The X Files: episodes 1 & 2
Apr. 9th, 2004 04:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockMy DVD came with Netflix today, XF season 1, disc 1.
I feel like I should cut-tag this for spoiler warnings, but honestly, who would I be spoiling at this point? Habit I guess.
Reactions after years since last viewing:
Wow. Glasses! Mulder was so hot. Scully was hot too. Damn, they were both pretty freakin hot.
They were giving each other googly eyes from episode one. From SCENE 1 in fact. Mulder at first is playfully cynical, then he sees something he likes in Scully and turns flirty and challenging. Because challenge is flirtation for him. Scully is curious at first, and then can't resist rising to his bait just to assert herself from the get-go. The characters both like each other, and WHOA, the screen chemistry!
It's been too long since I watched this show, especially the oldest eps. I liked how they introduced the characters, using the interview with Scully and her first meeting with Mulder to explain both character's backgrounds and brief histories. Cigarette smoking man appears in the pilot, looking much younger than he does ten years later. I don't remember; is he or isn't he Mulder's father? ::sigh:: C'est tres confusing.
Deep throat is also introduced, in episode 2. I'd almost entirely forgotten about him.
I notice that the lighting is very different in early seasons than the last 4 seasons, which I had noticed over time but was made very obvious here. It's much less glossy, less well-funded. It's darker, grittier, with lots of high contrast in the lighting. It actually seems more realistic visually. The sunlight is bright and stark, the shadows are incredibly dark, and the light cutting through the shadows is very carefully controlled to highlight ertain things. Particularly Mulder's face in the hotel room when he describes his sister's disappearence; half his face is lit and the other half is in shadow. I love the atmosphere of all of this. It's very moody and dark and clinical, but intimate too, kind of an in-your-face starkness. I got a bit of shivers in episode too with the naked guy all covered in rashes. Disturbing. I'm also reminded of how much this show left you feeling like you had your feet stuck in the mud, and the forces around your heroes were too big, that sometimes you had to concede and pick your battles. It seems like there's this opressive futility that's embodied by the character of the government, countered by the hope and integrity embodied by the characters of Mulder and Scully. Early Mulder seems to take the government's lack of integrity as a personal affront. Idealistic.
I remember now why I admired Scully so much as a teenager. What an awesome female character, even back in the early days of yore. She takes no shit, but she can laugh and smile too. And she certainly seems to be very amused by Mulder and his earnestness. Oooh, watch her throw that fake reporter into the car and pull her gun on him!
Speaking of Mulder, he certainly is a smirky bastard, isn't he? And yet at other moments, like when Scully was scared and when dealing with victims, he is very controlled and considerate. And hot. I love his season 1 hair. So much better than later seasons when it's too short. Here it's just my favorite length on a guy. ::fan-girly sigh:: He invades her personal space quite a bit... even in jsut the first two eps I counted it more than once. Like in the mood icon below. :)
Favorite line: "...the very plausible state of Oregon." - 1.1
I feel like I should cut-tag this for spoiler warnings, but honestly, who would I be spoiling at this point? Habit I guess.
Reactions after years since last viewing:
Wow. Glasses! Mulder was so hot. Scully was hot too. Damn, they were both pretty freakin hot.
They were giving each other googly eyes from episode one. From SCENE 1 in fact. Mulder at first is playfully cynical, then he sees something he likes in Scully and turns flirty and challenging. Because challenge is flirtation for him. Scully is curious at first, and then can't resist rising to his bait just to assert herself from the get-go. The characters both like each other, and WHOA, the screen chemistry!
It's been too long since I watched this show, especially the oldest eps. I liked how they introduced the characters, using the interview with Scully and her first meeting with Mulder to explain both character's backgrounds and brief histories. Cigarette smoking man appears in the pilot, looking much younger than he does ten years later. I don't remember; is he or isn't he Mulder's father? ::sigh:: C'est tres confusing.
Deep throat is also introduced, in episode 2. I'd almost entirely forgotten about him.
I notice that the lighting is very different in early seasons than the last 4 seasons, which I had noticed over time but was made very obvious here. It's much less glossy, less well-funded. It's darker, grittier, with lots of high contrast in the lighting. It actually seems more realistic visually. The sunlight is bright and stark, the shadows are incredibly dark, and the light cutting through the shadows is very carefully controlled to highlight ertain things. Particularly Mulder's face in the hotel room when he describes his sister's disappearence; half his face is lit and the other half is in shadow. I love the atmosphere of all of this. It's very moody and dark and clinical, but intimate too, kind of an in-your-face starkness. I got a bit of shivers in episode too with the naked guy all covered in rashes. Disturbing. I'm also reminded of how much this show left you feeling like you had your feet stuck in the mud, and the forces around your heroes were too big, that sometimes you had to concede and pick your battles. It seems like there's this opressive futility that's embodied by the character of the government, countered by the hope and integrity embodied by the characters of Mulder and Scully. Early Mulder seems to take the government's lack of integrity as a personal affront. Idealistic.
I remember now why I admired Scully so much as a teenager. What an awesome female character, even back in the early days of yore. She takes no shit, but she can laugh and smile too. And she certainly seems to be very amused by Mulder and his earnestness. Oooh, watch her throw that fake reporter into the car and pull her gun on him!
Speaking of Mulder, he certainly is a smirky bastard, isn't he? And yet at other moments, like when Scully was scared and when dealing with victims, he is very controlled and considerate. And hot. I love his season 1 hair. So much better than later seasons when it's too short. Here it's just my favorite length on a guy. ::fan-girly sigh:: He invades her personal space quite a bit... even in jsut the first two eps I counted it more than once. Like in the mood icon below. :)
Favorite line: "...the very plausible state of Oregon." - 1.1
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-09 04:38 pm (UTC)Seriously, great review! Thanks for reminding me of my first fan experience.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-09 04:47 pm (UTC)How much are the prices these days? I know the Star Trek Next Gen prices are crazy-high. I don't consider the Buffy DVDs to be too bad. I think the Farscape DVDs are expensive though.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-09 04:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-09 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-09 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-09 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-09 06:47 pm (UTC)I bet the lighting is different partly because they were filming in Vancouver. It's cheaper to film in Vancouver, but then they got successful and did the movie and the actors were all, "we wanna live in L.A.," so they moved. That shouldn't affect indoor lighting, but it seemed to, somehow. And all the outdoor stuff became way less creepy, because while they used to film in these dense dark green forests or creepy mountains, in California, their emulations of anywhere that wasn't California started to suck.
They were very flirty at the beginning. Ooh, ooh! Remember the root beer? In that same ep, he fixes her necklace... which is very long, so he's basically rearranging her warddrobe about chest height. While saying of course he feels possessive about her. And this is only a few episodes in. Remember when Scully had her own upstairs office?
no subject
Date: 2004-04-09 09:11 pm (UTC)I don't remember the stuff you just mentioned. But Netflix will fix that soon. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-09 09:27 pm (UTC)Scully brings Mulder baloney and cheese or something... his idea lunch, anyway...
M: If there's an ice tea in that bag, it could be love.
S: Must be fate, Mulder... root beer.
M: (makes dashed aww-face)
S: Go home, Mulder, you're delirious.
That was really the beauty of 'shipping in the XF universe. The beauty, and the endless frustration. The writers/directors gave us so little, so if they clasped hands when one was in the hospital, or he kissed her forehead when she was dying, it sent fans into paroxysms. I could tell that, and I didn't even do fandom per se... I just read fic. Also, I too swooned. *g*
Ooh, Netflix... hmm...
no subject
Date: 2004-04-09 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-09 11:27 pm (UTC)You know, I've seen that quoted many times, but never actually watched it.
I have many other shipper memories though. Rain King. The end of the baseball episode. Quagmire. Detour. Ohh-- and definitely Milagro. That was SO shippery. Triangle. ::sigh::
I also liked that ep where he switches bodies with the Area 51 guy, and he's talking to Scully and there's sunflower seeds and she says "I'd kiss you if you weren't so damn ugly."