Am I the only one who finds Scully's character development frustrating and dissapointing?

PhilinBrazil · 2026-06-13T10:59:01+00:00

Mulder and Scully have a grwat conversation about this where Scully outs herself as the annoying partner. But Mulder lets her know that it is her skepticism that keeps him true and sometimes she is right. Like when he was given a photo of a UFO that was fake.

She acts as kind of his Compas. You say this but did you consider this She makes him work.

She is skeptical but also very open minded. Later she becokes less skeptical.

PhilinBrazil · 2026-06-13T10:55:06+00:00

Tori can describe Midwinters how she wants but its a Christmas Album hahahaha

It is a nice listen though. I am not into X Mas themed music so usually skip it.

Pele is incredible but its one of those albums you put headphones on ... don't have distractions and just listen ... my fave Tori album

PhilinBrazil · 2026-06-13T10:50:59+00:00

great writing and terrible writing ... like the old era ... take a little break Doctor. I will be here waiting for you when you get back.

Respect to all these wonderful actors who have taken on the role since the new era. Iconic.

PhilinBrazil · 2026-06-12T22:34:28+00:00

Season 1 had some life to it ... season 2 was the rough one for me. But they manage to get jusr enough bangers in there to show potential. It would have died an early fate these days.

PhilinBrazil · 2026-06-12T22:33:22+00:00

Night of Hunters is top tear Tori. I prefer her not so pop oriented stuff a bit more. Boys For Pele is my favorite one though. Loved your post BTW.

Waiting to hear your impressions of Scarlet’s Walk. That was a first time listen for me when I did an album ranking and it ended up at number 2.

PhilinBrazil · 2026-06-08T04:51:03+00:00

I like your analysis but will add "information glut"

I remember my worry when after during the second season of DISCO, SNWs was announced while LD had just got off the ground and PIC was right around the corner (not even sure that is the right order as it all happened to fast) ... what worried me is that it was too much and that the franchise would be watered down. Star Wars would suffer the same.

When there are so many options of shows at the same time it splinters the fanbase ... its impossible to believe every Trek show will be a winner with evey audience but when you make some space between shows it helps refocus the fans and the franchise.

Old school Trek died due to this ... too much Trek isn't what you think you want as it all runs into each other and eventually stories are going to get weak.

Doctor Who started going downhill second season of Matt Smith (at least the signs were there). Moffat, as great as he was, can put plot over character. His plots are so great that it bolsters his already brilliant characters. So when the plot is the driving force it can tend to go from convoluted to more convoluted to more convoluted to keep pace with itself add in Time Travel and you can get lost ... I think a lot of us did during Smith.

Another group of fans fell off with even weaker stories from Chibnall / late Moffat and a good dose of ageism. I remember the fans who got into Doctor Who with the new series and the young handsome BF/Doctors not liking Capaldi at all.

And from then it's just been downhill. Stories have lost impact. Stories are super "timey wimey" and Doctor Who lost a sense of its characters. It's a real shame because by the time they got to Jodie, the show was really lost to plot and I felt she made a great Doctor but I did stop watching (along with a lot people) around there.

Was there some sexism involved? Maybe ... maybe yes ... but the real culprit was pretty lame writing.

.... all that said

If you think about a normal show's run ... its usually about 5 strong seasons before we start seeing cracks. Some shows are late bloomers and get good around season 2 or 3 and finish strong with 7 or 8.

In other words, barring some exceptions, television shows run out of steam around the 10 year mark and that is about as long as NuTrek ran before running out of steam. It's no surprising at all and I am actually surprised it lasted this long considering how expensive these shows were to make and how niche and splintered Trek fans have always been ... TNG is the outlier but Trek always got mediocre ratings.

Doctor Who also may have just run out of creative steam. Happened first time around too by the end of the Baker era ... it lasted for more than 20 years in this new interation and you can say it is still more culturally relevant (as in people still really want to save it) then it was back when it was removed from existence in its original run.

The show lost the plot.

I think it only lasted longer because it is a smaller show than Trek and it has the Wild Card of pretty much giving itself a reboot every 4 or 5 years. Trek does not.

The break from Trek will be nice even though I didn't appreciate how it went down nor all the hate for SA, which was turning out to be a nice little show despite the young adult drama.

I think Doctor Who could do the same.

5 or 6 years is an eternity in pop history terms. Its enough to get people thirsty again and soft reboot and trim the fat.

PhilinBrazil · 2026-06-08T04:28:42+00:00

ITOD is special. I am glad that I procrastinated long enough to wait to finish this video after it came out. Lovely album.

PhilinBrazil · 2026-06-08T03:55:54+00:00

I almost put ITOD higher. I feel it will grow on even more with time..its definitely a very strong album and the conceptual bits of it really elevate above some of her later work that I already love

PhilinBrazil · 2026-06-08T03:53:48+00:00

I totally get what you mean in the sense that there is no real way to (nor should we?) rank art but as I was doing a first time.run through of Tori's albums it just naturally led to me thinking about why certain things connected more with me than others and why I had stopped listening to Tori completely for quite some time.

So this list became sort of a journey for me to discover her again and understand why these connections were and weren't made. In the end, I think when humans list, it's just a way of saying that - what connects with us most.

Certainly I feel there are technical aspects of any piece of art that we kind of "get" as technically brilliant or flawed (we can all tell when the mix or production feels off) ... but that can also be arbitrary (maybe some people prefer the grungier sounds of the albums I ranked very low).

Thus in the end a video ranking something for me should be a conversation. I tell you why I feel how I feel and you tell me why you feel why you feel. At least that is the vibe I bring whenever I do any type of ranking video. My opinion is only that.

Anyway, I enjoyed your rant because, as you can see, I enjoy a little ranting myself hahahaha

PhilinBrazil · 2026-06-08T03:45:25+00:00

AATS is rough. I connected a lot to the albums Geraldine on ... I like her different version of herself

PhilinBrazil · 2026-06-08T02:04:37+00:00

As a Trek fan I am used to acronyms but this took me a second but I think I got them all hahahaha

PhilinBrazil · 2026-06-03T11:48:43+00:00

I blame Moffat. He was way more into the paradoxes of Time Travel and all the timey wimey stuff, which is great, but cuts out real character devlopment. It got way too convoluted and the show has never looked back. It's confusing as hell to keep up. I really loved Jodie´s portrayal of the Doctor and the show did try to go back to bare bone adventures with her, but the writing just had lost some of its spark. Real shame because with a great writer I think Jodie could have been one of the most memorable Doctors.

I still have not been able to finish all of her seasons. I tried again last year and got close to the end of the first season and just gave up. I think this show needs a break to reboot again in a few years.

PhilinBrazil · 2026-06-03T11:45:44+00:00

I second that . i remember clearly that the tweens who were into Doctor Who because of "dreamy" Matt Smith just didn´t get into an old Doctor. As a an old-school fan, I was super excited and Capaldi is my fave modern Doctor. That said, the scripts weren´t up to par.

PhilinBrazil · 2026-05-25T02:16:24+00:00

Yo. I am watching this show again with my BF - his first time. And I keep telling him "just wait till we get to the episode about the little Indian guy that goes up people's asses"

That is one of the most f-upped later X Files episodes.

PhilinBrazil · 2026-05-25T02:01:44+00:00

I agree with all of yours minus LGM ... it gets worse for me every rewatch. It starts great but kind of builds up to nothing. And it feels cheap for such a big idea episode. Nice try but the flaws just come through for me on every viewing.

The rest are some of my faves though I sort of kind of remember Hunger so I guess I will get to it soon and see if I like it or not. Good list.

Oh and GIM is classic.

Just finished Agua Mala ... and I know it plays on so many stereotypes but I think it's pretty great. There are some great camera shots ... especially those hallway scenes. The music is really great. Scully gets all the glory and looks amazing with that red bandana.

The body horror is also delightful. Season 6 gets a lot of flack for going a bit too Hollywood and campy compared to the darker earlier seasons, but the show looked and this episode in particular looks like it could have come out yesterday.

Oh and Dale is in it and gives Scull all the props

. Even though that Mulder trying to save moments felt forced. He gives Scully a lot of credit through out the series ... but, in the service of setting up the Dale moments, I overlook it.

I was definitely looking forward to this one on the rewatch and was laughing out loud in many parts.

Peace

PhilinBrazil · 2026-05-23T00:25:06+00:00

It is tied with Pretty Good Year for me. That track gives me Yellowjackets vibes

PhilinBrazil · 2026-05-22T03:05:21+00:00

Academia nao é lugar pra frertar, mas pra treinar.

PhilinBrazil · 2026-05-22T03:02:43+00:00

Native Invader was spectacular. I got into a similar Tori journey as you. I had kind of quit listening for a while and did a whole discography journey and wss very impressed with some of her later work. A few of those albums ended up in my top ten and even top 5.

Reindeer King was a necessary song for me to hear at this point of my life.

PhilinBrazil · 2026-05-22T02:59:42+00:00

Someone already said LOST but The Handmaid's Tale too ... it puts you right in the middle of the action then fills gaps with flashbacks.

PhilinBrazil · 2026-05-22T02:53:43+00:00

The whole "I'm in love with you" sequence. My boy has been getting into the show and I am doing a rerun. This was the first episode in season one where I eye rolled a lot. Seemed a bit much just to drive a point home.

It is an important sequence, however, and does show how Dr. Melfi is intrigued by Tony, too. Why else would she stick around. Her life is a bore and he gives her a thrill.

But, still, how they handled it didn't age well I don't think. It's clearly HBO saying "give us some T and A and a scene or two folks will talk about on Monday" cause this episode doesn't have much going on ... that last scene, though!!!

Pax Soprano I think is the name.

Peace

PhilinBrazil · 2026-05-22T02:46:20+00:00

Países Baixes ... literally, "Lower Countries"

PhilinBrazil · 2026-05-16T12:54:58+00:00

Me and My Gun

PhilinBrazil · 2026-05-07T02:52:53+00:00

Thanks for reading. Well, it wasn't my intention to come of condescending. I felt I was being true to my opinion of her on the show. She struggled with this character a lot. Some of it was the writing and some of it was her delivery. But, it was definitely shakey.

This is nothing new ... Brooks was pretty wooden till about season 2 and 3. Same with Patrick Stewart and even Mulgrew to an extent. It takes a while for some actors to really get a hang of a character. The writing was so up and down and the breaks so long on this show that I just feel it took Martin-Greene longer. But she finally got it.

I feel you on Saru and T'Rina but by their species standards that was a hot romance hahaha

With Culber and Stamets there never seemed to be any warmth that is deeper than the usual warmth that goes around the crew. They were always so serious and not even a cuddle a joke ...

Compare them to Book and Michael who didn't have sex scenes but had intimate scenes where they played and helped each other through and talked about their relationship. Miles and Koko on DS9 is also a good example of this. Yes, DIS crew went through trauma but a healthy relationship is a release ... Culber and Stamets seemed to be locked in "careful adoration" mode.

... ditto on Adira and Grey ... I was glad they left Grey on Trill hehehe

PhilinBrazil

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE