look to the pasta

I've been having a weird impromptu X-Files marathon lately -- I haven't watched that show in FOREVER but for some reason out of the blue I got the urge to watch the first season episode "Eve", and it held up SHOCKINGLY WELL. I tend to the think of the first season as being kind of terrible, but man, I can see why my 14 year old self got really into it. (Also, hilariously, I have a lot of very specific memories of where I watched different episodes, and I was such a baby. Often it's like, WOW, I watched this for the first time while babysitting for the people who lived behind us, and I totally freaked myself out. Or, I had to go to my friend's play that Friday night, so I had to tape the episode on the VCR and it only taped half and I was super mad. Haha, being a fangirl in the mid-90s was the worst, remember how if you missed something that was just too bad? Unless you could find someone on a Prodigy X-Files message board who would send you a VHS tape in the mail?)

Anyway, here are some reflections on my very first fandom, more than 15 years after it first aired (augh):

( The X-Files )

All right, I'm going to use that last point to segue into a discussion of Parks and Rec from last week, because a week late is how I like my episode reactions: ( Parks )

( Also general Parks meta on Leslie )

The other day, I got an urge to read some old MSR X-Files fic, but everything I've tried has been terrible. I can't figure out if I'm using the wrong recs lists, or if everything on the internet was appallingly overwritten ten years ago, or WHAT. It seems like all the decent fic I'm finding is, like, long plotty case-files in which NOBODY EVEN HITS IT. I say this as a gen writer, GOD, WHAT IS THE POINT. Uh, anyway, dear flist, I imagine some of you might be able to hook me up -- can you rec me any Mulder/Scully that is 1) not ridiculously flowery, 2) not in first person (unless it's really, really good), 3) where no one's eyes change color, I AM LOOKING IN YOUR DIRECTION, AGENT MULDER (also, I can see where Jim Halpert gets it), 4) that's still in character, 5) where they actually get together?

You wouldn't think that'd be so hard, AND YET. 1997, you are on notice.

My new weird fandom is, uh, Cary Grant, you guys. I don't quite know how it happened, except that my dad really likes old movies and kept making me watch them, and now I'm addicted to screwball comedy and Cary Grant's smirky, handsome face. (Also, bee tee dubs, I found out, FROM MY FATHER, that Cary Grant totally lived with this dude Randolph Scott and there are a million gay rumors about them and Scott used to call him his WIFE. Where is fandom on this? I've looked and found ZERO RPF, but if you know of any, please, please let me know.)

Anyway, last night's entry in the continuing Cary Grantathon (to which my roommate said, and I quote, "I was wondering yesterday what the next fannish obsession I'd be dragged along for was." Haha, shush.) was The Philadelphia Story which contains, like, the most realistic and delightful scene of drunkenness ever committed to film. So this morning we're recasting the movie as an AU of Office characters, because our genetic makeup apparently doesn't work any other way. You haven't lived until you've thought about cranky reporter Ryan Howard really drunk, carrying Pam back from the swimming pool singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow, walking towards her waiting ex-husband C.K. James Halpert and her current fiance, Roy. Hahahaha. Yeah, I'm sorry.

Fake news being back without writers is kind of bumming me out. I mean, they're doing their best, and it's not terrible, but geez. Let's end this strike before somebody gets hurt.