I dunno that he's a con-artist. He's just a victim of early success, without understanding the nature of his success and it shaped him thereafter.
That's a reasonable interpretation of the known facts, and I've toyed with it myself. It just doesn't hold up to close scrutiny. He's a con artist--who ultimately conned himself. Honestly, there's an element of con-work running through the whole business. Everybody's puffing himself up to look bigger--it's part of the job. But for him, it was the whole job.
It doesn't mean X-Files is a brilliant piece of speculative fiction.
He never wanted people to call it that--that wouldn't SELL.
It's just a fun pulp. This had been done before, but never on the level of X-Files. Maybe Night Stalker is the closest thing. You can literally watch Carter show-run X-Files into the ground as his head blooms. He really lost scope on the conceit and simplicity of the project and became very disconnected with the elements of X-Files that made it work.
But see, this is assuming he was the person who made it work to start with, and I've looked hard enough at the origins to know that isn't true. He basically had his writing and production team handed to him on a silver platter. The derivative nature of the show can be forgiven, easily--how much television ISN'T heavily derivative? But I think it's pretty obvious that if he'd been left entirely to his own devices in the beginning, we'd have ended up with something very much like The After. The After is what you get when Chris Carter is all by himself. He hasn't changed--he didn't lose any inner quality he used to have--he just lost the people who made him a success.
...And he's never looked back. I mean he keeps delving the same tired well, but he doesn't get why it doesn't work anymore.
True--times change, tastes change. But he is trying to change along with them. He just can't do it without heavy duty help. And yes, that's true of anybody--nobody does it all by him or herself. But you have to know how to get that help yourself, to recruit the best talent, and make that talent loyal to you. You know the most important person on the X-Files staff that Carter recruited personally? Frank Spotnitz. That was who he chose to be his second in command. Spotnitz had never had a single script produced when he came to work there, had no production experience whatsoever, and he was supervising people with much more experience and ability than himself. That really is where it started to go sour.
Carter can entirely delve those same tired tropes and make them fun. He literally doesn't know how to make anything fun anymore.
But did he ever? Look at the episodes that really work--who wrote them? On most shows, you assume the showrunner is there even in the episodes not credited to him. On this show, I'm not convinced he deserves credit for the ones actually credited to him. But he deserves full credit for The After pilot.
Carter forgot about all this, or he never saw the humor and how well it mixed to begin with.
Carter saw how humor won Darin Morgan an Emmy--something he wanted more than life itself--and he tried to copy him, but he couldn't--it was embarrassing. The fact is, he got his start in comedy, but he doesn't have much of a sense of humor. He doesn't really have much of a sense of anything. He's got no center, no real beliefs--maybe just a sense that authority can't be trusted--combined with a deep desire to be IN authority. And that conflict sinks him. He never resolved it.
He's an empty wetsuit. Just somebody who's been striking a pose all his life. There's no there there. This is what I think. I respect that you think differently, and like I said, I've been on that page you're on now. But I had to turn it. It wasn't the truth.
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new_yorker82
9 years ago
You know the most important person on the X-Files staff that Carter recruited personally? Frank Spotnitz. That was who he chose to be his second in command. Spotnitz had never had a single script produced when he came to work there, had no production experience whatsoever, and he was supervising people with much more experience and ability than himself.
Well, isn't Frank Spotnitz the creator of the tv pilot Man In the High Castle? As you probably know, that pilot will start streaming on amazon on January 15. If you are implying that Frank has no real talent, then I guess this is bad news for those people who will watch this new pilot.
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clyons
9 years ago
Um, no. Frank Spotnitz is not the creator of The Man in the High Castle. That was a fellow name of Philip K. Dick, who wrote the famous alternate history novel of that name, many moons ago, and is no longer around to protest his work being turned over to a colossal dullard to be folded spindled and mutilated.
Spotnitz is an energetic and tireless hack who has had a series of failed projects and subordinate producer gigs since 1013 Productions went the way of all things. Everything he has touched has turned to solid lead--and he just dusts himself off and cons somebody else into hiring him (not surprising he followed Carter to Amazon--he can't even be original about THAT).
You're on IMDb--look him up. If he's not a hack, there is no such thing as a hack. And now he's been given the task of adapting possibly the most original science fiction writer of all time, and there really are times when you think it's time to just burn Hollywood down already.
Nonetheless, you have made my point for me--by reminding us all that even Spotnitz, the talentless, the inane, the worthless, is more successful in the entertainment biz than Carter. Not by having more talent, but simply by virtue of trying harder. The way I hear it, after Carter hired him on, he did the lion's share of the work, while Carter did press interviews.
Spotnitz effectively ran The X-Files for the latter part of its existence. He did the scut work, and if you want to know why The After didn't even get to the point of being produced--well--Spotnitz wasn't involved. Carter obviously expected the work to just happen, like magic. He'd always had somebody else to do the hard stuff for him before.
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SPGHamster
9 years ago
Dick is hard to adapt in general. I'm particularly skeptical about anyone successfully adapting that Dick work. I read the book 20 years ago so I may be misremembering, but:
- I recall it being very much a product of its time. Its perspective seemed weird even in the 90s. It'd seem weirder still today.
- Spotnitz could do what a lot of other Dick adapters have done, take the bare bones of the story, and do something different with it. But that something different would likely amount to a rehash of Fatherland. We've seen Fatherland already.
I hope Spotnitz comes up with something good here, but this is the guy who co-wrote the second X-Files film. I'm not holding my breath.
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clyons
9 years ago
Dick is hard to adapt in general.
Hardly anyone ever tries. Only way Spotsy could be different would be to do a straight-up adaptation--which in the case of this book, would actually be possible. But it really doesn't matter how he does it--it'll suck. Because it's him doing it.
I'm particularly skeptical about anyone successfully adapting that Dick work. I read the book 20 years ago so I may be misremembering, but:
- I recall it being very much a product of its time. Its perspective seemed weird even in the 90s. It'd seem weirder still today.
Yes, but it's less challenging than most other books PKD wrote--like how would you adapt UBIK? Yes, TMITHC has an odd perspective, but it mainly does take place in the world we live in--or rather, might have lived in.
- Spotnitz could do what a lot of other Dick adapters have done, take the bare bones of the story, and do something different with it. But that something different would likely amount to a rehash of Fatherland. We've seen Fatherland already.
Well, some of us did. Not that many, I suspect. Probably more than will see this, though.
I hope Spotnitz comes up with something good here, but this is the guy who co-wrote the second X-Files film. I'm not holding my breath.
SPG, this is the guy who created
Hunted. I wouldn't even hold a sneeze.
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SPGHamster
9 years ago
Hardly anyone ever tries.
Though the high-profile successes -- Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall -- would certainly give incentive to try. And you're right, TMITHC is an easier choice than some. I haven't read UBIK, but I really can't imagine a film adaptation of, say, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Maybe David Lynch could manage it.
I still suspect the absolute best Spotnitz will manage with TMITHC is something boring and derivative.
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clyons
9 years ago
Yes, but none of those films come close to being faithful adaptations--that's what I meant. The success of those films encourages filmmakers to do what the hell they want with his ideas. Actually, wasn't Blade Runner a flop? Personally, I think it's way overrated today, but nice cinematography. And not much else. The novel has about a hundred times as much to say.
There was one very faithful adaptation--Through A Scanner Darkly--and did anyone go see it? (raises hand defiantly). Though honesty, Linklater should have scrapped the idea of doing the whole movie in motion capture animation.
And I suspect you're right about Spotsy's thing (in the sense that I suspect the sun will rise tomorrow), but will I have the patience to even check it out? I'm an Amazon Prime member, so I don't think it would cost me anything--except precious time. I think I'll pass.
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SPGHamster
9 years ago
Yes, but none of those films come close to being faithful adaptations--that's what I meant. The success of those films encourages filmmakers to do what the hell they want with his ideas.
I imagine doing what the hell he wants with Dick's ideas is Spotnitz's plan. He can make a dull Fatherland clone, but it'll be Hipster!Credible!FatherlandClone with Dick's name attached.
We shall see, I guess. If any of us can be bothered to watch.
Actually, wasn't Blade Runner a flop?
Dunno. Flop or not, it's entered the cultural canon. And I should really re-read the book, which I haven't looked at since I was 13 or 14.
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clyons
9 years ago
That you should--it would never make a Ridley Scott movie, that's for damn sure. And I'm increasingly of the opinion that Sir Ridley should just stop making movies. But Alien was pretty good.
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SPGHamster
9 years ago
Watched The Man in the High Castle. Was very bored for an hour.
It looks pretty, but the writing is spectacularly unsubtle. Basil Exposition everywhere, leaden dialogue, excruciatingly one-dimensional characters. I don't remember enough about the book to be able to say how faithful an adaptation this is plot-wise, but tone-wise there's nothing of Dick at all.
I've seen worse, but this was not good.
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