Friday, June 28, 2013

I don't even know, you guys.

I have this really important project going on right now, which is partly why I haven't written in a while (lies) and that project is: rewatching all the TV shows I loved in high school. So far this project includes: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (DONE), Alias (in progress), Six Feet Under (in progress), and my first love, the TV show that sparked my obsession for so many other shows, The X-Files.

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Solid project.

I'm almost through the end of Season 7 and I'm a bit worried that I'll stall out in Season 8, otherwise known as "the season David Duchovny gave up on aliens." My recollections of Seasons 8 and 9 are fuzzy at best, since I think by that point I was only tuning in to fast-forward to any parts where Scully got angsty about Mulder being gone, or any episodes that I knew Mulder would be in which, if I'm remembering correctly, were not very many?

I had even forgotten a lot of stuff about Season 7, which, for someone who used to keep an X-Files scrapbook of every X-Files-related article or picture she found in a magazine/TV Guide/printed-from-the-early-days-of-the-internets, is a big deal. I still have most episode titles memorized. I can still spout all manner of trivia about the series, the factoids plucked from deep recesses of my brain even after I thought I'd forgotten everything. And I still remember almost everything about Seasons 1 - 5, probably because those were the episodes I watched over and over, having taped them all and carefully labeled each VHS before storing them (in order) in a huge plastic bin under my bed. I can't believe how easy watching TV is now. AllI have to do is click a button! Back then you really had to work for it. There was no pausing the show if you had to pee really bad or if you wanted a snack, you had to wait for a commercial. If you taped something and it got messed up, you had to scour the TV Guide to see when it was going to be on again and sometimes you had to wait MONTHS. THINGS ARE SO MAGICAL NOW, YOU GUYS, LET'S CELEBRATE BY WATCHING TV ALL WEEKEND!

My favorite part about rewatching The X-Files is how different my perspective is as an adult ("adult"). Back when I first watched the show, I was obsessed with proving that Mulder and Scully were in love and wanted to have a million babies with each other. OBSESSED. There was this whole other internet world at the time, a world housed in AOL chatrooms and message boards, a world of Shippers and NoRoMos (no romance), where it was very, very important to choose a side and defend that side until you, I don't know, DIED. No, wait, actually that internet doesn't sound much different than today's internet.

Upon rewatch, though, it just doesn't seem as important. Not because I don't care or anything, PERISH THE THOUGHT. But maybe because I already know they end up together (um, spoiler alert?) or maybe because, DUH, it's so obvious that they're in love.

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Nature cuddling.

Anyway, that's not what I came here to talk about. No, this is much more important. I was watching a late Season 7 episode last night, Hollywood A.D., which some of you (one of you?) may remember was written and directed by David Duchovny. He also wrote and directed The Unnatural, which starred Jesse L. Martin (DREAMY) as an alien who just wanted to play baseball. This was also the episode where David Duchovny firmly placed himself in the Shipper Camp.

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Just normal coworker stuff.

I found myself wondering about the timing of Hollywood A.D., as there is a 16 month timejump at one point, and how it fit into the timeline of all things, the episode that aired two weeks before Hollywood A.D., an episode written and directed by Gillian Anderson in which it's heavily implied that Mulder and Scully finally do sex. (Oh, hey, also? If you want to start a war between Shippers and NoRoMos on AOL X-Files message boards, just heavily imply something like that.)

Anyway again, that's not what I came here to talk about. As I was watching Hollywood A.D., there is a bit where Scully is with the para-scientist (or something), and they're trying to hear music/sounds from a really old bowl (doesn't matter, just go with it). At one point, Scully tells him something that BLOWS HIS MIND and he says, "bazinga." He totally does. I KNOW.

Now, I don't watch The Big Bang Theory, though I don't harbor the animosity toward it that others (JOE) do, but it's a popular enough show that I'm familiar with the catchphrase "bazinga." I did some Googling (obviously) and I'm not the first to have noticed this, but as far as I can tell, no one from TBBT has addressed the connection. I didn't dig too deep, really, because...well...I don't care that much, but I do like the idea of Sheldon getting it from The X-Files because he's an X-Phile (BAM). Kind of like Xander from Buffy exclaiming, "Shpadoinkle!" (it happened at the end of Season 5, I just can't find video) because apparently he's a big Matt Stone and Trey Parker fan.

So anyway, clearly I watch too much TV. Next time we can talk about Six Feet Under and Can't Hardly Wait, which are more connected than one might think. GET EXCITED.

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