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 :)