172: A Goodly Length in Times Past

[thefourthvine]

Okay, so, um, before we get to the recs (and there are recs - I know! I'm as stunned as you are), I have a question. Sadly, these leads us into deeply contentious waters, and I seriously considered hiding this behind a cut tag, because I love Best Beloved and don't want her to be lynched. But I trust you guys

Comments

[katie_m]

And, yes. I am perfectly willing to have billions of off-screen deaths in exchange for my on-screen happy ending.

Exactly! Really, one's got to have one's priorities in order.

actually, they're kind of two-thirds of one long story

Oh, now I'm curious. Is it the front or back that you feel is missing?

(Thanks for the rec!)

[thefourthvine]

Really, one's got to have one's priorities in order.

Absolutely. Sometimes, worlds have to end. I accept this - no, I support it. If it takes an apocalypse to get to the happy ending, then by god we will have a damn apocalypse.

Is it the front or back that you feel is missing?

I feel sort of weird talking about this, largely because I'm afraid I won't explain it right. It's not that there's something missing, exactly - the story as it stands is a complete arc. It doesn't read like a work in progress or anything. And I love the story as it is. Just, okay. Sometimes, when I read something multiple times, as I will if I'm going to rec it, it's like - I feel like there's another part of the story in a specific place, lurking around the edges or right in the middle or between two sections or whatever.

To me, the front end of Wrong Story/Wandering Blind is complete, especially given Paths Worth Exploring and Needs and Standards. (I am curious about where Jack was those first two years, but that would be a new story, not part of this

[katie_m]

No, it does make sense, I think, but I'll e-mail you--again, just curiosity, not ruffled feathers. It was a tricky story to end at all, and I was well aware that the communications equipment MacGuffin was still kind of hanging there at the end.

[siegeofangels]

Yay, recs! And on a three-day weekend, no less.

"The end of the world is the first day of the rest of our lives."

God, yes. You've read frostfire-17's latest, yes? With the apocalypse and the awesome?

[thefourthvine]

I have not, in fact, read frostfire_17's latest, although I am really looking forward to it. I've been saving it, because I have the sense that once I start on it, I will not want to do anything else until it's finished. (And, okay, also because I've been ludicrously weepy the last few weeks, and, well, sometimes it's not good to start an apocalypse story in that state of mind. But mostly I'm just waiting for the right day, which I have all picked out and everything.)

[lilacsigil]

Seasons 1-5 of X-Files are just fantastic, 6-7 are of variable quality, 8 is mostly bad and 9 is dreadful. If your Best Beloved doesn't like the treatment of Scully in S1, though, she may not enjoy the rest of the series. My absolute favourite season is Season 5, but a lot of that plays off having seen earlier seasons - 1 and 2 are the only two that really stand alone.

[thefourthvine]

*thoughtful*

Thank you; this is good to know. Seasons four and five are getting lots of votes for being the best; I wonder if BB will consider it worth watching just to get to them. And everyone seems to think that the show went seriously downhill after season five. I'm now really curious about what happened at that point.

I may try to get BB to come up with some more specific questions about her Scully Issues, because at this point the only one I've heard from her is, "Does Scully ever get to be right?"

[cofax7]

The answer to that depends. Scully's often right about Mulder being unwise about rushing in where angels fear to tread.

However Scully is almost never right about the explanation for the macguffin of the episode. The deck is stacked against her in that. But she's often right about people, strategy, and Mulder being a dumbass. Also, she is Scully and she is awesome. It's the writers who cheat her out of her awesomeness.

X-Files

[par_avion]

I think the best season is s4. Beginning of 5 is good too.

Re: X-Files

[iamrosalita]

I would agree with that.

Re: X-Files

[thefourthvine]

*nods*

And we notch up another vote for the season 4/5 cluster.

Thank you!

[flambeau]

Personally, I loved XF up through s5 -- not every episode equally, of course, but still. I kept watching s6 and stopped about halfway through s7, although I have every episode on tape and may... may possibly watch them one day. or not.

Sorry. Bad breakup, and all that. *g*

[flambeau]

They are and they will, and it took me five years to get into an actual on-the-air-right-now tv show fandom again. I still feel there's something reckless and bold about it. *g*

[thefourthvine]

Sorry. Bad breakup, and all that.

I remember when the your-fandoms-as-boy/girlfriends meme was going around. It seemed like everyone's description of X-Files went something like this: "I loved you more than I thought I could love anyone. You opened my eyes, changed who I was as a person, made me happier than I thought I could be. And then you changed. And you hurt me more than I thought I could be hurt. You helped make me who I am today. And I can't even think about you now without wanting to punch something." It was a guess-the-fandom meme, and somehow I could almost always pick out the X-Files description.

So, yeah, the bad breakup was not exactly news to me. (And what is it with season fives? It seems like shows that make it past season five suffer a precipitous decline in quality right about then. Is it the Cursed Season, just generally?)