Oh yeah, I was writing about the X-Files mini-series, wasn't I? I should probably get back to that. Seems like a good idea, I think.
Now, contrary to what the title of this one may suggest, this episode does not feature the return of that homicidal inbred family. As fun as it is to have memorable villains come back, this episode focuses on another thing entirely. The closest you get to a callback is another sequence where someone is murdered while a cheery ditty plays over the scene.
While the villain is a mashup of all sorts of things: Vigo the Carpathian, the Golem/Frankenstein, Candy man, and even a hint of Slenderman; it fell flat. Don't get me wrong, the creepy parts were adequately creepy and the monster did kill his victims in a particularly brutal fashion. That being said, there wasn't a whole lot of mystery to it.
Really, circumstances led both Mulder and the viewer by the nose, robbing the episode of some suspense. Also, "band-aid nose man"? You could argue that "Fluke man" wasn't much better, but still. I think the writers could have tried a little harder with that one.
Where was Scully? You ask, well she gets a call saying that her mother is in the hospital and is at death's door. On the one hand, it sidelines her for a majority of the episode, which can be vexing. On the other, it gives the episode some emotional weight as Scully gets sent into a tailspin.
It actually ends up being the more memorable part of the episode, in no small part due to Gillian Anderson's performance. Scully's fairly stoic by nature and it isn't often that Anderson gets to flex her acting muscles, this gave her that chance and she performed admirably.
While the attempt to tie her tragedy into both the mystery of the week, as well as their son's fate was a little on the wonky side, it still managed to resonate for the most part.
I do have to say, though, taking the break might have worked for the best. If you're binge watching this, going from the amazing goofiness of "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster" to seeing Scully wrestle with the idea of taking her mother off life support is going to cause some pretty serious mood whiplash.
By and large, though, the episode was decent. Even the social commentary worked. I can't say that it was subtle, but it didn't bend over backwards and send characters on pointless side quests or have them act like idiots in order to hammer the point across. It was just an aspect of the case and the setting. That's a lot more than you'd get in most instances of writer's choosing to get up on a soapbox.
Now the next episode, from what I read, is fairly controversial, so that should be interesting. The promo looked harmless enough, though. Also, Robbie Amell is in it, so seeing the original Firestorm again should be fun.
Click here to join our Patreon campaign
No comments:
Post a Comment