Case 05, File 10: Chinga

AKA: Child's Play...God What Number Are They Up To?

So here's a question I was musing upon as I left the theater after seeing A Star Is Born: Is letting your external knowledge of a piece of media's creation affect your opinion a valid avenue of criticism? Would I feel less like A Star Is Born is fawning over the male lead to the detriment of the woman if I didn't know that the actor playing the male lead and the director were the same person? Would I be less generous to Clerks if I didn't know it was made on a shoestring budget by a man who had never directed a movie before? And would this episode feel less like a grab bag of Stephen King cliches if I didn't know Stephen King co-wrote it?

Case 05, File 09: Schizogeny

AKA: There Is Unrest In The Forest, There Is Trouble With The Trees

One of the greatest temptations when it comes to reviewing these episodes is when an episode doesn't work, I get the temptation to talk about rewriting it, and that's not what this blog is about. It's usually not that much of a temptation, since much of the lesser episodes would require a complete teardown and reworking, but sometimes, sometimes, you can see how just a few small shuffling around of elements could make an episode so much better and you just want to rewrite it.

Case 05, File 08: Kitsunegari

AKA: I Blue Myself Before Dinner

The X-Files doesn't really do sequel episodes. Oh it loves to end its episodes on cliffhangers, implying the monster is still out there, lurking just around the corner, but that's not something it wants to follow up on, it's just a nice creepy way to end an episode. There are a couple of exceptions to this, episodes which demanded follow ups. We already hit one (way back in Tooms) but that still left two ahead of us.

Case 05, File 07: Emily

AKA: Has The Murmuring Sounds Of May

The X-Files is not a show that's set up to have the lead characters have children (and yes, I know about William, we'll get there when we get there). The characters work long hours, travel constantly and are in dangerous fields, and that's before we even get into how much danger they are of being abducted by aliens or killed by faceless bounty hunters. So even when I first saw this episode, I was under very little illusion that Emily was gonna stick around.

Case 05, File 06: Christmas Carol

AKA: The Ghost Of Plots Past

So as you may be aware, this season ends on a cliffhanger that needed to be resolved in a big expensive movie (we'll get to it, don't worry). What that means, unfortunately, is that throughout the season there were episodes where either Gillian Anderson or David Duchovny wouldn't be available, because they'd be off shooting their movie scenes (and at least one episode where neither of them could be available). The affects the way they write the episodes, since there are multiple episodes this season which have to be centered around either Mulder or Scully, to give them time to be off set, and writing an episode to suit an actor's availability first and to tell a good story second is always a backward way to write it.

Case 05, File 05: The Post-Modern Prometheus

AKA: Ceci N'est Pas Une Frankenstein

While I like to think I have a pretty unique way of approaching The X-Files, I don't think most of my opinions would cause an uproar among fans. Yes, I have episodes I like or dislike for personal reasons, but you usually won't catch me calling Space an underappreciated masterpiece or saying that Home is overrated. There are exceptions to this rule however, and we have hit one of the big ones.

Case 05, File 04: Detour

AKA: Mulder and Scully vs. Florida Man

The X-Files was, for the first 5 years of its existence, shot in British Columbia, which is where a lot of stuff is shot (more than you might expect, frankly). And that makes sense: British Columbia already looks like (broadly speaking) a lot of different locations around the United States, and with the right shot choice and editing, it can look enough like many more. But there are limits to its powers and one of the places it absolutely cannot play is Florida.