*tweet* Hey, bitter X-Philes!

[effervescible]

You have to check this post out. Man, I relate so much to the comments here--they say exactly what I feel about how much I loved the show and believed in it and loved and learned from the fandom--and then it burned me bad. Farther down, the comments also have some interesting points on how to spot burned philes in other fandoms. It definitely explains why I felt the need to drop Lost as early as I did.

In other news, I owe a big giant "let's catch up on what the hell's been happening in Jaina's life" post, but the short version is I moved, I will never finish unpacking, and I'm going to Texas tomorrow.

Comments

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

OMG, thank you for linking this! X-Files was one of the only fandoms I threw myself into ENTIRELY. Even moreso than seaQuest. When I was burned for that show, it's what made me cautious for all the fandoms which followed. I came into BTVS right on XF's heels, so I didn't get as involved as I would've liked. Which was probably good, because that show started to be crap about a season after I started watching.

I had a different experience: I drifted away slowly, I think during the sixth season (around "Post-Modern Prometheus," the episode where Mulder repeats a bank robbery day, the baseball alien episode, etc.) The show and I just seemed to be going out of sync with what had made me love it in the first place. So I had stopped watching long before whatever led to everyone else's terrible break-up.

I wholly agree with this comment. But, for me, it went back even further. When I watched the premiere for season four, something just felt ... off. I couldn't put my finger on it. It was ... different.

[xphile101.livejournal.com]

There will never, ever be another show that will equal what the X-Files was and what I got from it. I mean, I'm pretty wholeheartedly in the Lost fandom, and the House fandom, and I was in Gilmore Girls-land for a while, but do I have real and true friends that I'll travel to other cities to visit? No.

[buttercup0222.livejournal.com]

Since I'm now catching up with Lost, can you share why you stopped watching (in a vague way, if possible)?

Going from the comments in the X-files post, I'm assuming it has something to do with lack of faith that they can actually deliver on the promised brilliant plot? Maybe I'm just a tv whore with low standards, but I'm not expecting Lost (or any similar tv show) to have a satisfying ending that I can respect. Ideally, any show that intricate needs to have its plot outlined from the beginning, so that all the strange and mysterious happenings and bizarre character actions from the beginning are fully explained later on.

Except this is tv. TV is fickle and shows can disappear after not even completing a season. No writer without a real contract blah blah blah is going to spend that much time working out the details of an entire plot before they even see any commitment from a network. Therefore, a horrible letdown is inevitable. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's what I tell myself to keep from getting attached.

The closest thing I have to bitterness towards a tv show is the current state of Gilmore Girls. I'm kind of peeved, but I've just resigned myself to the fact that the characters are now mere shadows of themselves and the writers have been huffing Comet. I watch it out of habit just because I've already invested so much. Might as well see it through to the end.

[cantspell.livejournal.com]

agreed 110%.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

It's partially lack of faith on delivery, but also that I had a strong feeling that they were just flying by the seats of their pants--that even the journey towards the destination was made up as they went. And with this type of show, even if it's doubtful that the final ending can be a true payoff, they should absolutely at least try. I never watched Babylon 5, but from what I've read, they had a plan, they executed it, and they finished well.

Plus I was more interested in the stranded on an island stuff than the massive conspiracy stuff anyway.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

I do have real and true friends from other fandoms that I'll travel for, but there was just something special about XF. I don't think anything will be the same. :)