Case 04, File 06: Sanguinarium

AKA: The Gritty Scrubs Crossover We've All Been Waiting For

There's a lot to be said about episodes like The Field Where I Died or the next episode Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man. Episodes like that take the show in new, interesting directions, expanding the types of stories the series can tell, flesh out the world and characters and are just generally incredibly healthy for the show. But there's also a hell of a lot to be said about episodes that are just right in The X-Files' wheelhouse.

Case 04, File 05: The Field Where I Died

AKA: Ripped From Last Centuries Headlines

One of the side effects of being a concept heavy show is that its very rarely on the actors to carry the episode. Oh there have been some really great individual performances such as Brad Dourif in Beyond the Sea or Tony Todd in Sleepless, but that's the actor carrying the concept rather than the actor carrying the episode. So it's pretty interesting to see an episode with a pretty light concept being held up by the acting, especially when the heavy acting is coming from one of our two leads.

Case 04, File 04: Unruhe

AKA: Mister Police, You Could Have Saved Her, I Thoughtographed All The Clues

It's something that doesn't come up much, but I've always felt that one of the things that helped The X-Files get greenlit is the massive smash success of Silence of the Lambs just two years before the Pilot aired. There's probably an interesting article to write about the debt The X-Files owes Silence, but honestly, it can be best seen in episodes like this one or Irresistible which feel like they could almost be lost Thomas Harris books.

Case 04, File 03: Teliko

AKA: The Gang Kills A Melanin Vampire

Part of what keeps The X-Files unique and engaging is the fact they're always wiling and able to come up with new and interesting ideas for its monsters of the week. Sometimes these were cool monster designs, sometimes they were just a fresh take on an old idea or sometimes they were just presented in a cool way. However, this creativity can occasionally backfire, especially when dealing with other people's cultures

Case 04, File 02: Home

AKA: The People Who Should Go Back Under The Stairs

I've mentioned (once, twice, a few dozen times) that Season 4 is the moment where the series felt bulletproof enough to take the series in a darker, grimmer direction and it's important to put that in context. The series has always been irrevocably an adult show, but it also a show that was usually pretty restrained in its content, enough so that it managed to keep its Parental Guidance rating at TV-14. So when the series got its first TV-MA, it was something of a big deal.

Case 04, File 01: Herrenvolk

AKA: It Is A Physical Struggle To Not Make A Wicker Man Reference

Season 4 of The X-Files is a special season for me, probably my favorite overall, and part of that was the sheer freedom they were getting from Fox. It was this year that The Simpsons made the crack about the only three shows Fox had that were consistently making money, one of which was The X-Files and the writers seemed to use that freedom to take the show in a bleaker, more brutal direction, that gave the series more bite and made some of the most intense and memorable moments of the series.

Case 03, File 24: Talitha Cumi

AKA: Ancient Aliens' Wet Dream

Honestly, part of the reason I prefer reviewing Monster of the Week episodes is that they have a wider variance of quality and interesting things to talk about. The Mythology episodes can be good and they can be bad, but they very rarely swing as high or as low as some of the Monster of the Week episodes, and I tend to have the same criticisms. I mean, I assume you're as tired of reading that an episode sets up the next one but spins its wheels too much as I am of writing it, but here we are.