#terriblesplitends

heart u, nice local grandmas

I’m really interested in the optics choices that were made here -- like, obviously there are A LOT of people to choose from who are fed up with Ted Cruz, because he’s a shitheel, but this morning news piece showed exactly two people and they were both elderly white women with curly white hair who looked like a grandma from a picture book. I’m sincerely curious about where in the reporting process that decision was made -- did these just happen to be the first two people who agreed to be on TV, were they chosen as representatives by their group of activists, were they chosen by the reporter...? -- and how deliberate it was to choose two people who a lot of viewers are likely to read as

definitely non-threatening

probably very nice; might have brought cookies?

In my experience, straight people tend not to spend tons of time questioning their sexuality. And I also find that my attraction to people of different genders feels different? So yeah, take your time figuring things out for yourself. (Hopefully you're checking the notes on this, anon!)

MOTW episodes are the best! Conspiracy arc is frustrating!

FIRMLY AGREED! Although the conspiracy/mythos episodes are more likely to meet my Imperiled Mulder/Heroic Scully needs, I will give them that. (Also, more likely to feature Skinner kicking someone’s ass. I didn’t expect to be this devoted to Skinner but... I love him.)

terriblesplitends appears on a white horse on yon hill, bearing The Infoz

OH MY GOD, you talking about the lush pine forests of Iowa just reminded me that Shaenon Garrity did comic recaps of X-Files! She’s been on hiatus since last year but she got up to the end of season 4 and they’re seriously great. The link to the first one is shaenon.com/monster… and you can carry on from there (I didn’t want to just link to the site because spoilers)

I don’t think I ever replied to this, but I’ve been reading these and enjoying the hell out of them -- thank you for the link!

(My other main recap/review/commentary stops have been the A.V. Club recaps, the archived TWoP recaps (very patchy until the last couple of seasons; I’ve only gotten to read 2 so far), and Times Mulder and Scully Should Have Made Out This Week, which I fundamentally disagree with but which consistently cracks me up anyway. I got those recs from a Toast open thread; if anyone has additional recs, let me know, I am really enjoying the combination of "brand-new fandom to me” + “long-established fandom with lots of interesting thoughts and commentary”.)

replied to your post

“help i have discovered the x-files”

Please post more stuff about X-Files as you keep watching! I really want to start watching again but am having trouble getting into the mindset (it's so good! I don't know where this mental block is from!)

CAN DO! How’s this for a start, because I haven’t shut up about it since watching the episode: holy crap, the X-Files pilot is the best pilot episode. Like, normally pilots, even the pilots of quite good shows, are at least a little bit of a mess -- plot elements and relationships aren’t nailed down to their final state, actors don’t quite have their characters dialed in yet, the plot’s disconnected from the larger arc, whatever. But the X-Files pilot is... terrific? It gets a lot done in terms of filling in backstory, establishing characters and relationships, and setting up future plot elements and themes (I know I described the series as completely new to me, but I do know a little bit about where things go from here -- I was a teen nerd when the later seasons were airing -- and I can see some of that stuff starting to unfurl already), while also telling an engaging story about teens with alien problems in rural Oregon.* I argued in favor of starting with the pilot (Zack usually prefers to start shows a few episodes in, once they’ve found their footing), but expected that it would be a little bit of a mess and we’d have to watch a couple more episodes before making up our minds whether to keep going -- but I was SOLD by the end of that first episode.

You should totally take more selfies because these are delightful!