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Never Make The Same Mistake Twice: "Fire" and the Mulder/Scully Relationship by PlaidAdder
Fandoms: The X-Files
19 Jul 2015
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As this is an early Chris Carter-written episode, and since Phoebe is obviously an early prototype for the Diana Fowley character, I have come to the conclusion–now that I am less distracted by the terrible stuff–that “Fire” is actually a really important episode in terms of what it reveals about Carter’s original conception of Mulder, Scully, and the Mulder-Scully relationship.
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- Part 1 of X-Files Meta
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Nonfiction. In which I talk about the Season 2 episode "Blood" and what it shows us about how much our attitudes toward technology--including guns--have changed since this episode was made.
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- Part 2 of X-Files Meta
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Sh*t Just Got Real: Scully's Abduction Arc (X-Files, Season 2) by PlaidAdder
Fandoms: The X-Files
18 Jun 2014
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In which I talk about how the abduction arc of Season 2 apparently triggered a quantum leap in David Duchovny's acting skills.
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- Part 3 of X-Files Meta
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Meta Has Its Privileges: "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" by PlaidAdder
Fandoms: The X-Files
24 Apr 2014
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Nonfiction. In which I talk about "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" as metafiction.
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- Part 4 of X-Files Meta
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The Best Ships Never Come In: X-Files, "The Field Where I Died" by PlaidAdder
Fandoms: The X-Files
13 May 2014
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Nonfiction. In which I talk about why, even though Mulder and Scully totally do love each other, I never wanted to see Chris Carter actually make them a canon romance.
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- Part 5 of X-Files Meta
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The Truth Is In Me: Scully's Cancer Arc (X-FIles, Season 4) by PlaidAdder
Fandoms: The X-Files
28 May 2014
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Nonfiction. In which I talk about how and why Scully's Season 4 cancer arc was our first real look at some of the major problems that would eventually derail the show.
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- Part 6 of X-Files Meta
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I Want to Talk to the Writer: X-Files, "The Postmodern Prometheus" by PlaidAdder
Fandoms: The X-Files
05 Jun 2014
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In which I talk about the disheartening beginning of Season 5, with reference to Chris Carter's obsession with the impregnation of unconscious women.
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- Part 7 of X-Files Meta
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In which I finally put my finger on something that has always creeped me out about the otherwise very enjoyable X-Files ep "Small Potatoes," in which a guy who has the ability to alter his face impersonates Mulder and almost makes out with Scully.
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- Part 8 of X-Files Meta
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In which, once again, a Vince Gilligan episode is 95% awesome and 5% oh for crying out loud did you really have to do that to Scully.
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- Part 9 of X-Files Meta
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In which I talk about how having been through cancer gives me a brand new POV on Scully's cancer arc, with special reference to "Never Again."
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- Part 10 of X-Files Meta
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If You Weren't So Damn Ugly: X-Files Season 6, "Dreamland" by PlaidAdder
Fandoms: The X-Files
05 Jul 2014
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A nice positive review for once, in which I talk about how much better "Dreamland" does with the Faux Mulder Motif.
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- Part 11 of X-Files Meta
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In which, while talking about what this episode suggests about the darker side of the Mulder/Scully partnership, I cannot stop myself from going on a few little rants, chiefly about the persistent depiction of the single life as a lonely and empty wasteland full of isolation and despair.
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- Part 12 of X-Files Meta
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When Bad Writing Attacks: X-Files, "Terms of Endearment" and "The Rain King" by PlaidAdder
Fandoms: The X-Files
16 Jul 2014
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In which I use IMDB to answer the question, "Why does Season 6, after such a strong start, suck as hard as it does in the second half?"
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- Part 13 of X-Files Meta
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I'm Getting Good At It: "Tithonus" and the Season Six Premise by PlaidAdder
Fandoms: The X-Files
18 Jul 2014
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In which I talk about how, although the actual case in "Tithonus" is not that gripping, the episode is better because it uses the "taking Mulder and SCully off the X-Files" premise of Season 6 to do some really interesting character work with Mulder and Scully.
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- Part 14 of X-Files Meta
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The End Of The Show As We Know It: X-Files, "Two Fathers" / "One Son" by PlaidAdder
Fandoms: The X-Files
22 Jul 2014
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It came to me as I was rewatching “One Son”: This is where the show should have ended.
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- Part 15 of X-Files Meta
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So, in the second half of Season Six, there’s a lot of crap. But there are two episodes that stand out to me like beautiful if slightly tarnished gems: “Monday” and “Arcadia.”
Let’s talk about “Monday.” If I start in on “Arcadia” it might get long.
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- Part 16 of X-Files Meta
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AAAAAAARGH!!: Or, Plaidder Rewatches "Milagro" (X-Files, Season 6) by PlaidAdder
Fandoms: The X-Files
26 Jul 2014
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First time around, I found this episode flawed but intriguing.
This time around I hate it with the white-hot fire of a thousand suns.
The teen rating is for language. There's some profanity.
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- Part 17 of X-Files Meta
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That Crap May Have Just Saved Your Life: X-Files, "All Things" by PlaidAdder
Fandoms: The X-Files
07 Aug 2014
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What’s fascinating to me is how much of this episode is about Gillian using other women to rescue Scully from an existence which is structured and pretty much captured by patriarchal institutions. Specifically, it’s about getting her out of spaces that were shaped and are still dominated by men—the FBI building, Mulder’s office, the hospital—and the rigid, unforgiving, and linear time that prevails there. Instead, “All Things” opens up and emphasizes the interstitial moments and the marginalized spaces where life becomes deeply meaningful and restorative for Scully instead of—as it has been so much of the time on the X-Files—threatening, invasive, disorienting, and terrifying. And it does this, mainly, by engineering a series of chance encounters between Scully and other women, not all of them straight.
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- Part 18 of X-Files Meta
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The Writers' Conference Where The Second Half of the X-Files' Season Seven Was Planned, As It Happened In My Head by PlaidAdder
Fandoms: The X-Files
11 Aug 2014
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This is sort of how I imagine it went down.
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- Part 19 of X-Files Meta
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From "Humbug" to "Hollywood A. D.": Comedy and The X-Files by PlaidAdder
Fandoms: The X-Files
12 Aug 2014
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Comedy played an important role in establishing The X-Files as a zeitgeisty hit in its first few seasons. One of the signs of the show’s deterioration toward the end of its life is the devolution of the comic episode, as demonstrated by two of the worst episodes in the show’s first seven seasons: “Hollywood, A.D.” and “Fight Club,” written by David Duchovny and Chris Carter, respectively. About which the best thing I can say is that they have inspired me to go back and revisit an early and classic X-Files episode that got lost in the shuffle: Darin Morgan’s “Humbug.”
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- Part 20 of X-Files Meta