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I've been watching season one of X-files (also Xena. At this rate I'll get into Battlestar around 2020) It's been pretty good.
But when I saw the title of this episode I thought "Oh man, this is not going to be good". And certainly the episode could be read as playing into trans panic and the whole "bisexual men will kill you with their deadly sex" AIDS thing (especially with this being from 93) On the plus side the gender-ambiguous character's gender-ambiguity wasn't played up as being extra-specially scary or weird, they were scary because they went around killing people, and the plot was actually kind of interesting (what we saw of it, a lot wasn't really explained), on the downside it was still "gender ambiguous character kills people with sex" which..yeah.
I don't know if anyone reading this will REMEMBER this episode but hey :)
Anyway, I had some not very deep spoilery thoughts:
*********SPOILERS and TRIGGERS*****
I wasn't very far in before I thought "Am I really watching a real live action gender-swapping alien sex pollen story?" And I was! I'm not sure if showing the guy Scully kissed later as a woman would be interesting or playing into Torchwood-esque evil-bisexual-woman-with-sex-pollen territory. Maybe both. But I imagine the possibility of this in people's mind is one reason it wasn't Mulder who got almost-raped (not that I think the show quite thought of it that way. I don't know, it was weird).
Also I spent most of the episode trying to figure out why it all felt so familiar before I realised: where have I seen "Gender swapping alien runs away from it's pod to have fun sexing and murdering humans" before? The Rocky Horror Picture Show! But with Amish people!
Also people's hair length should not change when they magically change gender. Height/weight etc? I can suspend my disbelief. But hair length is just silly.
Some spoilery thoughts about the season so far:
"Eve" was also kind of interesting. I think that given how badly clones tend to be handled it was at least somewhat thoughtful. I liked how we ended up sympathising with Eve 8 (the one who escaped, gained a measure of sanity, and tried to make improved clones of herself), who was both the same as her sisters and her own person, and they at least suggested the idea of moving past one's genetic destiny. Of course they also had the girls being Pure Evil and Not Really My Daughter so..yeah.
I also really liked how Mulder was so convinced it was aliens and was totally wrong.The main reason I avoided X-files at the time was that I was imaging Mulder being all smug and annoying and fey and always right, the way spiritual types-vs-skeptics tend to be in "Everything's real!" fictional settings. But he has a sense of humour about his own wierdness, and Scully is awesome and not stupidly skeptical when it makes no sense to be. And the episode before this Mulder was the skeptic because he just really disliked the psychic, huzzah.
As much as I'm enjoying the cool female characters in this and Xena it's a bit depressing that tv reached that in the 90s and still sucks overall. Every time I hit something in X-files that reminds me of Supernatural I keep expecting the women characters to die or be evil and they (mostly) don't and it's awesome. (Apologies to my Supernatural fan friends, I realise the show has a lot of unique things going for it, but for me and my tastes X-files is "Like Supernatural, but good". The fact I prefer sf to fantasy and het to incestuous slash probably helps)
I don't know, maybe the fact it's so old means I'm willing to cut it more slack.
But when I saw the title of this episode I thought "Oh man, this is not going to be good". And certainly the episode could be read as playing into trans panic and the whole "bisexual men will kill you with their deadly sex" AIDS thing (especially with this being from 93) On the plus side the gender-ambiguous character's gender-ambiguity wasn't played up as being extra-specially scary or weird, they were scary because they went around killing people, and the plot was actually kind of interesting (what we saw of it, a lot wasn't really explained), on the downside it was still "gender ambiguous character kills people with sex" which..yeah.
I don't know if anyone reading this will REMEMBER this episode but hey :)
Anyway, I had some not very deep spoilery thoughts:
*********SPOILERS and TRIGGERS*****
I wasn't very far in before I thought "Am I really watching a real live action gender-swapping alien sex pollen story?" And I was! I'm not sure if showing the guy Scully kissed later as a woman would be interesting or playing into Torchwood-esque evil-bisexual-woman-with-sex-pollen territory. Maybe both. But I imagine the possibility of this in people's mind is one reason it wasn't Mulder who got almost-raped (not that I think the show quite thought of it that way. I don't know, it was weird).
Also I spent most of the episode trying to figure out why it all felt so familiar before I realised: where have I seen "Gender swapping alien runs away from it's pod to have fun sexing and murdering humans" before? The Rocky Horror Picture Show! But with Amish people!
Also people's hair length should not change when they magically change gender. Height/weight etc? I can suspend my disbelief. But hair length is just silly.
Some spoilery thoughts about the season so far:
"Eve" was also kind of interesting. I think that given how badly clones tend to be handled it was at least somewhat thoughtful. I liked how we ended up sympathising with Eve 8 (the one who escaped, gained a measure of sanity, and tried to make improved clones of herself), who was both the same as her sisters and her own person, and they at least suggested the idea of moving past one's genetic destiny. Of course they also had the girls being Pure Evil and Not Really My Daughter so..yeah.
I also really liked how Mulder was so convinced it was aliens and was totally wrong.The main reason I avoided X-files at the time was that I was imaging Mulder being all smug and annoying and fey and always right, the way spiritual types-vs-skeptics tend to be in "Everything's real!" fictional settings. But he has a sense of humour about his own wierdness, and Scully is awesome and not stupidly skeptical when it makes no sense to be. And the episode before this Mulder was the skeptic because he just really disliked the psychic, huzzah.
As much as I'm enjoying the cool female characters in this and Xena it's a bit depressing that tv reached that in the 90s and still sucks overall. Every time I hit something in X-files that reminds me of Supernatural I keep expecting the women characters to die or be evil and they (mostly) don't and it's awesome. (Apologies to my Supernatural fan friends, I realise the show has a lot of unique things going for it, but for me and my tastes X-files is "Like Supernatural, but good". The fact I prefer sf to fantasy and het to incestuous slash probably helps)
I don't know, maybe the fact it's so old means I'm willing to cut it more slack.
no subject
I've read that article. I've on purpose avoided commenting on it; mainly, my opinion falls near to what this commenter said, though I think they played the 'biology is destiny' stronger than what I would've liked.
Ohh, cool about you watching it in order! If you want to discuss any one in particular, we could do a watch together thing (like, we watch it at the same time or whatever).
I did that, just until before the seventh season. I've to get back at it, btw.
no subject
It's funny once you start recognising bit part actors, the same ones pop up all over the place.
I tend to watch things in big chunks with large gaps in between so I wouldn't want to make you stick to the same schedule, but if you happen to rewatch from season 1 and meta about it I will read it happily :)