REVISITING... 1X02 - Squeeze

Today I am revisiting one of TXF's most widely known MotW eps featuring one of my favourite "monsters"... Baltimore's Eugene Victor Tooms in his first appearance in Squeeze.

REVISITING... 2X14 - Die Hand Die Verletzt

This week I revisit the icky episode featuring the toads and the snake and the black arts lovin' PTA at Crowley High School in Milford Haven, New Hampshire... Die Hand Die Verletzt.

REVISITING... 2X11 - Excelsis Dei

I was going to (split infinitive coming) simply update my existing posts by changing the original post title — and I actually did do this for the updated Red Museum commentary last week — but I knew deep down that changing the name of a web page is a big no-no.

So I was faced with a bit of a challenge in terms of how I could update the entries, let my miniscule group of readers know that they were updated, and yet still keep them in the same order in case anyone was simply paging through them one at a time.

I decided that this was the best method. On this so-called "Round Two Revisitation", I will provide a new post with a title like the above, but the contents of the post will redirect to the original. Make sense? Doesn't matter; if you want to read my new thoughts on Excelsis Dei, click on the link.

A Salute to Shaenon Garrity's Monster of the Week TXF Comic

Around the time that I first decided to do an X-Files 20th Anniversary Rewatch, I came across Shaenon Garrity's Monster of the Week comic. It's a clever and highly humorous summary of each episode using a cartoon interpretation... one of the highlights of my Fridays, truth be told.

And as I indicated in a comment on her page, it's a refreshing look at the series, a total departure from what could have been a depressing revisitation of old times gone bad, particularly for a disgruntled fan like me. It's also a damn clever concept, because there are so many things in a show as complex as The X-Files to make fun of, if you really think about it. The quirks that we found comforting and endearing, as well as the forgotten facts and (dis)continuity errors that made us want to tear our hair out are all — apparently — excellent foundations for hilarity.

Whodathunkit? Well, Shaenon did, and I'm glad she took on the tremendous task.

As of this writing, she is just about to the midpoint of Season 4, so there is a lot left on this ride. I would encourage you to hop on and enjoy.

P.S. For those of you following me on "round two" of the re-watch, I updated the Red Museum episode commentary earlier this week.

Round One Complete

So in a span of seven months (almost to the day), I have revisited sixty-six episodes of The X-Files — and also the first feature film — during my 20th Anniversary Rewatch. I am somewhat impressed that I managed to keep up my intended schedule for the most part; I was almost expecting that the project would fall by the wayside at some point.

But it's been a worthwhile trip down memory lane.

The rewatch has re-inspired me, in a sense. I have discovered that I still have a lot to say about this show, which ultimately means that I am still a fan. However, it's also been reinforced in my mind that I am a fan of "old school" TXF, as this trip through the archives has still not moved me to venture beyond where I thought the show turned a significant corner. But I no longer feel the need to stay away from the parts of the show that I enjoyed and admired. Moreover, I don't feel guilty for not liking the parts that were stupid and unrealistic and not worthy of what "could have been".

I have already begun round two of my rewatch (the actual watching part, not the "write new stuff to add to the old reviews" part), recently finishing S1 (and thinking, wow, that was a great first season). On this blog, I have gone back and added photos to my "Revisited" posts. In terms of upcoming posting activity, I am definitely not going to be "on a schedule" as I was during round one; you may see something new once or twice a week.

Oh, and after seven months, I apparently now have more than just automated web crawlers and spambots visiting.

Many thanks to the "actual people" who have been enjoying these posts.
;-)

Top 10 List of Better Outcomes for Baby William

Okay, so to set this up properly, I didn't watch this episode ("William") of The X-Files from Season Nine. And I can't see myself ever watching it. What I know of it is from reviews and commentary that I only recently allowed myself to delve into (i.e., within the past seven months) as part of this "X-Files 20th anniversary adventure". Until now, I had only known that the baby had been given up for adoption at some point; I did not know the circumstances surrounding that decision nor did I know who ultimately made that decision. I didn't even know when exactly in S9 the deed took place, prior to my recent research.

Anyway, I don't want to dwell on why William's exit was unrealistic and unbelievable. Any X-Files fan worth his or her salt knows why. And it goes without saying that this story arc should never have been allowed to go as far as it did. Someone should have had the courage to drive a stake through this thing, long before the creators found themselves boxed into a two inch corner by it. (Made a mistake with the pregnancy thing? Sure, end it before she shows. Made the mistake of actually having her give birth? Fine, have the kid be taken away; pronto! Made the mistake of having the baby turn out to be part alien and "special"?? What-ever, man... now you're screwed!)

I have no way of knowing how much of the events of this particular episode was David Duchovny's doing, since it was not actually written by him. I have read bits and pieces about him being confused as to how to direct certain scenes from this hour, so it's clear that the story idea that he contributed may not have turned into the script that he intended. In my mind, it could still have been CC and FS who so inappropriately decided that a closed adoption was the best way to end the story of William.

No matter. Whoever was actually responsible, please take a few moments to review my top ten list of better outcomes for Baby William... drum roll please:

#10... Succumbed to the latest and greatest contagion, the cure for which may or may not be controlled by the government.
#9... Boiled down and fed to chickens by a cult whose members have incredibly long lives.
#8... Took a cruise to the Norwegian "Bermuda Triangle" where he quickly aged; he then...
#7... Traveled back in time to prevent his odd and unnatural conception... and succeeds.
#6... Sucked to death by Son of Flukeman.
#5... Pushed by Robert Modell's evil triplet to play with matches and set himself on fire.
#4... Kidnapped by a backwoods boy who will do anything — and I mean anything — for his mother.
#3... Whisked away by children travelling in starlight.
#2... Encountered his doppelganger at day care and fought him to the death.
#1... GOT ABDUCTED BY ALIENS AND WAS NEVER SEEN AGAIN!

After all, isn't all of that what The X-Files is about, anyway?? At the height of the show, did anyone hope to see extended storylines regarding mommyhood, baby carriages and giving up special kids for adoption? In the words of one of my feedbackers, why were CC/FS so determined to turn The X-Files into a goddamn SOAP OPERA?

Season Nine: "oh my freakin' Christ"

Okay, so this is an indulgence... I never watched any S9 episodes, so to summarize the season may seem presumptuous, if not outright unfair. (And the above words were not — to my knowledge — ever uttered by anyone in connection to S9; it's all me.)

But for all of the catch phrases that were associated with this show, the plain truth is that the truth was never out there. At least not in any believable format. And this, from someone who "wanted to believe". Trust no one? I guess in the end, that means don't trust the creators of this show to do it any final justice.

First of all, did they really think that viewers would protest if William had been taken by aliens? (That's got to be a rhetorical question, because they seem not to care a whit when viewers protest.) Would it have been too predictable? Did that option seem so sour to them that they would instead go for the totally insane, out of character move by Dana Scully to put her son up for adoption after going through what she went through to have him? (For a bit of fun, check out my next posting tomorrow when I will unveil the Top Ten List of Better Outcomes for Baby William.)

Of course, the whole baby story arc should not have been introduced into what was already a messy mythology at the end of S7. So many things still needed be cleared up that adding a "special baby" was the last thing that any of us needed. As I've said, TXF literally took on the worst aspects of fan fiction when that storyline was allowed to persist. Oh, and if I thought that the mythology had been hard to follow up until then, it apparently became totally muddled and convoluted through S8 and S9.

If you want to see something hilarious, go to YouTube and do a search on "david duchovny gillian anderson paley center October 2013". The two of them appeared together last fall for an intimate live interview session and even although the moderator is a bit "nebbishy", the session is quite entertaining as a gauge for how memorable the last parts of TXF were. (And I get that as TV/film actors, you play a scene so many times over that you may or may not care to see the completed, pieced together version of what you're doing. Over seven, eight and nine seasons, unless an episode is particularly memorable, I don't doubt that things are easily forgotten over time.)

While the two of them recall specific details from the beginning and early periods of the show (and by and large, David seems to remember more things than Gillian), the revelations about how the series ended seemed like news to them. Gillian appears to have wiped out pretty much all of the events from S8 and S9 (no blaming her there), judging by her reactions and her various surprised queries, including "what the f--k is magnetite??" and "where was our kid at the time?" From David, we got assorted interjections like "I'm dying to know how it ends..." and "that's crazy s--t" and "it's just a little too far-fetched..."

Yep. That about sums it up. Funny in one way, but a sadly lost opportunity in so many others.

Oh, and Billy Miles... (you'll get the joke if you check out the video).

Season Eight: "the truth is in the lies"

Overall Rating: 2.17 out of 4 (circa 2003)

It's over? Really? I'm finally free? God knows that when I originally saw Closure last season that I didn't know how appropriate Mulder's closing statement would be in a little over a year's time. "I'm fine. I'm free." Overall, it's been a trying experience this year (and I didn't even start watching until February) to see a once proud show testing the patience of its audience and stretching the limits of believability in a way that I never thought possible — even for The X-Files. And even though the ever-brainful "powers that be" have decided that something with that title will still show up on the airwaves this fall, I have one final sentiment to add to the above: "I'm gone."

Worst / Best

It's actually not fair that I have to pick out the worst because I don't think I even saw the worst of the bunch, given what I've heard. Out of the twelve episodes that I did see, however, I may as well go with my ratings and choose Alone as the worst. The x-file component of it was pointless, the tribute part of it came off like a back-handed compliment, and for what seems like the thousandth time in the past couple of years, the Dana Scully that I saw cheesed me off in a big way. (I'll never be able to watch Tempus Fugit in the same way again.) That said, I have no fond feelings for any of the following, either: The Gift, Per Manum, This is Not Happening, and Empedocles.

If the first question of identifying the worst episode wasn't fair, the next task of identifying the best is damn near impossible. Again, I'll just go with my ratings and choose what I recall made me feel the best at the time that I saw it, which would be DeadAlive. Totally unbelievable in any context, but it had enough action and "edge of your seat" pacing to make me forget its shortcomings when I originally watched it.

Most Disappointing / Most Surprising

Did I have enough high hopes for anything this season to have found any one episode disappointing? I think I'll answer this one in a slightly different manner and expound on all the reasons why I found this entire season disappointing. When Mulder got sucked up into the alien ship last year, I knew that things would never be the same again. An era on TXF ended right there, no mistake about it. At that point in time, however, it was not apparent to me that any "next generation" type of folks would be introduced to the show. My guess was that Skinner would get demoted for his role in the "loss" of Mulder and that he would welcome the temporary re-assignment to field agent status to help Scully search for Mulder. It wasn't my naive belief that episode after episode until David Duchovny's return would focus on this search, but it was definitely my expectation that the show would take on a new respect for continuity and include a scene or two every week where we would get a status report showing their progress. That this could have been so easily accommodated but was ignored, was truly disappointing.

The characterization of Dana Scully — one that had long ago reached the point of irritation for at least two viewers that I know — was a further disappointment. I've been on her case since the "hold on" speech at the beginning of season seven, but this year took the proverbial cake. I'm not going to fan the flames by going into any great detail, but suffice it to say that whatever understanding that I used to feel for this character simply died over the course of season eight. It got to the point where I rolled my eyes at her distress because I didn't find her actions/reactions believable or even worthy of my concern.

My last big disappointment concerning season eight was the way in which they ended up using David Duchovny's services. So much potential ended up being so seriously wasted on trivial material. I must admit to having had expectations that Mulder's return would be a temporary revival of the "old X-Files". Mind you, I must also confess that I didn't think the ridiculous pregnancy storyline would be carried out to its "fullest" so that by Mulder's return, Scully would be as big as a house and not much good as a field agent anyway. Again, it wasn't anything that a decent attempt at realistic story-telling wouldn't have fixed, but I got the distinct impression that Chris Carter and his cronies didn't want any realism to interfere with their particular brand of story-telling this year. And that has to be the biggest disappointment to this fan.

So do I have a pick for most surprising? Once again, I'll tackle it from a slightly different perspective. My reaction to this entire season has been the most surprising part of it. In my wildest dreams (even after I sat in front of the TV moaning, "no, no, no" at the end of Requiem last year), it never occurred to me that by the time another May rolled around, I would care so little about this show and about what future Mulder and Scully might have. Which leads me to the closing scene in Existence... I think it's sad that some of us have cared so much and been so thoroughly ignored that those two minutes were enough to satisfy. In the context of what I've seen on the show the past couple of years, that ending just didn't fit. It may have been what many of us wanted after investing up to eight years of our lives, but CC had done the MSR some major damage over the past two seasons. In the end, what I saw were two characters who have behaved in aggravatingly stupid ways and who now think that a baby is going to assure them of "happily ever after". Sure. Fine. Whatever.

I don't know what Fox/Chris Carter has in mind after season twenty-seven or whatever, but I do wish that they'll all keep something in mind for the next big "hit" project: "Always leave your audience wanting more." The wisdom of the person who originated that saying can't be disputed.

Since I chose not to re-watch any of the episodes in S8, I have no changes to make to any of the individual reviews or ratings. The part of me that still cares about TXF is ultra sensitive to the incredible frustration that arises whenever I think about anything beyond the second last scene of Requiem. In revisiting my personal history with this show, it occurs to me that the worst trends in fan fiction seemed to have pervaded the series in its final two seasons. The creators of the show — ever the fierce protectors of the "relationship" and where it could or could not go — totally botched it. In the end, only those that I would describe as "shippers beyond all reason" would think that the Mulder and Scully story ended up anywhere near realistic or satisfying. I mean, my God, a baby! (How many discussions about bad fanfic did we have on the old discussion boards about "M&S with kids" stories??) And Mulder was actually dead and buried for how long? And how long was Scully's pregnancy? Oh, I forgot, I shouldn't ask such questions...

They'll have to resolve me while I'm not there, so I hope they don't say, 'Oh yeah, Mulder's gone, what an asshole. He had a baby with me, he kissed me and then he left.'

8ABX21 - Existence

Summary

Two immediate post-ep thoughts that I'd like to share. This first one is sort of OT, but when everyone and his brother was raving about The Matrix two summers ago, I thought to myself, "if this is reality, then I'd just like to stay in my fake world." I feel that way about the world of TXF. Better to be dead than living in a world populated by all manners of aliens who want this planet for WHAT the hell reason??? (Krycek has it good now; poor boy.) My second thought is simply, "What did I just watch?" Does anyone think that this episode resolved anything? (I know some people tend to think the last couple of minutes resolves the MSR, but Mulder is going to be gone next year.) Does anyone think that next season will address any remaining questions that any of us have, or are we all heading for the exit door en masse? Have I mentioned how much I hate all that religious symbolism claptrap that seems to surround Dana Scully like a freakin' halo? I truly could have done without that half of this episode. The other half was exciting and well-paced, but unbelievably flawed every time I stopped to think. (Unfortunately, I haven't yet found a way to make myself refrain from doing that, unlike the creators of this show.) We had this wild chase going on where I'm not sure who was chasing whom or for what reason, although I must say I liked the "alien barnacle" car chase scene. Was mildly horrified by the vision of Krycek with a hole through his head, though... that was disturbing. (Couldn't for the life of me figure out why Krycek needed Mulder to be dead this week, but hey, that's par for the TXF course this year. Also found it strange that he thought he could get Skinner to shoot Mulder without the assistance of his nano palm pilot. That'll teach him to leave home without it.) I was amused by how Doggett was prepared to use force but then decided at the last second that it would be more entertaining for us to run away and do some nifty staircase chase scenes. (What miraculous time span did this whole two-parter take place in — it was forever night time at the Hoover building!) Did anyone else find that birth and post-birth scene weird?? (And I won't even bother discussing how weird Reyes was.) In the end, I know that some fans are just tickled now that Mulder and Scully are "together", but if I truly still cared, I'd say that there's definitely something wrong with how they got from point A to point B, especially when it's obvious that point C will still present some nasty dilemmas. The two hundred and forty-seven species of aliens wanting to take over the world are still out there, right?

Best or Worst Moment

For a time there, I thought that my lasting impression of Fox Mulder might be of those ridiculous train tracks over his right eyebrow, but David sure knows how to put on a face that could wring tears from a stone. When he smiled down at that baby, it suddenly made the world all right for a few seconds. I don't even want to spoil it by commenting too much on the rest of that ridiculous baby theme. (Is the baby Mulder's? Hey, it's named after his father, isn't it? Although it's handy that Scully's father was also named William. Is that your final nebulous answer, CC?)

Original Rating: * *

8ABX20 - Essence

Summary

The baby is f***ing special. And basically everyone is a f***ing alien. Got it. Man, that's just so depressing that it simply begs better questions than the ones Mulder asked in the teaser. "What do I tell Scully?" I dunno. What can you tell a woman who's been trusting all kinds of people implicitly these days? A woman who likes to keep her own secrets about this special kid from hell but raises a ruckus when others dance around her questions. "What do I tell myself?" What I'd like to know is why these doctors keep their "medical failures" contained in impressive looking vessels in such easily accessible rooms. And why the FBI seems to employ security only during regular office hours at the Hoover building. (With the real FBI making news with its ineptitude lately, maybe this isn't as unrealistic as I think.) I know that Billy Miles was virtually unstoppable (idle question — would he survive having his head sliced off??) but come on, no alarms and such? No evidence that anyone even attempted to stop him? When all is said and done, I sort of enjoyed Billy Miles' technique of "off with his head" — it's something I wish I could symbolically do to the creative brains behind this show as I watch it limp ever so pathetically towards the finish line. It deserved better. And sadly enough, while I couldn't complain about the pacing of this hour, there wasn't anything that put me on the edge of my seat, either. I could virtually count down the seconds to Billy's next appearance and could guess what lame plot device was waiting around the next corner. 'Course, I must admit that the last scene was a surprise to me, but methinks it produced more groans than gasps.

Best or Worst Moment

As usual, Krycek was the best part of this ep. From his wicked smile when they came back up in the elevator to his efficient delivery of Scully to Reyes' vehicle, "that man Krycek" knows his stuff. (Mind you, I won't bother asking why he was entrusted with that task in the first place when there was no guarantee that he wouldn't just push Scully down one of those stairwells. I guess maybe Rachel Anton was onto something regarding a future for Krycek and Scully!) Runner-up for best moment was Doggett's exasperated "I don't believe this crap!" during the Krycek conference. Hey John, at least you get paid to believe it. I, on the other hand, want to believe but that's precisely what TXF has killed — my ability to believe this crap. It looks more and more like the "special baby is taken and Mulder and Scully must track it down" storyline is going to rear its ugly head at season's end and I gotta say — Fox Mulder deserves a better future than hunting down a baby that may or may not be his for the rest of his life.

Original Rating: * *