X-Files 7.18 "Brand X"

I thought this was a pretty cool idea, but not executed very well. It
was gross enough, but not very suspenseful. It was nice to see Skinner, and
I really wish he had been better utilized this season. He came off kind of
whipped in this one, all afraid of his boss. Not the kick ass muscle
bound man of honor from previous seasons. Even if he is beholden to ratboy
Krycek, why is he kissing Louis Freeh's butt? {real life FBI director}
Skinner was so pivotal the past few years, and played a major part in the
season opener butt has gone back to being a guy behind a desk, and that's
a shame.

I was raging about Mulder and Scully's very nice rental car-- a Pontiac
Bonneville. A Full size luxury car when I think they should have a mid
size. Jen suggested they are part of Alamo's silver club and get free
upgrades. That Jen, always on Mulder and Scully's side! :) Morley
Tobacco, I'm sure you all know, is Cancerman's brand of choice, and we've
seen their Marlboro knock-off packs since...at least second season, but
maybe even first. I liked Mulder and Scully as they walked into House
and Skinner was in the doghouse--they wanted to help but seemed kinda pleased
to see someone else on the hot seat. I liked how Scully went from
grossed out to utterly fascinated in 1.4 seconds.

I don't have a problem with people watching movies and saying "Hey,
that'd be a great x-files episode!' But the stuff in the boardroom was so
derivative of "The Insider" without adding anything, really, to the
x-file. There was no menace, no fear. When I think back on the early seasons of
the show--first season's "E.B.E." when Mulder and Scully realized they
were being bugged and spied on by their own government...I realize how far
they've fallen. A bunch of guy's around a desk and one slimy security
chief who spies on Dr. Voss? Big deal. they should have stuck with the
"cigarettes can kill you WORSE" thing completely rather than interject
the half-assed corporate "intrigue." It just didn't work. You've got bugs
nesting and hatching in people's lungs. That's enough, go with that.

Dr. Voss, the conflicted scientist guy, is familiar to me. He always
plays the liberal journalist ex-boyfriend who tries to remind some woman about
"the revolution."

Scully's skepticism at the autopsy was baffling. They did this last year
when mulder suggested super smart dogs. After all they've seen after all
the crazy things Mulder's suggested, why would insects be that unlikely?
Scully says the guy choked to death, but that doesn't explain why the
guys' flesh was stripped off his face! And why didn't she find the bugs in the
guy's lungs? Is Scully slacking off? I hate it when writers create
"conflict" or "suspense" by making their characters to stupid to either
see or admit the obvious. By the next victim, Scully is willing to admit the
possibility--was that so hard? I mean, with probably four more episodes
left, what does it hurt to have Scully and Mulder on the same page?

When Scary Darrell Weaver said about his dead neighbor "glad it wasn't
me" it reminded me of Tonya Harding. That's how I knew she was in on Nancy
kerrigan's knee-bashing. She was asked about it at some airport the day
it happened and she said something like "I'm just glad it didn't happen to
me" and we all said "What...an odd thing to say..."

I like when Mulder has to
fake the funk with deadbeats. He can't hide his disdain. You know, On
NYPD Blue, they can always come up with a couple hundred bucks reward to
encourage lowlife's to talk.

Mulder tells Dr. voss that they found the bugs "all over" the one guy.
Huh? Is he lying? Exaggerating? Or did the show forget that the bugs
weren't on the body by the time Mulder and scully arrived? Hmmm.

Dr. Voss only has 4,000 in the bank? With a house like that and a 6 or 7
figure salary at a tobacco giant? Does he have a gambling problem? I
mean, I've had 4,000 in the bank. Before Biola.

I wish that entomologist had just come out and said :Oh my God this is a
carnivorous beetle!!! It was just weak that they were still hedging at
this point.

When I was a child, probably about 8 or nine, I saw this
very scary movie. We always saw scary stuff when we slept over at our friends
house. Now, bear in mind that you are dealing with a person who referred
to "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" as "that scary Don Knotts movie" until I
saw it when I was high school and realized that everyone was right...there
are no scary Don knotts movies! So, my point, I was easily frightened and
remain impressionable, and this movie may not have been as scary as I
remember, but it was about beetles that got radio active when a chemical
truck flipped on them? It was a seventies movie. anyway, these bugs
would leach on to people like hide in the phone and attack their ears and
stuff? They were bigger that the tobacco bugs, like, the palm of your hand
maybe. Anyway, you had to burn them to destroy them, it seems. I was eight,
okay? Anyway, it was scarier than this, and I swear, Don Knotts wasn't in it!

Mulder gets debugged at the hospital. Mulder and Scully in the hospital,
Scully caring for him, always works for me.

I liked the idea that the company created this problem by trying to make
a safer cigarette, but...If nicotine killed the bugs, what was in the buggy
cigarettes? What was the addictive agent? And how exactly did the bug
eggs survive the burning? Why did Skinner go into Morley without
back-up?

And why did he have to shoot Weaver anyway? Weaver didn't have a gun,
why didn't he just jump him?

The ending was awful. AW-FUL. Mulder should have just been smoking.
Both characters have smoked (Scully in 3rd season's Syzygy under the influence
of bizarre planet alignment) and Mulder did so in a flashback episode
(the one where he wears a wedding ring...maybe they've chosen to pretend that
episode didn't happen, I do.) ANYWAY, not having Mulder (gasp) smoke,
turns this into a "very special episode" of the X-Files, where Fox and
Dana find out how dangerous smoking can be. I mean, even on "The Brady Bunch"
we got to see Greg light up. Mulder could have been sneaking a cigarette
and Scully could have lectured him and he could have good-naturedly
blamed her life-saving on renewing his addiction. Instead, they go with this
trite PSA ending. Weak. Next week David Duchovny writes and directs.
His "Unnatural" was last season's best, I think. And I'm done ragging on
them for too much humor--at least they usually get that right.

It has been suggested that I do another poll. This time, I'm asking you
to vote for your least favorite episode EVER. I thought about some of the
first season losers, but they are so cute in retrospect. There's the
above mentioned flashback episode. 5th season's "Travelers" The one where
Mulder talked to Gavin whatshisname and he told him about the early days
of the X-Files? Man that was loser. I think that is my least favorite, a
spot long held by third season's "Teso Dos Bichos" the one with the
really awful killer kitty cats in the sewer? But third season was so strong
other wise, I'll stick with "Travelers." If you're stuck go to the official
X-Files site (part of http://www.fox.com/ ) they have a synopsis of every
episode.

I look forward to hearing your answers. Have a great week everyone :D
Christine

X-Files 7.17 "all things"

I have to admit, I'm pretty disappointed. I had hope to learn a little
something about Scully, and it didn't really happen. I also thought
there was a coldness, a distance to this episode. I just didn't connect to it.

Yes, the direction was a little showy, but it was at least motivated by
the script--which was the problem with the episode, it was pretty trite. I
thought it's overall theme was worth exploring, the idea of coincidence
and fate, of the decisions we make that seem unimportant but are actually
monumental, etc. But the dialogue was unremarkable. I'm not Buddhist,
but if I was, my guess is I'd be irritated about that ex-physicist lady who
sounded like an Oprah-reject, babbling about Cancer being a result of
guilt and shame. I don't know what Gillian's religious convictions are but I
remember that she was married by a Buddhist monk. My guess is she's
Hollywood Buddhist--in other words, this was a bunch of new age crap.

I liked the intriguing opening, with Scully dressing in Mulder's bathroom
(for those nitpickers, i'm assuming she woke clothed on the couch and
then took a shower). I mean, we knew nothing happened, but it was fun. Loved
the scene with mulder and scully in the beginning--she all consumed with
autopsies and lunch and irritated at his Prof. Mulder routine. loved him
bopping to the music as he organized his precious slides. Loved Mulder
as he watched her fuss with her salad. it's those little moments that
count--there are a lot of mediocre episodes from early on that I consider
great due to one conversation between the two of them.

It seemed unlikely that that nurse would have told her that info on Dr.
Dan, FBI or no. it didn't pertain to her case so it wasn't really any of
her official business. Dr. Dan, Scully's ex, was played by the actor
that played Mike Roy on "All My Children" One of Erica Kane's ex-husbands, if
I'm not mistaken (maybe they were just lovers but I think they married.)
he was great--fit the Scully profile. An older man, father figure, and a
former teacher no less. In the first season, we met another older man
and ex-FBI instructor that Scully was involved with("Lazarus"). Also, in the
second season's "Aubrey" Scully was trying to get a female detective to
open up to her about her relationship with her boss. Scully said
something to the effect about it being difficult to have a relationship with
someone you work with, particularly when he's married. So this fits really
nicely with established Scully continuity, as does the time line--Dr. Dan says he
moved to DC ten years ago, Scully joined the FBI around 1990, when she
would have been about 26 and just out of med school.

Scully has a new computer-an iMac. I used to make fun of those cute
little iMac's, saying I didn't want a computer that was "cute." We got them at
work and they did tend to wonk out. The screens would get all wavy in a
bad way, at least mine did.

Liked how Scully OF COURSE does Mulder's errand. Our dutiful girl.

I liked Scully's interaction with Buddist girl. Scully's "I don't mean
to be rude" so easily interpreted by the other woman as "spare me your new
age mumbo jumbo."

I would have liked more conversation about Scully and her part in this
broken marriage. Liked her existential crisis, and I'm always a sucker
for crying Scully. Nice touch making Buddha-chick a physicist as Scully's
undergraduate degree was in physics. I liked Scully's vision in the
temple--a few milliseconds of the Scully clan is as good as it's gonna
get for me, I'm afraid. To me, this episode needed Scully talking to someone
throughout--not Dr. Dan but her mother or Mulder or even Melissa. When
Scully decides to call in the shaman, I thought it would've been cool to
have her have either a flashback or a dream conversation with her sister
who believed in all that stuff and in fact tried to use crystals to get
her out of her coma in (the awesome) "One Breath" in the second season. I
liked the Buddha having open eyes when she snapped out of her vision,
that was cool.

Dr. Dan seemed pretty creepy and obsessive, to move to DC in
the hopes of being close to her? Yee. Loved Mulder's Stonhenge Rocks hat,
hilarious. I liked their scene at the end--i was very afraid that Scully
wouldn't mention her spiritual experience to Mulder--she's kept mum
before.

Because it was Buddhist in nature and not Christian, mulder doesn't lash
out with the snide comments and is instead supportive and intrigued.
Mulder's brushing her hair from her face....Sigh. Nice little moment. So, it was
ok, but like I said, I didn't connect the way I wanted to and if she
would have been working this out as it happened by talking to her mom or sister
or even to one of the friends she had in the first season, it would have
been a real winner in my book.

In X-Files news, David Duchovny says in the latest entertainment weekly
that he has given Fox a scenario in which he'd be willing to
return--soundslike he'd like the show to take a major shift in direction
("seven years of trying to find my sister is enough already")
and I would guess, major
"outs"--he might appear in half the episodes, let's say. Otherwise, he's
gone. Gillian and Chris both sound like they don't want to do the show
without him, but Fox sounds like they are going to do another season no
matter what, so who knows. I hate the idea of them beating a dead horse,
but Fox doesn't have a lot of options. Networks suck. My beloved
"Roswell" is on the block because the demographics are too old--people in
their twenties are watching it instead of the teens the WB are after.
Uh...doesn't the fact that older people are watching it mean it's
actually GOOD? Ugh.

Anyway. X-Files might be back for an eight season. It might be good.
It might be really really really horrific. time will tell. I'll still
write a review. Skinner will probably be on it. Remember a few years ago I
joked about a "Team X-Files" show with Skinner leading a bunch of young
FBI misfits? Uh Oh.

Have a great week! Christine ;)

X-Files 7.16 "Chimera"

Sorry for the delay. I wasn't very motivated to write this review--no,
no, I haven't been made a staff writer for the X-Files but I know how they
must feel. I don't feel like writing the same thing week after week and
neither do they. but, rather than revamp the show--Scully as believer, put them on
the run, SOMETHING! ANYTHING! we get episodes like these. It was
actually pretty creepy at times--again, simple is scary. Crows are scary, they
just are. You can spend millions on special effects but "Twister" wasn't
scary--that tornado in "Wizard of Oz" however? Very scary. SO, on that
level, I liked the episode. Breaking mirrors, etc.

But I hated the by-now all too familiar fact that Mulder and Scully were
not working together on the case. That's because they haven't revamped
the show, yet they don't want to re-write the same old scenes anymore, with
Mulder saying his little facts about witchcraft and monsters and spirits
and Scully making snide comments and looking incredulously at him and
saying "Mulder, there must be some reasonable explanation for this!" So,
they write an X-file that's pretty good, scary enough, but cut out the
heart of the show. MULDER AND SCULLY WORKING TOGETHER IS THE SHOW.
Which means it really ended fourth season.

The "these people aren't as perfect as they seem" has been done, which is
fine, but the whole Martha Stewart thing, naming her Martha? Was pretty
on the nose and stupid. Scully was way overdressed for her
stake-out--they're
obviously in a crappy neighborhood but she goes out for coffee in her
business suit, Narc written all over her. Their banter was all too
brief. I also thought the whole "B" story (SCULLY IS THS "B" STORY, FOLKS!) was
underdevolped. Scully came off like a whiny princess because we didn't
see anything besides cold pizza and some grafitti to indicate how horrible
this stakeout was, you know, noise, bugs or the like. Skinner came off kinda
lame, like he was embarrassed to assign Mulder to the case on the basis
of crows--but doesn't he assign them all their cases? And aren't they
X-Files, thus, presumably, all dealing with the supernatural? SO
wouldn't this be nothing new? Sigh.

evil blue-collar Jenny was an obvious red-herring, which is another
annoying aspect of the show. This show used to surprise me, but now it's
like...they feel they need to trick us, and it's not working. Seems to
me we used to know right off who the bad guy was, the fun part was seeing
Mulder and Scully figure it out.

I want to have breakfast with T-shirt Mulder. Hell, that'd be worth
learning to cook.

Am I being naive when I say that motel looked too quaint to have mirrored
ceilings?

Liked that Scully solved Mulder's case over the phone without realizing
it.

Mulder's hair was nice throughout.

This Sunday, a Scully-centric episode penned and directed by Gillian
Anderson herself. It looks interesting, I'm always up to learning about
their pasts (remember two years ago when Mulder was wearing a wedding ring? As
predicted, they never DID follow up on that, the jerks.) hopefully this
Scully episode won't violate any established continuity, but I'll let you
know if it does ;) In annoying, geeky detail.

It'd be the perfect time to see Scully's Mom, but i won't hold my breath.

Be On the look out for the sure-fire sign that an actor is directing an
episode of a television show: "cool" showy sweeping camera movements that
lend nothing to the telling of the story :)

We'll see! Hope it's been a good week! Christine :)