TV Meme

[amberfocus]

Day 04  Your Favorite Show Ever

You thought I was going to say Doctor Who, didn't you?  But it's not.  Rose and the Doctor may be my all time favorite OTP, but the show itself?  I adore it, but no.  There are other shows that I have loved more in my lifetime even if there is no pairing I am more devoted to than Doctor/Rose.  There is one show that tops that list hands down.  It was a show I never missed an episode of until the main lead left, except the one with the creepy baby doll that came to life.  I won't watch those types of eps for anything.





According to wiki:
In the series, FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are the investigators of the X-Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder is a believer in the existence of aliens and the paranormal, while Scully, a skeptic, is assigned to make scientific analyses of Mulder's discoveries. Early in the series both agents become pawns in a larger conflict, and come to trust only each other. They develop a close relationship, which begins as a platonic friendship, but develops into a romantic relationship by the end of the series' run.

Ah, Mulder and Scully, I shipped you hard, but I loved your friendship most of all.  This whole best friends thing that I adore in Doctor Who with Rose and the Doctor and in Fringe with Olivia and Peter, started with my adoration of this beautiful friendship on X-Files.  Yes, it turned to romance and yes, I wanted it to.  But I cared about it so much because they loved each other dearly on a friend level first and then they built that friendship into something more.  It was never pefect, but you didn't for one moment doubt that they didn't care deeply for each other amidst the snarky banter and genuine affection.  Plus, you know, good acting, good writing, spooky plots, conspiracy theories, aliens, scientific explanations that actually made sense (I'm looking at you, New Who) and weird phenomena are always a plus.  But you could have all that and if it weren't for the characterization (I'm looking at you Stephen Moffat) of Mulder and Scully this show never would have gotten off the ground.  Because it did, it lasted a decade.  It was can't miss television before it had been defined.  It was what made can't miss television.  And the quality of such a show is sorely missed.

Runner up:  Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Comments

[lady0fthesith.livejournal.com]

First off I LOVE X-files. Huge Mulder & Scully fan. I even named my first cat Scully! Anyway, I wanted to talk about:

But you could have all that and if it weren't for the characterization (I'm looking at you Stephen Moffat) of Mulder and Scully this show never would have gotten off the ground.

I'm really glad you said it because it's helped me with this little feeling in the back of my mind about this new series of Who. I'm loving Amy and Eleven. I really am. They're entertaining as heck, and there's been some great emotional moments as well. BUT, I'm having a really hard time in some ways getting a handle on them as characters. I never ever felt this way about Nine, Ten, Rose, or any of the others. But after nine episodes I'm just still feeling a little like I don't really know them. And I think you just articulated why that is for me. lol

[tenpastfour.livejournal.com]

OMG! I couldn't have said it better if I wanted to.

I was a hardcore X-Files shipper in the day. Mulder/Scully was my very first ship! My second ship venture? Buffy/Spike. I just never could jump on the Buffy/Angel bandwagon because it was too cliche even for me. Heh.

[spellweaver731.livejournal.com]

Ah, The X-Files my first TV love and my first ship...also my first forays into fanfic and fandom. It was a beautiful thing. Maybe it's time to pull out my DVDs for a re-watch.

But you could have all that and if it weren't for the characterization (I'm looking at you Stephen Moffat) of Mulder and Scully this show never would have gotten off the ground. Maybe the Moff should pull out the DVDs too, I doubt it would do him any good though.

[lostmoon71.livejournal.com]

I tried to watch X-Files once, but I couldn't get very far. The episode involved an icepick to the brain, as I recall. Typical? Or outlier? Because lots of people whose taste I really trust seem to love to show--but that one (part of an) episode was too hard to watch.

Did I just draw a bad hand there? Should I try again?

[alizarin-skies.livejournal.com]

This whole best friends thing that I adore in Doctor Who with Rose and the Doctor and in Fringe with Olivia and Peter, started with my adoration of this beautiful friendship on X-Files

YES. THIS EXACTLY :D It's become a prototype of my ideal ships since :D

and amen also to this, like everyone else ;)

But you could have all that and if it weren't for the characterization (I'm looking at you Stephen Moffat) of Mulder and Scully this show never would have gotten off the ground.

[lillibetm3.livejournal.com]

I used to watch The X Files. And I still remember how much the episodes 'Squeeze' and 'Our Town' disturbed me. :P

They had quality stories for a while, but then it pretty much all began to revolve around 'cancer man', and I lost interest.

But the scary/quirky/weird/monster/alien stuff - those shows were fab. :)

[juliet316]

This. Moffatt's stories seem to be plot driven, whereas RTD's stories seemed to be more character based.

[juliet316]

You probably did. The mytharc episodes are a bit better,even if the plot gets a bit convulted sometimes. Ironically enough those eps seem to be the ones that have the most character driven scenes to them.

[juliet316]

You know? Somehow this just doesn't surprise me that your an X-Files fan. Especially when you consider that Torchwood has many shades of X-files in it. Ironically enough, I can kind of see parallels between Mulder and Scully and LOF's John Smith/Rose. Only, on the battleground of time travel it's Rose that's the believer and John that's the skeptic.

And you've hit upon a very big problem I've been having with Moffatt's Who in your comments. As much as I like a good plot, if I can't feel something for the characters, the plot doesn't mean jack to me. It's clear that Moffatt's a more plot driven writer and it shows. RTD for all his faults at plot, was a character - driven writer. One would hope that some character driven stuff shows up before 5x13, but well, let's just say it'll be interesting to see how certain things unfold across the line over the summer and into the next series.

[lady0fthesith.livejournal.com]

Hmm yes very much. Seems like there must be a way to strike a balance between the two!

[juliet316]

You would think, but even X-Files lost that battle every now and then. So who knows? But right now for those who's focus is soley for the characters, Doctor Who is providing only plot and nothing to make us care about the characters of Amy and Eleven (the fact that the acting, with very few exceptions, is not as top notch as past seasons doesn't help either since the actors don't seem capable of 'rising above the material' so to speak and make their characters come to life) and that hurts for those fans who liked RTD's character driven material.

[magali29.livejournal.com]

Oh, the X-files, my first tv love. It was really the show not to miss on tv, back in the days. Even now, it's a classic.