I’ve been marinating on this all day, and the more I think about it, the angrier I get. And a lot of that anger doesn’t stem from disappointment (I was naively hopeful that maybe an R rating might give us not only “scarier” content, but a little more risqué MSR content—pipe dream, that), but rather, disrespect.
I say that again. The anger that’s been building since this news about IWTB: VF dropped is from what I feel is a decades-long pattern of disrespect Chris Carter has shown shippers.
In the 90’s, the schism of fandom was pretty evenly split between men and women. Many (certainly not all) of the men were noromos. Many (certainly not all) of the women were shippers. The shippers rolled their eyes at the noromos (what were they, blind?!). The noromos sneered at the shippers (silly ladies with their silly little romantic fancies…this is a serious and scary show, run along and write your little fanfics). And we did! Which we hid from our families! Because fanfic was EMBARRASSING. Things women liked were EMBARRASSING.
I could do a tight five on how differently male fandom spaces and women’s fandom spaces are treated by the public at large (a man walking around decked out in a football jersey, spouting off stats and punching the TV when his team loses is normal, but god forbid a woman read a romance novel in public or openly discuss her OTP). But it’s really only tangential to my point.
Chris Carter, while not what I would call openly hostile, has always been a noromo. And to a certain extent, I’m glad he didn’t want to go there and held off for so long. The slow burn was exquisite. The 20 episode seasons really helped develop character nuance and richness (I could do another tight five on all we’ve lost by TV now being 8-10 episodes/season—‘filler’ episodes let the world and the characters in it breathe—grow—develop, but again: not the space for it.)
It was the writers in his room (and David and Gillian) who pushed the shipper agenda. I mean, the shippers were vocal too, but, as I mentioned above, largely not respected. Chris Carter had a great idea and started a great show. His decision to cast David and Gillian: brilliant. But he was not the most emotionally intelligent writer in that room… by a long shot. Chris Carter may have had the vision, but Vince Gilligan and Frank Spotnitz had the heart. Without them, the show would have been out of balance. Not enough yin—too much yang.
Chris Carter fought (an ultimately losing) battle to keep the romance out of the show. That chemistry? Those characters? It was inevitable. But he fought it.
And to a certain extent, he never stopped. Occasionally, I’m glad he did. Did we deserve more kissing with better lighting? Yes. Did we deserve a sex scene? Bitch is the sky blue? But I’m glad the X-Files didn’t go the way of Castle. While I think the show is one of the greatest love stories of all time, I also never wanted to see it become about Mulder and Scully’s relationship. But I do think there was a way to honor their relationship while telling great fucking stories. A casefile with their relationship subtly in the background? Fuck yes. Rolling out of bed because Skinner called with a monster? Is that my phone or yours, Mulder? It could have upped the tension, the drama, and challenged the characters and the universe to grow out of what became stale. It would have been a hard line to walk, but I believe (heh) it could have been done. And done well. But Carter fought it. And at times he seemed to fight it with that same 90’s sneer. Run along, little ladies.
So, we got what we got. (And I think we have as rich a fanfic culture as has ever existed because of it).
But here’s the thing. What we did get? Happened. Frustrating as it was that most of it happened off screen, it still happened. It’s canon that Mulder and Scully fucked. It’s canon they had a baby together that they both loved and wanted. It’s canon that they lived together in an unremarkable house and had a years long situationship. It’s fucking canon that they fell in love with each other, and will always love each other.
So for Carter to walk that back because he didn’t get to tell the scary story he wanted to tell is horseshit on a level I cannot adequately articulate.
Look around. Look around at cons. Look around fandom spaces. You know what you see? 85% women. I was at PhileFest. I saw it with my own fucking eyes. Women have carried the fandom on our backs for longer than the show was on or off the air. And a majority of us were there for the love story. Chris Carter may think people came for his SCaRy aLiEN ShoW and stayed for the sCArY aLieN SHow, but…that’s just not reality. And to disrespect the people that kept the fandom going for this long by taking out what kept us coming back is such a slap in the face that I want to scream.
I think a lot of it stems from a certain amount of hubris. His show was wildly successful and I don’t take that away from him. But from what I’ve seen in the press, he comes off like someone who thinks he was the sole reason for it and his original vision is the end all be all. What he did to IWTB…
He took a mid MOTW idea, blew a feature budget on it, couldn’t figure out why people largely didn’t show up at the box office, and then took out the only parts of the film most people liked.
A legacy killer. Leaving a bad taste in the mouth of those that truly love the show. Sometimes I think maybe Naciamento was right: his only power—only true power—is to destroy it.
You do you, but I will not watch this movie. I won’t give him the clicks. Studios only pay attention to the algorithm. To the numbers. If this does well, it “proves” something that cuts at a little piece of my soul.
And the disrespect feels targeted.
I gotta be honest, Chris, if they played this version of I Want To Believe on a plane… I’d still walk out.
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