discordantwords (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
discordantwords) wrote2018-03-04 08:55 pm
discordantwords) wrote2018-03-04 08:55 pm
Entry tags:
Rm9sbG93ZXJz (don't ask me to say that title three times fast)
Mulder and Scully meet Black Mirror
or...
The one where Mulder and Scully defeat the evil drone robot army
or...
The one where robots decide to punish Mulder for being a bad tipper
or maybe...
The one where robots get fed up with the notion that Mulder and Scully don't live together and blow up Scully's house
I don't know exactly what that was, but it wasn't an episode of the X-Files. That's not to say I disliked it-- it was actually one of the most visually creative and entertaining hours of television I've seen in a while. But it didn't seem to exist in anything at all resembling the universe that the rest of the show occupies.
Spoilers below the cut.
It seems to take place in a weird futureworld where there are no people. Robots do everything. Run out of shampoo? Here's a drone to deliver a new bottle. Spill something on the floor? A helpful drone will drop off a roomba to vacuum it up for you. Going out to eat? Order from a touchscreen menu and wait for your tray to be delivered through a slot in the wall. All of this is visually compelling, but there's no basis for any of this in the show as we know it.
In any case, there's hardly any dialogue. Mulder orders sushi and receives a blobfish instead. Scully makes adorable faces at him. He fails to tip his robot server, setting off a chain of events where the pair of them are menaced by various electronics. Scully's driverless car drives away with her. Mulder's GPS keeps directing him back to the restaurant. Scully lives in a weird hypermodern smart home that looks nothing at all like the taste she was established as having for the previous 10 seasons of the show. Mulder fights drones with a baseball bat. Scully is beseiged by loud music, a sinister roomba, and a runaway vibrator. Eventually the robot apocalypse is thwarted by Mulder agreeing to tip his server. Mulder and Scully then go out to eat at a diner that's staffed by actual humans.
The editing was really clever, as was the music and directorial choices. Like I said before, this was fantastically entertaining television. It just wasn't an episode of the X-Files.
Maybe we're about to find out that Mulder and Scully actually chose to upload their consciousness into the weird Black Mirror/San Junipero-esque afterlife world that was teased in "This"? Though I think it's more likely that none of this will ever be referenced or mentioned ever again.
Oh! And because I'm still feeling salty over the ongoing confusion-- the Mulder/Scully relationship this season, in case you're keeping track:
My Struggle III - I've deleted this from memory and you should too
This - Mulder and Scully appear to live together. They come home from work and watch Ramones music videos and fall asleep together on their couch in their house.
Plus One - Mulder and Scully are not a couple, but Scully is comfortable going to Mulder's hotel room and asking him to hold her after she has a nightmare. Also they have sex.
The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat - Mulder and Scully seem to be a couple? They hang out at their house and Scully makes jello molds in the shape of Bigfoot prints.
Ghouli - Scully wakes up from nightmares by herself in a house that is definitely not the one she seems to share with Mulder. So... not a couple? They still do a lot of hugging.
Kitten - I have no idea. They act like very close coworkers.
Rm9sbG93ZXJz - Not a couple. Definitely don't live together. Mulder has his house, and Scully has hers. Sometimes they go on sushi dates where they don't talk to each other and arrive in separate cars. They still flirt a lot and hold hands, though.
or...
The one where Mulder and Scully defeat the evil drone robot army
or...
The one where robots decide to punish Mulder for being a bad tipper
or maybe...
The one where robots get fed up with the notion that Mulder and Scully don't live together and blow up Scully's house
I don't know exactly what that was, but it wasn't an episode of the X-Files. That's not to say I disliked it-- it was actually one of the most visually creative and entertaining hours of television I've seen in a while. But it didn't seem to exist in anything at all resembling the universe that the rest of the show occupies.
Spoilers below the cut.
It seems to take place in a weird futureworld where there are no people. Robots do everything. Run out of shampoo? Here's a drone to deliver a new bottle. Spill something on the floor? A helpful drone will drop off a roomba to vacuum it up for you. Going out to eat? Order from a touchscreen menu and wait for your tray to be delivered through a slot in the wall. All of this is visually compelling, but there's no basis for any of this in the show as we know it.
In any case, there's hardly any dialogue. Mulder orders sushi and receives a blobfish instead. Scully makes adorable faces at him. He fails to tip his robot server, setting off a chain of events where the pair of them are menaced by various electronics. Scully's driverless car drives away with her. Mulder's GPS keeps directing him back to the restaurant. Scully lives in a weird hypermodern smart home that looks nothing at all like the taste she was established as having for the previous 10 seasons of the show. Mulder fights drones with a baseball bat. Scully is beseiged by loud music, a sinister roomba, and a runaway vibrator. Eventually the robot apocalypse is thwarted by Mulder agreeing to tip his server. Mulder and Scully then go out to eat at a diner that's staffed by actual humans.
The editing was really clever, as was the music and directorial choices. Like I said before, this was fantastically entertaining television. It just wasn't an episode of the X-Files.
Maybe we're about to find out that Mulder and Scully actually chose to upload their consciousness into the weird Black Mirror/San Junipero-esque afterlife world that was teased in "This"? Though I think it's more likely that none of this will ever be referenced or mentioned ever again.
Oh! And because I'm still feeling salty over the ongoing confusion-- the Mulder/Scully relationship this season, in case you're keeping track:
My Struggle III - I've deleted this from memory and you should too
This - Mulder and Scully appear to live together. They come home from work and watch Ramones music videos and fall asleep together on their couch in their house.
Plus One - Mulder and Scully are not a couple, but Scully is comfortable going to Mulder's hotel room and asking him to hold her after she has a nightmare. Also they have sex.
The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat - Mulder and Scully seem to be a couple? They hang out at their house and Scully makes jello molds in the shape of Bigfoot prints.
Ghouli - Scully wakes up from nightmares by herself in a house that is definitely not the one she seems to share with Mulder. So... not a couple? They still do a lot of hugging.
Kitten - I have no idea. They act like very close coworkers.
Rm9sbG93ZXJz - Not a couple. Definitely don't live together. Mulder has his house, and Scully has hers. Sometimes they go on sushi dates where they don't talk to each other and arrive in separate cars. They still flirt a lot and hold hands, though.
no subject
I think you could say the same thing about season ten. Chris Carter jossed his own canon! And then he made the season finale into a dream? A vision? A premonition? A bad idea, for sure.
Maybe I'll watch this one. Having it be completely unrelated to the show I used to love might be helpful.
no subject