Here is the debut of Lindsay Carl’s X-Files review on Heath’s World.  Lindsay is a Film List podcast listener who has sent me some great genre Top 10 lists.  AS we continued to talk, she has recently started to watch the X-Files.  Oh yes, for the first time!  To get a fresh perspective on the amazing TV series, I asked Lindsay to write her thoughts as she explores each season.  Lindsay will contribute to Heath’s World as she completes each viewing of an X-Files season. 

Remember, there are a lot of X-Files fans out there.  Especially the ones who watched the show from the beginning.  So for someone watching the show for the first time in 2009, it may not have the same effect.  Or will it?  So go easy.  But all is fair in love and the X-Files.  And remember, the truth is out there……

Lindsay is the first blogger I have brought on to the site.  So check out her debut below, X-Files Review : Fresh Eyes.

LINDSAY’S X-FILES SEASON 1 REVIEW :

I am thrilled that Heath asked me to contribute to his blog in
discussing my first viewing of The X-Files. So first things first:
Heath, thank you for the opportunity, and for suggesting this show to
me in the first place!

*Note: I apologize in advance for my love of commas, semicolons,
parenthesis, brutal honesty, and sarcasm =)

I began watching Season 1 this of The X-Files this October, not
knowing much about the show other than what the title suggests. In the
pilot episode, I got a better feel of what the premise would be: Agent
Fox Mulder (probably the coolest name ever, next to Wolfgang Puck) is
an FBI special agent who has been assigned a special set of
unexplained or mysterious cases called the X-Files. Agent Dana Scully
is assigned to work with him on these cases, but is a woman of
science, and completely opposes belief in the supernatural. This
premise alone struck interest in me.

The first unavoidable thing I noticed was how dated it was; in
quality, special effects, and the atrocious 90’s attire. But this is
entirely my fault for watching it a decade too late, I suppose. My
first reaction: Ahhh! Fox Mulder’s hair is SO 90’s that it hurts. And
don’t even get me started on Dana Scully’s dated, shoulder-padded
trench coat. But once I got past that, it got better.

A suggestion to any other new, first-time watchers, DO NOT base your
opinions on the Pilot; or the first several episodes for that matter.
Here are some episodes that really stood out to me (for better or
worse):

Deep Throat (Ep.2) – I wasn’t a big fan of the pilot, but this
episode was far more my style. I have a special place in my heart for
government conspiracies, and this one delves into the possibility that
the government is already WELL aware of UFOs, to the point where
similar vehicles are being tested at an air force base.

Conduit (Ep. 3) – Not much to say about this one. It was a little
TOO sci-fi for me; definitely straddled the line between sci-fi and
ridiculous. But seeing ‘Horace Goodspeed’ made me smile.

Ghost in the Machine (Ep. 7) – I watched this one twice. The first
time, it didn’t keep my attention at all. But I really liked it the
second time. It reminded me of ‘Wargames’, which is one of my favorite
movies of all time. I love the idea of computers becoming so highly
intelligent that they can outsmart humans. We can certainly see this
happening now: computers get smarter, and people get dumber =)

ICE (Ep. – This was by far my favorite of the entire season. I
liked that it had the sci-fi aspect, but the idea of a creepy
prehistoric parasitic outbreak really isn’t beyond the realm of
reality.

EVE (Ep. 11) – I wanted to like this episode. I really did. But it
was just way too unrealistic for me. And the acting of those little
girls just got under my skin.

Gender Bender (Ep. 14) – As much as I disliked EVE for being too
unrealistic, on the contrary, I loved this one. The creep-factor was
awesome! There is something extremely disturbing to me about a group
of people who live outside of society, but in a good way. This episode
really pulled it off.

Shapes (Ep. 19) – For what it’s worth, I really noticed a big shift
in acting abilities with the characters in this episode. They cast the
supporting actors very well, which is something I kind of had a
problem with in past episodes. I also had big laughs when Mulder and
Scully tried saying ‘Mr. Goodensnake’ with a completely serious face.
Also, when the famous LOST line, “DON’T TELL ME WHAT I CAN’T DO!!!”
made a cameo.

Darkness Falls (Ep. 20) – I loved this episode for the same reason I
loved ‘ICE’. The realism in the idea that insects could take over the
world. I am actually surprised they haven’t already! Very good concept
overall.

Tooms (Ep. 21) – At first, I felt cheated when I realized that this
was a ‘part 2’ of a previous episode. But I enjoyed this episode much
more than its previous counterpart. They go a little deeper into the
relationship between Mulder and Scully on a much more personal level.
Scully showed a lot more personality than in episodes passed. Also
Tooms licking his fingers after picking up that decomposing rat:
grossest thing EVER! It was awesome.

The Erlenmeyer Flask (Finale) – This episode certainly hooked me,
for sure. It ended with an excellent cliffhanger, and it left me
wanting to see more. And again, the government conspiracy plot was
really interesting to me. The ONLY part I disliked was seeing the
monkey in cages, which made me shed a tiny tear. I also noticed that
the intro was different. Usually, the words “The Truth is Out There”.
In this episode, it said “Trust No One”. If this was an attempt to
peak interest in the viewer, it certainly worked for me. It leaves me
wondering if maybe season 2 will have this ‘trust no one’ theme. But I
guess we will see!

There are some general qualms I had with the show. First, I do not
understand this desexualization of Scully. She is a gorgeous woman,
and it seems as though they completely disregard this. She is always
so serious, unfeminine, unemotional, and ‘all business, all the time’,
it’s sometimes hard to watch. But I did notice that she breaks out of
her ‘beige trenchcoat’ of a shell  a little more at the end, and I
really hope her character develops a little more going forward.

The constant ‘serious-face’ glances between Mulder and Scully in every
episode EVERY time someone else is talking is a bit much. I understand
they are trying to dramatize the situation, but it’s overkill at
times. The fact that I watched two or three episodes at time may
contribute to this, making it seem like it happens a lot more often
than it really does.

And as I had mentioned before, the acting was often pretty horrible.
Although I could tell that Duchovny and Anderson are getting a lot
more comfortable in their roles and with each other toward the
seasons’ end. However, the rest of the casting could still use a
little work. I am guessing that the funding for the show will increase
in seasons to come, and better actors can be afforded.

I know, I know. I have a lot of complaints. I guess this might come
from the fact that I have been exposed to LOST which is the best show
in the universe. Yes, the UNIVERSE (What’s that saying about filet
mignon and bologna?) BUT alas, I am very excited to get into season 2
and continue watching. It is overall a very interesting concept as a
whole, and extremely entertaining. And I am confident that some, if
not all of the issues I do have with the show will be eliminated as
the series progresses.

Thanks for reading!
~Lindsay (youllshootyoureyeout)

Okay, so hopefully I can start to do this a little more often now that things in my personal life have settled down.  That said, let’s talk about TV’s second-most-successful SF show right now, Fringe!  What with the traveling to alternate universes where Leonard “Belly” Nimoy stopped 9/11 or something and the consistent forgetting of plot elements it’s sometimes hard to remember that this show started as – and continues to be – an X-Files calque.

I’ll fill these in later as I go on, but let’s start with the fifteenth episode of the first season, “Inner Child.”  This was the first one to air after the mid-season break, and one of the first not to show any major X-Files influences.  But that’s not to say it doesn’t deal with ground that show dealt with fifteen years ago.

So here we are at “Inner Child,” which has all sorts of fun things – feral children (“Jersey Devil”), serial killers (any number of episodes of any show, ever), introduces the show’s good FBI vs. evil CIA stuff (the Syndicate), and creepy bald psychic kids (Gibson Praise).  The kid also looks a little like the flukeman, but that’s beside the point.   This episode also totally blows, which makes it a lot harder to talk about.  Unlike Gibson or that feral missing link kid the child found in this episode is portrayed as pretty much entirely normal, aside from the amazing abilities granted him by living in an underground rat-filled vault.  Aside, that is, from the fact that he looks like a tiny Observer.  Frankly, about the only interesting thing in this episode is John Noble dancing to Al Green’s “Love and Happiness,” the first of the show’s musical interludes – and, I think, a pretty big step in the development of the Walter character as he becomes more comfortably weird than he was in the beginning of the season.  Mostly a forgettable monster-of-the-week otherwise, though.

A winter one, that is! As much as it’s hard to get excited about snow in Kirksville from the beginning of November until (seemingly) the end of March, Moscow snow will always get a thumbs-up from me. Primarily because the resulting blanket of white is a nice change of scenery for what is otherwise an intensely dirty and endlessly gray city. Not to say that it’s never beautiful, but it’s been two weeks since a cloud broke around this place. I’m beginning to forget what the sun looks like. Or at least how it makes everything else look. The best part about getting snow every few days though:  walking off of the sidewalks so you can hear that squeaky-crunchy noise it makes against the soles of your sneakers. You know, it’s the simple things in life.

That being said, the simple things are really the ones we can count on at this point in the trip. We’ve hit a wall it seems, the “grab the guidebook so we can figure out what to do today–uhhh, we’ve already done all of these things” wall. Which means being satisfied with walks around certain parts of the city, including the Novodevichy Convent I visited about a week and a half ago. We couldn’t access more than one building (the Smolensk Cathedral’s being renovated until May), but perusing the slushy grounds and taking a lot of photos of buildings I couldn’t even begin to say anything intelligent about turned out to be activities worthy of the day. Even though our days here appear to be getting shorter and shorter–no real light after about 5 p.m. Of course, now I know why Russians write such long novels. It has everything to do with the 7-hour evenings.

Along with the Russian winter come any number of things: babushkas selling shawls and rabbit fur muffs, dogs sleeping on newspapers in the metro, kids looking like marshmallow monsters in Dr. Seuss-esque hats. What still baffles me is how early Muscovites don heavy winter coats, hats, and scarves. Anytime the temperature drops below 50 fahrenheit, these people get out their Siberian gear. And, they think you’re totally nuts if you don’t do the same. I’m thinking, “Really. Doesn’t it get down to the negative double digits here in January?” Sadly, I will not be around long enough to figure out how they dress for subzero temperatures. Maybe they wear moose skins. One could only hope.

When we went to look at the convent a week or so ago, we also stopped by the adjacent cemetery, mostly because a few super-famous authors are buried there, including Anton Chekhov and Nikolai Gogol. Trust me, Americans don’t do monuments like the Russians do monuments; they go the whole nine yards for every Soviet war commissar, ex-dictator, and sports coach. This set of flowers adorned the grave of a man I assume was once a celebrity coach for the Spartaks. The fake flowers had aged quite a bit and turned strange shades of fuchsia and purple, making the assortment look sort of morbid and beautiful at the same time.

Speaking of death, I recently listened to a superb episode of This American Life entitled “Fear of Sleep” that, in its final minutes, addressed people citing fear of death as the cause of their insomnia, something I’ve thought of at least a dozen times in the past few years. The episodes runs through different scenarios of sleep deprivation: scary movies, disorders, etc. As a kid, I couldn’t sleep for days after seeing the least terrifying episode of The X-Files at Stephanie’s house. I would highly recommend it (TAL not X-Files), and it’s quite free on iTunes.

Follow along with The X-Files season 3 roundtable podcast as we go over episode by episode of the third season of the X-Files.  This podcast is exclusively found on The Film List  and Re-Opening the X-Files podcasts. Ratings are out of 10 point scale.

Podcast goes live on talkshoe at 1030pm est, tonight 11-17-09.  AD Heath Solo, Agent Donald and Agent Shadow will be joined by a new agent, Agent Nathan.

X-FILES SEASON 3

Season 3, Episode 1 – Aired: 9/22/1995

The Blessing Way (2)

Scully finds her career with the FBI in jeopardy as Mulder is still missing and The Cigarette Smoking Man is pursuing the stolen files. The Navajo elders find Mulder’s body in a cave and perform an ancient ceremony to call the spirit back to the empty vessel.

RATING : 9.5

Paper Clip (3)

Assistant Director Skinner and Scully are at a standoff when Mulder bursts in and discovers that Skinner has the digital tape. Reunited, Mulder and Scully travel to a secret vault inside a mine and find an elaborate filing system of medical records which reveals that Mulder’s sister may not have been the first choice for abduction. Meanwhile, Skinner deals with the Cigarette Smoking Man for their safety.

RATING : 9.8

D.P.O.

When a small town chalks up five lightning-related deaths, Mulder suspects something is amiss in rural America. Despite the apparent validity of the autopsy results Mulder asks her to review, Scully, for once finds herself in perfect agreement with her partner- especially when the suspect jump-starts his boss’s heart-bare-handed.

RATING : 8.2

Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose

In the midst of a psychic sideshow while on a murder case, Mulder and Scully enlist the help of a man who may have a true psychic ability to foresee how people will die to help the agents catch a man killing fortune tellers.

RATING :  9.3

The List

No-one takes much notice when a death row inmate vows on the electric chair to come back from the dead and kill 5 men who have wronged him during his time in prison; until a guard is mysteriously murdered in the former inmate’s cell.

RATING :  8.6

2Shy

A serial killer with unusual tastes is doing his stalking on the internet, luring women to him by capitalizing on their vulnerabilities, using his knack for playing into the most desperate desires. His ‘long distance’ approach makes apprehension difficult-and complicating Scully and Mulder’s investigations further in his habit of digesting his dates, making it nearly impossible to identify his victims.

RATING :  8.7

The Walk

After a suicide attempt and multiple murders at a military hospital, Mulder and Scully meet a quadruple amputee who has gained the power of Astral Projection and is taking out his personal frustrations on his commanding officers.

RATING :  7.7

Oubliette

Mulder seeks the help of a woman whom he believes has a special connection with a young girl who has recently been kidnapped by the same man who held her captive many years earlier.

RATING :  9.1

Nisei (1)

An investigation into a video of an alien autopsy puts Mulder and Scully in the middle of a conspiracy involving WWII Japanese scientists brought to America to continue their experiments which may shed light on Scully’s abduction.

RATING :  9.5

731 (2)

Mulder is trapped inside a train car which contains a suspected alien-human hybrid and also a bomb, while Scully pursues the truth about her abduction and the mystery behind the implant in her neck.

RATING :  9.2

Revelations

Mulder and Scully swap roles as they pursue a man killing priests who claim to have the wounds of Christ. The agents find and must protect a young boy who may be a real stigmatic. While Scully’s faith draws her closer to the boy, Mulder is convinced of another explanation.

RATING :  8.2

War of the Coprophages

Widespread panic is caused in a small community after numerous deaths are linked to killer cockroaches and a government agricultural agency is discovered to have set up a secret experiment involving insects.

RATING : 9.8

Syzygy

A rare planetary alignment causes strange behaviour in the residents of a small town but particularly in two teenage girls who were born at the exact same moment on that particular date.

RATING :  7.9

Grotesque

A serial killer is captured after a three year manhunt and he claims an evil spirit is responsible for the crimes. When the killings continue as he sits in jail, Mulder’s battle with a former colleague gets more heated when he suggests that something more paranormal may be involved.

RATING : 9.1

Piper Maru (1)

A French salvage ship searching for a lost WWII fighter plane unknowingly surfaces an alien which appears in the form of black oil and has the ability to jump hosts. Mulder heads to Hong Kong to investigate the salvage broker who sold the information to the French and he encounters Krycek, who has been selling information from the MJ Documents. As Mulder prepares to take Krycek back to the US, the alien makes its way to Hong Kong and takes control of Krycek.

RATING :  9.7

Apocrypha (2)

Mulder pursues Krycek, not knowing about the alien that has taken over his body, to get back the DAT tape containing the MJ Documents. Meanwhile, the shooting of AD Skinner uncovers evidence that could lead Scully to her sister’s murderer.

RATING :  9.3

Pusher

Mulder and Scully are asked to help in a case involving Robert Patrick Modell, a murderer possessing a psychic ability to force his will onto people. Due to a brain tumor that is slowly killing him, he is searching for a “worthy adversary” and he forces Mulder into a battle of mind over matter.

RATING :  8.9

Teso Dos Bichos

When a series of deaths occur immediately after an ancient artefact is brought to Boston from an excavation site in South America, Scully believes the deaths appear to be the result of political terrorism, but Mulder suspects something more improbable. He thinks that the deaths are linked to a shaman spirit released by the Ecuadorian Amaru urn.

RATING :  7.6

Hell Money

The deaths of several Chinese men found to be missing vital internal organs that were removed prior to death leads Mulder and Scully to a deadly Chinatown lottery where men wager their body parts for a chance to win a cash jackpot.

RATING : 7.7

Jose Chung’s From Outer Space

An alien abduction of two teenagers with different versions of the same facts prompts a science-fiction novelist to write a book about the incident. However no one involved with the investigation can tell him the full story with any accuracy.

RATING :  9.0

Avatar

During a one-night stand in the midst of his divorce, AD Skinner becomes a murder suspect, and Mulder and Scully return the many favors that he has done for them by analyzing evidence that someone doesn’t want uncovered to prove his innocence.

RATING :  9.7

Quagmire

When a series of mysterious deaths and disappearances are reported near a lake in a small town, Agents Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate. With local folklore of a killer sea serpent running rampant amongst the locals, the agents must take their search for the truth to the water. But before long the agents find out that there may be more to the legend then they first thought.

RATING :  9.6

Wetwired

After a man kills three people and his wife because he mistook them for a ruthless Bosnian dictator, Mulder and Scully discover a test involving mind control using television signals that make people’s worst fears become real in any form.

RATING :  9.1

Talitha Cumi (1)

Mulder and Scully search for a mysterious man with the power to heal, whose actions risk exposing the existence of aliens on Earth. Meanwhile a confrontation between Mrs. Mulder and the CSM leads Mulder to the discovery of the only weapon which can kill the aliens.

RATING :  8.9

SEASON AVERAGE RATING :  B+ (8.8)

Alan shifted groggily as the first ray of sunlight slipped through the cracks in his blinds, its luminescence clawing at his eyes. A threat to face the day. As with any afternoon like this, he thought he would roll from his left side to his right, his body a sodden, rotting log, curved like an “S” that somehow insinuates cutlery, but when his left arm tried to lead him there and shield him from the sun, it was faced with some resistance. Not much, but still enough to startle his body to a slightly higher form of consciousness than that booze-induced coma he was in. He aware of his flesh, and his flesh now aware of its surroundings, Alan felt something sleek and smooth, cold and curved, held tightly against his body like that terrifying clown he used to cuddle with as a child. What was his mother thinking when she gave that to him, anyway?

The crack of dried saline and gunk compounded with the thudding in his head as he peeled his eyelids up, opened just enough for him to make out the shape of things beside him: an empty handle of Evan Williams bourbon. He’d crammed enough forensics knowledge into his head during that semester that even despite the horrific hangover he was still able to deduce that said hangover was likely due to the presence of said bourbon absent from said bottle and even more likely being processed somewhere between his liver and soul. Content with solving the mystery of the missing bourbon, and discovering the identity of the mysterious shape asleep beside him, Alan felt accomplished enough to complete his turn away from the window and fall back to sleep.

He closed his eyes before his bourbon-slowed mind could fully comprehend the significance—or even the presence—of the used condom sprawled on his hardwood floor like the sad and lonely shreds of the balloon that Jesse Hird popped at his 6^th birthday party. Not that Alan was bitter or anything. The thought of this childhood trauma was finally enough to shake him from his slumber, and Alan sat up more abruptly than he likely should have. Blood rushed to his head with the thud of an angry fist against an oak door. Or maybe a baseball bat.

Once he was able to think again, Alan realized that perhaps the night’s conspiracy reached deeper than he previously thought. Especially since he was still wearing pants. Was he living in an episode of Californication? Alan had always idolized David Duchovny, but more for Fox Mulder than Hank Moody. The X-Files was his inspiration for moving to Washington, D.C., and pursuing a Forensics degree, in hopes of one day becoming an FBI Agent, and discovering for himself if the true was really out there after all. But if life should imitate art, he wondered, then perhaps his life was changing along with the career of the artist whom he imitated.

This threw him into a panic. A crisis of faith. What had he been doing with his life? He had only ever seen the Series Premiere. He would have to catch up on all the seasons on DVD. How many seasons had there been so far? The X-Files had nine! How many more would they have by the time he caught up? And when would he find the time, now that he had to leave George Washington and transfer to some school in California to pursue an English degree. What the hell was he going to do with an English degree?

For a moment, he wished there was still bourbon to drink, but the mere thought of it made his stomach churn and sent him hurtling towards the bathroom. Perhaps Californication would have to wait.

LIVE on Talkshoe.com at 1030 pm est, The Film List podcast in association with Donald Chavis’ Re-Opening the X-files podcast will participate in X-Files : Season 3 Review.  Agents Donald and Shadow will join AD Solo in re-opening the season 3 X-Files.

Participate in the chat :  the X-Files Roundtable 

With the Paley Center’s “Dawson’s Creek: A Look Back” panel and the release of “Dawson’s Creek: The Complete Series,” I’ve been on a DC high the past week and a half.  Imagine my delight in finding someone who was not only just as enthusiastic but also chock full of insider stories only true fans like TDW readers could appreciate. And when you combine that with the fact that this guy is also partly responsible for introducing Beverly Hills 90210 to the world, well, that pretty much makes him a teen drama god.

After reading all the DC and 90210 goodness executive producer Paul Stupin shared with me, you’ll never want TDW’s stroll down memory creek to end!

TeenDramaWhore: How was the Paley Center panel?  How did it come about?

Paul Stupin: It came about for two sets of reasons. The first was that there are a  lot of die-hard Dawson’s supporters and fans out there that could support such a event. And the second key element is Sony is planning to issue this monumental all-seasons of Dawson’s DVD collection.

TDW: Yeah! It came out yesterday and I went to three different stores and finally found it!

Stupin: I just think it’s the coolest thing ever. So it was a good opportunity to call some attention to the DVD collection while at the same time having an event for the fans. It was really fun for me because when I did Dawson’s, I look back on it as a very special and rewarding time in my life and to be able to talk about it and see some cast members and see Kevin [Williamson, creator] again was just a blast.

TDW: I’m sure. I wish I could’ve been there!

Stupin: Yeah, you would’ve liked it!

TDW: Oh, I’m sure. Well let’s go back even further, to 1997-1998, and Kevin Williamson comes to you with this idea to make this semi-autobiographical show. What made you come on board?

Stupin: Well, that’s not exactly how it happened but I can tell you. I had read an early draft of this film that he wrote. At the time, it was called Scary Movie but that was going to turn into Scream and they used the original title for something else. I had read a draft of that and I had really responded to the writing. One of the things I loved about it is not only did it have some smart thrills and chills but it also had this great sort of teenage/20-something dialogue. I just loved his voice and I loved the different perspectives that he had brought to the horror genre so I pushed really hard to his agent for Kevin and I to sit down. Originally, I wanted to run two areas by him. The first area was sort of a younger X-Files-esque kind of show and the second one was just a really smart, young ensemble sort of show that could tap into younger characters’ voices. I had ran programming at Fox, so the idea of doing a family show was kind of not on the board because Fox had Party of Five. So we started to talk about potentially doing a show about a number of younger characters who live on the same street. Then Kevin sort of went away and came back and sort of pitched to me a bunch of characters living on the same creek, which, of course, was semi-autobiographical. What made that so interesting is that it specified the idea and made it something unique and took us to a place I had never seen before. And the other thing that made that original pitch so exciting was the characters. He pitched to me the characters of Dawson [James Van Der Beek] and Joey [Katie Holmes] and Jen [Michelle Williams] and how that triangle would work. And then as we were talking about that, we came up with the idea of incorporating another character into the mix who could be a confidante for Dawson and that’s how the character of Pacey [Joshua Jackson] originated.

TDW: I think you really hit it when you said the show was unique. There are a couple of specific things that people are still talking about today and they really want the inside details of how it happened. I know you guys went over a bit of this at the panel but I’d love to hear it from you yourself.  So if we can just go over a couple of different storylines, I’d love to hear what you guys were thinking and the genesis of those. So the first one is in season 2 when we have Jack [Kerr Smith] announce that he’s gay [Episodes 2.14 & 2.15, To Be Or Not To Be... & ...That Is The Question].

Stupin: I think there were two reasons for that. The first reason is it was a great way to integrate in a gay character on our series and to do it from the perspective of the kids we’d come to know and love on the show from the get-go. So the thought of involving Joey in a relationship with Jack and seeing that relationship take a completely unexpected turn and then understanding the emotional impact it would have on Joey’s character, and what it would do to Dawson and Pacey–all that seemed really interesting. And at the time, the thought of integrating a gay character and following that journey seemed really powerful and a way to tap into a whole set of emotions that would make our show even more memorable. One of the things that I love about Dawson’s is that it sort of wore its heart on its sleeve. Not only did it capture the voices and that sense of teenage yearning and teenage love and first-time love, and the power and the strength of all that, with love comes heartache as well in many stories. I think it enabled us to tell a really emotional and powerful story for a character that we’d really come to enjoy in the form of Jack. So that was one element to it and I think for Kevin it was a very personal story as well, and it was a way to again put a whole different perspective on the teen ensemble drama in a way that it hadn’t been done before. The second element to it was the fact that when Joey started that relationship with Jack, it was not going to go on forever. The key relationship in our series was what was going on between Joey and Dawson and Pacey, so the Jack character, that romance, was ultimately going to come to an end. And I think there was the thought of what a powerful way to see the relationship head south when the character starts to realize an insight into his own sexuality.

TDW: Going back to the Dawson-Joey-Pacey relationship, I read in Jeff Stepakoff’s book “Billion-Dollar Kiss” that Greg Berlanti–whom I adore–was the one to suggest putting Joey and Pacey together. I was wondering how accurate that story was in the book.

Stupin: Well, at the top of every season, we’ll sit and we’ll talk about [our plans]. We take a couple of weeks and we talk about each character and where we were going and what the sort of macro-issues were that we want to cover over the course of that particular group of 22 episodes. And Greg was definitely a part of that and the thought  of telling sort of a whole Joey-Pacey romance did in fact come out of that, absolutely. But I think you can go back, you can look at the pilot and you can look at the chemistry–and I did, in looking at the pilot last week–you can look at the chemistry between Joey and Pacey and you just know they’re sort of two peas in a pod and sooner or later that element of the triangle is going to get explored. So it’s definitely true what Jeff had in the book but I think that Greg was building from the seeds that were established in the original conception of the show, to tell you the truth.

TDW: Right.  Going to a more somber note: this probably came early on for you guys given how you plan the season but a lot of people were really surprised and devastated when in the 5th season Mitch [John Wesley Shipp] died [Episodes 5.03 & 5.04, Capeside Revisited & The Long Goodbye].

Stupin: Yes.

TDW: I’m wondering what the idea for that was. We never knew if it was casting reasons or storyline-dictated.

Stupin: It wasn’t really casting issues. The thing with Mitch was every year we would figure out a way to have 1 or 2 sort of emotional stories between Dawson and his mom and dad. In the first season we had all that great stuff with her affair with a newscaster. That was just sort of natural. The second season we have the story with mom and dad trying the open marriage, and it’s arguable as to how memorable that actually was. It seemed like such a fresh idea. I’m not sure that it translated quite as well as the idea initially seemed. And then after that, when the inter-relationships between the teenagers grew ever-more prominent and people became much more invested, it felt like the parents–though still important–were not quite as much a part of the storylines. So that’s when we would always try to include them, to have them in different things, to have great sort of Dawson-mom, Dawson-dad scenes but I think we were straining a little bit. And I think that when we got to the point of deciding the fate with Mitch, it seemed like we weren’t using him altogether that much in the series, in the seasons. We were using him but we weren’t using him in a huge way. There weren’t any financial or casting considerations. It really did come from the creative angle, in terms of how would it affect Dawson’s character if in fact this happened to his dad, and exploring that, and exploring the unexpected tragedy of it seemed like another way to really heighten the exploration as to who Dawson was, so that’s basically where that came from. And I remember talking to John Wesley and mentioning that the one thing that this would provide is that it was going to take the Dawson-father storyline to a really heartbreaking sense of conclusion and, at that point, we weren’t using him as much as we had in the past.

TDW: How does that contrast, then, to the decision in the series finale [Episodes 6.23 & 624, All Good Things... & ...Must Come To An End] to have another death and this time it be Jen?

Stupin: It was so interesting last week; it came up that in a way it was a great book-end for the series. It frankly never occurred when we were talking about the beginning or the end of the show but one could argue that the series began with a catalyst and that was the arrival of Jen. And the series ended with a catalyst as well, and that was the departure of Jen. And the one thing that I think that it did is it really brought a sense of emotional resonance and power to that final episode, because one of the things with a final episode you want to be able to do, you want to be able to end a series in a satisfying and emotional and interesting way. And if we essentially had the last episode in history for Dawson’s Creek, we could talk about and we could explore issues of mortality involving some of our characters. Then when we talked about it, if we were going to be dealing with the characters’ mortality, she seemed like the most natural character in which to explore that.

TDW: Going back to the catalyst idea, it could be extended that that was really what it took for Joey to finally make up her mind between the two boys.

Stupin: Yeah, I think a little bit. I think the interesting thing was the series sort of ends twice. It ends in the episode before then [Episode 6.22, Joey Potter And The Capeside Redemption] where we get the sense that finally Dawson and Pacey are going to be friends and Joey did actually get to Europe. And I think that had a sense of closure. Then we took it another step and went to a sort of even more sort of larger-than-life ending of exploring who she was going to end up with. I think that was the big question: who was she going to end up with? And I think that that was handled pretty well, too. Like I personally love the thought that what this show was really about was not the romance of Dawson and Joey but about the strength and depth of that friendship and how that friendship was going to exist forever.

TDW: So if you had to answer the question, in your heart of hearts, do you think Dawson belongs with Joey in a platonic, friends soulmates sense and Pacey in the romantic soulmate way?

Stupin: In my heart of hearts, I think we ended it the right away. I think that what she did have in the romance with Pacey was as powerful as the friendship with Dawson. And I think that we were able to come up with a sense of satisfying closure for both of them. ‘Cause I will tell you, weirdly enough, when I was looking at The Sopranos–I’ll weirdly liken it to the conclusion of The Sopranos, at least from my weird perspective, because I was a fan of that. I like to think, in my mind, that Tony Soprano is still out there–maybe it wasn’t going to last forever, but maybe he’s still out there with his family, still dealing with the issues and still dealing with all the balls he was juggling. And in my mind, I like to think that Dawson and Joey are still out there in our alternate TV universe, still communicating with each other and still sharing the inner-most aspects of their hearts and still dealing with their friendship as adults, and that Joey and Pacey still have that romance. Because I feel like what we were able to come up with was, for me, an emotionally-satisfying conclusion for both stories which doesn’t let anyone down. And I know there are people who think Dawson and Joey should’ve been together romantically and I totally understand that point of view but I think we did the right thing.

TDW: Well, as a Joey and Pacey fan, I completely agree with you!

Stupin: Well, I can tell you this: that decision wasn’t made until the last hour was being shot and so if you look at the first hour of that final two-hour, I think at that point we were leaning toward her ending up with Dawson and so there are a few, I think, little cues–for the life of me I don’t remember exactly–that were set up to lead us in that direction and then, frankly, in the last hour, when the last hour was being shot–because it wasn’t shot as a two-hour; it was shot as two separate 1-hours–that when we came up with that conclusion, it caused us to shift things around a little bit. So I’ll tell ya, we were undecided up until the very last minute ourselves.

TDW: Wow. Well, switching gears slightly, you spoke about Dawson and the way he would communicate with Joey. Going off that, both Kevin Williamson and James Van Der Beek are on Twitter these days. I was wondering, had the service existed when the show was on the air, how do you think Dawson would’ve used it, if he would’ve used it? As I said, They’re both on it now, and Dawson was very much a storyteller.

Stupin: Well, I think Dawson might’ve used it to express his emotions. I think he might’ve used it as a shorthand way of communicating with both Joey and Pacey. It’s certainly easier to communicate things to someone by Twitter than it is necessarily in real life. He might’ve, at some point in our storytelling, he might’ve used it to express something that he might not have been so willing to express in person.

TDW: When you look back on the show and the television landscape then and now, what do you think the show’s legacy is?

Stupin: You know, I think for me it’s–well, first of all, I’m so proud of the show. I think the characters were amazing. I think their stories were amazing. I think the quality of the writing, the quality of the direction was–of course I’m biased but I think it was just top-flight. And I really do think it took the young adult teen genre and elevated it from just a niche kind of show to something universal and iconic. I think adults could look at it. When we were doing it we never looked at it as just a teen show.  We looked at it as just a smart, interesting, relationship show that happened to deal with teenagers and though our core audience was teenagers, it was written for everybody, for people in their 20s, their 30s, their 40s. And I really think it managed to transcend all of that and bring an element of quality and exploration to the genre that really took it to the next step.

TDW: Do you have a favorite episode or storyline?

Stupin: You know, I’m so biased. It’s like trying to pick if you have 120 kids which one’s your favorite. But I think for me there are certain sort of moments that I love. There’s certain episodes, like the pilot because it introduced us to that world, and I remember so much of it almost like it was yesterday. The first season-ender when Joey went to visit her dad in prison, I loved that. I loved the detention episode [Episode 1.07, Detention]. A lot of them are some of the original ones. But then I think I love the episode when they graduated high school [Episode 4.22, The Graduate]. I thought that was just sensational. I love the one-hour ender as well as the two-hour series finale ender. I think there’s so many. The episode where they studied and it was an all-nighter [Episode 2.07, The All-Nighter]. The episode where Joey had to enter the beauty pageant [Episode 1.12, Beauty Contest]. I just love all of those.

TDW: Well, conversely, do you have a big regret or something you wish you did differently?

Stupin: Yeah. My biggest regret would probably be, as I think about it–and it was a mistake we made–was the character of Eve. Remember that character?

TDW: Yeah. You guys even have a joke about that in the episode before the series finale.

Stupin: Yeah. I don’t think the first episodes of season 3 really were as memorable as the other episodes. And I think that whole notion of “Is she Jen’s sister? Is she not?”–I don’t think that was that effective. I don’t look back on that run of episodes as my favorites.

TDW: Yeah, I think the fans do agree with that.

Stupin: Yeah, but you know what, we turn it around.  In the middle of that season we turned it around with–

TDW: With Joey and Pacey.

Stupin: Yeah, with Joey and Pacey. And that certainly helped get us back, I think, to our roots.

TDW: Going more to your history, I know you played a bit of a role with the creation of Beverly Hills 90210.

Stupin: Yes, I did.

TDW: What influence, if any, did that show have on Dawson‘s Creek?  If you learned anything from how viewers took to what was really the first teenage show, as Dawson’s Creek is largely considered the next step in the genre.

Stupin: Well, two things. And it’s an interesting question. The first thing: when I hired Darren Star to write 90210, I felt as if his voice was just so unique in terms of his ability to write characters and come up with dialogue and wit that seemed like it would be a particularly good fit if he put into teenager characters’ mouths. So in a way I think that when I read Kevin’s voice, I felt some of it was the same in terms of being clever and sharp and smart and pop culturally-savvy. I felt like I had found another voice who was capable of taking the genre to the next step. So I felt like both Kevin and Darren brought originally a really unique sense of humor and sharpness to their creation of characters and dialogue. So I think there was a similarity there. The one issue that I took away from 90210, that was very effective in 90210, was the mix of issue-oriented episodes and personal inter-relationships. Though, when we jumped into Dawson’s, we veered away from doing the issue-oriented episodes and explored further just all of the great inter-relationships.

TDW: Going further ahead to the rest of the genre and the teen dramas that are on today, do you think Dawson’s Creek influenced them?

Stupin: I’m sure it did, though I can’t say–you know, again, I’m biased. I don’t know. In my mind, I’m undecided as to what the next real step in the genre is after Dawson’s. I’m not sure what it is. I haven’t watched enough of the shows. I hold, of course again I’m so biased, but I hold everything up to the prism of Dawson’s. I don’t know if any of them that have come since have quite represented that cultural milestone that Dawson’s did.

TDW: Do you think Dawson’s Creek would fly on The CW today? Because it’s so different than what The WB was.

Stupin: Yeah. I’m not sure. I’ve often thought would I be able to sell Dawson’s today? Would I be able to pitch that as a series and get it going, and I’m not altogether sure. Because now, when you look at Dawson’s, we sold it off the strength of the characters and off of the strength of Kevin’s voice being so fresh. Now, I think that the networks are looking for slightly higher concepts. So I’m not altogether sure that a Dawson’s would be able to sell today.

TDW: I have to ask, then, why do you think the 90210 spin-off sold?

Stupin: Oh, I see, are you talking about bringing able to bring it back, for instance?

TDW: Well, no, not for it to be a spin-off. But the 90210 concept today is working.

Stupin: Well, I think the 90210 concept–everyone, myself included, has fondness for that original show. The thought of sort of putting two new outsiders into that world and bringing the  show back is a great way to hook people into a whole new group of characters, and I think it was a great idea. The thing with Dawson’s is I don’t know if bringing the world of Dawson’s Creek back with a bunch of new characters would generate quite the excitement. Because I think when you think about the show, you think about Dawson and you think about the very unique 3 characters, the 4 characters we had, and the actors that played them. And I’m not sure if it was brought back again–I certainly wouldn’t want to redo it with a new Dawson or a new Pacey. So the question would be could we go back to Capeside with a whole new group of characters, and I’m not sure we would be able to put together a new group of people as memorably as we did originally.

TDW: Right. You know, they say lightening strikes once.

Stupin: Right. And you know, I’m afraid you always run the risk of–when you make a sequel to a movie that’s not as good, it kind of reflects negatively on the original movie.

TDW: I completely agree.

Stupin: And I like to think of all our episodes as being so special, I’m not sure it’s something you could bring back.

TDW: Well, my biggest disappointment right now is that Dawson’s Creek is no longer on any channel in America.

Stupin: Really? You know, they gotta get on that! Wasn’t it running like forever in the early morning hours?

TDW: It used to be on TBS. When I was in high school, it used to be on at like 10am. And then they pushed it to 4:30am, 5:30am and then it just faded away there and now it’s not on at all.

Stupin: I’m not sure what the design is on that because I always like to know that Dawson’s is out there.

TDW: I know, I know. It saddens me that it’s just not in repeats anywhere anymore in this country.

Stupin: You know what, those things tend to be cyclical. Maybe in the future you’ll be channel surfing one night. Knowing you, you’ll know way before then but maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

TDW: Fingers crossed.

Stupin: Exactly.

TDW: Well, let’s bring it back and finish on today. You’re with Make It Or Break It on ABC Family. Just looking at your career over the years, what is it about Make It or Break It that you’re here now?

Stupin: Well, what I love about Make It Or Break It is I’m a big fan of the genre, having originally developed 90210 and then developed Dawson’s. When I left to become a producer, I never really thought that my first real success would be in the same genre as 90210 because I actually never thought that lightning would strike twice in that genre for me as quickly as it did. But after I ran Dawson’s, you know, for six years, I developed a real love for the genre. And the thing that I love about Make It or Break It is the idea. It’s a fresh idea, it’s a fresh world. And it provides a pretty unique prism in which to explore sort of teenage relationships in a really unusual way. I mean, these girls aren’t normal teenagers. They’re elite gymnasts and there are rules against relationships as they’re pursuing their passion. How do they deal with that? And how do we deal with the same elements of teenage love and relationships and heartbreak but from a whole different perspective? And I love that about it, and I also love the relationships between the main characters and their parents and their parental figures. I think they’re a really organic element to the show and give us an opportunity to deal with really unusual family situations as well. So that’s why I love it. And also the gymnastics is just really cool. It’s a lot of fun just to see the gymnastics.

TDW: Oh, the gymnastics is just phenomenal to watch.

Stupin: So I think that Make It Or Break It is just such a special show. We’ve done 10 episodes and I think it’s just starting to get its sea legs. I think it has a huge successful life in front of it, I hope.

TDW: Well, best of luck to you on that!

Stupin: Thank you!

Come back next Sunday for another exclusive interview!

TDW Interview Index

Let’s start by refreshing your memory with one caveat, turn down the sound when you watch the opening credits the first time:

It is appropriate that the Youtube video is a crappy recording of the title playing on a TV. You know, the titles stayed in this form from Season 1 until Season 8, when Duchovny left. At that point they changed it because they had to change it. That’s right, they liked that opening title sequence. It was “perfect” for the show. To examine this belief let’s run through the sequence:

Main Titles: Looks good so far. Pretty ominous. The contrast between the black and the out of focus white slash leaves you feeling uneasy.

Now we have a grainy shot of a UFO and we zoom in real close. What does this tell us? This show is about aliens? We have crappy production values? Get ready for us to talk a lot about a big conspiracy, but only deliver shitty explanations akin to this hoax-ass looking video?

Next we have a star chart(?) with a dark hand moving across this. Is this supposed to get me in the mood for mystery because I don’t know what the fuck the chart is of or what that hand is doing? Are aliens navigating? Is a human navigating an alien ship? How does this relate to the grainy hoax-ass video I saw just a few seconds ago?! This looks like an ad on public access for some hackneyed psychic. I lub you (this is an inside joke, if you don’t get it that is okay, but if you do get it consider us friends).

Now we have one of those static balls that makes your hair stand on end. Oh WOW! IS MY HAIR GOING TO STAND ON END BECAUSE YOUR SHOW IS SCARY AND BLOWING MY MIND ALL THE TIME?!?!?! Yes, 1993 was a long time ago, but how was this static ball mysterious to anyone?

Someone getting his face stretched in a fun house mirror. Is this a director cameo? ARE ALIENS DOING IT!?

Now we have two seeds mirroring each other and growing quickly. Time lapse photography = “Paranormal Activity.” Holy God! The plants are growing too quickly, we need to breed some kind of alien human hybrid and we are going to abduct American citizens to do it!

Close up of Duchovny’s FBI badge. Back on firmer ground. The FBI is involved! We can definitely get behind that kind of show.

“Government denies knowledge” of some kind of after image on a grainy video camera. Is this show going to be some kind of fake documentary, all wobbly camera angles and screaming shadows? DID THE ALIENS TAKE THE AFTER IMAGE MAN AND THE GOVERNMENT ISN’T TELLING US ABOUT IT!!!!!!?????!!!!!

Again with the badges, but this time it is Gillian Anderson’s. I want to take a brief aside here to say that she is as hot as you remember, but not until season 3. Although within the first couple episodes of the series they have her in her underwear and I swear she took a bath at least once an episode in season 1. In season 4 she gets a tattoo on her lower back and the tattoo sequence is actually a butt sex scene. Tattoo as metaphor for Agent Scully’s first experience with butt play.

Shot from season 1. You might be a little confused because the Youtube video is recorded on a TV, but the shot in the credits also looks like Chris Carter just set up a video camera in front of a TV playing an X-Files episode and then used the video tape to make the credits.

Falling silhouette into blue hand with red proximal phalanx (yeah I looked it up, so fucking what?). This looks like someone trying to make a cave drawing using a computer.

Eyeball. What an innovative way to depict the mysterious!

Dark mountains, fast clouds, “The Truth is out there.” This is the part of the title that really stuck with people and became the show’s slogan. This is because everyone was so relieved to finally be done with this crappy montage of unrelated images. These credits look like they were put together by an earnest high school freshman in his first month of video editing. Well, third month of video editing, some of those pictures dissolve into each other pretty smoothly. In any case, I’m rewatching the X-Files right now and I’m loving it, except for the titles. Usually I skip over them, but the other night I watched them and was left, once again, with a sense of wonder at just how terrible they are. I saw more interesting photo montages on my college ex-girlfriend’s idle computer screen.

Now watch the credits again with the volume on. Thank God for the music. The music hits the mood and atmosphere of the show perfectly. That music can make any image mysterious. You could put pictures of kittens or babies (no cheating and using those creepy babies dressed as fruit or vegetable pictures though) to that music and I would feel a little uneasy about what I had just seen. If I had the editing software I would take the kittens dressed as puppies sequence from Conan and put it to the X-Files theme and when I was done watching it I would feel like the kitten puppies were part of some deep rooted interstellar conspiracy. Thank God for that music.

Hello Readers,

I’ve got two pretty important questions for you to ponder today.

1. Is it considered spousal abuse to punch a husband for saying his wife reminds him of Tara Reid?

and

1. Is finding out your husband thinks you are similar to Tara Reid grounds for divorce?  

Let’s take a look back, friends, at how the story began . . .

It was a beautiful autumn day in Pennsylvania.  The husband and I were driving in the car to do a little grocery shopping.  Folks were raking the leaves from their yards.  Children were playing football in the school yard.  Butterflies were holding wings as they flew away.  Squirrels were kissing. 

Then, the husband and I made a left turn down a dark path.  I’m not quite sure why or how, but we started talking about celebrities. And then we started comparing people we know to celebrities, and eventually, the conversation got around to us.  I know what you’re thinking — Don’t do it!  — But we did.

I asked the husband who he thought I was most like in the celebrity world.  I admit I set myself up for the horrendous revelations that ensued, but it never occurred to me that of ALL the celebrities in THE ENTIRE WORLD, my husband would compare me to . . . TARA REID!  EE! EE! EE! EE! (Psycho music).

So, I asked him, “Exactly in what way?  Exactly.”  And he responded that he’d recently read an article about her, and she reminded him of me.

Why?  WHY?  WHYYYYYYYYYYY?

And then he said, “I thought you’d like that.”

Why?  WHY?  WHYYYYYYYYYYY?

Then I thought maybe just maybe he was kidding.  “No,” he responded.

But I guess the real question is Is this really how he sees me?

What I know about Tara Reid

1. She was in American Pie and a couple of other movies, but she hasn’t been cast in a major role in four or five years.  By most accounts, her career is over.
2. She’s a big partier (aka a big drunk).
3. She was friends with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.
4. She’s a fallen star who is the butt of many alcohol-related and bad-plastic-surgery jokes.
5. She’s blond and looks/acts perpetually stoned/drunk.

So then I thought maybe he doesn’t really know who Tara Reid is.  Maybe he’s thinking of someone else, but thinks it’s Tara Reid.  When I was in college, The X-Files was the rage, and guys used to say I looked like Scully.  Then when Kate Walsh joined Grey’s Anatomy, folks said I looked like Addison.  Aside from the red hair, I don’t think I look like either one, but TARA REID?   I don’t get it. 

And then I made another mistake.  As I was trying to wrap my brain around this idea, it occurred to me that he might be thinking of a CHARACTER that Tara Reid played, so I asked, “do you mean Tara Reid, the actress, Tara Reid, the person, or a character that she once played – like in American Pie?”  He replied “the person.”  And just like that, he plunged the knife further in my heart and twisted and turned it until my insides lay naked on the floor.

TARA REID???  REALLY?  Of all celebrities, he compared me to Tara Reid?  TARA REID???  What man compares his wife to Tara Reid — and thinks it’s a compliment?  HOW CAN THIS BE??  Eight years I’ve given to this man, and he likens me to Tara Reid. 

What I Know About Me That My Husband Apparently Doesn’t

1. I’ve never been in a movie, but I work and have worked since I was sixteen.  And other than the three months during the winter of 2001 that I was unemployed after a layoff, I have always worked somewhere doing something.
2. My hard partying days ended when I met my husband, and my hard partying days were kind of soft by just about everyone’s standards.
3. I don’t know Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan or anyone like them.
4. Other than college (which doesn’t count), I don’t think anyone has anything negative in the alcohol realm to say about me, and all of my parts are original.  Thank you very much.
5. I’m a red head and am completely sober most of the time (although I do get drunk eyes in photos when I wear contact lenses, and I do drink wine every night – but not a lot – really.).

I’ve been thinking about this Tara Reid conversation for four days, and I still don’t get it.  The husband couldn’t/wouldn’t explain it, and he hasn’t mentioned it since.  BTW, it took him about thirty minutes to realize he made a mistake in comparing me to Tara Reid.  He really thought it was a compliment.

I’m left with many questions, three of which are

1.  Does my husband really think I’m a washed up, messed up drunk?
2. If so, what should I do about it?
3. Is being likened to Tara Reid a compliment after all?

One more note:  I’m sure Tara Reid is a lovely person and has many fans, family, and friends who adore her.  I have nothing against her in any way.  I’m sure she is a nice person and probably donates time and money to charity.  This post in no way is intended to hurt Tara Reid in any way or cause her harm. 

Until next time . . .

Non-movie review movie reviews by a guy who likes weird movies. Plus a free lesson in demonology.

There are two kinds of people in the world, those who liked the movie Paranormal Activity, and those who liked (and actually saw) its current counterpart and competition, The Fourth Kind. I’ve yet to find a critic who thought they were both great movies. Paranormal Activity is the highly buzzed about, surprise blockbuster which has received mainly positive reviews from critics- an independent thriller filmed on a $15,000 budget.

Then there’s The Fourth Kind. A multi-million dollar movie that combines side-by-side glossy professional reenactments next to the “real” footage interviews of “real” people. And the critics aren’t impressed.

But I am.

Conveniently, my wife and I saw both movies over the weekend, back-to-back. I punch people in the face that give away movie endings or essential plotlines. So there’s no fear in reading this that I will do that. I also hate the clichéd term “spoiler alert” which is yet another reason not to give away anything good about these movies.

To truly explain why The Fourth Kind is so great, I first have to clarify why Paranormal Activity is so awful. Paranormal Activity is in essence a movie I saw 10 years ago; evidently enough time has passed that I should have forgotten about The Blair Witch Project by now. I can safely say that anyone who has seen one has seen the other.

The few minor scary moments are overshadowed by the overwhelming feeling I had as I left the theatre, thinking, “That was it? I could have made that myself. That was so pointless. What a waste of my time and money…”

Paranormal Activity seemed like a good idea: A night-vision camera films a couple as they sleep, as they hope to spot the demonic creature that haunts them (makes noises) at night. The thing is, the thought of anyone watching over another person in their sleep is creepy anyway. I know I wouldn’t want to watch what I do in my own sleep.

Ironically, besides the demon, the other creepy creatures watching over the couple in their sleep are the viewers in the movie theatre themselves.

If the movie is indeed scary, that’s all it’s got going for it: Watching people toss and turn in their sleep, waiting for a demon to show up and maybe stand over the girl, possibly whispering things in her ear.

The reason my wife and I decided to see the movie in the first place was because of friends who warned us, “Don’t go see it! It’s demonic. I’ve had nightmares since I’ve watched it…” After hearing that a few times, nothing could inspire us more to go watch it.

But after seeing Paranormal Activity, I am confident that The Wizard of Oz is freakier than this one. Flying monkeys win any day over an invisible demon banging on the walls downstairs in the living room.

Something I think is funny about Paranormal Activity is that it mixes the ideology of demons with zombies. From all accounts I’ve ever read concerning demon possession, a possessed person does not try to kill other people who aren’t possessed. They try to harm themselves, but not commit murder. Demons are looking for a place to dwell in, not a body to kill. That’s my take, based on what Jesus said in Matthew 12:

“Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself and they go in and live there… (43-45).”

I’ll put it this way, if a person’s idea of a good comedy TV show is Two and Half Men (which ratings prove that millions do), then there’s a good chance they would think Paranormal Activity is the epitome of horror movies.

And now for the underdog. The Fourth Kind focuses on the clients of Dr. Abigail Taylor, who hypnotizes her “alien abducted” clients into revealing the traumatic events that their minds are not allowing them to remember. They all have the same re-occurring nightmares and remnants of memories involving an owl that visits them in the night.

One of the most terrifying parts of this movie is when the abductees, under hypnosis, try to explain what happened to them. The terror on their faces says it all. And their screams.

The other part of this movie that really stands out to me is when one of the “alien’s” voices is recorded on a tape recorder. The language it speaks in is Sumerian (modern day Iran), which is one of the world’s oldest languages, dating back hundreds of years before Christ.

Interestingly, and this is one of the major reasons I’m fascinated by this movie, when they find a translator to decode what the “alien” said on the tape, the message is actually demonic: “I… am… God.” He also claims to be “savior”. What is misdiagnosed as alien abduction is actually demonic visits/possession.

Another hint of this demonic slant appears when one of the hypnotized abductees describes the re-occurring owl dream as “the ultimate feeling of hopelessness”. That’s a spiritual issue. Especially when combined the “alien’s” statements of ultimate deity.

I admit that if I wasn’t solid in my spiritual beliefs, this movie would keep me up at night (and possibly Paranormal Activity as well). The Bible makes it very clear that a person has put their trust in Jesus as their eternal hope, believing in Him to forgive them for their lifetime of spiritual debt, they will be inhabited by the Holy Spirit- therefore making it impossible for a demon spirit to dwell inside. The New Testament is full of stories about people who were possessed by demons, but none of them knew Jesus at that point.

And the biological half-brother of Jesus wrote in the book of James: “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. (2:19)”

In the Bible demons were cast out of people by using the name of Jesus and they shuddered at the fearful thought of him. I am inhabited by his Holy Spirit. So why in the world would I be afraid of a demon trying to inhabit me? It’s fascinating. It’s creepy. But I’m not worried it will happen to me.

There’s obviously spiritual warfare to deal with, but that’s a completely different story. That’s not possession; that’s moral combat.

The Fourth Kind is a meatball of sci-fi. It’s like putting all these things in a blender: Unsolved Mysteries, The X-Files, conversations with my Haitian dorm mate (who grew up in a village with witch doctors), LOST, Dateline, and the movie Insomnia.

It’s a pass/fail formula. For me, it works is because it was able to truly suspend my belief. It was completely entertaining. And at least for my wife and me, it was very thought provoking. Enough that we’re planning to see it again this weekend. I call it original, smart, truly frightening, sci-fi spiritual, trippy, and disturbing.

On the downside, I have trouble figuring out whether the acting is either really good or really bad. Plus it’s a movie that’s supposed to be about alien abduction but it’s really about demon possession and this is never addressed in the movie. And most importantly, I’m pretty sure the “real” footage is fake. But it doesn’t really bother me. Because this movie is effective, at least for the 15% of the critics who gave it positive reviews.

Aside from demons, something both Paranormal Activity and The Fourth Kind have in common is the lack of blood and violence. The secret to the scare of both of these thrillers is seeing terror through the victims. Not the beast itself. And that’s unusual in a movie genre crowded with slasher and torture films.

It all comes down to this question: What’s scarier? For a person to lose their life by a killer they can see, or to lose their soul by one that’s invisible?

It has been next-to-impossible for me to access the Internet while here in the Maldives, so apologies for the lack of posts. One of the amazing things about being “unplugged” is how much time seems to stretch and proceed at a much more luxurious pace (in spite of a lot of very un-luxurious rain). We haven’t turned on a TV once–a huge thing for us. So often while traveling, the TV is just a reach out for familiarity–and you end up watching re-runs of some show you didn’t care enough about to tune in for the first time.

One show that fans tend to watch over and over and over again, is The X-Files. Former cast members and creators of the David Duchovny/Gillian Anderson supernatural/sci-fi/freaky deaky show (sometimes as campy and absurd as anything on the air) are reunitinf for a November 14 event to raise money for their chosen charities.

Actress Gillian Anderson (Dana Scully), actor Mitch Pileggi (Walter Skinner), executive producer/writer Frank Spotnitz, and executive producer/director Rob Bowman (currently executive producer and director on ABC’s hit “Castle”) reunite to talk all things “X-Files” and answer questions from fans (like the rumors about an X-Files 3 movie and the 2012 mythology that could make a whole new series). This is a rare opportunity for fans and filmmakers to get together to explore and discuss the process of making this iconic television series, ask questions about the panelists’ new projects, and raise money for some very worthy causes.

Tickets for the Q&A event are now available at http://www.ibginc.org/tickets. Proceeds will be donated in support of the participants’ chosen charities, including The Santa Monica-UCLA Rape Treatment Center, Off the Street Kids (aiding yung, marginalized people of South Africa), Fezeka, and Children of the Night (rescuing American children from prostitution). Check out those links to find some truly important charities.

Tonight I was lucky enough to attend a screening of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 Horror classic Nosferatu at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver, BC.  Full disclosure: I have previously blogged about this film here and here.

If you haven’t been, the Orpheum is a large theatre fashioned in the grand old style of Vaudeville.  It opened in 1927, which may not seem old to you Europeans out there, but by Vancouver-standards, 1927 is practically prehistoric.  It was the perfect setting for a couple thousand costumed-Vancouverites to fly their fright flags.

The best part: this screening happened to be accompanied by a live performance of the film’s score courtesy of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.  And, breaking a few stereotypes in the process, many of the musicians in the orchestra joined in the costumed mayhem.  Some highlights: a violinist in full lobster costume, two oboists in full Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle attire, a rainbow-afroed violinist and cellos featuring grim reaper scythes sprouting from the ends of their stems.

Also: the conductor of this performance happened to be named Gillian Anderson, which is hilarious if you were an American tv-watching child/young adult in the 90s.  No, it was not Agent Scully conducting the orchestra, but I think Ms. Anderson missed a huge chance by not dressing up as such.  You can’t tell me she hasn’t seen the X-Files.  As if she had anything better to do during the show’s ten-year run.

Really though, Gillian and the VSO did an incredible job.  I found myself as mesmerized by sight and sound of their instrumentation as by the titular vampire on the screen.  I particularly enjoyed the man operating the giant bass drums, because you could tell something frightening was about to happen whenever he assumed the ready position.

There was a costume-contest as well, which was deservedly won by a couple dressed as “Van Gogh painting Sunflowers”.  The dude was Van Gogh (with a bloody ear, duh) and the girl was the painting.  She had a canvas strapped to her with a hole cut out for her face, which was painted to blend in with the painting.  It was pretty good.  My date and I went as Linda Blair and Max von Sydow from the Exorcist, but we weren’t even among the finalists.  I can only conclude that our costumes were so realistic and terrifying that the judges couldn’t bring themselves to taint our mastery with a silly costume contest.