluer is Carter's homage to his
hometown of Bellflower, Ca) and it was nice to see Billy Miles and Teresa Nemins.

But.

The only reason it was so very cool and exciting to see the conspiracy
and Krycek and Marita et al is because THEY TOOK THEM AWAY IN
THE FIRST PLACE.
Carter claimed it was getting too confusing....for who, him? Because
this is a show that used to defy explanation and it wasn't about answers. I
liked all the loose ends and mystery. I never fully understood the black
goo and the manicured man and whatnot. It was just cool. Carter took it
all away, then gave us a year of boring directionless muck, then gives it
back like he's a genius or something? Even an obsessed fan like me
couldn't follow what Krycek and Marita were talking about with
Cancerman--I have no idea why Krycek was in prison, and have no
idea why they would try
to help Mulder and Scully (Does anyone connected with the show remember
that Krycek was lying in wait in Scully's apartment when his colleague
killed Scully's sister Melissa? He certainly killed Mulder's father.)
The scene where the sheriff reveals there's a dead body in his trunk to
the audience but not the good guys was cool--It was even cooler ten years ago
on Twin Peaks.

Another potentially compelling element was Scully's longing for
motherhood--something we haven't seen for AT LEAST a year and a half. So
it comes off forced and contrived in light of Scully's pregnancy at the
end of the show. But they so easily could have mentioned it every now and
again had they not decide to write a sitcom for the last year.
The scene with Mulder in black t-shirt, comforting Scully in bed was so
sweet and romantic. Again, we could have used more of this all season.
They had this connection, this intimacy, way back in the pilot when he
told her about his missing sister while she lay curled in his motel bed. In
has always been the emotional bond between these two that's been so sexy not
the will they or won't they bullsh** that fascinates TV critics TV
executives and people who don't watch the show but still think Mulder and
Scully should "do it."

I've said it before, but. If Mulder really believes his sister is dead,
and Scully thinks the conspiracy is dead, why are they still flying all
over the country and renting cars to chase down genies tramps and
thieves? The whole construct of this FBI bean counter reviewing their
work was just SO STUPID. It had been previously established that
Cancerman put Mulder
and Scully on the X-Files to suit his own purposes--he was kind of under
his protection. With him out of the picture why DOESN'T the FBI shut
them down and reassign them? Why DON'T Mulder and Scully just quit?
Time was
we FELT they were on a quest for the truth and we were a part of it. Now
I'm just watching two bored working stiffs punch the old timeclock. Like
Chris Carter, one wonders if they are merely there for the paycheck.

Again, we're given the SAME OLD CRAP. Cancerman claims that Krycek will
find the "answers to all questions." We were promised that in little
Gibson, the little boy Carter apparently abandoned in season Six? Now
its some Holy Grail of a space ship? The scene with Mulder and Scully and
all the lone gunmen and marita and Skinner and Krycek was Fox's answer to
NBC's "freaks and Geeks" haha. One rumor has Krycek becoming Scully's new
partner which would be so absolutely horrifying I'm gonna chock it up to
delirious Internet geeks making stuff up. Krycek is an evil evil man.
We need more of him, but Scully would never ever work with him EVER.

The scene between Mulder in the hallway, professing their Need, if not
their love for one another was wonderful.
Skinner and Mulder as friends--Skinner should have been made a third
member of the team long ago.

Everything else was lame: Mulder's abduction? We saw Scully get
abducted twice already, we've seen Mulder die. They're sort of in "Dallas"
territory. "Dallas" was so successful with the whole "who shot JR" thing
that they tried to do a cliffhanger every year and many of them were just
stupid (although I would have welcomed Scully finding Patrick Duffy in
her shower this year, let me tell you!). Scully's happiness over her
pregnancy doesn't make any sense to me because...shouldn't she be kind of scared?
I mean, did she see "V" the 80's miniseries? To those who didn't, the
upshot is this: alien baby, NOT GOOD. Does she remember the painful life
and death of her own alien hybrid daughter Emily? OK, I'm maintaining
this is an alien baby because Scully hasn't had sex in years. YEARS. Yes,
I'm sure there are fans poring over every episode looking for places where
Mulder and Scully could have made a baby, or perhaps Skinner? Or someone
else? I mean, it can't be that she merely had sex with someone and
jeepers creepers it turns out she ISN'T barren, because then next season becomes
"Murphy Brown" {Oh god I just invisioned a "comical episode with her
investigating an X-File while very pregant ala frances McDormand in FARGO.
Oh No....OH please, NO}

Either way, seems Scully's family would be interested and involved but we
haven't seen them since they helped her bury the afore mentioned Emily.
So don't get your hopes up. And can you imagine the audacity of this show
if they say that Mulder and Scully DID sleep together and we didn't get to
see it? Not that it would surprise me, the bastards. Carter actually
"teases" us in Entertainment Weekly about the scene in Gillian's episode where she
leaves mulder's apartment. PUH. LEEZE.

Still, I'm glad this isn't the last year, because this would be such a
crummy way to end it, and maybe they can do better...
Stranger things have happened--on this very show, in fact :)

Plus, I like ranting ;)

Have a great summer, and I'll see you next year. :D Christine (send all
X-rumors here).