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To be honest I'm not sure quite what to make of Never Again. I think that it was a really interesting idea for an episode to take a closer look at Scully's character and how Mulder's quest has overtaken her life as well, it's the kind of examination of the central character that we expect in shows this days as a matter of course, but I'm not sure it really works as an X-File? Shows today would generally build up to a development like this over several weeks, making sure that Scully's complaints feel organic and we understand where she's coming from, obviously that was never going to happen in a 1990's episode of the X-Files, so instead it feels a little too random for Scully to suddenly come up with all of these frustrations with Mulder out of the blue. Certainly interesting, but with no real groundwork for us to understand why she is suddenly so sick of her life. I've loved past examples of episodes taking a closer look at the main characters, but I'm inclined to say this one is an awkward fit in the context of the show, it's all about Scully expressing her frustration with the current state of her life, and yet we know that it's never going to get followed up on or even mentioned again. I guess you can fanwank it as being part of the cancer arc and Scully reevaluating her life because of that, but the diagnosis is never brought up in this episode (it was apparently intended to air earlier in the season), so it never actually comes across as that being the case idk
I found the episode a bit slow and draggy in parts too tbh, it felt like Scully's ~walk on the wild side~ should have been more exciting than it ultimately was, and it says a lot about CC's view of the character that he reportedly insisted on any potential sex scene being completely cut out, even though the writers have talked about how they (and Gillian) had been excited to create a steamy sex scene for her character in this one. (Complete sidenote, but it did strike me as funny on this watch that the X-Files was the opposite of most shows in that it took pains to never sexualise the main female character, yet Mulder and Skinner are shown shirtless in quite a few gratuitous shots over the years! It really stood out to me just how often Skinner is shown with no shirt on when he's at home, or he'll be answering the door to Mulder in just a towel or something. And the show seemed to *really* like their scenes playing up Mulder being naked and vulnerable, whether it's Scully coming across him shivering in a bath, or she's putting him to bed in his boxers. And then there's the infamous red speedo shot from season 2 as well. Whereas Scully is pretty much always kept in the professional business suits...)
Anyway! I mostly only liked this episode for the look at the M/S relationship, otherwise the main plot kind of lost me and just seemed too out of character for Scully. I did love that final scene of them both sat in the office in silence after Scully says that, "It's my life, Mulder". I know that Mulder can be self-absorbed at times, but I could understand where he was coming from in that final exchange when he's about to answer "But it's my.." before trailing off. Yeah he takes Scully for granted at times, and I can certainly understand and sympathise with Scully questioning how she has allowed her life to become swallowed up by Mulder's quest, but I can also understand why Mulder would be hurt and make it partly about him when Scully seemed to be sick of what they were doing with the X-Files, because really what's he supposed to do with that? Their relationship pretty much *is* the X-Files, so it would be hard not to take it personally when Scully suddenly makes it plain how bored and dissatisfied she's feeling with it all
Memento Mori has some of my favourite M/S scenes, Mulder's face when he finds out about Scully's cancer and, 'I don't accept that' :heart melts: , and of course the final hug and kiss (!) in the hospital. I also liked the subplot with Skinner warning Mulder off making a deal with the CSM, and then making his own deal to save Scully, the scene in Mulder's office especially was a pretty great one for them with Skinner taunting CSM about how better the basement than taking an elevator up to work.
Frank Spotnitz talks in the commentary about how the script was put together in a real hurry, apparently Darin Morgan was meant to be writing another episode and that fell through, so they only decided on the cancer arc at the last minute. That really comes across in the next two episodes when Scully possibly dying of cancer is not even brought up once?!?! Frank Spotnitz talks in the commentary about how there was some scepticism in the writers room about a cancer arc being melodramatic, maybe that's why they didn't have the characters dwelling on it too much after Memento Mori, but it was another extreme to not bring it up at all! I'm curious about how that was received at the time, I'd have thought it would have been a real let-down to go back to MotW run-arounds right after such a major character revelation, but I've no idea if it was more accepted and shrugged off back in the 90's?
I did like Kaddish as an episode more than Unrequited, it has a very moving ending when it's revealed that the golem was actually created out of Ariel wanting to bring her dead fiancé back, and I really liked the actresses performance. I usually get pretty bored with the number of X-Files episodes that have a dead character seeking revenge, but this was better done than some of them, it made for a nicely creepy monster to have the golem be the opposite of a ghost in that you can only bring the body back, but not the spirit. This was actually one of the rare episodes where it felt like the show didn't go quite far enough in creepiness actually! I think they could have done a lot more with heightening the creepiness of that concept considering what a horror staple it is in stories like The Monkey's Paw, Pet Sematary etc, instead the episode did drag in places when it really shouldn't have done. It wasn't until the last few scenes with Ariel being forced to destroy the golem that it really clicked into place for me
Whereas I really can't think of much to say about Unrequited at all I was so bored, X-Files really did love their stories about the military. I did think it was odd though that they specifically made the effort to date the episode before Scully's cancer and Memento Mori, but then most of the other MotW's in the second half of the season seemed to forget about Scully's terminal cancer as well, so I wonder why it was only that episode specifically that they wanted to date earlier in the year? Maybe originally the writers were thinking that they would have to address it more in upcoming episodes and make it a bigger thing, tried to stall with Unrequited, and then ultimately decided that it wouldn't matter if they did just carry on as if nothing had changed?
I really enjoyed Tempus Fugit and Max, it was a nice change for a mythology two-parter to avoid focusing on the conspiracy, but instead just tell a (well more or less!) straight-forward abduction story. I think this two-parter really works because it manages to pretty much wrap up as a single story, and doesn't get as convoluted and confusing as some of them do. There was more of a personal touch this time with the emphasis on Max and how tragic his story was
That was one of the few times where they managed to do a good job with remembering the cancer arc as well, the opening scene with Mulder remembering and celebrating Scully's birthday for the first time felt like the kind of subtle character-based moment that you would have expected them to follow up Memento Mori with, but at the same time you could have still aired it in any order that you choose as it wouldn't necessarily hammer casual viewers over the head with Scully being sick.
And aww Agent Pendrell:( :( :( He was so adorable with his crush on Scully, I wish they had kept him around a bit longer. Same with them killing off Mr.X earlier in the season actually, he had a very powerful death scene certainly, but I'm not sure it was the right decision to kill him off. They never really had such a memorable (or badass!) informant as him again
Synchrony was fairly dull to me I'm afraid. Considering that this was an episode about time travel and had some interesting ideas on the page, it felt like it could/should have been a lot better, but I never formed any emotional attachments to the characters, it all felt a bit cold and detached, Idk maybe it would have been better if they'd actually shown us the terrible future that the old man was trying to prevent?
Interestingly this was an episode credited to David Greenwalt, the Angel writers (Tim Minear and Jeffrey Bell also write for The X-Files later on) never really managed to write anything particularly outstanding on The X-Files for some reason, even though Tim Minear especially went on to write some of the very best Ats episodes
Small Potatoes is of course fantastic. It doesn't fit in with the cancer arc any better than the other MotW episodes I just complained about, but it's Small Potatoes, so it gets a pass *g* Heh Darin Morgan and Vince Gillian talk in the special features about how Vince rung Darin up to say that he'd written the part of this fat and ugly loser that they thought he would be perfect for, then afterwards he thought about it and rung him back five minutes later to say that, "Not that I see you that way" :P
It feels a bit out of step with the rest of the season though admittedly, it's the only real comedy episode this year, season 4 otherwise is really one of the darkest seasons conceptually with a huge number of outright horror episodes. (It sounds like Chris Carter didn't necessarily want to continue with the lighter episodes from season 3, Vince Gilligan talks in the Blu-Ray extras about how he had to beg CC all year to let him do a comedy episode before he finally relented).
The only real negative I can say about Small Potatoes is that taking a sympathetic look at the patheticness of a man who's such a complete loser that he keeps changing his appearance and trying to live a day in the life of someone else is fine, but the sympathy doesn't really work when the story being told is of him tricking women into sleeping with him. He never seems at all remorseful either, justifying it to Mulder and Scully as what's the harm when those women wanted to get pregnant and he was doing them a favour. The episode never really treats it as more than a comedy aside when Eddie in Mulder's body pulls a face at Skinner pointing out that Eddie's a serial rapist...
It's still by far one of my favourite episodes from this year though oops, along with Paper Hearts
Zero Sum was one I liked a lot, it was a lot more interesting than season 3's attempt to focus on Skinner and his personal life actually IMO. I liked how it tied in with the conspiracy, at the same time as telling a character-focused tale. They managed to introduce a lot of tension in seeing everything from Skinner's perspective, just waiting for Mulder to figure out what was really going on. The direction was great on this one, it felt very noir
Elegy is the first script by John Shiban that I haven't completely hated. The main ghost story probably wasn't handled that well, introducing the nurse as the killer at the end felt particularly rushed when her character was so under-developed. But I liked this one for actually bothering to give us some character work on Scully and her cancer, it was a really chilling scene when she gets the vision in the bathroom, and then you get that moment later on of Mulder pointing out that it's only people who are dying that are getting the visions.
And I'm starting to run out of steam now with my ramblings lol, but I really liked Demons as well, the direction of the flashbacks especially was really well-handled. I'm surprised that you see so many comments about season 4 not being such a great year, apparently it's seen as having problems because of CC's attention being divided with Millennium, but it's felt to me like everyone involved has really stepped up and produced one of the best seasons yet? IMO there's a lot of rose-tinted spectacles going on when it comes to season 3 being such a flawless season of television, yeah it probably reached greater heights than season 4, buuut the Darin Morgan episodes that we all love so much are only 4 episodes out of 24, and it's like people completely forget the not insignificant run of really weak and skippable episodes that year as well. (And I used to always remember season 3 as being the best season as well, but on re-watch it doesn't hold up nearly as well as season 4 IMHO). Nearly every episode in season 4 has felt a lot more polished, the only episodes I see myself probably skipping on re-watch are Teliko, El Mundo Gira, and Unrequited. That's a waaay better average than the first three seasons for me quite honestly. I love the show, but there are so many really forgettable episodes that you wouldn't want to sit through twice.
I think it's the lack of stand-out episodes that maybe hurts season 4, Paper Hearts and Small Potatoes would be right up there as best episodes of the series for me, but I struggle with which other episodes I would pick as best of the entire series from that season? Most of the episodes really are great, and I think the overall quality is much more consistent than earlier, but there aren't as many absolutely classic MotW's as say season 3 had. Probably that's why season 3 is still the favourite of so many, but I enjoyed season 4 a lot more, even if it maybe doesn't have as many highs, there aren't as many lows as either
I found the episode a bit slow and draggy in parts too tbh, it felt like Scully's ~walk on the wild side~ should have been more exciting than it ultimately was, and it says a lot about CC's view of the character that he reportedly insisted on any potential sex scene being completely cut out, even though the writers have talked about how they (and Gillian) had been excited to create a steamy sex scene for her character in this one. (Complete sidenote, but it did strike me as funny on this watch that the X-Files was the opposite of most shows in that it took pains to never sexualise the main female character, yet Mulder and Skinner are shown shirtless in quite a few gratuitous shots over the years! It really stood out to me just how often Skinner is shown with no shirt on when he's at home, or he'll be answering the door to Mulder in just a towel or something. And the show seemed to *really* like their scenes playing up Mulder being naked and vulnerable, whether it's Scully coming across him shivering in a bath, or she's putting him to bed in his boxers. And then there's the infamous red speedo shot from season 2 as well. Whereas Scully is pretty much always kept in the professional business suits...)
Anyway! I mostly only liked this episode for the look at the M/S relationship, otherwise the main plot kind of lost me and just seemed too out of character for Scully. I did love that final scene of them both sat in the office in silence after Scully says that, "It's my life, Mulder". I know that Mulder can be self-absorbed at times, but I could understand where he was coming from in that final exchange when he's about to answer "But it's my.." before trailing off. Yeah he takes Scully for granted at times, and I can certainly understand and sympathise with Scully questioning how she has allowed her life to become swallowed up by Mulder's quest, but I can also understand why Mulder would be hurt and make it partly about him when Scully seemed to be sick of what they were doing with the X-Files, because really what's he supposed to do with that? Their relationship pretty much *is* the X-Files, so it would be hard not to take it personally when Scully suddenly makes it plain how bored and dissatisfied she's feeling with it all
Memento Mori has some of my favourite M/S scenes, Mulder's face when he finds out about Scully's cancer and, 'I don't accept that' :heart melts: , and of course the final hug and kiss (!) in the hospital. I also liked the subplot with Skinner warning Mulder off making a deal with the CSM, and then making his own deal to save Scully, the scene in Mulder's office especially was a pretty great one for them with Skinner taunting CSM about how better the basement than taking an elevator up to work.
Frank Spotnitz talks in the commentary about how the script was put together in a real hurry, apparently Darin Morgan was meant to be writing another episode and that fell through, so they only decided on the cancer arc at the last minute. That really comes across in the next two episodes when Scully possibly dying of cancer is not even brought up once?!?! Frank Spotnitz talks in the commentary about how there was some scepticism in the writers room about a cancer arc being melodramatic, maybe that's why they didn't have the characters dwelling on it too much after Memento Mori, but it was another extreme to not bring it up at all! I'm curious about how that was received at the time, I'd have thought it would have been a real let-down to go back to MotW run-arounds right after such a major character revelation, but I've no idea if it was more accepted and shrugged off back in the 90's?
I did like Kaddish as an episode more than Unrequited, it has a very moving ending when it's revealed that the golem was actually created out of Ariel wanting to bring her dead fiancé back, and I really liked the actresses performance. I usually get pretty bored with the number of X-Files episodes that have a dead character seeking revenge, but this was better done than some of them, it made for a nicely creepy monster to have the golem be the opposite of a ghost in that you can only bring the body back, but not the spirit. This was actually one of the rare episodes where it felt like the show didn't go quite far enough in creepiness actually! I think they could have done a lot more with heightening the creepiness of that concept considering what a horror staple it is in stories like The Monkey's Paw, Pet Sematary etc, instead the episode did drag in places when it really shouldn't have done. It wasn't until the last few scenes with Ariel being forced to destroy the golem that it really clicked into place for me
Whereas I really can't think of much to say about Unrequited at all I was so bored, X-Files really did love their stories about the military. I did think it was odd though that they specifically made the effort to date the episode before Scully's cancer and Memento Mori, but then most of the other MotW's in the second half of the season seemed to forget about Scully's terminal cancer as well, so I wonder why it was only that episode specifically that they wanted to date earlier in the year? Maybe originally the writers were thinking that they would have to address it more in upcoming episodes and make it a bigger thing, tried to stall with Unrequited, and then ultimately decided that it wouldn't matter if they did just carry on as if nothing had changed?
I really enjoyed Tempus Fugit and Max, it was a nice change for a mythology two-parter to avoid focusing on the conspiracy, but instead just tell a (well more or less!) straight-forward abduction story. I think this two-parter really works because it manages to pretty much wrap up as a single story, and doesn't get as convoluted and confusing as some of them do. There was more of a personal touch this time with the emphasis on Max and how tragic his story was
That was one of the few times where they managed to do a good job with remembering the cancer arc as well, the opening scene with Mulder remembering and celebrating Scully's birthday for the first time felt like the kind of subtle character-based moment that you would have expected them to follow up Memento Mori with, but at the same time you could have still aired it in any order that you choose as it wouldn't necessarily hammer casual viewers over the head with Scully being sick.
And aww Agent Pendrell:( :( :( He was so adorable with his crush on Scully, I wish they had kept him around a bit longer. Same with them killing off Mr.X earlier in the season actually, he had a very powerful death scene certainly, but I'm not sure it was the right decision to kill him off. They never really had such a memorable (or badass!) informant as him again
Synchrony was fairly dull to me I'm afraid. Considering that this was an episode about time travel and had some interesting ideas on the page, it felt like it could/should have been a lot better, but I never formed any emotional attachments to the characters, it all felt a bit cold and detached, Idk maybe it would have been better if they'd actually shown us the terrible future that the old man was trying to prevent?
Interestingly this was an episode credited to David Greenwalt, the Angel writers (Tim Minear and Jeffrey Bell also write for The X-Files later on) never really managed to write anything particularly outstanding on The X-Files for some reason, even though Tim Minear especially went on to write some of the very best Ats episodes
Small Potatoes is of course fantastic. It doesn't fit in with the cancer arc any better than the other MotW episodes I just complained about, but it's Small Potatoes, so it gets a pass *g* Heh Darin Morgan and Vince Gillian talk in the special features about how Vince rung Darin up to say that he'd written the part of this fat and ugly loser that they thought he would be perfect for, then afterwards he thought about it and rung him back five minutes later to say that, "Not that I see you that way" :P
It feels a bit out of step with the rest of the season though admittedly, it's the only real comedy episode this year, season 4 otherwise is really one of the darkest seasons conceptually with a huge number of outright horror episodes. (It sounds like Chris Carter didn't necessarily want to continue with the lighter episodes from season 3, Vince Gilligan talks in the Blu-Ray extras about how he had to beg CC all year to let him do a comedy episode before he finally relented).
The only real negative I can say about Small Potatoes is that taking a sympathetic look at the patheticness of a man who's such a complete loser that he keeps changing his appearance and trying to live a day in the life of someone else is fine, but the sympathy doesn't really work when the story being told is of him tricking women into sleeping with him. He never seems at all remorseful either, justifying it to Mulder and Scully as what's the harm when those women wanted to get pregnant and he was doing them a favour. The episode never really treats it as more than a comedy aside when Eddie in Mulder's body pulls a face at Skinner pointing out that Eddie's a serial rapist...
It's still by far one of my favourite episodes from this year though oops, along with Paper Hearts
Zero Sum was one I liked a lot, it was a lot more interesting than season 3's attempt to focus on Skinner and his personal life actually IMO. I liked how it tied in with the conspiracy, at the same time as telling a character-focused tale. They managed to introduce a lot of tension in seeing everything from Skinner's perspective, just waiting for Mulder to figure out what was really going on. The direction was great on this one, it felt very noir
Elegy is the first script by John Shiban that I haven't completely hated. The main ghost story probably wasn't handled that well, introducing the nurse as the killer at the end felt particularly rushed when her character was so under-developed. But I liked this one for actually bothering to give us some character work on Scully and her cancer, it was a really chilling scene when she gets the vision in the bathroom, and then you get that moment later on of Mulder pointing out that it's only people who are dying that are getting the visions.
And I'm starting to run out of steam now with my ramblings lol, but I really liked Demons as well, the direction of the flashbacks especially was really well-handled. I'm surprised that you see so many comments about season 4 not being such a great year, apparently it's seen as having problems because of CC's attention being divided with Millennium, but it's felt to me like everyone involved has really stepped up and produced one of the best seasons yet? IMO there's a lot of rose-tinted spectacles going on when it comes to season 3 being such a flawless season of television, yeah it probably reached greater heights than season 4, buuut the Darin Morgan episodes that we all love so much are only 4 episodes out of 24, and it's like people completely forget the not insignificant run of really weak and skippable episodes that year as well. (And I used to always remember season 3 as being the best season as well, but on re-watch it doesn't hold up nearly as well as season 4 IMHO). Nearly every episode in season 4 has felt a lot more polished, the only episodes I see myself probably skipping on re-watch are Teliko, El Mundo Gira, and Unrequited. That's a waaay better average than the first three seasons for me quite honestly. I love the show, but there are so many really forgettable episodes that you wouldn't want to sit through twice.
I think it's the lack of stand-out episodes that maybe hurts season 4, Paper Hearts and Small Potatoes would be right up there as best episodes of the series for me, but I struggle with which other episodes I would pick as best of the entire series from that season? Most of the episodes really are great, and I think the overall quality is much more consistent than earlier, but there aren't as many absolutely classic MotW's as say season 3 had. Probably that's why season 3 is still the favourite of so many, but I enjoyed season 4 a lot more, even if it maybe doesn't have as many highs, there aren't as many lows as either
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(no subject)
Date: 2016-08-01 04:19 pm (UTC)Interestingly this was an episode credited to David Greenwalt, the Angel writers (Tim Minear and Jeffrey Bell also write for The X-Files later on) never really managed to write anything particularly outstanding on The X-Files for some reason, even though Tim Minear especially went on to write some of the very best Ats episodes
From what I remember, the breaking process was different on X-Files than at Mutant Enemy. At ME, people always think the credited writer wrote everything when it reality they mostly just wrote the dialogue. The story and all that was written by the whole crew. At X-Files, there was a lot of X writer pretty much coming up with the whole story then later it's revised. Sometimes they wrote together. There really wasn't much of a set process. That's what I gathered from Gilligan talking on BrBa commentaries and Podcasts.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-08-01 04:57 pm (UTC)I'm not sure that they did have more overall control of their episodes on the X-Files though, it sounds like it was more down to the individual writers when it came to thinking up episode concepts yes, but from what I've heard CC used to do quite a bit of rewriters with the final episodes, and it was more of a team episode then when it came to putting up something workable on screen? I guess that would explain why Tim Minear's voice never came across particularly strongly on his X-Files episodes, even though he became one of the best Ats writers
(no subject)
Date: 2016-08-01 05:31 pm (UTC)but from what I've heard CC used to do quite a bit of rewriters with the final episodes,
Oh, definitely, but it was the same at ME. From what Jane said, basically the whole group wrote the story, then the writer writes the teleplay from a very detailed outline approved by the showrunners and network. Then they go through drafts and Joss/Marti did their final polishes. There were rumors that Joss basically rewrote everything in S1.
Maybe Joss is better at keeping the tone of the original script than Carter or perhaps Minear just fit better with ME. It doesn't surprise me that it's hard to break in, but I'm not sure what he means. I haven't checked, but I think he has more AtS S1 scripts than anyone. Or he could mean pitching ideas rather than the scripts themselves.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-08-01 05:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-08-01 04:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-08-01 04:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-08-01 07:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-08-01 08:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-08-02 02:18 am (UTC)but the sympathy doesn't really work when the story being told is of him tricking women into sleeping with him
Yeah. I mean, it's a fun and funny episode, but that element of it is VERY problematic. The very same issue comes up in The Post-Modern Prometheus, when women are impregnated without their knowledge. WTF XF writers? This is what happens when there are no women writers on staff.
Elegy is the first script by John Shiban that I haven't completely hated
Heh, I always forget that Shiban wrote that one, but it's probably one of his best. I always think of it as being a solid scary/sad episode.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-08-02 09:02 am (UTC)And yeah I thought that Elegy did a pretty decent job with the visions of the dead women, the opening teaser at the bowling alley was especially creepy, it was mostly the reveal of the nurse as the villain that I had issues with, it just seemed so thrown in there out of the blue. It was definitely one of John Shiban's better efforts though!
And I actually didn't mind the MotW episodes this year as a whole, I thought they were all of a really good standard, it's the first three seasons where I find a ton of the MotW to be really forgettable and pointless. I liked how most of the season 4 episodes were more ambitious and seemed to tried to do something different each week, even when it didn't always come off (The Field Where I Died), and there was more character work for Mulder and Scully in a lot of them. I'd agree that season 3 had far more of the instant classic episodes like Pusher etc, I just hated working my way through episodes like The Walk and Hell Money to get to them