Wednesday, May 22, 2002 So, I've been trip-hopping recently down nostagia road. Also translated as: I've been thinking about X-Files. Not on a large scale, see. But after I saw the trailer for the finale last week, I was excited because, damn, I kinda miss Mulder, y'know? So I fastforwarded through a few episodes, skipped to the good parts. Ended up watching the end of "The Unnatural" for the TEN billionth time, and went looking for that beautiful gospel from the end... ..and in my searching, I found the music for the second movie trailer. And it was so GOOD! I'd forgotten how much that trailer ruled, what with the big-budget imagry, fast editing, and "Ven ve must take avay vat vithvich he cannot live vithout." So I put the mp3 in my playlist, and bopped along with it. Roommate asked me who did it, and I realized that nothing that fast and cool could be done by Mark Snow. So, one hour later, I discovered that this mp3 which has come to represent all that I really love about XF - the passion and the danger and the drama and did I mention the passion? - Was from the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet. This conclusively proved one thing - Craig Armstrong is an unsung genius - ::cough::download::cough:: "Escape from Mantua" (the track in question) if you don't believe me. It also made me think about how the things that I like XF for aren't necessarily the things that XF has come to represent, in the end. So, with that in mind, I am going to make a list of all the good things about the series finale. Or, rather: What I Liked About "The Truth" (Spoilers Ensue) -I missed Mulder, and the teaser reminded me why. In this world of rationality and common sense, it's nice to see a protagonist do something completely stupid and get caught. All that we needed was for him to drop his gun, and it woulda really been a party! -Um. Yeah. I'm gonna be horribly obvious and just say it - I LOVED THAT KISSING -I also really liked that reversal - Brainwashed!Mulder to BadHannibal!Mulder to GrabbingAndKissing!Mulder. If I had to point to any sign that Chris Carter knows what he's doing as a screenwriter - that nine years of experience had taught him anything - I would say those two scenes were remarkably well-written. Well, until the characters started talking about things that matter, that is. But that's an issue for another list. -The clip show was just absurd. I toast its absurdity with one of the many Schirmoff I drank that night. I laughed a lot, I can tell you that. It was like watching someone dance on a trapeze wire, and falling onto a pile of whoopee cushions. Almost magestic, if it weren't so goddamned ridiculous. -I will applaud the choice to keep things simple - to use a (hideously inaccurate) trial to finally, once and for all, Make Things Make Sense. They did the trial, did the big confrontation in the desert, and that was it. It could have been much worse. -Also, the clip shows are really easy to skip past while fastforwarding. As I label my tape for posterity, including the timecodes for all the good stuff (ie - not the plot), I again raise a Schirmoff in praise. -On that same note, the Dead People Cameos pleased me to no end - so nice to see some familiar faces - but they didn't really move or touch me. -I missed being able to shout, "Mulder, you martyr-complex moron!" at my TV. A proud tradition reinstated on Sunday night. -They finally fulfilled Cancerman's dirty-old-man potential, with a heaping dose of creepy, to boot. That was great. And really dead? Eh. It made me smile. -I want to e.p. a TV show someday. And I'll be able to say, "Can I get two black helicopters to blow up some ancient Navajo ruins?" And the answer'll be "Yes." And that'll rule. -On the William front... I still can't quite get over the name, and whether this is a permanent sacrifice or not, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I feel badly for the characters. And I dearly hope that this doesn't get swept under the rug for the upcoming movie - that they keep this sense of melancholy with them, always. -Because that last scene, while being way too long and badly written, was just right in tone. And it was the ending that should have been "Requiem" and it was the ending that should have been. And in the long run, it's an image I'll cherish. Because the show did have a remarkable impact on me when I was becoming the person I am. And there's no point in denying this. -At the very end of it, I got up, said goodbye to the friend who had watched it with me, and did some thinking. And the one thought I had? "Time to get a life, now." So there's a goal for the summer. Among other things. Like getting a job. Still no luck there. But who knows what the future holds - for me, Mulder, Scully, or any of us? | permalink blog • archives • photos • about • contact This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. All content © 2004.