The X-Files 3x03: D.P.O.
Jun. 17th, 2019 06:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsThe X-Files 3x03: D.P.O.
I’m not sure if I like this one more or less that I should, but I don’t like it the exact amount I should, though I’m not sure what that amount is either. Basically I feel kind of weird about this one I guess. It is a hard crash after some big arc episodes, and it kind of sits there like a big lump of nothing much.
And really, after sitting with it for a just a few moments I’ve sort of settled into thinking it was pretty bad. So it must have been just good enough to keep me swept along with it as the story was progressing, but once it was over its meh-to-badness caught up with it pretty quickly leaving me without much quality to reflect on.
This episode has some weird undertones that I’m not sure what to make of. There’s a lot of sexism on display, and it’s presented as bad, but the show can’t overcome its inherent issues on that front, and it’s 90s culture. The local cop talking down to Scully isn’t behavior that the show endorses, but because Scully isn’t going to be the one with the right answer ultimately she doesn’t get much in the way of real defense. Mulder is the only one who gets to show the cop up at any point, and there’s just something a little awkward in that. While Darin’s behavior to Sharon is not condoned either, again we’re not seeing her story, we’re seeing Darin’s and he never learns how wrong his behavior is. It’s prominent enough in these points that I feel like the show was trying to say something, but it hadn’t quite worked out what it was or how to say it.
There’s also a half formed theme with Mulder, Scully, and local cop making three different points on the believer scale, but it never quite hammers out any of their specific stances. Local cop doesn’t seem to have a clear stance beyond not wanting the FBI around; early on I assumed he was going to be the relatively common TXF trope of law enforcement officer with something to hide so doesn’t want the feds looking around, but that doesn’t seem to be true here. He’s mostly just obstinate for obstinate’s sake and if they were trying to do some sexism commentary, we should have probably seen more difference in how he treated Scully vs. Mulder. Mulder doesn’t seem to come onto this case with some crazy theory about what’s causing these deaths, so his perspective mostly comes across as being that they haven’t had an open enough mind on the investigations. Which Scully kind of seems to agree with, but no one is sure if she’s a sceptic or a believer at this point so her position isn’t really worked out.
The interesting angle if they had been willing to change up the prior status quo would have been to have Scully clearly much more ready than before to say that the facts available don’t add up and need to be more fully investigated; not insisting that what they will find is going to be paranormal, but that they’re not going to accept the easy explanation. This would made her stand apart from the far more skeptical local police who don’t see a reason not to accept it as coincidence, a step toward being Mulder pushing against the restraint of accepted scientific explanations, but still more rational than him about forming those conclusions. I do think that’s kind of what they were doing, but not being committed to it leaves it feeling more like inconsistency than continuing her arc. And if they were trying to do something with its veiled sexism commentary, it might have highlighted how Mulder’s male privilege lets him walk around spouting crazy theories and not enough people talk down to him for it, but Scully ends up with a harder road to walk. But again, that’s at most hinted at in story.
The end also doesn’t quite work for me. For one, in the broad sense, there is plenty of evidence of this guy’s abilities; like Tooms, this guy should probably be studied and investigated and documented. It seems like they’re saying he got his powers from the first lightning strike he survived, but then it’s not clear how the last lightning strike seems to have incapacitated him more than the one (implied to have happened a few times) out in the field did so that this time they could arrest and lock him up. Also, I’m confused as to whether the lightning strikes were a case of him needing to power up occasionally or if he just got off on it. And while this does seem like a more clear cut case of something I commented on back in Soft Light, making the local cop’s obstinateness lead to his death (which was not clear cut in that case) but it also kind of comes out of nowhere, and again like it’s trying to say something that it really doesn’t have a handle on what it means.
With all that, I still suppose this wasn’t an awful episode, so I guess I’m still sort of bouncing around on how I feel about it.
Previous status
Never seen before
When are we?
The dates on the arcade machine put us the days following 9-12-1995. Scully also says that the events of the three-parter were fairly recent which is not true at that point considering that was back in April.
Vancouver spotting
I don’t think baby Jack Black is a Vancouver spotting, but it’s definitely worth noting.
Are we saying it’s aliens?
Darin would probably be helpful fighting aliens, but there’s no indication of them involved here.
Scully’s convenient miss of the week
When Mulder insisted that Scully stay behind I was sure he was going to get into a fight with Darin in the stairway and of course Scully couldn’t be there for that as it would mean she saw a guy throwing lightning. That’s not quite the way it played out, and I’m not even sure how she missed what happened on the lawn, considering she was like three steps away while it was happening.
How crazy does Mulder sound?
This is a weird case where Mulder seems to be keeping everything fairly close to the chest, so he rarely sounds crazy, but he basically has nothing to do in this story. Did they write some s3 episodes not sure if they were going to have Mulder and Scully apart for a while?
Can DD act?
He seems a bit more relaxed than he did the last few episodes, since he isn’t being called on to do much more than be present in a scene. I’m not saying it’s quality work but it’s less distractingly weird.
Is it rapey?
It’s more sexual harassment-y, although Darin likely intended it to go further so...kind of yeah.
I’m not sure if I like this one more or less that I should, but I don’t like it the exact amount I should, though I’m not sure what that amount is either. Basically I feel kind of weird about this one I guess. It is a hard crash after some big arc episodes, and it kind of sits there like a big lump of nothing much.
And really, after sitting with it for a just a few moments I’ve sort of settled into thinking it was pretty bad. So it must have been just good enough to keep me swept along with it as the story was progressing, but once it was over its meh-to-badness caught up with it pretty quickly leaving me without much quality to reflect on.
This episode has some weird undertones that I’m not sure what to make of. There’s a lot of sexism on display, and it’s presented as bad, but the show can’t overcome its inherent issues on that front, and it’s 90s culture. The local cop talking down to Scully isn’t behavior that the show endorses, but because Scully isn’t going to be the one with the right answer ultimately she doesn’t get much in the way of real defense. Mulder is the only one who gets to show the cop up at any point, and there’s just something a little awkward in that. While Darin’s behavior to Sharon is not condoned either, again we’re not seeing her story, we’re seeing Darin’s and he never learns how wrong his behavior is. It’s prominent enough in these points that I feel like the show was trying to say something, but it hadn’t quite worked out what it was or how to say it.
There’s also a half formed theme with Mulder, Scully, and local cop making three different points on the believer scale, but it never quite hammers out any of their specific stances. Local cop doesn’t seem to have a clear stance beyond not wanting the FBI around; early on I assumed he was going to be the relatively common TXF trope of law enforcement officer with something to hide so doesn’t want the feds looking around, but that doesn’t seem to be true here. He’s mostly just obstinate for obstinate’s sake and if they were trying to do some sexism commentary, we should have probably seen more difference in how he treated Scully vs. Mulder. Mulder doesn’t seem to come onto this case with some crazy theory about what’s causing these deaths, so his perspective mostly comes across as being that they haven’t had an open enough mind on the investigations. Which Scully kind of seems to agree with, but no one is sure if she’s a sceptic or a believer at this point so her position isn’t really worked out.
The interesting angle if they had been willing to change up the prior status quo would have been to have Scully clearly much more ready than before to say that the facts available don’t add up and need to be more fully investigated; not insisting that what they will find is going to be paranormal, but that they’re not going to accept the easy explanation. This would made her stand apart from the far more skeptical local police who don’t see a reason not to accept it as coincidence, a step toward being Mulder pushing against the restraint of accepted scientific explanations, but still more rational than him about forming those conclusions. I do think that’s kind of what they were doing, but not being committed to it leaves it feeling more like inconsistency than continuing her arc. And if they were trying to do something with its veiled sexism commentary, it might have highlighted how Mulder’s male privilege lets him walk around spouting crazy theories and not enough people talk down to him for it, but Scully ends up with a harder road to walk. But again, that’s at most hinted at in story.
The end also doesn’t quite work for me. For one, in the broad sense, there is plenty of evidence of this guy’s abilities; like Tooms, this guy should probably be studied and investigated and documented. It seems like they’re saying he got his powers from the first lightning strike he survived, but then it’s not clear how the last lightning strike seems to have incapacitated him more than the one (implied to have happened a few times) out in the field did so that this time they could arrest and lock him up. Also, I’m confused as to whether the lightning strikes were a case of him needing to power up occasionally or if he just got off on it. And while this does seem like a more clear cut case of something I commented on back in Soft Light, making the local cop’s obstinateness lead to his death (which was not clear cut in that case) but it also kind of comes out of nowhere, and again like it’s trying to say something that it really doesn’t have a handle on what it means.
With all that, I still suppose this wasn’t an awful episode, so I guess I’m still sort of bouncing around on how I feel about it.
Previous status
Never seen before
When are we?
The dates on the arcade machine put us the days following 9-12-1995. Scully also says that the events of the three-parter were fairly recent which is not true at that point considering that was back in April.
Vancouver spotting
I don’t think baby Jack Black is a Vancouver spotting, but it’s definitely worth noting.
Are we saying it’s aliens?
Darin would probably be helpful fighting aliens, but there’s no indication of them involved here.
Scully’s convenient miss of the week
When Mulder insisted that Scully stay behind I was sure he was going to get into a fight with Darin in the stairway and of course Scully couldn’t be there for that as it would mean she saw a guy throwing lightning. That’s not quite the way it played out, and I’m not even sure how she missed what happened on the lawn, considering she was like three steps away while it was happening.
How crazy does Mulder sound?
This is a weird case where Mulder seems to be keeping everything fairly close to the chest, so he rarely sounds crazy, but he basically has nothing to do in this story. Did they write some s3 episodes not sure if they were going to have Mulder and Scully apart for a while?
Can DD act?
He seems a bit more relaxed than he did the last few episodes, since he isn’t being called on to do much more than be present in a scene. I’m not saying it’s quality work but it’s less distractingly weird.
Is it rapey?
It’s more sexual harassment-y, although Darin likely intended it to go further so...kind of yeah.
