X-Files Flashback: ‘Arcadia’

Season 6, Episode 15
Director: Michael Watkins
Writer: Daniel Arkin

The X-Files entry “Arcadia” is widely considered a massive fan favorite. It’s not really the mystery at the core of the episode that drives that distinction. Instead, it’s exchanges like this that were genetically engineered for X-Files geeks to cream themselves over:

Mulder: “Isn’t that right, honey bunch?”

Scully: “That’s right, poopie head.”

“Arcadia” doesn’t boast an extremely compelling supernatural narrative, but what it does offer (in spades) is an amusing Stepford-like parody of planned communities and homeowners associations to which many (including myself) can completely relate. Plus, it’s just a whole lot of goofy Mulder/Scully fun.

The episode begins with Dave Kline coming home from work to the Falls of Arcadia, a cookie-cutter community full of broadly smiling people and super helpful neighbors. As Dave arrives home, he checks the mail, as one does, put finds the mailbox is covered in fresh paint. Turns out his neighbor has fixed it for him, much to Dave’s extreme annoyance. He has also received a mysterious package that contains a tacky “whirligig” that Dave readily attaches to the home in an act of rebellion. Later than night, Dave and his wife are visited by a massive creature that kills them both.

Seven months later, enter Rob and Laura Petrie. We know them better as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who are undercover to investigate the Kline’s disappearance. As they move in, nervous neighbors all assemble to help them beat the homeowner’s association mandate that all move-ins must be complete by 6pm. They finish the job with seconds to spare. Over the course of the next few days, Mulder and Scully inquire as to the whereabouts of the Klines and are met with blank expressions. They intentionally break HOA rules only to be quickly saved by friendly next-door neighbors. When another neighbor goes missing, Mulder and Scully determine that samples taken from a ceiling fan in their home and from a dog that entered the sewer system all contain random bits of garbage, indicating that the planned community was built on top of a massive trash dump.

Evidence eventually points to the HOA president Gene Gogolak as orchestrating the murders against those who violated the HOA rules. Mulder discovered that Gogolak, who owns an exotic furniture company called Pier 9, has discovered the ability to manifest and control a creature to exercise his bidding through many trips to the East. In the end, Mulder handcuffs Gogolak to his mailbox after Scully has an encounter with the creature. Terrified of breaking his own rules, Gogolak begs his neighbors to rescue him, but they turn their backs, allowing the creature to materialize from the ground and kill Gogolak. Once Gogolak dies, the creature disappears having no one to control it. Meanwhile, the Falls of Arcadia wins another award as one of the best planned communities in the country.

So, truth be told, I live in one of those planned communities much like the Falls of Arcadia. Granted, our HOA rules aren’t nearly as restrictive as Gogolak’s, but I have been one to experience the oddities associated with living in such a place. You never feel a part of the broader community despite the close proximity. There are always cliques and circles in which you are not included, and paranoia creeps in as you’re made to think people are judging/critiquing/purposefully excluding you for your differences. “Arcadia” feeds on that experience, and, as such, it brilliantly succeeds at that level. Mulder and Scully’s distaste for the atmosphere leads to several amusing and spot-on social criticisms. Add to that the amusing back-and-forth exchanges between a “married” Mulder and Scully, and you’re left with an episode that succeeds more on its social and character interactions than through the supernatural elements.

Credit Duchovny and Anderson for relying on their six seasons of character building to sell the “old married couple” interplay. Duchovny, in particular, sings with his witty/sarcastic asides to Anderson as they chatter back and forth behind closed doors, gently tip-toeing around the suppression of their unexpressed feelings. “Arcadia” isn’t the best X-File they’ve ever handled, but it does have the jaunty sense of humor that many of Chris Carter’s more experimental episodes feature. And that biting sense of humor is one of the things I love best about The X-Files.

R.I.P. Wicked City: Goodbye, Bonnie and Clod

Wicked City, ABC’s murder mystery anthology show set in 1980s LA, has died at the age of three episodes. It was allegedly killed at the hand of its parent ABC. It is survived by no other anthology seasons, which brings to light the question: Is an anthology show still an anthology show when it only has one season (or even three episodes)?

Wicked City was about a pair of serial killers (Ed Westwick and Erika Christensen) terrorizing the L.A. area to a killer soundtrack from the ‘80s. It also starred Jeremy Sisto, who recycled his Law & Order role as a no-nonsense cop; Taissa Farmiga, who apparently pissed off Ryan Murphy to end up on this show and not another AHS; and Gabriel Luna, who hasn’t been having a good 2015 since he also had roles in the movie Freeheld and the latest True Detective.

Despite being one of the highest-tested pilots among Millennials in 2015, the show was mostly met with negative reviews and failed to nab an audience. And for all its adult content (lots of blood splattering and perhaps the most presumed blow jobs a big-three network has ever shown), it aired on the same night as The Muppets, Fresh Off the Boat, and Agents of Shield. The cops also discovered who the killer was in the first episode (so much for suspense).

A total of eight episodes have been produced, but none of the five remaining episodes will see the light of day, just like we’ll never see what future murder mystery seasons might unfold.

X-Files Flashback: ‘Monday’

Season 16, Episode 14
Director: Kim Manners
Writer: Vince Gilligan, John Shiban

[quote_regular name=”” icon_quote=”no”]”PHIL??? Phil Conners???”[/quote_regular]

That greeting plagues Bill Murray potentially hundreds of times in the 1993 comic gem Groundhog Day, an amusing take on a man who keeps relieving the same day until he gets it right. The X-Files takes a similar approach with “Monday,” but the side effects of living a single day over and over again are far less amusing for the characters involved. I mean, it’s The X-Files right? It has to be somewhat traumatic. As an exercise, “Monday” is creatively rendered and consistently entertaining. It’s definitely one of the better non-mythology episodes of the series, but it ends feeling like nothing more than a well-executed stunt when the best X-Files episodes all manage to give us meaningful insights into Mulder and Scully.

The episode begins with Scully and Mulder crumpled on the floor of a bank during a heist – Scully attempting to stop the flow of blood on Mulder’s gunshot wound. The gunman stands above them, strapped with dozens of explosives. Outside, AD Skinner arrives on site, and a woman pleads with him to stop the amassing police unit from going inside. He ignores her warnings, and, later, the bank explodes, killing all inside. Cut to Mulder waking up in a pool of water, the waterbed purchased by “Mulder” in the “Dreamland” story arc now leaking onto the nightstand and the floor below. Mulder’s landlord calls as the water is seeping through to the floor below. Mulder has a few comic mishaps before leaving for the office in a race to cash his paycheck before the damage check bounces. Once in the bank, he is subject to the hold-up, and the day repeats itself.

We are treated to at least 6 or 7 variations on the event and more than one discussion about fate versus free will (something also recently featured in “Tithonus“). We see how tiny changes in the day ultimately create variations in the outcome, although the final outcome remains the same – the bank always explodes. The gunman’s girlfriend, Pam (the late Carrie Hamilton, daughter of Carol Burnett), is the only person who repeats the day with her memory in tact. She tries to intervene and stop her boyfriend each time and eventually convinces Mulder of the truth. In the end, Mulder attempts to stop the gunman by asking Scully to bring Pam into the bank. Unhinged, the gunman points his gun at Mulder and shoots, but Pam leaps in front of the bullet, changing the course of the day with her death. Mulder wakes up the next morning – a Tuesday – on his sofa. Time has moved on.

There are a lot of clever asides in “Monday” thanks to the combination of writers Vince Gilligan and John Shiban, and director Kim Manners manages to find interesting ways to convey the same day without making it feel suffocatingly monotonous. I was also impressed by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson’s ability to re-enact the same day over and over without huge shifts in their performances. They’re consistent, yes, but there are slight differences that allude to the gradual shifts in the day. The star of the episode is Carrie Hamilton who, by episode’s end, manages to look increasingly haunted and damaged, as one would I suppose if they had to relive the same day over and over. There’s one scene in which she reveals all (again) to Mulder, and her body seems to uncontrollably tremble. That effect isn’t easy to achieve – it’s as if she were strung out on drugs. But Hamilton conveys Pam’s weariness in an incredibly sympathetic manner so that, at the end, her death isn’t nearly the tragedy as it might have been. She kept telling Mulder he was the lynchpin of the repeating day not realizing she was the reason the day repeated all along. She was always supposed to die.

But, after the clever tricks and good performances are gone, there isn’t much left in “Monday” on which to chew. It’s missing that extra level of analysis potential either in character growth or thematic content. Given that, even though “Monday” is far more serious than Groundhog Day, at the end of the day it’s nothing more than a clever bit of entertainment well executed but lacking real purpose. And, ironically, it’s probably not something I’m going to revisit again in the future.

X-Files Flashback: ‘Agua Mala’

Season 6, Episode 13
Director: Rob Bowman
Writer: David Amann

After an excellent sequence of mythology-based episodes, The X-Files returns with a “monster of the week” episode that sees the return of former FBI Agent Arthur Dales, last seen in “Travelers.” Here, in the aptly titled “Agua Mala,” he calls Mulder, who naturally brings Scully, to his home in Florida to investigate the disappearance of a neighbor during a massive hurricane. Literally full of rain and other varieties of water, “Agua Mala” has a few very good scares early in the proceedings but falters in the back half when it introduces a set of characters that can only be described as massive Hispanic stereotypes.

The tense prologue introduces the mysterious tentacled creature that apparently kills and mother and son during the onset of a hurricane. Later, Dales (Psycho‘s Darren McGavin) calls Mulder to investigate, suspecting an X-File. When Mulder and Scully investigate the neighbor’s house, they find Deputy Greer who mistakes them for looters. With Mulder and Scully attempting to leave the area but unable to do so due to the storm, Greer visits a nearby condo building where he sees a man sitting on the toilet, covered in a slimy substance. He is attacked by the creature and is later found by Mulder and Scully with red welts around his throat. Attempting to evacuate the building, Mulder finds a looter, a militaristic fanatic, and a pregnant Hispanic couple.

Trapped in the building, this motley crew begins to grow terrified after a few encounters with the creature, particularly when the body of the injured deputy disappears. When the Hispanic woman goes into labor, Scully must deliver the baby although Mulder has been attacked by the creature in the hallway. Somehow, both agents determine that the creature relies on fresh water to live, so Mulder is saved when he leaves the building and stands in the rain. The baby delivered and, the next morning, the hurricane over, Mulder and Scully pay a final visit to Arthur Dales who tells them how impressed he is and how valuable it is to have a partner as excellent as Scully. They refuse to drink the water, however.

“Agua Mala” isn’t as bad as its title would have you think, but it isn’t much better. The water effects are plentiful and well choreographed. Every scene feels completely drenched in humidity and running water – it surrounds them, generating an decent sense of tension given the creature travels by water. There are even a few good jump scares that don’t feel particularly cheap in their construction. Still, the creature isn’t incredibly interesting or well thought out. It’s a parasite, effectively, but it lacks (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) the personality of early baddie the Fluke Man. There, the creature seemed to have a purpose, an intent, that made the audience understand its motivations. Here, the creature is drawn similarly to the face hugger from Aliens, effective but after a while not particularly scary.

And then there are the pregnant Hispanic couple who are drawn so insultingly broad as to nearly wreck the episode. They’re not married. He’s good for nothing and has no job. She’s knocked up. He doesn’t have a car. She speaks in an exaggerated, dramatic accent. He sounds like Speedy Gonzales. Their trials and tribulations are completely stereotypical, take up too much time, and are incredibly noisy – so much so that they’re hard to drown out. It was a bad choice leading us here, and they (in addition to the other inhabitants of the building) offer nothing to the overall plot or character structure.

“Agua Mala” is exceedingly average in its construction. It’s not a terrible hour of television, but the writers are capable of doing so much more after the brilliant one-two punch of “Two Fathers” and “One Son.” Speaking of “Agua Mala,” excuse me while I run to the restroom. All that water, you know…

X-Files Flashback: ‘One Son’

Season 6, Episode 12
Director: Rob Bowman
Writer: Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz

“One Son” feels like an ending to The X-Files vast and six season-spanning mythology. Reportedly in agreement with fan grumbling about the ultimate futility of the film, Chris Carter intended to deliver on some of the promises made by the film’s advertising. Additionally, he believed the show would end in Spring 2000, so he wanted to start working toward that event (little did he know it would last another three seasons). So, given that, the combination of “Two Fathers” and “One Son” feels like the best way to resolve the overall series mythology, which it does in an effective and captivating fashion.

However, a question remains: what the hell are they doing for three more seasons?

“One Son” begins where it left off with Mulder, Scully, and Cassandra in his apartment, Cassandra begging him to kill her to prevent the pending alien invasion. Cassandra is the alien-human hybrid whose successful creation would eventually foretell colonization and complete eradication at the hands of the mysterious aliens. Agent Diana Fowley and team interrupt the proceedings, taking Cassandra and putting Mulder and Scully in a quarantine on the pretense of an infectious alien virus. There are many small moments within the episode, but the rest deals primarily with the relationship between Fox Mulder, the Smoking Man, and his son, the FBI Agent Jeffrey Spender. Mulder learns the origins of the Syndicate and of the events surrounding Cassandra’s first abduction, timed with the abduction of Samantha Mulder. These subjects were to be experimented upon to create humans that would survive colonization.

In the end, everyone convenes at a hanger in West Virginia where the new batch of Syndicate family members await the arrival of the colonizing aliens. When the hanger doors open, however, the faceless rebels appear and kill the entire Syndicate and its family. The Smoking Man and Diana Fowley manage to escape. The episode closes with a dramatic sequence where, grieving from the death of his mother, Jeffrey Spender resigns his post within the X-Files and recommends reinstatement of Mulder and Scully. As he goes to clean out his office, his father greets him and, after dressing him down for not being more like Mulder, shoots him in the head.

I suppose one could complain about “Two Fathers” and “One Son” because they’re extremely plot-driven. That’s fine with me as I have long grown weary of Carter’s penchant for pontification and “speechifying” during mythology episodes. Here, the plot flies with wings, revealing secrets and motivations as seemingly fast as Carter could write them. However, that doesn’t leave much room for the smaller, more intimate character moments that the series often features. That’s not a complaint of mine, mind you, but it is a criticism I can understand. Still, the best moments in the episode, for me, are of the more human-centered variety as Carter was able to sneak a few in here and there. Cassandra’s final moment, accepting her pending death, was a beautiful acknowledgement of inner peace and an expression of her ability to save the human race by preventing colonization.

But the big moment came at the end when the Smoking Man once more told his son that he has been a bitter disappointment. That he will never be half the man that Fox Mulder is. Jeffrey seems to be able to live with that – I’m not sure he really cares about his father anyway – but I doubt he was prepared to be shot in the head. I’d known Jeffrey did not last through to the end of the series, but I was unprepared for this turn of events. We’d always known the Smoking Man was a cold, calculating killer but killing his own son takes the character into a new class of evil. I’m fascinated by his undying admiration and respect for Mulder and of this new level of depravity within the character. I cannot imagine what to expect next from him as the rules seem to have been tossed out the window.

In the end, this landmark 2-part series may be dinged a few points for its extreme focus on answers, answers, answers. But isn’t that what people really wanted? I do feel that the series should have used this as a jumping off point into a graceful series end, rather than limping toward the finish line as it was reported to have done. That’s one of the biggest problems of American television: popular series never know when to say when. I almost wish I could close my eyes and pretend this is The End.

X-Files Flashback: ‘Two Fathers’

Season 6, Episode 11
Director: Kim Manners
Writer: Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz

If you’re into The X-Files series mythology, then “Two Fathers” is canon for you. After a series of episodes largely unconnected to the overall mythology, writers Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz return with gun a-blazin’, offering explanations, backstory, and “answers” galore. I use “answers” sparingly because how certain can anyone ever really be that The X-Files is really giving it to you 100 percent? Still, “Two Fathers” is, ironically for me, one of the better episodes of the series because it gives us a handful of classic scenes and uses series MVP’s to anchor the wackier story elements.

The episode opens with an operation, surgeons make incisions on a stomach as green blood oozes from the cuts which heal themselves. The experiment has proven successful – the specimen on the table is the first successful human-alien hybrid. Shortly after the brief surgery, the alien rebels (the ones with the sewed up eyes, nose, and mouth) burn the doctors where they stand, leaving the patient – the previously missing Cassandra Spender (Veronica Cartwright) – on the table. The rest of the episode is told by the Smoking Man in flashback, recounting the major events to an unseen party. After finding Cassandra, AD Skinner brings her son, Jeffrey (Chris Owens), to the scene and urges him to respect her wishes to speak with Mulder. Cassandra eventually meets with Mulder and reveals details around the intended alien invasion (many of these are also revealed by the Smoking Man earlier): an alien race is attempting to take over the universe and is infecting humans with the Black Oil or “Essence.” There is another race of rebels who are trying to stop the invading aliens and have mutilated their faces to protect them from the Black Oil.

The Syndicate meets, and the Smoking Man continues to pull the strings. Mulder and Scully eventually discover that he is Jeffrey Spender’s father, who approaches his father and demands to know the truth. The Smoking Man entrusts him with killing a rebel (using the infamous ice pick) who has already killed one of the Syndicate elders and impersonated him. Spender botches the job, but Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) is able to finish it. Krycek tells Jeffrey that his father is orchestrating Cassandra’s abductions and is the puppet master behind everything. In the end, it is revealed that the Smoking Man, having immediately lost faith in his son, has recruited Diana Fowley (Mimi Rogers) and is telling her everything. In the final sequence, Cassandra, having escaped her hospital room, shows up at Mulder’s apartment, begging him to kill her to end the work of the Syndicate as there are loud bangs on his apartment door. Mulder pulls a gun much to Scully’s horror. To be continued…

I was completely on board with this episode. The mythology may never go anywhere, but “Two Fathers” finally gave us enough detail to chew on and seems to be setting up events that could potentially pay off in big ways. No way to know that now, of course, and Carter has certainly botched promising leads before. Still, the episode gives us some excellent Mulder/Scully comedy (I had to watch Mulder’s basketball game twice) in addition to a classic scene in which the Smoking Man smacks Jeffrey twice, telling him he pales in comparison to Fox Mulder in the process. The performances, including the completely inspired lunacy of Veronica Cartwright (Emmy nominated here), are all excellent and committed to the material. Even the cinematography feels especially lush and vivid. I have no idea what possessed the creative team when they embarked upon the “Two Fathers” journey, but this one completely knocked me on my feet in a most unexpected way.

That’s the absolute best thing to happen when you’ve been watching The X-Files for over 125 days straight.

To be continued…

Trailer: ‘American Crime’ Season Two

Sometimes, we here at Awards Daily TV miss the mark.

Yes, I know. It’s a shocking confession. Breathe. Everything will be alright.

We admittedly missed the boat on the early 2015 critically acclaimed ABC drama American Crime (not to be confused with the upcoming American Crime Story from Ryan Murphy) which raked in a surprising 10 Emmy nominations and an Emmy win for supporting actress Regina King. Should have seen that one coming. You live, you learn.

American Crime returns on January 6 with a season that looks even more compelling than its freshman season. Still hitting those “ripped from the headlines” hot-button topics, Crime Season Two is set in a Midwest high school where class and sexuality mix in a social media-induced firestorm. Scripted by Oscar-winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave), Crime features most of the main cast from Season One including Felicity Huffman, Timothy Hutton, Lily Tomlin, Elvis Nolasco and Emmy winner King.

One thing is for sure: our eyes will be glued to this one.

News Roundup: ‘MST3K’ Reboots, ‘Walking Dead’ Casts Major Villain

It seemed like the Internet was bursting with news greatness today. Here’s a quick round-up of the highest profile announcements, developments, scheduling, and ratings.

  • Reveal: Jeffrey Dean Morgan (WatchmenGrey’s Anatomy) has signed on to join AMC’s The Walking Dead as villain Negan, a major figure from Robert Kirkman’s comic book series. Morgan will reportedly debut in the Season Six finale, directed by Greg Nicotero. Fans of the comic series are well acquainted with Negan’s association with a current major cast member who may or may not be dead. Assuming the character has survived her/his current predicament, things will likely not go well for future interactions with Negan. Lips. Sealed.
  • Ratings: CBS’s Supergirl premiered to a hefty 13 millions live viewers on its October 26 birth. Since then, the ratings have continued to drop, reduced to half of its series premiere audience in its third week. Adding insult to injury, the critically maligned Scorpion actually built on its Supergirl lead-in. All may not be lost for the Girl of Steel as the delayed viewing ratings won’t be available until later in November.
  • Revival: Even though it felt as if it never left, Mystery Science Theater 3000, through media company Shout Factory, is attempting a reboot. Series creator Joel Hodgson has started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the comeback. The initial goal is to raise $2 million for three feature-length episodes with an ultimate eye toward $5.5 million for a full-season order of 12 episodes. MST3K has always been a grassroots kind of show, premiering on a local cable station in Minnesota before moving to Comedy Central for six seasons and then on to Syfy for an additional three seasons. It was cancelled in 1999.
  • Renewal: Hardly a surprise to anyone, Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story has been cleared for a sixth season in 2016 by FX. The series remains the highest-rated offering in FX’s history. No word on its new theme – not a shock as Murphy is notoriously tight-lipped – but Lady Gaga has already been approached to return to the series assuming her tour schedule can accommodate filming. Perennially nominated for boatloads of Emmys, AHS‘s current season is running ahead of all previous seasons in the ratings. While its premiere fell second to Freak Show‘s record ratings, Hotel has managed to maintain its ratings far better than its predecessor, running 7 percent ahead in viewers 18-49.
  • Returns: The Fox Network has announced its schedule for the upcoming Winter season. The notable offerings include the final season premiere of American Idol on Wednesday, January 6; The X-Files return on Sunday, January 24, before settling into its Monday night run; the premiere of Grease: Live on Sunday, January 31; and a new night for sci-fi stalwart Sleepy Hollow on Fridays beginning February 5. Deadline offers an in-depth look at the 2016 Winter/Spring Fox schedule.

Game of Thrones: ***Spoilers*** Are Coming

After rumors that Season Six would see a later premiere date, Game of Thrones rocketed back into the national obsession this week when Elie Haddad – cast this season as a Dothraki warrior – shared a complete shot of a Season Six script. As reported in Vanity Fair among other outlets, the actor likely though the script would be too blurry to read. Ha.

Out of respect for those who wish to remain unblemished (I count myself among these people), I’m not going to repeat the bits and pieces that Internet obsessives have managed to decipher from the image (shown below). However, if you’d like the detail plus a series of photos taken on set and just a whole heaping amount of Daenerys goodness, then head on over to Vanity Fair.

Consider yourself warned…

Game of Thrones is likely to start airing on HBO in early May. The delay is attributed to the airing of Martin Scorsese’s Vinyl in late February during the Game of Thrones time slot.