In “Founder’s Mutation,” agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigate a horrific and violent suicide at Nugenic Technologies. The investigation leads the duo to the company’s founder, Dr. Goldman (Dr. Savant), who is a self-professed “champion of the unborn,” and demonstrates a remarkable obsession regarding children with genetic deformities. As Scully and Mulder soon learn, Dr. Goldman -- who has ties to the Department of Defense -- is hiding a secret about the deformed children in his clinic. Some of them are no mere accident ... [Continua a leggere]

After far too long an absence from television, Chris Carter’s The X-Files (1993-2002) returned to television on Monday night with an episode titled, cannily, “My Struggle.” That title -- not coincidentally, I presume -- is also the translated-to-English title of Adolf Hitler’s 1925 literary autobiography, Mein Kampf.  That historical fact may prove the key to understanding better this new starting point for the series. When we consider Hitler and his particular “struggle,” we think immediately of genocide, totalitarianism, and fascism.  We thin ... [Continua a leggere]

I’ve written about this idea before in specific relation to an earlier season two entry, “The Host,” but The X-Files strikes me as one of the most potent horror series in television history because it often deals at point-blank range with the underneath “sausage-making” of our industrial, technological, late-20th century culture. In terms of “The Host,” the entire episode spawned an uncomfortable awareness of what happens when you flush the toilet. Where does the waste go? What happens to it? How is it treated? How is it disposed? And finally, what ... [Continua a leggere]

If I were compiling my top ten list of X-Files episodes, the second season installment “F. Emasculata” would definitely make the cut. Not coincidentally, it would also take the number one slot for “most disgusting episode” of the long-lived sci-fi/horror series. In this episode, Mulder and Scully battle a deadly, incredibly contagious disease, and most not only stop its transmission, but make some tough choices about how much information the public has a right to know in times of an emergency. What makes this episode by Chris Carter and Howard Gordon such a visceral, ... [Continua a leggere]

An action-rich and suspenseful mythology story, the second season double-header of “Colony”/”End Game” suggests the inherent and indisputable movie potential of the X-Files franchise. Even today, twenty years later, one can screen these two episodes back-to-back and get caught up in the visual and emotional arcs of the Chris Carter/Frank Spotnitz tale Interestingly, I often encounter folks who claim not to like the The X-Files Mytharc stories, and complain that such tales are too complicated, or just too difficult to follow. That argument isn’t exactly air tight ... [Continua a leggere]

This second season episode of The X-Files (1993 – 2002) is one of the sharpest, most stunning social critiques in the entire catalog. In “Die Hand die Verletzt,” Mulder and Scully deal -- in storied New England -- with the Satanist equivalent of “Cafeteria Catholics,” religious practitioners who pick and choose which edicts and dogma they want to believe in, and ignore the rest. But when you’re dealing with the Devil himself, it’s dangerous to break faith, as the episode suggests in no uncertain terms. “Die Hand die Verletzt’s” bri ... [Continua a leggere]

Chris Carter presents one of the darkest and most disturbing The X-Files episodes of the entire series catalog with his terrifying and relentless second season entry, “Irresistible.” Leaving behind the expected “fantasy” elements of the series such as aliens and monsters-of-the-week, the series creator, aided by director David Nutter, instead provides here a glimpse of the ultimate and most fearsome mystery: human evil. As a creative and intellectual series, The X-Files is a very Gothic enterprise. By and large, it concerns a voice of rationality and a voice of romanc ... [Continua a leggere]

“One Breath” vividly diagrams the boundaries separating life from death, as well as Dana Scully’s “near death experience” at the shore-line between those states of existence. Gratifyingly, the episode provides resonant visuals to embody this strange “border land.” Indeed, many of the episode’s images -- from the opening scene involving Scully’s childhood, to her journey to a long, white tunnel of memory -- prove unforgettable. This episode from early in The X-Files’ second season also continues to chart Mulder’s emotional and ... [Continua a leggere]

The X-Files first great two-part episode, “Duane Barry”/”Ascension” plays a lot like a 1990s action thriller, with a tense opening act involving a hostage negotiation, and a final act that gets down to business with picturesque locations, and impressive physical stunts. That description, however, only begins to scratch the surface of this two-part epic, a legitimate X-Files classic. This is also the story-line, for instance, that forwards significantly the series’ ongoing subplot about alien abduction (first introduced in the pilot), and ends on a cliffhanger in ... [Continua a leggere]

When I reviewed “The Erlenmeyer Flask” a few weeks ago, I discussed the notion of the alien corpse or “wellspring” as a kind of Pandora’s Box. Use of the alien corpse’s DNA in scientific experimentation would mean -- in the universe of The X-Files --a brave new world, one with infinite variations, and infinite capacity for good and evil applications. Chris Carter’s episode “The Host” also involves, at least implicitly, a Pandora’s Box of another brand. In “The Host,” Mulder and Scully investigate a strange mutant spawned ... [Continua a leggere]

The X-Files goes big and deep with its second season premiere, “Little Green Men,” which aired on Fox television September 16, 1994. The story, by James Wong and Glen Morgan, concerns an existential crisis for Mulder. Without the X-Files as an overriding purpose, he has difficulty holding on to and maintaining his belief system. Mulder’s crisis of faith is played out in “Little Green Men” on a much bigger scale than many season one episodes of The X-Files, suggesting a budgetary boost, perhaps. Whereas many X-Files episodes of the first season were contained in ... [Continua a leggere]

The X-Files’ first season finale, “The Erlenmeyer Flask” is both a logical development of the series pilot, which established extra-terrestrial incursions on Earth, and a vanguard for the overall Myth-Arc, which describes over several seasons an attempt by humans to create human-alien hybrids before alien colonization of Earth commences in 2012. Written by Chris Carter and directed by R.W. Goodwin, “The Erlenmeyer Flask” -- like many of the greatest episodes of The X-Files – also takes as its inspiration a real-life story or mystery, and then turns that mys ... [Continua a leggere]

In a segment similar in structure to “Ice,” The X-Files episode “Darkness Falls” finds Mulder and Scully in an isolated location (this time an impenetrable forest a full day’s hike from civilization…) battling a microscopic life-form from prehistory with the capacity to destroy mankind if it spreads to the world at large. The factor that meaningfully differentiates “Darkness Falls” from “Ice,” however, is the episode’s context or background. In “Ice” the F.B.I. agents had to contend with an infectious parasite insi ... [Continua a leggere]

“Gender Bender,” which first aired on Fox TV on January 21 of 1994, remains one of the weirder and perhaps more controversial first season episodes of The X-Files. That controversy arises -- as it often does in life -- over one particular subject: sex. In particular, this installment directed by Rob Bowman muses upon the qualities that comprise human sexual attraction and arousal. In the final analysis, does it all simply come down to chemical attraction? Can our responses, in effect, be programmed by chemical changes? This is not merely a matter for intellectual debate, eithe ... [Continua a leggere]

The X-Files first episode, “Pilot” written by Chris Carter and directed by Robert Mandel, remains a strong introduction to this classic horror/sci-fi series. The inaugural installment not only presents an intriguing mystery and introduces audiences to engaging characters caught up in life-changing events, it also presents a first and ominous peek at the dark forces aligned against the protagonists, and against “the truth” itself. But even better, the X-Files “Pilot” is skillful in the manner by which it deploys (and co-opts) horror imagery or symbolism. I a ... [Continua a leggere]