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sarea
Actually, what it should have been titled was, "Welcome to Arcadia, Alias-Style." :p
I am, of course, referring to one of my favorite guilty-pleasure episodes of The X-Files. The point is, however, that the whole go-undercover-as-a-married-couple thing has been done to death. What were they thinking?
Oh yes, I know what they were thinking. "We must make our viewers root for Sydney/Vaughn, so we are going to force it down their throats! That'll work for sure!"
Fucktards.
You know, it was bad enough when Mulder and Scully did it. But come on, they earned it. They'd had 5+ years of nothing but meaningful looks and discreet hand touches. Sydney and Vaughn have an actual relationship. You know what is even more boring than their actual relationship? Pretending to have a pretend relationship deeper than their actual relationship. Congratulations, Alias people -- I didn't think it was possible to make Syd/Vaughn more boring, but you did it. Kudos.
You know who would have been a more interesting undercover husband for Syd? ANYONE. My first choice is Sark, of course (still conspicuously absent), because that would have been so hot (especially when they were forced to work together as a team, and then would discover that hey, they make really good partners). But I would have taken Marshall. That would have been amusing. Or Dixon -- ooh, mixed-race couple! So American! Or even friggin' JACK -- creepy, but at least interesting.
And the self-conscious mocking of how "cold" and "boring" Syd/Vaughn is, obviously (to me) a dig at the ship's detractors? LAME. You aren't making me like it any more by saying, "Hey, we acknowledge that we have no spark and are boring. But our showrunner likes us, so we don't care what you think, you're getting our boring selves anyway. We like it!" And since when did this show turn into a show about SYD AND VAUGHN???? Hello!! It's about Sydney. That's her plastered all over the billboards. That's ONLY HER in all those flashes in the opening credits. So why don't you fucking buy a clue and get that we don't give a SHIT about Syd/Vaughn, and make the show interesting like it once was????????????
*takes deep, calming breaths*
Having the Syd/Vaughn is fine. Usually, there's a romantic subplot to things I like, so it's not that I'm dissing on that. I don't even mind that they're boring. But the show is not about them. It's not supposed to be about them. The fact that they can't seem to grasp this very simple concept is starting to enrage me. What made Alias so good in S1 and S2? The smart, intricate plots. The inner-circle tension. The fact that every single player had some kind of personal stake in things. There is zero tension this season. I don't get the idea that Sloane is anything but a talking head. Jack's doing some random things here and there that might possibly be interesting, but if so, they're playing those cards close to their vests. As for Nadia, she's been teamed up with Weiss in the truest sense: She gets to be in the opening credits, but have little to no role.
This used to be such a good show. It was a show that other shows should have learned to emulate. Now it's a piece of crap.
Or maybe it's trying to take a page from another successful show's book -- next week's episode looks all supernatural-y, with Syd angsting out and ooh, about to shoot Vaughn. Hmmm, where have I seen that before? Oh yes, how about "Pusher," again from The X-Files? Or even "Wetwired"? I've always thought that they wanted to make Syd/Vaughn the next Mulder/Scully. Well you know, JJ, you fucked that up in S2 by getting them involved with each other. They'll never be Mulder/Scully. They'll always be Syd/Vaughn, and what you've made Syd/Vaughn into, is synonymous with boring.
I'm sorry, Drew Goddard. I wanted to like your first episode. The writing was good. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and say that the plot was not wholly yours. I pray to the television gods that they gave you a better story for your next outing. Even you, apparently, cannot salvage the mess that is Syd/Vaughn, or really, that is the show Alias. Let's see what Jeff Bell can do. He's my last hope.
I am, of course, referring to one of my favorite guilty-pleasure episodes of The X-Files. The point is, however, that the whole go-undercover-as-a-married-couple thing has been done to death. What were they thinking?
Oh yes, I know what they were thinking. "We must make our viewers root for Sydney/Vaughn, so we are going to force it down their throats! That'll work for sure!"
Fucktards.
You know, it was bad enough when Mulder and Scully did it. But come on, they earned it. They'd had 5+ years of nothing but meaningful looks and discreet hand touches. Sydney and Vaughn have an actual relationship. You know what is even more boring than their actual relationship? Pretending to have a pretend relationship deeper than their actual relationship. Congratulations, Alias people -- I didn't think it was possible to make Syd/Vaughn more boring, but you did it. Kudos.
You know who would have been a more interesting undercover husband for Syd? ANYONE. My first choice is Sark, of course (still conspicuously absent), because that would have been so hot (especially when they were forced to work together as a team, and then would discover that hey, they make really good partners). But I would have taken Marshall. That would have been amusing. Or Dixon -- ooh, mixed-race couple! So American! Or even friggin' JACK -- creepy, but at least interesting.
And the self-conscious mocking of how "cold" and "boring" Syd/Vaughn is, obviously (to me) a dig at the ship's detractors? LAME. You aren't making me like it any more by saying, "Hey, we acknowledge that we have no spark and are boring. But our showrunner likes us, so we don't care what you think, you're getting our boring selves anyway. We like it!" And since when did this show turn into a show about SYD AND VAUGHN???? Hello!! It's about Sydney. That's her plastered all over the billboards. That's ONLY HER in all those flashes in the opening credits. So why don't you fucking buy a clue and get that we don't give a SHIT about Syd/Vaughn, and make the show interesting like it once was????????????
*takes deep, calming breaths*
Having the Syd/Vaughn is fine. Usually, there's a romantic subplot to things I like, so it's not that I'm dissing on that. I don't even mind that they're boring. But the show is not about them. It's not supposed to be about them. The fact that they can't seem to grasp this very simple concept is starting to enrage me. What made Alias so good in S1 and S2? The smart, intricate plots. The inner-circle tension. The fact that every single player had some kind of personal stake in things. There is zero tension this season. I don't get the idea that Sloane is anything but a talking head. Jack's doing some random things here and there that might possibly be interesting, but if so, they're playing those cards close to their vests. As for Nadia, she's been teamed up with Weiss in the truest sense: She gets to be in the opening credits, but have little to no role.
This used to be such a good show. It was a show that other shows should have learned to emulate. Now it's a piece of crap.
Or maybe it's trying to take a page from another successful show's book -- next week's episode looks all supernatural-y, with Syd angsting out and ooh, about to shoot Vaughn. Hmmm, where have I seen that before? Oh yes, how about "Pusher," again from The X-Files? Or even "Wetwired"? I've always thought that they wanted to make Syd/Vaughn the next Mulder/Scully. Well you know, JJ, you fucked that up in S2 by getting them involved with each other. They'll never be Mulder/Scully. They'll always be Syd/Vaughn, and what you've made Syd/Vaughn into, is synonymous with boring.
I'm sorry, Drew Goddard. I wanted to like your first episode. The writing was good. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and say that the plot was not wholly yours. I pray to the television gods that they gave you a better story for your next outing. Even you, apparently, cannot salvage the mess that is Syd/Vaughn, or really, that is the show Alias. Let's see what Jeff Bell can do. He's my last hope.
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 10:39 pm (UTC)The moment when Mulder's about to go in, and Scully hold his hands? OMG.
"Mulder, no."
"Mulder, yes. Go."
"Mulder, listen to me. Give me the gun. We can stop this thing right now. You and I can walk outside of this room..." [Mulder pulls trigger] "No! Damn you! You bastard!"
Hahahahahaha <333
no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 10:46 pm (UTC)Oh, oh and when Mulder wakes her up and is all, "I think you drooled on me." And the best line of all (that still gets quoted in our house), "Please explain the scientific nature of the whammy."
Man, if you weren't feeling the MSR then...
no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 11:39 pm (UTC)That would rock my world.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-27 01:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 12:37 am (UTC)Alias makes Kevin Smith shocked and appalled
Date: 2005-01-27 05:05 am (UTC)I will re-watch again at some point when my dad watches it, but.... yeah.
Sadly? I believe I heard someone say (because I paid no attention to the opening credits) that LAST WEEK'S EP was Jeff Bell's.
I think this just proves the point that the exec. producer/showrunner really does have a fuck of a lot to do w/the plotting, even of individual episodes, because there's not a lot an individual writer can do when he's only allowed to do this, this, and this in any given episode.
I'm really going to be interested to see what Goddard!Lost is like.
Re: Alias makes Kevin Smith shocked and appalled
Date: 2005-01-27 01:44 pm (UTC)OMG that you have just decimated my last hope. But I totally agree -- you get assigned a story to write, but the big picture story is determined without you. And it wasn't so much the writing I took issue with this time (in fact, I thought it was pretty tight), but the entire premise.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-27 05:16 am (UTC)I've just started watching this season, due to the egging-on of a RL friend. And she was SO excited about this week's, and I was thinking something was wrong with me because when Syd said "Who says we're boring?" I said Me! Me! and waved my hand in the air. :-) I thought I was seriously missing the boat, or maybe there was something in the backstory that made them interesting that I just didn't know about. . .
no subject
Date: 2005-01-27 01:48 pm (UTC)I'm sorry that you started with this season, frankly. S1 and S2 were, in a word, amazing. If you have a video store near you where you can rent it, do -- don't take my word for it. : ) S3 was problematic, but in light of this season, I'm starting to become quite fond of it.
I won't give up on Alias yet, of course -- it'll take longer to lose me completely, but I really did have such high hopes, with seasoned Angel veterans like Goddard and Bell on board. I'm hoping my patience will pay off...
no subject
Date: 2005-02-04 08:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-27 08:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-27 01:51 pm (UTC)