The X-Files
We have reached a milestone with the show and with my coverage on the blog. The first episode in this post is the show's 100th episode. It's always a big deal with a show reaches 100 episodes so good for "The X-Files." It also means that we have covered episodes on the blog. Pretty impressive. Let's get to it.
"Unusual Suspects"
John Munch: "Fill me in. From the top. Start with your name and birth date."
John Fitzgerald Byers: "John Fitzgerald Byers, 11/22/63."
John Munch: "Seriously?"
John Fitzgerald Byers: "I was named after JFK. Before the assassination, my parents were going to call me "Bertram."
John Munch: "Lucky you."
Notable Guest Star(s): Richard Belzer as Det. John Munch; Stephen Williams as X
Mythology or Monster of the Week: Mythology
X-File of the Week: In 1989, the various members of the Lone Gunmen, not yet a trio, are at an electronics and computer conference for various reasons. John Fitzgerald Byers is working public relations for the FCC while Melvin Frohike and Richard Langly are hawking stolen cable. When Byers becomes involved with a mysterious blonde woman who is supposedly fleeing from her ex, special agent Fox Mulder, the trio end up changing their futures forever.
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| John Munch is everywhere. |
In the introduction to season five, I talked about that during the shows summer hiatus the stars filmed the first "X-Files" movie. When you make a big budget film, there are going to be re-shoots that are needed. And those re-shoots happened while the show was filming it's fifth season, so there were times where they had to do without the shows stars. So, when Gillian Anderson is off doing re-shoots, why not do an episode focusing on Mulder's paranoid buddies, the Lone Gunmen. They are popular enough to carry an episode, right? Maybe even an entire series? Er... maybe they are not that popular, but that is a story for another day. This is the aforementioned 100th episode and I do think that it's kind of funny that the shows other lead is not in it.
We have a special guest star in this episode for a TV legend. If you watched crime television in the 1990's and beyond, then you definitely saw Richard Belzer's John Munch. He made his debut in "Homicide: Life On the Street" and then moved on to "Law and Order: SVU." Aside from his appearance in this episode, the character also appeared on "The Beat," "The Wire," "Law & Order" & "Law & Order: Trial by Jury." Its super rare to see characters move from different shows on different networks so it's always a fun throwback to see Munch. It makes sense. If something big is going down in Baltimore in 1989, then John Munch will be there. It's great to see him interact with the Lone Gunmen and see this character who feels out of place in this world walk around in it.
When it comes to the Lone Gunmen themselves, the one that is on a completely different path is John Fitzgerald Byers. He's a proud employee of the FCC and he is going trying to curb hackers and show that the FCC is on their side. He's also having people like Frohike and Langly yelling "narc" at him as he walks by. Frohike and Langly are basically the same. They aren't friends but Frohike is his little feisty self and Langly is hosting underground D&D games that they are gambling on. They are all giant anti-social nerds, so somethings never change.
It makes total sense that a femme fatale is the catalyst for all of this. When Susanne Modeski walks into Byers's life, his entire world turns upside down. From the moment that she spins the obvious lie about her daughter being kidnapped, you know that there is something up with her. The next thing you know, Byers is hacking into the Department of Defense files and coming face to face with Modeski's psychotic supposed ex boyfriend, Fox Mulder. It turns out that Modeski is wanted for blowing up a government lab in New Mexico that resulted in the deaths of her colleagues, but she tels a different tale.
Modeski spins a yarn that makes present day Mulder sound like the sanest, most pro government person that is out there. She clams she was working on a gas that causes psychotic breaks and visions and that the government is going to test it in Baltimore. Honestly, we watch a show and root for a main character that feels unhinged but Susanne Modeski makes Mulder look like the picture of sanity. She's going off about Gideon Bibles being surveillance and she does have a surveillance chip in her tooth which she yanks out of her mouth in the bathroom in one of the wildest sequences of the show so far and that is saying something.
This episode is billed as an origin story for Mulder's weird little friends and it is that. It turns out that everything Susanne said is true and in the end she's taken away by government agents in black cars while yelling at them to be more paranoid, but the twist is that this is actually Mulder's origin story. Mulder is just a general FBI agent. He truly believes that Susanne Modeski is an enemy of the state until the case is closed even though Susanne is nowhere to be found. He goes to the Lone Gunmen and they tell him everything including the wild things that Susanne claimed. It's clear that this conversation is what turns Mulder into a true believer about government conspiracies. And it's interesting to get this perspective since the season premiere ended with Mulder seemingly giving up in his belief in extra terrestrials.
This a fun episode. The Lone Gunmen deserve a spotlight. We get naked Mulder. An appearance from Steven Williams's X. It's not what I would have expected from the show's 100th episode, but I was happy with it overall.
Grade: A-
"Detour"
Jeff Glaser: "If we become blinded by the beauty of nature, we may fail to see it's cruelty and violence."
Dana Scully: "Walt Whitman?"
Jeff Glaser: "No. "When Animals Attack!," on the FOX network."
Notable Guest Star: Anthony Rapp as Jeff Glaser
Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW
X-File of the Week: In Leon County, FL, two surveyors who are working to document a forest to be cleared for high rises, are attacked by humanoid creatures with glowing red eyes. The next day, Michael Asekoff is attacked by the same creatures while he is out teaching his son how to shoot. On their way to a team building conference, special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are drawn into the mystery when they stumble upon the search for the missing people. Does the forest have vengeful guardians that are trying to stave off encroachment?
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| Seasons of love? |
We are four episodes into this first season and this feels like it is our first proper "X-Files" episode. Mulder and Scully are back together and are doing what they do best. This is the first episode since Scully was cured of her cancer and this is the first "Monster of the Week" episode. It has a really strong cold open. And it kind of feels like in season five, the series is really amping things up. In a typical "X-Files" episode, people meet their ends in the cold open and then we get at least twenty minutes in until someone potentially meets a bad end. But not here. After the credits roll we are introduced to hapless father and son, Michael and Louis, and the next thing you know, Michael is missing too. And this is all before we see Mulder and Scully for the first time.
They are bringing the big name guest stars so far in season five, as well. We got Richard Belzer and the return of Steven Williams in the last episode and we get Mark Cohen of "Rent" himself, Anthony Rapp. I love Anthony Rapp. This is a sidebar, but Rapp is so good on "Star Trek: Discovery" and I would highly recommend checking that out if you get a chance. Rapp's Jeff Glaser is your typical Nineties techie but Rapp injects some charm there and you care about him. Though, you know he's fucked as soon as he runs off from the agents and he's the one person that is still missing at the end of the epiode, which is kind of lame. Can we talk about how attractive he is too? Like, Anthony Rapp in 1997 could absolutely get it and I think you know what it is.
The show loves putting Mulder and Scully at the mercy of nature and there is a great reason for that. When the agents are out there, magic happens. There's something about Mulder and Scully stranded out somewhere that brings out the best in the show and the best in David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Episodes like "Ice," "Darkness Falls," "Firewalker," "Quagmire" all have kind of similar plots but they are always entertaining and they pull things out of the leads, so it's not a huge shock that the show continues to go back to this well over and over again.
Speaking of our two leads, it's so nice to see them back together again. There is some nice comedy in this episode right from the jump. I think anyone who has worked in any sort of a corporate environment feels Mulder as he expresses his revulsion at team building exercises. We get to see kind of the mirror universe versions of Mulder and Scully in the agents that are driving them to the team building retreat and how they talk about how much they love it. Seeing Scully's look of amused exasperation when she realizes that Mulder is going to use this search and rescue as a way to get out of the team building retreat is like being wrapped in a warm blanket.
Another thing that we tend to get in these Mulder & Scully vs the elements episodes is great, memorable conversations between Mulder and Scully. I think specifically about the conversation between them on the rock in "Quagmire" and we get a similar conversation between the two of them after they are alone and Mulder has been attacked by one of the forest creatures. It goes from deep philosophical things to Mulder asking Scully who she identified with between Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble. Scully picks Betty which always kind of surprises me. I figured there'd be some redhead solidarity. She sings 3 Dog Night's "Joy to the World" so Mulder knows that she hasn't fallen asleep in the night and honestly, Anderson deserves a second Emmy for that alone.
This episode isn't reinventing the wheel by any means but it is a solid, entertaining episode that pushes a lot of the things I love about the series to the forefront.
Grade: B+
"The Post-Modern Prometheus"
Fox Mulder: "This is all wrong, Scully."
Dana Scully: "What do you mean?"
Fox Mulder: "Dr. Frankenstein pays for his evil ambitions, yes, but the monster is supposed to escape to go search for his bride."
Dana Scully: "There's not going to be any bride, Mulder. Not in this story."
Fox Mulder: "Where's the writer? I wanna speak to the writer?"
Notable Guest Star(s): Chris Owens as the Great Mutato, John O'Hurley as Dr. Francis Polidori & Jerry Springer as himself
Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW
X-File of the Week: Special agent Fox Mulder is contacted by Shaineh Berkowitz because she claims for the second time she was impregnated and doesn't know how. She believes it was done by local monster, the Great Mutato, who her son, Izzy, just happens to write a comic book about. Mulder's partner, Dana Scully, believes this is the influence of tabloid tv like "The Jerry Springer Show," but after some investigating, Mulder believes that the town may have their very own Dr. Frankenstein.
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| Small town agents. |
I feel like "The Post-Modern Prometheus" is one of those "X-Files" episodes that has kind of permeated the pop culture consciousness. Like, even if you haven't watched the show you know about this episode. You maybe know the beats. It's black and white. The Cher of it all. It is a classic episode and the backstory of the episode is well-known by fans of the show. Series creator Chris Carter wrote this episode and its clear that he had the idea in mind for a while. "The X-Files" had a huge following at this time including famous people. Roseanne Barr initially wanted to play the role of Shaineh and Cher wanted to appear as herself, but when the time came to shoot the episode scheduling conflicts prevented them both from appearing and I think that may have been for the best. The episode might have been diluted with too much stunt casting, but I'd still have loved to see Cher on "The X-Files."
I love when "The X-Files" or any genre show really does their take on classic tropes and this is definitely the show's take not just on "Frankenstein" but on the classic Universal monster movies. The choice to shoot the episode in black and white could have backfired, but it really works. It adds to the touches that Carter adds to give that vibe of a classic, old-school horror movie. Take the scene when Mulder and Scully meet John O'Hurley's Dr. Polidori. He's explaining his experiments including a fly that hard arms in his mouth and the entire time there is lightning flashing accentuating that this guy is unhinged and evil. And it works brilliantly in the context of this episode.
This episode came out kind of at the height of tabloid trash TV. And while this episode is that take on classic monster, it is a commentary on that culture and how it impacts and affects certain groups of people. There is a lot of talk about stereotyping and how that seeps into things. Scully is immediately disdainful of these people. She's kind of looking down her nose at them. It's not the best look for Scully, but I think it fits into her character. Dana Scully is not the type of person who has guilty pleasures so it's not shocking that she is willing to boil these people down to their base qualities. But, when Mulder is doing something similar to Dr. Polidori, she balks. How can Mulder boil this man of science down to the mad scientist cliché? The thing is that both of these things are true and not true, which is how stereotypes work. Carter isn't necessarily being subtle here, but I appreciate the attempt.
While Roseanne Barr and Cher may have fallen through, the guest cast in this episode is great. John O'Hurley is one of my favorite actors of the '90's. He showed up everywhere. You probably know him the best as Elaine's boss, J. Peteran, in the last three seasons of "Seinfeld" and he uses that campy gravitas to great effect here. If you are a fan of "The X-Files," you know the name Chris Owens. He's Jeffrey Spender, who we will meet later on, but here he is unrecognizable under the prosthetics of the Great Mutato. And his final speech is so well-delivered to the angry mob that has come to kill him because they believe that he killed Dr. Polidori's father. It's a testament to Owens's ability as an actor that he is able to make you feel when you can barely make out his facial expressions. And then of course, we get a cameo from Jerry Springer who was probably at the height of his popularity in 1997. And does it surprise anyone that the work of Fox Mulder would ingratiate himself into that audience.
This episode could have really gone wrong. There's a lot of camp here but there is a balance of heart here that elevates it and makes i work. Throwing in Cher might initially seem like just quirk for quirk's sake, but no. We all latch onto famous people for whatever reason and it makes sense that because of Cher's role as the loving mother in the movie "Mask," Mutato would gravitate to her. And I have to say, one of my favorite scenes in the series is the end when everyone goes to the Cher concert. It may look she's holding an impromptu show in a barn, but it is still nice. Mutato deserves this. And we get to see Mulder and Scully dancing to Cher's cover of "Walking in Memphis." Who would've thought?
If there is one thing that keeps this episode from being an A+ "X-Files" episode is that they use the forced impregnation of these women as a joke. The show does something similar in "Small Potatoes." And it's shocking to think that they would play something like that for laughs more than once. The saving grace is that Mutato is not raping these women, but them being forcibly impregnated and experimented on against their will is not great. And that needs to be pointed out.
Grade: A-
Next up, Scully heads home for the holidays and connects to a murdered woman's daughter in a way that she didn't expect.
What do you al think? How is season five shaping up for you so far? Do you love "The Post-Modern Prometheus?" Did it make you want to listen to Cher's "It's a Man's World" album? Let me know in the comments.
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