Discovering The X-Files

Natalia Castro joins in this week to discuss a weird monster-of-the-week story about silicon fungus that breeds in a volcano, before it infects you and kills you by growing out of your throat.

Yuck.

The episode is not particularly "exciting," but it is interesting. And it features Bradley Whitford as mad scientist, Shawnee Smith as an unfortunate ingenue; and Leland Orser...in the Leland Orser role.

It's a good talk.

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Scully returns! 

After a very brief absence...but, even though she had just popped her first baby out of the oven, Gillian Anderson was anxious to get back to work.

Daniel and I discuss that, and we talk about this very good episode in general - one of the best mythology episodes, maybe THE best to date in how it displays rich character growth for Mulder and expands on his relationship with the Scully family.

It also features great scenes with Skinner and The Smoking Man... 

If I have any quibbles, maybe we could dispense with the on-the-nose depictions of Scully fighting her way back from "The Other Side." But, apart from that, this is a solid episode. And, as ever, a great talk.

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And now, finally, VAMPIRES on The X-Files! They pulled a bait-and-switch in season one. But then they gave us honest-to-goodness werwolves... So, it was only a matter of time before we got vampires. 

The result is, I suppose, a bit of a mixed bag. And, maybe if we're being 100% honest, not a particularly good episode. But, in any case, Daniel and I are here to break it down and discuss it's qualities, both good and bad. And we reflect on the basic strangeness of having Mulder on his own, without Scully, and what that means for his character and the series as a whole.

It's a good talk.

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It's the first of the X-Files "epics," but it won't be the last. 

The writers had to figure out creative ways to incorporate Gillian Anderson's pregnancy into the schedule (and, yes, the narrative) of Season 2. But, Daniel and I argue, this worked in their favor ultimately. It forced them to come up with some intriguing wrinkles - like shutting down The X-Files and separating Mulder and Scully, for a while... Leading to this climactic story event that results in a rather exciting two-part thriller.

We talk about good serialized storytelling and great acting - in particular from special guest star Steve Railsback. 

We talk about the improbability of Alex Krycek's weird approach to sabotage.

We talk about a bunch of stuff in this meaty episode.

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Tony Todd is a wonderful actor, and it's great to see him show up here - in one of his many appearances on genre TV in the 1990s - and Daniel and I do talk about that, as we discuss this very good episode.

But we also discuss the particulars of The X-Files at this point in its run, when the writers had to figure out how to craft episodes around the reality of Gillian Anderson's pregnancy and come up with ways to minimize her use, while still delivering on the initial promise of the series.

We talk about the necessity of someone for Mulder to play off of, which may or may not have been the principal catalyst for bringing in Alex Krycek as an important supporting character, which in turn gave them the opportunity to take the series in an interesting direction going forward.

It's, as usual, a good talk.

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And so, here we have a rather engaging, intriguing, suspenseful techno thriller. But... Is it an X-File?

Daniel and I aren't sure. But we did both enjoy this episode that features a great performance by William Sanderson, plenty of memorable set pieces, and Ashlyn Gere as you have never seen her before! 

But it also has a story that doesn't quite make a lot of sense, with the usual convoluted elements that tend to bog down X-Files episodes and not a particularly satisfying resolution.

In any case, the episode is what it is.

But our talk was pretty cool.

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Clay McCormack of The Pensky File sits down with me to discuss the very gleefully disgusting episode... The Host.

Is that Ralph Macchio? Is that Joe Kubert? (The answer in both cases is no.)

Ultimately, The Host gave Clay and I a lot to discuss, we reflect on the series as a whole...we compare the realities of 90s genre TV to today's serialized "bingeworthy" dramas available for instant gratification on streaming services, and how that affects storytelling. 

And we also ask ourselves: would a series like The X-Files "work" in today's sociopolitical climate? How can we view a character like Fox Mulder in today's lens? Is he Alex Jones? Is he a Qanon guy? Or would he naturally reject these things in his quest for ultimate truth above conspiracy lunacy.

It's a rich talk, to be sure.

It's also a very fun talk.

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And also be sure to check out The Pensky File - https://thepenskyfile.com/ for a bevy of excellent podcasts on movies and TV,

Season 2 of The X-Files opens in more than respectable fashion... With a compelling, well-written episode, which finds Mulder having a crisis of faith, and wondering if any of this nonsense is worth it. Wondering, in fact, if the catalyst to his lifelong obsession (the abduction of his kid sister) even happened in the first place.

A noticeable uptick in the show's production value, plus good scenes featuring Walter Skinner and a US senator played by the wonderful character actor Raymond J. Barry, are among this very good episode's highlights.

Daniel and I kick off the second season with a customarily cool discussion.

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And so we have arrived at the end of Season 1...and what a season of television it has been. Maybe not a perfect season, but certainly about as solid a full first season as a modern genre show has ever gotten.

Daniel and I reflect on the season as a whole, we pick our favorite episodes, stuff like that. But mainly we discuss this rather potent finale, which does a couple of really ballsy things: First, it kills off an important and seemingly untouchable supporting character - who had become a fan favorite. And then, it actually dismantles the very concept of the series (!) ending on a rather weird note of apocalyptic finality that could've served as a series finale...and maybe it would've, had FOX not renewed the series for a second season.

It's a good talk.

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This episode should be extremely cringey and, in some ways, I suppose it is. And I suppose it's also the sort of thing that would get dragged through the mud in this day and age because they cast non disabled actors to play disabled characters in a TV show.

But, in any case, it does have a rather intriguing concept; and those non disabled actors do give convincing performances as disabled characters. You can tell the actors did their research, probably spent some time around people like those they were portraying. And the result is a well-crafted, entertaining episode that transcends its cringey nature by just being a solid, compelling story.

For this episode, I am joined by Jared Kilbourne - a friend of the podcast and confessed X-Files fan.

We had a nice chat.

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