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