I could resist replying to the X-Files but you just had to get into Millennium didn't you?
When I was about 16 or in highschool I entered my evangelical Christian phase (yes, phase, thank God) and you better believe this show hit like a freight train for me. It was perfect timing. Your breakdown of its elements is spot on. This was a time when the internet was the place you went to do the absolutely insane stuff you'd never want to do in real life because, hey, on the web nobody knows who you are and can never find you, right?? That was basically true back in the day when the only people who understood this stuff were a handful of basement dwellers. This made the internet feel "vast and infinite".
Fast forward 15 years later and it's the EXACT OPPOSITE. The internet is now a tightly knit fisherman's net that remembers every single key stroke you log, forever, and is full of people ready and waiting to hunt you down in a moment's notice. Now I save my off the wall activities for real life, where, as long as nobody's recording, there's less accountability and nobody remembers anything.
It was too bad they ended the show the way they did. I always figured the perfect way to end it would have been a special episode airing at 11PM, December 31, 1999, ending just as the ball dropped in Rockefeller, written in such a way as to tie up the series in a satisfying way but also leave it open enough to match the fervor surrounding the world's obsession with the possibilities in the new millennium.
But that would have been WAY too hardcore. The only man with the grit and genius to pull that off already had his own series he was waiting to revive (RIP David).
P.S.
With Lynch's passing, have you thought about writing anything on him? I'm way too lazy to check your old stuff to see if you're a fan (also my memory sucks) but he seems like someone who's work you'd be into.
Delayed response (I am absentminded), but better late than never.
>This was a time when the internet was the place you went to do the absolutely insane stuff you'd never want to do in real life because, hey, on the web nobody knows who you are and can never find you, right?? That was basically true back in the day when the only people who understood this stuff were a handful of basement dwellers. This made the internet feel "vast and infinite".
Don't underestimate the Google impact. It's very possible the internet seemed bigger than it really was because until Google perfected search it was hard to find precisely what you were looking for, so you spent a lot of time wending through detours and enjoying the experience.
But man—I recently made the mistake of googling something about Final Fantasy and just wanted to bang my head against the desk. The old content mills were bad enough—here's twenty listicles by people who *clearly* don't really know the games but are able to look up and spit out the most salient tidbits—but now they're being replaced by ChatGPT slop sites that just vomit out recombinations of the human-generated slop. I have no idea who the hell is paying to keep RPG Classics online, but I spent some time browsing through it just to remember what it was like when geek hobbyists were just sharing their interests with other geek hobbyists. The attention economy might have been inevitable, so I can't really say it was a mistake—but it was still a fucking disaster.
I think I've said this before, but in a totally fucked up way I kind of appreciate sites like Kiwi Farms. I mean, yeah, I can say a lot of horrible things and affix any number of "-ist" epithets to its userbase, but at least we can't accuse any of them for participating for the sake of clout. None of them are aspiring to go full time or get sponsorships for posting shit. None of them are bots....well, I don't know. *Maybe* none of them are bots. (And the funny thing is, I've glanced at some of their off-topic threads about books & such and found them...inoffensive? thoughtful? Life is weird all the time.)
I still haven't brought myself to watch season 3 because I feel like anything the producers & showrunners did after season 2 ended would have been disingenuous. I read somewhere that Morgan & Wong claimed to have built escape hatches into the last-two parter as a means of grounding season 3 back in a recognizable reality without too much hand-waving or retconning, but said nobody ever talked to them about it.
A Big fan of the series. Got to know it around 2008-9 through reruns in south american tv. After rewatching it last year i discovered most of My clearest memories were from The Mikado, a truly amazing piece of tv.
Would also like to hear your insight in "Midnight of the Century", "The Curse of Frank Black" and "José Chung's Doomsday defense"
Shoot I didn't know what Millennium was, but a friend invited a bunch of us over to watch just that episode, as a short movie night. He rightly figured which part of the show we would care about. Then we worked on characters for In Nomine.
I have not played Honey Heist, but I have heard of it. It has 2 stats and quick to learn, it's meant for 1-shots, critical role streamed it. Seems like it is a fun time, assuming no one is terrified of a little improv. Could even work as exposure for someone who is to work up to improv. It would be fun to run with players who are eager to play.
I could resist replying to the X-Files but you just had to get into Millennium didn't you?
When I was about 16 or in highschool I entered my evangelical Christian phase (yes, phase, thank God) and you better believe this show hit like a freight train for me. It was perfect timing. Your breakdown of its elements is spot on. This was a time when the internet was the place you went to do the absolutely insane stuff you'd never want to do in real life because, hey, on the web nobody knows who you are and can never find you, right?? That was basically true back in the day when the only people who understood this stuff were a handful of basement dwellers. This made the internet feel "vast and infinite".
Fast forward 15 years later and it's the EXACT OPPOSITE. The internet is now a tightly knit fisherman's net that remembers every single key stroke you log, forever, and is full of people ready and waiting to hunt you down in a moment's notice. Now I save my off the wall activities for real life, where, as long as nobody's recording, there's less accountability and nobody remembers anything.
It was too bad they ended the show the way they did. I always figured the perfect way to end it would have been a special episode airing at 11PM, December 31, 1999, ending just as the ball dropped in Rockefeller, written in such a way as to tie up the series in a satisfying way but also leave it open enough to match the fervor surrounding the world's obsession with the possibilities in the new millennium.
But that would have been WAY too hardcore. The only man with the grit and genius to pull that off already had his own series he was waiting to revive (RIP David).
P.S.
With Lynch's passing, have you thought about writing anything on him? I'm way too lazy to check your old stuff to see if you're a fan (also my memory sucks) but he seems like someone who's work you'd be into.
Delayed response (I am absentminded), but better late than never.
>This was a time when the internet was the place you went to do the absolutely insane stuff you'd never want to do in real life because, hey, on the web nobody knows who you are and can never find you, right?? That was basically true back in the day when the only people who understood this stuff were a handful of basement dwellers. This made the internet feel "vast and infinite".
Don't underestimate the Google impact. It's very possible the internet seemed bigger than it really was because until Google perfected search it was hard to find precisely what you were looking for, so you spent a lot of time wending through detours and enjoying the experience.
But man—I recently made the mistake of googling something about Final Fantasy and just wanted to bang my head against the desk. The old content mills were bad enough—here's twenty listicles by people who *clearly* don't really know the games but are able to look up and spit out the most salient tidbits—but now they're being replaced by ChatGPT slop sites that just vomit out recombinations of the human-generated slop. I have no idea who the hell is paying to keep RPG Classics online, but I spent some time browsing through it just to remember what it was like when geek hobbyists were just sharing their interests with other geek hobbyists. The attention economy might have been inevitable, so I can't really say it was a mistake—but it was still a fucking disaster.
I think I've said this before, but in a totally fucked up way I kind of appreciate sites like Kiwi Farms. I mean, yeah, I can say a lot of horrible things and affix any number of "-ist" epithets to its userbase, but at least we can't accuse any of them for participating for the sake of clout. None of them are aspiring to go full time or get sponsorships for posting shit. None of them are bots....well, I don't know. *Maybe* none of them are bots. (And the funny thing is, I've glanced at some of their off-topic threads about books & such and found them...inoffensive? thoughtful? Life is weird all the time.)
I still haven't brought myself to watch season 3 because I feel like anything the producers & showrunners did after season 2 ended would have been disingenuous. I read somewhere that Morgan & Wong claimed to have built escape hatches into the last-two parter as a means of grounding season 3 back in a recognizable reality without too much hand-waving or retconning, but said nobody ever talked to them about it.
A Big fan of the series. Got to know it around 2008-9 through reruns in south american tv. After rewatching it last year i discovered most of My clearest memories were from The Mikado, a truly amazing piece of tv.
Would also like to hear your insight in "Midnight of the Century", "The Curse of Frank Black" and "José Chung's Doomsday defense"
Shoot I didn't know what Millennium was, but a friend invited a bunch of us over to watch just that episode, as a short movie night. He rightly figured which part of the show we would care about. Then we worked on characters for In Nomine.
Finally looked up In Nomine. Sounds like a trip. The D666 system got a chuckle out of me.
Speaking of tabletop games: have you ever heard of Honey Heist? Ever play it?!
I have not played Honey Heist, but I have heard of it. It has 2 stats and quick to learn, it's meant for 1-shots, critical role streamed it. Seems like it is a fun time, assuming no one is terrified of a little improv. Could even work as exposure for someone who is to work up to improv. It would be fun to run with players who are eager to play.
One of my favorite writers discussing one of my favorite shows. Thank you for this and your recent X-Files piece.
Forgive my delay in saying so, but glad you liked 'em!