X-Files 7.8 "the Amazing Maleeni"

"there's still one thing you haven't explained..."

Hey hey everyone.

This was the "remington Steele" episode of The X-Files. This had all the
earmarkings of an seventies/eighties detective show--except there were no
big name guest stars like Dick van Dyke and...who would have played the
young guy...Dirk Benedict! The campy flashbacks that show us as they
recap everything that happened, and the final "but...there's one thing you
still haven't explained..." line, a classic. Now, I loved Remington Steele
(hey I loved Charlie's Angels!) so this isn't a complaint. i found this to be
a charming and delightful episode. It had sort of a "Moonlighting" vibe to
it, but in order for me to actually say it was LIKE moonlighting would
require much better dialogue. Tonight's wasn't bad or anything, but
moonlighting was genius.

Interesting to bring up Remington Steele and Moonlighting, both being
similar to X-Files in terms of delicious sexual tension. It was never
resolved on Steele, and it was annihilated on Moonlighting (not just
becasue they slept together but because of the reasons they slept
together--you could feel the producers saying "let's get it over with",
and it was an utterly meaningless act that didn't change the characters the
way it should it have.) ANYWAY, both shows ended very badly--Pierce Brosnan
was forced to come back for a season that i don't believe they even
finished, and Moonlighting just sank under the weight of all the egos
involved. I mention this because i keep reading that Fox is desperate to
get Duchovny back for one more year. Gillian is signed through "next
season" but contracts don't mean all that much, i don't think (ask David
Caruso and Sherry Stringfield). She says she won't do it without him, he
says he won't do it. Now, all Fox cares about is the fact that all their
execs have been doing for the last few years is greenlighting horrible
"animals attack" and "car chase" crap and haven't developed anything to
take the place of the X-files. My concern is that it seems to me
everyone involved with the show wants out. they want to end it. Take some time
off, come back and do some movies. And I'm fine with that. I don't want
to look back on X-Files the way i look back on the last few years of
Moonlighting and Remington Steele and say "Man, remember how good that
show used to be? And then they wrecked it."

i work with a guy who's a magician, and whenever we have an office party
he does a little show. I love the card tricks. i love card tricks where i
can't tell what happened. I've never been into the whole David
Copperfield disappearing statue of liberty etc. stuff, but card tricks rule.

Even the LA setting fit in with the old detective show deal, including
glamorous North Hollywood (hahaha). Also, the "i heard he racked up some
pretty serious gambling debts" is probably in not less that 50% of every
detective -themed teleplay written between 1965 to...i dunno 1985? From
Mannix to Simon and Simon, "pretty serious gambling debts" are why good
folks go bad. Probably still this way on CBS, since nash bridges and
Walker texas Ranger ARE bad eighties shows.

Twins! Of course! My sister and i were such fraidy cats we never even
switched places as a joke ONCE. We've never ever done it. We'd probably
start crying or something. I enjoyed Mulder and Scully's interplay,
their amusement at the stupidity of the case, at the young guy's theatrics (so
amused and smug that they allowed themselves to be misdirected). WHich
leads me to wonder...what business did they have staying on the case? I
mean, in the end they thwart a major bank heist (finally, a gold star in
the personnel file) but it seemed like they stayed on longer than the
case they had in the beginning warrented. That's another thing I liked about
moonlighting, they dealt with that. they'd solve the case, but because
they did more than the people hired wanted them to do--and very often got
their own client arrested, they almost never got paid. Sometimes they'd
luck into a reward of some kind. Anyway, basically, they hang around on
what might be a fraud case at best.

I liked how Scully stared down all the pool playing hoods. AGAIN, their
rental car is WAY TOO NICE. And we're paying for it folks. next week, i
want to see the crappy...Aw, I'm afraid to say it cuz I don't know what
you all drive ;) You know what I mean. Not the snazzy silver luxary car
they drive off in. Boring, small, American sedan. With some foreign
substancen(possibly blood!) in the back seat, if it's anything like the car an
unnamed rental company tried to foist on me and my Dad in St. Louis last
year. I actually think i'd be cool to do an X-file centered around
returning a rental car or being at the airport baggage claim or some such
thing that Mulder and Scully obvioulsly do a million times a year.

One thing I determined on our trip to St. Louis (besides always needing
to check the back seat, even if no one's going to sit there right away), is
the world's worst job IN THE UNIVERSE is customer service at baggage
claim. No one you deal with will ever be in a good mood. My Dad and i were
like, annoyed but tolerant (maybe because we were mad at each other, but that's
a whole different story) and i think that's as good as it gets with people
who don't know where their stuff is.

I loved the Mulder and Scully magic scene. Mulder trying to impress
Scully--she returns the favor at the end with a trick of her own. C'mon
people, you don't really think Mulder and Scully would flirt like normal
people, do you? :)

Maleeni's "Who raised you?" retort to Scully's disbelief that he wouldn't
cheat at cards only served as a painful reminder of how long it's been
since we've seen the answer to that question! I don't care if Sheila
Larkin (Momma Scully) lives in Canada, there's such a thing as Airplanes!

Anyway, I liked this one. As i said before, charming. And i like it's
twists. I also hope they make this year their last: The great ones know
when to leave the stage..."

X-File department: Could I actually be rooting for the RAMS(!!??!!??) to
go to the Superbowl and win??? I dunno, they're not as evil now that
they're not in LA. And, as my St. Louis native Dad is always quick to
point out, they don't have much else to get excited about out there.
MarkMcGuire and riverboat gambling. The Arch. Fireflies. That's about it.
So, Go ScRams. Have a great week everyone :)

next week lots and lots of snakes--I know several of you (including my
Dad, the surpring and no-doubt surprised star of this review) who won't be
able to watch. No spiders, so I can take it. :D