I Want To Believe: The X-Files Season 1 Debrief

With the new version of The X-Files coming down the pike in the next few months I finally decided to explore this rather glaringly large hole in my pop culture, sci fi, and nerd-dom purview.

I’d never watched The X-Files before, for a number of reasons. But for the most part it was because I was too young when it was on and it was pretty high on the “might be scary so Reenie isn’t allowed,” list. But as I became in charge of those decisions on my own, there was also the whole, 202 is a lot of episodes, and I have a job.

But I’ve decided to watch it, and while, again, having a job, prevents me from doing a weekly recap, as I would love to, I do want to document the experience in some way. So I’ll be doing these debriefs as I work through the seasons.

When I mentioned to a few friends that I was starting the show, I got a few reactions, “You’ve never watched X-Files?” was a big one and, “You know that it invented shipping right? It’s going to kill you.”

I did know, and I was prepared for death by unfulfilled sexual tension.

I was halfway through the pilot when I said, out loud, to no one, “Oh My GOD!!!! WHY AREN’T MULDER AND SKULLY DOING IT? They’re so clearly into each other. Specifically, she is so so so into him.”

I knew it was going to happen, I just didn’t expect it to happen quite so quickly. So, I’ve got about 180 episodes of agony left.

Here are some things that I’ve been thinking, now that I’m done with the first season:

• What actually happened to Samantha Mulder? I don’t think I care. Honestly, I’m totally in that in this universe there are aliens and people have these experiences. Does that mean that I need Mulder’s close encounter to have been a real one? Not at all.
• Theoretically, I knew how important this show was. But I really didn’t know how much of it’s DNA is still all over the TV landscape, specifically Network TV. I see the seeds of almost all of my favorite shows in this one show, and it’s absolutely fascinating.
• Dana Skully is my queen. I love everything about her. I love her skepticism, her logical brain and her big heart.
• There are a lot more ghosts than I thought there would be. Really. I mean, I love ghosts, I just wasn’t expecting so many of them. I get it though, because when you’re on a limited budget, and have to do paranormal weird stuff, ghosts are the way to go, but I just thought there would not be quite so many.
• David Duchovny is exceptionally delightful and I would like more of him just in life generally.
• My favorite episode, by far, in this season was the finale. Which is cheating, I guess, but when Skully pulled that little alien fetus out of the ice I almost screamed.

DROP EVERYTHING! There’s New The Force Awakens Footage

Look, it’s been nearly 24 hours you’ve probably seen this tiny micro clip, and if you’re anything like me, you probably watched it more than once. (Or like fifteen times.) And if you’re exactly like me, you probably cried.

LOOK AT ALL THE BADASS!

This isn’t the first time that The Force Awakens stuff has made me cry, and if we’re being really honest I have no idea why I keep having this reaction. I mean, I’m a big mush and as I’ve detailed on several occasions, I link Star Wars to my family and childhood and adolescence in huge ways.

But I have no idea what’s going on in my head and heart when it comes to this movie and why I keep having these very visceral reactions to the marketing materials. And it’s got me a little bit worried.

Not about the movie. I’m fully prepared for it to be wonderful or to completely suck or anything in between. It’s a Star Wars movie, I’ll see it a whole bunch of times no matter what. I’ve even rewatched Attack of The Clones more times than I’m proud of. (I try to focus on Obi-Wan in that one. And Mace Windu, because Samuel L. Jackson makes everything better.)

But I’m worried about how I’ll be in the theater. I’m no stranger to inappropriate weeping at movies, but I really don’t want to be “that crazy girl who couldn’t stop crying during The Force Awakens.” It’s kind of inevitable at this point, but still, I’d like to prevent it.

But apparently, the light saber that Finn is holding may be Anakin Skywalker’s. The very thought of this just makes me cry.

Also, I’m working on a Hoth Leia costume for opening night…Since I’m not going to Comic Con this fall, I’m seizing any and all cosplay opportunities, and I always braid my hair for Star Wars anyway, and this is just another step in that direction. Plus, I can wear a quilted vest to various family endorsed preppy-type outdoors events! It’s a win win.

I’d have a lot of fun in this outfit!

Sailor Moon Super S Episodes 134 & 135

Wow, OK, so, I’m trying to do this thing where I get ahead on my watching and it’s not going super well, but hey, I did manage to watch these episodes before this morning, so I’m at least on time.

Anyway, the first episode is about Makoto’s friend who drew and wrote a manga about a flying horse.

Naturally this peaks everyone’s interest, or at least The Amazon Trio and Chibi-Usa, and it turns out that nah, this girl Tomoko, just likes a dude in her class, or something, and she knows nothing about Pegasus. But everyone really likes the Manga.

Honestly, I was only half paying attention, which was probably not a great idea, since I do love me some Mako-Chan, but I’m starting to lose the momentum I was so admiring these episodes for building.

But I did like the very writerly line that was given to Tamoko, “I can’t write! No one likes me, no one understands me.”

Been there, girlfriend. Been there.

I’m also just not super into this season. I dunno man.

The second episode was better. Chibi-Usa talked to Pegasus about how she wants to be friends with him. (Right, Chibi-Usa, kind of like how Luna is so not into Artemis at all.) He says he can’t be her friend and she’s pretty sad about it.

But not sad enough that she isn’t sitting in art class with an adorable beret and fake mustache on because they make her feel like an artist. Adorable. Her teacher is not super encouraging, and it turns out the poor woman isn’t sure she wants to be a teacher.

Even more unfortunate, The Amazon Trio have finally caught on that Sailor-Chibi moon is who they need to be targeting, which, took them long enough. They get her and try to trap Pegasus. In fact this week’s Lemure even tries to tell Chibi-Usa that if she controls Pegasus, she’ll control the world.

Chibi-Usa isn’t interested, of course, she doesn’t want to possess Pegasus, she just loves him in her super special Moon Princess way, so he says that they can be friends now, but he won’t tell her his real name…yet.

That yet is important. Look, I know they’re magic, but I really can’t wait until Pegasus transforms into a dude, because between her dad and a magical Horse, Chibi-Usa’s crush record is kind of hugely creepy.

Still no Outer Senshi…what the hell Sailor Moon Super S? 

Anyway, that’s this week. This is the one bit of regular coverage at the moment that I literally can’t get ahead of, but I am trying to be ahead of the game on everything else, so that this doesn’t feel rushed. I’m down the shore weekends now, so that gets in the way, but I promise to keep updating and watching what and when I can!

Game of Thrones Winner: “Fire And Blood”

I had every intention of giving this win to Dany.

Really, I sat down watched the episode with every inch of me ready to give The Mother of Dragons her win for finally getting her dragons, for freeing her slaves, for everything she does in this episode, but that was before what happened while I was watching happened.

That was before The Brother’s Of The Night’s Watch made me cry.

These dummies…the best!

The was before as Jon was ready to ride south and join Robb (terrible awful idea) and Samm, and the others cornered him and told him that this was a terrible, awful idea, and thus got him back to the wall, by reciting their vows to him.

It’s probably the best moment in the whole show.

I may change mind in the next twenty weeks, but I somehow doubt it. This moment, and Lord Commander Mormont saying that he needs Jon beyond the wall are incredible.

And so, The Brother’s of The Night’s Watch…You are the sword in the night, The Watchers on the wall, blah blah blah, you won the season 1 finale. How exciting for you.

Runner up goes to Danerys, because Dragons, dude, if the the Brothers hadn’t made me cry she would have had this episode in the bag.

Missandei and Grey Worm Watch

Dany frees all her slaves in this episode, which you know, is integral to Missandei and Grey Worm. But she also burns one of them at the stake. So…she hasn’t yet gotten the hang of this, but she maybe sort of will…how do we get there? We shall we see.

Sansa’s Agency Watch

Oh Sansa, she had the opportunity to sacrifice herself and save the realm a whole lot of shit by killing Joffrey, and while I’m glad we got more Sansa, I’ll always hate The Hound for a while for stopping her from shoving Joffrey off that plank when she was so ready to kill him.

Arya Badass Watch

Arya doesn’t get off to a great start, what with the dead dad and crying and all. But she does manage to fight off a group of dumb asses who try to take needle from her. So yay! Go Arya. Or, Arry, as she’ll be for the next ten or so episodes.

Who Was Jamie A Dick To?

“There are no men like me…only me.” And thus we have Jamie Lannister in a nutshell. But he says this to Catelyn, so I guess he’s a dick to Catelyn techinically…and I feel like this section is where I just have to give credit to Michelle Farelly and Richard Madden and their incredible performances in this episode…Except that it’s leading us to a new section

Robb is A King (And kinda bad at it)

The Robb stuff is pretty important, what with him becoming King in The North and all, but still, it’s amazing the work they do in the scene where they finally allow themselves to grieve Ned. But also he stand up and accepts all this fealty and just looks at his mom like a dude who has no idea how to be a king. I mean, Joffrey’s a sociopath and kind of the worst, but at least he doesn’t defer to Cersei on every goddamn decision he makes! Not that he shouldn’t it’s just like, GAH, ROBB HAVE AN OPINION!

Anyway…OK, so everyone, so I may take next week off, but I may not.  Just warning you!

Here’s The Sitch: Kim Possible Season 4 Episodes 13 & 14

Watching Kim Possible has started to become such a part of my weekend routines now. I wake up on Saturday morning, I watch my episode, I go downstairs, I have breakfast. I write this post. It doesn’t always go that way, but more often than not it does.

Weird that that’s coming to an end!

Anyway, here’s this week’s write ups

Season 4: Episode 13 “Cap’n Drakken”

I love pirates. I always have, I grew up in a house where Peter Pan, in all of it’s various incarnations, is basically a sacred text. Then I was a teenager during the explosion of Pirates of The Caribbean, and my senior show was The Pirates of Penzance. 

This all goes to say, that I think an episode where Drakken is possessed by the the ghost of a long dead pirate who was defeated by Barkin’s ancestors is a splendid idea, and not just because it gives John DiMaggio a chance to do a pirate voice.

It’s senior trip week, and when a freak storm hits the beach side location, the grade is instead sent to Barkin’s father, who runs a historical village, where they must live as if it’s the 17th century. This does not go over well, and everyone is pretty bad at it, especially Bonnie.

The village was once attacked by a vicious pirate who vowed his revenge from beyond the grave. When Shego and Drakken find his gold, well, guess what happens?

The end game is a fight with ghost pirates and Kim as a pirate, and it’s wonderful.

Season 4, Episode 14 “Mathter and Fervent”

Kim and Ron have to do a paper on their hero, and Kim is doing her dad, and since Barkin said Ron wasn’t allowed to do Kim, he’s drawing a blank. His own father is a little hurt by this, and Ron is a lot oblivious about that.

Ron instead decides to do his paper on Hego, and he and Kim head to Go City, and wind up fighting Team Go’s math themed villain the Mathter. Ron winds up being changed into an anti matter, something, and it’s his dad that saves him with number powers.

This is a weird episode. I didn’t really get it. But Ron ends up writing the paper about his dad and it’s very sweet.

Boo-Yas And Nacos

• The historical village is a fun detail, but I’m wildly obsessed with Kim’s pirate outfit.
• Other fun things in the pirate fight? Monique climbs a mast and cuts a bunch of ropes, because she’s the best.
• Shego does not like to be called “Wench.”
• Watching “Mathter and Fervent” made me wish that Hego was voiced by Kevin Conroy. For…reasons. You know the reasons. Don’t play dumb.
•  Seriously, this is not a good episode. It’s OK because the other one is SO GOOD it makes up for it. But ehhh, no.

We Built This

I didn’t really know what to expect when I went into Straight Outta Compton, since I’m basically a hip hop philistine, am super white and about ten years to young too remember NWA as a unit (though obviously, have thoroughly enjoyed the talents of both Ice Cube and Doctor Dre, as I am a human being who is currently alive.) But I do really like music bio pics. (I think I’ve seen Walk The Line about a hundred times.) And I’d heard really good things about it.

Straight Outta Compton does a really good job of telling the intertwined and then divergent stories of Doctor Dre, Ice Cube and Eazy E. It contextualizes their music in it’s time and place, and makes a compelling argument about the power of popular art. Great art leaves you feeling unsettled, which is why it makes sense that Straight Outta Compton reminds us that NWA’s most lasting work is “Fuck Tha Police,” which is all about unsettling feelings.

The movie is beautifully and lovingly crafted by F. Gary Gray (who also created Friday, and thus the Ice Cube that many people know.) and paints the guys in broad almost archetypal strokes. Dre is a driven genius, who just wants to focus on creating music, caught up in a world that facilitates his art, but also distracts him from it. Cube is a world class story teller and activist who no one understands. E is a doomed hanger on, who rode to glory on the other guy’s coat tails.

If that sounds like a condemnation, I don’t mean it as one. It’s a brilliantly accessible way into this truly singular story. The young cast inhabits these legends very well, and look eerily like the real thing. In the case of O’Shea Jackson Jr. this is because he’s actually Ice Cube’s son, which is kind of a strange choice. Jackson lacks his father’s ability to take up the entire room with his presence but gets his quiet intensity right on point. I’d actually love to see a sequel staring Corey Hawkins about the Aftermath years, but it probably won’t happen. Jason Mitchell makes Eazy E so damn likable, you want to root for him, even when he’s alienating everyone

The movie is well done, and I’ve had “Fuck Tha Police” in my head for the past week.

Rankings!

1. Straight Outta Compton
2. Ant-Man
3. Mad Max: Fury Road
4. Inside Out
5. Trainwreck
6. Tomorrowland
7. Jurassic World
8. Ricki And The Flash
9. Avengers: Age of Ultron
10. Minions
11. Fantastic Four
12. Terminator: Genisys
13. Entourage
14. Pitch Perfect 2

Trailers:

Creed: Creed! Creed, Creed, Creed! Creed, Creed, Creed. Creed, Creed, CREEEEDDDD!!!! (You should be reading that to the tune of “Eye Of The Tiger.”) It looks so good. Michael B. Jordan is the best. Rocky is training him! Phylicia Rashad is his mom! GOING TO BE SO GOOD! Seriously though, this trailer is amazing, and I love that we just barely hear “Gonna Fly Now” straining at the end.

Ride Along 2: I actually thought to myself as the lights went down, “Huh, I wonder what movie Ice Cube is in this fall, I bet there’s a trailer for it.” Here it is. He’s going to hook up with Olivia Munn! Good for him!

Crimson Peak: Again. Love it.

I Got The Metaphor

Trainwreck shouldn’t be an important movie.

It just shouldn’t. It’s not a movie that does much of anything new. It’s about a young woman in New York City navigating her love life, and falling for a really good dude while learning about herself.

This movie has been made a million times. It shouldn’t be important or groundbreaking or even terribly interesting.

But Trainwreck is, for a couple of reasons. The first is that for some reason ten years ago Hollywood stopped making that movie. For no real reason. We stopped getting fun movies about girls in cute outfits falling in love. And as someone who loves those kinds of movies, this has always bummed me out.

The other reason Trainwreck is notable is Amy Schumer, is who delightful, funny, smart, and talented. Unlike the super polished rom com leading ladies that helped lead to the demise of the genre, she feels like a girl you know, and it’s nice to see. The movie never condemns Amy (also the character’s name) for being sexually active, for partying and for living life on her own terms. It does point out that she might not be doing these things for the right reasons and that she’s sort of being a jerk to the people around her.

So when Amy meets Aaron (Bill Hader) she’s baffled by his clean cut, good guy thing, and keeps trying to figure out what’s going to go wrong in their relationship. But the only thing that goes wrong is that she’s kind of an asshole. That’s it.

Last movie season I mentioned that I was grateful for Top Five, because if people who aren’t Woody Allen are going to make Woody Allen style movies, well, it makes me miss his movies less. Trainwreck feels like a Woody Allen movie, but without the weird sexism and strange older man younger woman stuff. YAY!

There’s cameos galore and they’re all great. Labron James has an MTV Movie Award ahead of him, I can feel it, even though I thought John Cena’s performance as Amy’s fitness freak sensitive boyfriend is far and away the funniest thing in this very funny movie.

Trainwreck is good, it’s funny and it’s important, even though it really shouldn’t be…

Rankings:

1. Ant-Man
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. Inside Out
4. Trainwreck
5. Tomorrowland
6. Jurassic World
7. Ricki And The Flash
8. Avengers: Age of Ultron
9. Minions
10. Fantastic Four
11. Terminator: Genisys
12. Entourage
13. Pitch Perfect 2

Trailers:

It was a morning showing so I missed a couple of them but:

Sisters: This movie was inevitable and it’s probably going to be amazing. The end.

Sailor Moon Super S: Episodes 132 & 133: Do It For The Children!

I really am in awe of how tight this arc is so far. It’s just such a change from the past  and I don’t know how I feel about it. I mean, sure, not every episode is a big game changer, but pretty much every other episode is.

In our first episode we meet Mamoru’s college friends. Did you guys know that Mamoru had friends that weren’t Motoki, who he doesn’t really talk to much anymore? I sure didn’t! I assumed he spent all of his time sitting in his apartment waiting for Usagi and Chibi-Usa to come over and yell things at him.

Anyway, one of these friends is a pretty girl, and the other friend, the dude one, is sure she has a crush on Mamo-chan,  because of reasons? (Dude friend obviously likes Lady Friend.) Chibi-Usa is understandably shaken by this, because Lady Friend is very pretty and smart and mature, and what if Mamoru decides he’d rather that than you know, polar opposite of that Usagi, and she’s never born!

To Usagi’s credit, she doesn’t much care, which is major growth for her. In the end, Tiger’s Eye, obviously, targets Lady Friend, the Moons save her and Mamo (who doesn’t even get his tux on.) And Chibi-Usa’s mind is at ease.

In our second episode, Luna and Artemis are having a fight because Artemis has a crush on a cute nun, who Mamoru also might have a crush on.

I don’t think Sailor Moon understands how nuns work.

Anyway, Luna is upset, but won’t admit why, because, Oh My God you guys I totally don’t like Artemis like that, I just want to help Usagi become the best queen she can, be. Can we just stop talking about this? (Not Luna’s actual dialog, but pretty damn close.) So while the girls try to coax Luna to talk about her feelings, a very confused Artemis and Mamo have the strangest dude talk ever.

It’s made weirder when a little grey kitten pops up and introduces herself as Artemis’s daughter and he’s all “Wahh???” And Luna shows up and she’s all ragggeee! And I’m all, OMG Diana, finally!

Anyway, Tiger’s Eye shows up at the church and tries to seduce the nun, and OMG, Sailor Moon does not get how nuns work, at all. He does eventually look into her dreams, and surprise, surprise, no Pegasus. Artemis decides to defend her, but when the Lemure catches him, it incurs the wrath of Luna and Minako.

After the fight, Diana explains who she is and Chibi-Usa totes vouches for her.

I’m glad Diana’s here, because I love her and it’s nice for Chibi-Usa to have a cat friend.  But I can’t decide if my favorite part of the episode was hearing “The Lord’s Prayer” in Japanese. (I’ve heard it in Spanish, French, Italian, Latin and of course English, but never Japanese! It was cool!) Or Rei calling the pretty nun her “competition.” Took me a bit to get it, but that is hilarious.

But seriously, Sailor Moon does not get how nuns work. Like even a little bit. Or at least, the men of Sailor Moon don’t. I shouldn’t blame the show for the characters being dumb about real world stuff.

Still no outer Senshi. Still annoying.

Game Of Thrones Winner: “Baelor”

Hoo, boy, we got a turn here. Ned is dead. Sorry about the twenty year/five year old spoiler there.

Back when I started this, my friend Kevin recommended giving this win to Ned. Because he’s actually better off. While I think that’s a decent idea, rewatching this episode, there is a clear, super duper clear, winner. And that winner is Jorah Mormont.

Jorah does his job to the max this episode, protecting both Danerys and Drogo from the blood riders wanting to seize power away from them. He also keeps trying to get Dany to leave the Khalasar, and she won’t, and he was probably right about that. I mean, yes and no, because we all know that if she’d left there’d be no dragons.

And then everything would be worse.

Runner up goes to Shae! Because we met her and she’s starting her pretty sweet life for a hot second, as Tyrion’s mistress, courtesan, thingy. Their relationship is complicated and wonderful and I’m really excited to get into it.

Hi Shae!

Missandei and Grey Worm Watch

I don’t even have a line to draw this episode, except for that Missandei probably would have at least tried to talk Dany out of all of these dumbass decisions she keeps making here. Although probably not. Grey Worm would have fought with Jorah though, and their victory would have been even greater! I was really impressed by Jorah this week you guys.

Sansa’s Agency Watch

No agency for Sansa this week. Her stupid plan to get Ned to stupid confess ends with stupidness and Ned dying. She also screams a lot while her father gets his head cut off. It’s hard to watch, and it’s hard and shitty.

Arya Bad Ass Watch

Arya catches a pigeon! It’s pretty great. We should all be really excited about Arya catching animals to feed herself. She also tries to charge at Ser Illyn who will be quite shortly cutting off her father’s head. Oh, she also betrothed to Walder Frey’s son, but we all know that this goes nowhere.

Who Was Jamie a Dick To?

Jamie was a dick to Robb and Catelyn! They captured him and he got all sassy, and also challenged Robb to single combat. Robb turned him down, because he hasn’t become a complete moron.

I’ve got to admit that watching this episode got put off because literally all I want to talk about is Straight Outta Compton. I barely care about anything else, and a lot of cool stuff has been happening in pop culture lately. Anyway, I got the episode in. Yay!

Here’s The Sitch: Kim Possible : Season 4 Episodes 11 & 12

Charging towards the end, we get two really solid episodes and one of my all time favorites. It’s a strong week for the Kim/Ron romance, which is so strongly rendered, but there’s also another tension that reveals I’ve probably been spending too much time on Tumblr…

Season 4: Episode 11 “Odds Man In”

Ron’s Dad has won actuary of the year and Ron learns all about calculating risk. This is good, except that it causes him to become overly protective of Kim, which is not so fun for Kim. She tries to convince him that she will be and is fine, but he wants to keep her safe.

The instinct is great. The execution less so. Things only get worse when he looks at his own odds of dying and winds up locking himself in a panic room, while Wade heads out on mission.

Meanwhile, Drakken is corporatizing with a cupcake bakery. That’s right, this episode aired back when cupcake bakeries were still extremely cutting edge. This subplot is all about him trying to bring on a new ice age, but for me is mostly about Shego’s job titles, which are golden.

Season 4 Episode 12 “Stop Team Go”

Shego, Hego, Mego and Wego are all summoned under false pretenses to be confronted by their electronic villain Electronique, who has just gotten out of prison. She’s using the Attitudinator to turn them evil and it does turn the guys evil, but Shego, having gone evil all on her own, goes good!

Hiding out from her vengeful brothers, Shego gets a job as a teacher at Kim’s school and then they team up to get them switched back. Also she dates Barkin.

I love this episode so much. It’s perfect in every possible capacity and best in it’s final moments, when even after being switched back, you see that Shego actually does have a real affection and respect for Kim.

Boo-Yas And Nacos

• My favorite thing about Kim and Ron’s relationship in this season is how gentle the shift is from their friendship. They’re still the same people, and the slight alterations at their interaction are more about self awareness than anything else.
• Wade is a really bad side kick. But at least he knows it.
• Kim/Shego, I ship it. Their hang outs in “Stop Team Go,” are delightful and Ron’s jealousy is palpable.
• While Shego is off being a good guy, Dr. Drakken is stuck, he is unable to open a jar of pickles, and thus requires her help.
• Electronique is basically Livewire. Which is great. Because Livewire is the best!