Scully's skepticism is pretty rational

[Zargon]

The average viewer is a believer, of course...and is on the Mulder side (but maybe not the super crazy side). So Scully is seen as the opponent, if not enemy.

The ''monster" ones are at least 'close' to possible: there really are a lot of 'monster' humans, that is people with genetic deformities, mental disorders and other stuff. Not quite at the 'monster' level...but way close enough to go ''woah, that might happen". Plenty of the guest actors did just ''play themselves'', even more so for the episodes where they literally go to a Circus Sideshow or something like that.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Not only that but Gillian Anderson really ate the live bug.

[Zargon]

Oh....and she spent nearly the whole show acting and standing on a box.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

2 episodes I'm most fond of come from the first season. They're both isolation episodes, one in an arctic bunker and one in the forest. Each one had some horrible threatening organism that made for a sensitive situation and also made for good creepy camping episodes.

I don't remember many episodes like that in the later seasons, it's a shame.

[RobbyB1982]

Characters like Carmela Soprano or Skylar White were meant to be sympathetic, at least relative to their husbands, but people ended up rooting against them.

That's largely because the shows kept their POV strongly on the male leads, and so when we did see their wives, they were just the complaining woman that was getting in the way of them being awesome. They weren't exposed to everything WE saw them doing, they just heard about the horrible aftermaths and... reacted like any normal person would to finding out your husband is a drug dealer committing mass murders.

And with Skylar at least there was a brief period where the show just wrote her badly and they kind of had you wanting her to die to get her out of the way... because that's what the writing pushed. But if by the end of the series you weren't terrified for that poor woman and seeing Walter as the scary villain monster he was...

[JoeThree]

Characters like Carmela Soprano or Skylar White were meant to be sympathetic, at least relative to their husbands, but people ended up rooting against them.

That's largely because the shows kept their POV strongly on the male leads, and so when we did see their wives, they were just the complaining woman that was getting in the way of them being awesome. They weren't exposed to everything WE saw them doing, they just heard about the horrible aftermaths and... reacted like any normal person would to finding out your husband is a drug dealer committing mass murders.

And with Skylar at least there was a brief period where the show just wrote her badly and they kind of had you wanting her to die to get her out of the way... because that's what the writing pushed. But if by the end of the series you weren't terrified for that poor woman and seeing Walter as the scary villain monster he was...

Skylar was a manipulative, spiteful woman who played the victim after she tried to murder Walt. Walt might've been a monster, but that doesn't justify Skylar's toxic femininity.

[TGLS]

Characters like Carmela Soprano or Skylar White were meant to be sympathetic, at least relative to their husbands, but people ended up rooting against them.

That's largely because the shows kept their POV strongly on the male leads, and so when we did see their wives, they were just the complaining woman that was getting in the way of them being awesome. They weren't exposed to everything WE saw them doing, they just heard about the horrible aftermaths and... reacted like any normal person would to finding out your husband is a drug dealer committing mass murders.

And with Skylar at least there was a brief period where the show just wrote her badly and they kind of had you wanting her to die to get her out of the way... because that's what the writing pushed. But if by the end of the series you weren't terrified for that poor woman and seeing Walter as the scary villain monster he was...

Skylar was a manipulative, spiteful woman who played the victim after she tried to murder Walt. Walt might've been a monster, but that doesn't justify Skylar's toxic femininity.

What? Skylar never tried to kill Walt. There was the Ted thing, but to be fair his tax situation needed to be dealt with or the IRS would be sniffing around everywhere.

[JoeThree]

Characters like Carmela Soprano or Skylar White were meant to be sympathetic, at least relative to their husbands, but people ended up rooting against them.

That's largely because the shows kept their POV strongly on the male leads, and so when we did see their wives, they were just the complaining woman that was getting in the way of them being awesome. They weren't exposed to everything WE saw them doing, they just heard about the horrible aftermaths and... reacted like any normal person would to finding out your husband is a drug dealer committing mass murders.

And with Skylar at least there was a brief period where the show just wrote her badly and they kind of had you wanting her to die to get her out of the way... because that's what the writing pushed. But if by the end of the series you weren't terrified for that poor woman and seeing Walter as the scary villain monster he was...

Skylar was a manipulative, spiteful woman who played the victim after she tried to murder Walt. Walt might've been a monster, but that doesn't justify Skylar's toxic femininity.

What? Skylar never tried to kill Walt. There was the Ted thing, but to be fair his tax situation needed to be dealt with or the IRS would be sniffing around everywhere.

In the final season she pulled a knife on him and cut him. It's been a white since I've seen it, so I don't recall the circumstances leading up to it, but I distinctly recall her slashing Walt and then Walter Jr. blaming his dad for some reason after they wrestled over the blade.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Carmela Soprano was a loyal wife and that was her role as far as the mob plots but the show itself focused on how she handled everything from having a husband with a violent job to her own complicity in illegal/immoral affairs of his business by staying with him.

I'm not sure if this was later, but I tend to remember her mouthing off quite a bit to Tony.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

In the final season she pulled a knife on him and cut him. It's been a white since I've seen it, so I don't recall the circumstances leading up to it, but I distinctly recall her slashing Walt and then Walter Jr. blaming his dad for some reason after they wrestled over the blade.

You're thinking of Ozymandias, which is basically the show's climax as well as its most famous/generally acclaimed episode. But no, I highly doubt most people hate her because of that episode. People hated her for years before that, and that scene with Walt and Walt Jr. is arguably her finest moment.

Characters like Carmela Soprano or Skylar White were meant to be sympathetic, at least relative to their husbands, but people ended up rooting against them.

That's largely because the shows kept their POV strongly on the male leads, and so when we did see their wives, they were just the complaining woman that was getting in the way of them being awesome. They weren't exposed to everything WE saw them doing, they just heard about the horrible aftermaths and... reacted like any normal person would to finding out your husband is a drug dealer committing mass murders.

And with Skylar at least there was a brief period where the show just wrote her badly and they kind of had you wanting her to die to get her out of the way... because that's what the writing pushed. But if by the end of the series you weren't terrified for that poor woman and seeing Walter as the scary villain monster he was...

I agree the POV thing is a big part of it. Even when they're up to questionable things, people want to see the charismatic, interesting characters take action.

I do get the general impression that the Skylar hate was strongest early on when she didn't really know anything but she still acted generally unpleasant. The audience knows Walt shouldn't be trusted, but they also know that she doesn't have concrete evidence to go around doing stereotypical "nagging wife" things. Also agreed that if you still think Skylar is the worst of the two by the end of the show, then I don't know...

Carmela Soprano was a loyal wife and that was her role as far as the mob plots but the show itself focused on how she handled everything from having a husband with a violent job to her own complicity in illegal/immoral affairs of his business by staying with him.

I'm not sure if this was later, but I tend to remember her mouthing off quite a bit to Tony.

I didn't see The Sopranos until it was off the air for over a decade, so I don't know exactly how strong Carmela hate was back then, but my impression is that it was her hypocrisy that people really despised. Unlike Skylar, Carmela actually knew what Tony was up to, but she chose to ignore it most of the time because she loved the lifestyle. That is, she ignored it until she had a reason to hold it over Tony's head, at which point she proceeded to act innocent and holier-than-thou. In public she always had Tony's back though.

If people go easier on Carmela than Skylar, imo it's because the Carmela stuff was better integrated into the fabric of The Sopranos, since that series was just as much a character study/family drama as it was a mob show. Skylar often felt more like a road block.

That's probably part of why Scully works too. She might disagree with Mulder a lot, but it fits right in with the regular act structure of the show.