The X-Files - S10:E2 "Founder's Mutation"

[ S10:E1 "My Struggle" <<< Season 10 >>>  S10:E3 "M&S Meet the Were-Monster" ]

Spoiler Warning: This review may contain minor spoilers from this episode and from the series' mythology. But nothing major like the last episode.

Written (and directed) by James Wong, I honestly couldn't tell you if this was supposed to be a mythology episode or a freak-of-the-week episode - I guess I'll just have to mark it down as half and half. It doesn't pick up directly where the last episode left off (I'm guessing we'll have to wait till the season finale - though only four more episodes away - to conclude that story thread), but it does seem to concern itself with an update of the whole "alien hybridization" program the government is apparently still up to, and there are significant allusions made to William (who, nonetheless, does not appear, except in some confusing flashbacks to events that couldn't possibly have happened, and may represent Scully and Mulder's wishes and fears for the life they could have had had they not given William up for adoption when he was just a baby).

At the same time, the episode generally follows the freak-of-the-week formula, with an opening "teaser" that concludes with a brutal death (involving a high-pitched noise that is reminiscent of the one heard in Vince Gilligan's Drive), that precipitates the case that Mulder and Scully go on to investigate throughout the episode. There is even a scene of Mulder and Scully waving their flashlights about, but what the episode lacks is a good monster - especially touching, as it does, on the series' go-to subject matter of genetic mutations. The best it does is a gallery of freaks suffering from abnormal conditions, but they are only children locked up in the research facility run by this series' latest incarnation of a government-employed mad scientist. It all ties in to the experimentation with alien hybrids, but with a touch of the flavor of the ninth season mythology's inclusion of paranoid mothers (for better or worse).

I don't know if I would say that this episode is a vast improvement over the last one. I may have even liked the last one better. I haven't seen anything yet that's made me go "oh my god, this is awesome, I'm so glad The X-Files is back on TV!" But next Monday Darin Morgan's episode airs, so we'll have to see what that one's like. My overall impressions remain - I don't think I like watching TV in HD (or digital, or whatever it is that's making the show look so slick and clean). It just doesn't look right. I don't need to see every pore on every character's face. Even more so because it's kind of sad to see these three characters (Mulder, Scully, and Skinner) getting old. By the way, what's up with Gillian Anderson's voice? It's kind of distracting. Anyway, this may be a revival, but it's definitely not a repeat of the classic years of the show. I'm wondering right about now how other people (fans and non-fans alike) are receiving it - whether or not they're liking it, and whether or not it'll be popular enough to keep the series going past this 6 episode event. I'm not convinced yet that it should, but I'll withhold judgment until I see the rest of the miniseries, and at the very least, Darin and Glen Morgan's episodes coming up in the next two weeks.

Memorable quotes:

Lindquist: Unhand the hard drive, sir.

Scully: This is dangerous.
Mulder: When has that ever stopped us before?

Sister Mary: Desire is the devil's pitchfork.

Mulder: All we can do, Scully, is pull the thread. See what it unravels.

Scully: What you're talking about is changing the genetic makeup of a population. That's the next step in evolution.
Mulder: Every new species begins with a founder's mutation.

Jackie: They said I killed my baby. I didn't. I let him out.

Kyle's Mother: Bad things happen when the birds gather...

The X-Files - I Want To Believe (2008)

[ S9:E19/20 "The Truth" <<< The X-Files >>> S10:E1 "My Struggle" ]

Spoiler Warning: The following review may contain some spoilers. But it's not like this is the mythology we're talking about, and it's not that fantastic a movie anyway, so I wouldn't be too concerned.

If my previous review is any indication, I enjoyed this movie more the first time I watched it. Which was over a year after it came out - I had planned to see it in the theater, but it only stuck around for a single weekend (I swear to god), and I missed it. When I did finally see it, like everyone else, it was years after The X-Files had gone off the air. But I hadn't even seen the end of the series; I'd stopped watching (like a lot of other fans) when David Duchovny left the show. So, for me, I Want To Believe was a return to the days when The X-Files was about Mulder and Scully investigating paranormal cases, albeit as viewed from the distance of several years, like the characters (and the actors) themselves in this movie. (This is not the classic Mulder and Scully, but a Mulder and Scully who are alternately lovey-dovey, and alternately dysfunctional - in other words, a combination of their worst traits from the series). My expectations were fairly low. But now, having finished the series, and only just a week ago (and even more so with the revival looming, giving all of us X-Philes the hope of seeing a true return to form), I can say that this movie, while not terrible, is not especially good, either.

This is, inevitably, a very different X-Files movie than Fight The Future. I don't think it's the movie that was originally planned to follow that one up, and it's not the movie we all expected - that we had been promised - when the series finally did end 2-4 years later than originally intended. The movie itself was released four years after its earliest projected release date, and so it became less of a continuation of the television series, and more a chance to revisit two characters that had become a pop culture sensation, long after they'd dropped out of the public consciousness. Mulder and Scully have moved on in their lives - together - he, unshaven and holed up at home with news clippings all over his walls, like some mental patient; and she, pursuing her dream career of being a doctor (albeit at some kind of church hospital - I liked it much better when she was teaching forensic medicine at Quantico, as in season 9). It is only at the insistence of a young hotshot with stars in her eyes (Amanda Peet) for the legend of "Spooky" Mulder that they are dragged back to work a case again.

It's a framing story that's really little more than an excuse to give Mulder and Scully a case to work on, while largely jettisoning all the baggage of the mythology that should be catching up to them, considering that they did end the series on the run from the martial law of alien invaders. Sure, there's an offhand comment about the FBI willing to excuse Mulder if he would just give them some assistance on a random case (begging the question of where all these alien replicants wandered off to), and the subject of William does come up briefly during an intimate bedroom scene. But it's all lip service. No mention of the impending alien apocalypse - there's hardly even a hint of government corruption and conspiracy, despite the events of this movie occurring during the Bush administration. I can understand the need to sidestep all of that in order to do a low-key freak-of-the-week movie, but that's not really the movie I wanted to see. I know that fans had been clamoring for just that for years, but I never saw the appeal in doing an X-Files movie that was basically just an extended freak-of-the-week episode.

The television series had always applied a movie sensibility to its production, and it was really cool to basically see a mini-version of a sci-fi or horror movie on TV every week. But it doesn't really work both ways. The episode Ice, for example, makes for an exciting adaptation of The Thing on the small screen, but expand it to a feature length film, and do you honestly think it could hold a candle to John Carpenter's The Thing? Even with Mulder and Scully involved? I'd rather see an X-Files original concept - the mythology - done into a movie, like Fight The Future. And what's more, Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, who wrote this movie, were never two of the series' best freak-of-the-week writers. They steered the mythology, but they could have used some help from, say, Vince Gilligan and John Shiban (and that cute tribute to the two of them, along with Rob Bowman, who directed the first film, doesn't cut it). For that matter, Chris Carter directed this film, and I was never super impressed with his directing efforts on the television series, as pretentious as they often were.

So this movie is just a typical X-Files case, but it's not even a particularly good X-File. There are no aliens - that's already been established - but there's hardly anything paranormal, either (I can't tell you how much cooler this movie would have been with a cryptid or a genetic mutant). An FBI agent runs afoul of a black market organ trade in snowy West Virginia (which looks suspiciously like Vancouver - that's one thing this movie did right), and the only reason Mulder is called in is because the agents in charge (a rapper and a fashion model - I swear, it's like she doesn't know how to button her own shirt; not that I don't like the look, but it doesn't really scream "FBI agent" to me) have enlisted the help of a psychic. But this is no Clyde Bruckman. It's not even a Harold Pillar. You know, the first few times Mulder disbelieved in psychics it made sense, because although he's a believer in paranormal phenomena, he's not a sucker, and a lot of psychics are just scam artists. But the more times we see him dismiss a psychic that turns out to be genuine, the less sense it makes for him to keep on distrusting them. But this psychic also happens to be a Catholic priest, and a convicted pedophile (because in this day and age, you can be convicted not just for what you do, but for who you are) to boot. He believes he's being given visions in a bid for redemption, but this has been done better before.

I imagine that Chris Carter must have found the concept of the pedophile priest irresistible. What better archetype to exploit in order to demonstrate a natural distrust of authority? And I can't fault him for it - it's a good idea. But Father Joe is just not a very compelling character (editor's note: I'm not very familiar with Billy Connolly, but judging from the "making of" special feature, he seems like a fascinating personality - that they managed to make his character in this movie so dull is a wonder). I know he's supposed to be despicable, but we only know that he's a pedophile because other people say he is. I'm not saying we have to witness him buggering an altar boy, but give us something (besides praying) to make the character more interesting, more nuanced, so that his desire for redemption engenders conflict in the viewer, and not simply a distanced, dispassionate disdain. It would also make it less frustrating when Scully - who has the most close-minded reaction to him - ultimately believes him when he just happens to tell her the one thing she wants to hear most. (I'm almost tempted to say that he exists only to challenge Scully's faith and compassion, and give Gillian Anderson an opportunity to emote. Although, after all the emotion she's shown in the series, it feels a little dry here. It must be hard under all that plastic surgery).

If you haven't guessed, this movie is not the most sympathetic towards sexual minorities. I'd read one fan's opinion that it was both homophobic and transphobic, so I was looking for evidence of that. Sure enough, the murderous villains are a married gay couple, one of whom wants to transplant his ugly male head onto a female body (because that makes sense). In its defense, its not very sympathetic toward the Catholic church, either, but I could just as soon do with an X-Files that doesn't put so much emphasis on the importance of religion, which is something that increasingly marred the series (and particularly Scully's character) towards the end. It's awfully convenient, as well, that the research involved with the black market organ trade dovetails so nicely with the stem cell therapy that Scully needs to (maybe?) heal the terminally ill boy she's so dedicated to saving (because he's William's age, why else?). Honestly, the movie drags on too long (I guess I made the mistake of watching the extended cut), although it's a treat to see Skinner at the end. I'm less certain about what to make of the final scene, with Mulder and Scully on a boat in a tropical sea, now that it's not the final end to their story. More so if they're really not going to be together in the revival. But, whatever. I've spent enough time on this movie. Bring on the new miniseries already!

Memorable quotes:

Scully: Do you think God hears your prayers?
Father Joe: Do you think he hears yours? ...I have to believe he does hear me, or why would he send these visions?
Scully: Maybe it's not God doing the sending.

Agent Whitney: I'm not the most popular girl at the FBI right now for calling you in, believe me.
Mulder: I wasn't exactly Miss Popularity at the FBI myself.

Father Ybarra: We are here to heal the sick, not prolong the ordeal of the dying.

Scully: I'm lying here cursing God for all his cruelties.
Mulder: And do you think God is losing any sleep?

Scully: This is not about finding an FBI agent, this is about you trying to save your sister!

(When I heard Scully say this, I swear I shouted at the screen, "what?!" They're still hung up on that? It makes even less sense now than it did in Oubliette. It's like Chris Carter is trying to have his cake and eat it too - you can't close the book on the Samantha case and then still use it as a dramatic element. And I'd just like to ask Scully - if Mulder's trauma causes him to want to go above and beyond the call of duty to save other lost girls, even after everyone else has given up, why is that a bad thing? You're only hurting yourself by believing this paranoid obsessive will ever lead a normal life. This is his strength; this is what he was put on this planet to do, if you believe in that sort of thing. So just roll with it).

Agent Drummy: I don't believe this.
Mulder: That's been your problem from the start.

Scully: I can't look into the darkness with you anymore, Mulder. I cannot stand what it does to you, or to me.
Mulder: I'm fine with it, Scully. I'm actually okay. I'm good.
Scully: Yeah, that's what scares me.

(Somebody's been watching too much Millennium. Excellent response, though, Mulder. I'm with you on this one. Scully seems to be fishing for drama).

Mulder: We'll get out of here. Just me and you.
Scully: As far away from the darkness as we can get?
Mulder: I'm not sure it works that way. I think maybe the darkness finds you. And me.
Scully: I know it does.
Mulder: But let it try.

The X-Files - S7:E17 "all things"

[ S7:E16 "Chimera" <<< Season 7 >>> S7:E18 "Brand X" ]

You can't help getting the impression that, nearing the expected end of the series' run, the producers were handing out opportunities for anyone who wanted to put in a pass at writing or directing an episode before the party was over. David Duchovny got one last season (and he's got another one coming up), and William B. Davis penned the surprisingly good En Ami just a couple episodes back. Well, "all things" (I think it's supposed to be all lower-case, although I'm not sure why) is Gillian Anderson's turn at the helm - she both wrote and directed this episode.

And this is a hard episode to judge, because it doesn't really feel like an episode of The X-Files. I play to my strengths, and those strengths are horror, and a little bit of science-fiction. There's a reason I decided to review two hundred episodes of The X-Files, and not E.R., or The Young and the Restless, or any number of other TV shows out there. And I don't want to criticize this episode too harshly, because technically it's very proficient, and I have absolutely no grudge against Gillian Anderson. But then, I didn't rate David Duchovny's The Unnatural very favorably, did I? The problem, I guess, is that I just don't enjoy the story the episode is telling all that much. And I don't want to give off the impression that it's bad television - it's just not a very good episode of The X-Files.

For one thing, it feels too much like a soap opera - all romantic drama. And what with Mulder turning up in Scully's bed in the opener, it makes you wonder where Chris Carter was in all of this. Not that I don't appreciate the more straightforward approach to their relationship in this season - it's much better than the wishy-washiness of last season. But, along with the baseball scene at the end of The Unnatural, I kind of get the feeling that David and Gillian are taking advantage of this opportunity to write their characters into flirty situations, not necessarily for their characters' sakes, but for the actors' own sakes.* Honestly, who can blame them, right? But it still takes a little bit away from the show - at least as it was envisioned in its early years.

The episode proper (post title theme) opens on another uncomfortable office scene that seems to borrow too much from the worst parts of Never Again, emphasizing the dysfunction in Mulder and Scully's relationship, and really making Scully out to be a bit of a bitch. Which is a little surprising, given that Gillian Anderson wrote the episode - but I guess she must have fallen victim to the idea that it's more acceptable to poke fun at your character, like David Duchovny did in The Unnatural. I'm not sure I agree. In the show's best moments, Mulder and Scully are likable characters, even if to the point of idealistic fantasy. Anyway, Mulder's explaining his plan to preempt the formation of a crop circle in England, based on predictions made by a computer simulation analyzing crop circle patterns (a fascinating idea!), and Scully's completely bored, not listening, and totally absorbed in her salad (I've been there, Mulder). I would have liked to have seen an episode about Mulder's investigation of those crop circles, but alas, Scully vetoes her participation in the trip.

Instead, we get to follow her as she meets up with an old flame - literally an old man, Scully's former medical teacher, and lover - abed in the hospital with heart troubles. Now, I have nothing against a sympathetic treatment of taboo relationships, and it's true that some people have particular attractions and fixations, but at this stage it seems like the series has taken the incidental fact of Scully having had a fling with an older authority figure back in the first season's Lazarus, expanded it into a full-blown personality trait via some dialogue in Never Again, and have now risen it to the level of a cliché. I'm not going to spend much time complaining about it, because it's no big deal to me if an older man and a younger woman experience an attraction to one another (it's not exactly rare or hard to believe), but it does kinda add to the soap-opera-y flavor of this episode. (I think it's funny, though, that I had assumed that Maggie was the man's wife, and not his daughter - I mean, he obviously has a thing for younger women).

Anyway, meeting an old lover who still harbors feelings for her forces Scully to confront her own feelings, and re-examine her purpose and priorities in life - like, whether she made the right decision in joining the FBI instead of becoming a doctor. Normally, I'm all for existential crises, but not in this series, for some reason. But given the vitriol she spews (okay, I'm exaggerating) towards Mulder and his quest, she ends up choosing him in the end. But that's not all. After dabbling in Buddhism and reaching a kind of enlightenment in which she can sense healing chakras (did I mention that this series had jumped the shark?), Scully goes so far as to resort to sanctioning the use of alternative medicine (if only Melissa could see her now). Is she finally lowering her defenses and becoming a believer? Only time will tell whether this attitude "sticks" in later episodes (I wouldn't count on it).

Anyhow, it's a very artsy episode, with slow-motion designed to emphasize the importance of moments. The episode is very much a series of coincidences, in which everything happens for a reason, and was meant to be. (Yawn). It's all designed to ultimately reaffirm Scully's purpose, and make her realize how much she's changed, and also quite possibly - as a couple of key scenes would seem to suggest - her feelings for Mulder, so that they can finally take their relationship to "the next level" (depending on interpretation, I guess). But honestly, forget all that - the best thing about this whole episode is the fact that there's a floating UFO in Mulder's fish tank!

* According to Wikipedia, the bedroom scene wasn't originally Gillian Anderson's idea. However, my comment on the episode being about its actors more than its characters is no less accurate if it's true that alternative medicine and new-age spirituality (which are so out of tune with Scully's character) were actually Gillian Anderson's beliefs, that she wanted to tell a story about.

Memorable quotes:

Scully: Time passes in moments. Moments which, rushing past, define the path of a life, just as surely as they lead towards its end. How rarely do we stop to examine that path? To see the reasons why all things happen. To consider whether the path we take in life is our own making, or simply one into which we drift with eyes closed. Though what if we could stop, pause to take stock of each precious moment before it passes? Might we then see the endless forks in the road that have shaped a life, and seeing those choices, choose another path?

Scully: Szczesny did indeed drown, but not as the result of the inhalation of ectoplasm as you so vehemently suggested.
Mulder: What else could she possibly have drowned in?

(I love Mulder's crazy theories).

Scully: We're always running. We're always chasing the next big thing. I mean, why don't you ever just stay still?
Mulder: I wouldn't know what I'd be missing.

(Well, I'm glad to see that Mulder is still passionate about investigating paranormal phenomena, even now that the mystery of his sister's disappearance has been solved).

Colleen Azar: There is a greater intelligence in all things. Accidents - or...near accidents - often remind us that we need to keep our mind open to the lessons it gives. You may wanna slow down.

(Thank you, Colleen. If I had any doubt about what the themes of this episode were, I don't any more).

Colleen Azar: When we hold onto shame, guilt, and fear, it creates imbalance. It makes us forget who we are.

Maggie: Don't try to be reasonable with me. I am so sick of being reasonable.

(That's funny, because I haven't seen you being reasonable one bit this whole episode).

Scully: Maybe sometimes nothing happens for a reason, Mulder.
Mulder: Well, what is that supposed to mean?
Scully: Nothing.