X-Files Flashback: ‘Unusual Suspects’

Season 5, Episode 3
Director: Kim Manners
Writer: Vince Gilligan

Well, they can’t all be winners.

“Unusual Suspects” is Vince Gilligan’s first out-and-out dud of an X-Files screenplay. I don’t think it’s his fault, really. Given David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson’s absence during the filming of the X-Files movie, the producers needed something that wouldn’t hinge on their participation. Therefore, Gilligan was assigned the task of coming up with an episode that would focus on the Lone Gunmen. Chris Carter rejected his first idea and provided the framework that would become “Unusual Suspects,” and your affection for the episode is entirely dependent on your affection for the Lone Gunmen. I have a passing appreciation for the trio, so, naturally, I didn’t really find the dedicated episode really worth the effort.

As the series likes to do, the episode begins toward the end of the action as police burst into a warehouse to find a naked and disoriented Mulder under a box. Three men, the Lone Gunmen, try to escape but are arrested. The structure of the episode is based on Gunman John Fitzgerald Byers’s (Bruce Harwood) interrogation through which the plot is unveiled. At an electronics convention, the individual members of the Gunmen – at this point not yet united – are entranced by a mysterious woman, “Holly” (Signy Coleman), who hits each of them with a sob story about her abusive ex-boyfriend who has allegedly kidnapped her daughter. She cons Byers into hacking a Department of Defense login where she is able to obtain encrypted information about her daughter, Susanne Modeski. When her “abusive ex-boyfriend” (Fox Mulder) appears, she is able to convince the three men to decode the material.

At another location, it is revealed that “Holly” is actually Susanne Modeski who is wanted by the FBI for murder. Susanne claims that the government has manufactured an airborne toxin that causes mass hallucinations and is planning to test this toxin in the Baltimore area. She claims the government killed her lab associates and framed her. She also discovers that she is being tracked by the government through an implant provided by her dentist, and she promptly pulls out her tooth. Having fully decoded the information, Susanne and the three men converge on a warehouse where they discover a box containing asthma inhalers supposedly full of the gas. When Mulder and two mysterious men arrive to arrest them, a shootout ensues, and Mulder is exposed to the gas, causing him to convulse into hallucinations. Susanne shoots the other two men and escapes, leaving the pre-Gunmen behind. Next, “X” arrives with a crew to clean the scene.

At the end of the story, the police do not believe Byers’s story, but they are eventually freed with Mulder comes to his senses and corroborates their story as much as he can. Freed, they manage to track down Susanne who is attempting to sell her story to the press – with no buyers. As they watch her walk away, two government cars pull up, and she is abducted. As her car passes by, “X” stares out the window at the Gunmen. Later, they meet with Mulder and give him an advanced crash course in government conspiracies thanks to their experience and knowledge gained from Susanne.

The episode has been described as an “ode to paranoia,” and I suppose that’s true. However, it doesn’t actually make for a compelling and engrossing storyline. The problem with the episode, in my opinion, exists within its focus on the Lone Gunmen who are perfectly fine characters in very, very small doses. To paraphrase a stronger mind than mine, these characters are the cilantro of The X-Files, and cilantro is a seasoning. It spices up a bigger, heartier meal. No one wants a meal that’s all cilantro. The “Unusual Suspects” episode is exactly such a meal. The characters aren’t compelling enough or well drawn enough to make their own story worth following, a fact echoed by the failure of their X-Files spin-off series The Lone Gunmen. Finally, I’m not convinced that Fox Mulder’s origin story around his obsession with government conspiracies makes any sense when considering the inspiration came from the Lone Gunmen. What happened to “Spooky Mulder?” It’s a cutesy way to close the story, but it’s unconvincing and feels out of character for Mulder.

But, Vince Gilligan has contributed so many brilliant hours to the series that I’m willing to forgive him for this outing. It’s clear that his heart wasn’t in the writing of “Unusual Suspects,” so it doesn’t bear any of his trademark dialogue, plotting or adventurous treatment of the supernatural. So, I’m willing to forgive him for the lack of passion and clear storytelling.

Basically, I’m willing to forgive him for overindulging in cilantro.

Review: Revisiting Amazon’s ‘Bosch’

I’m going to openly predict that the creators of Bosch (the American detective series, not the German manufacturers of power tools) were fans of Michael Mann’s sweeping and architectural crime story-telling. The detective’s first night frolicking with a police officer is right out of Heat as McCauley begins to be tamed by Eady. Even the framing of the night lit city through huge open glass windows and soft ambient music. There’s also a whiff of Lt. Hanna in the character of Bosch – not to mention Mann’s earlier Manhunter, Will Graham took comfort in pondering alone as his unique detective brain clicks into gear. And let’s not forget the beat-driven title sequence that almost screams Miami Vice. Not a bad first impression at all.

There is a distinct noir feel here too. Night time blackness and various building and vehicle lighting. Sitting in the dark, two detectives cracking short sentences with croaky voices. They seem both deflated and driven by their place on the justice-seeking map. Especially Harry Bosch, our protagonist played by Titus Welliver. We soon discover he was a military man, now tightly entangled in detective work while keeping his personal life at arm’s length. Who wants a young, well-rounded, hot-shot rookie anyway?

There’s a moment following the opening, plot-thrusting shooting, where a look from Bosch – a realization in the rain – shows the immediate toll of taking a life. Even in the moment, and though we’ve seen criminals shot a thousand times on TV and film, we acknowledge this is a huge deal. He has been in trouble before: “How many people have you killed?” he is later asked in court as flippantly as inquiring about what he had for breakfast. It’s a refreshingly satisfying angle for the homicide detective to be the focus of a killing, and an investigation against Bosch ensues.

Rather than settle for the shitty end of the stick, which is to prepare for his court case, Bosch assigns himself like glue to investigate the site of a human bone. He has his haters in the force. He’s a loner, not quite renegade, refusing to crawl up anyone’s ass – but an intriguing presence. The Hollywood Division of the LAPD here seem to be a little unorthodox and cock-sure, so Bosch should fit right in. He has his supporters in some quarters too, including his lieutenant who still rides him a little, and those that have worked with him and know his dedication never stop him sniffing around.

What ultimately shines a torch on his human side is the chemistry that immediately prevails between him and the female officer. His inability to detach from the job though soon pushes her away somewhat. Family-wise too, as Bosch steers towards making up lost time with his own teenage daughter he just can’t pull himself away long enough from his police work to put in the family hours.

Bosch takes the lead with the buried body case. It soon links to a man, Waits, who is brought in and arrested – one male adult body and the DNA of several others found in his van. One scene is reminiscent of the movie Se7en, as the crook tries to antagonize the detective while driving to secret location. Touches like these are handily utilized here, and bring us closer to the familiar thriller genre we all love. It also turns out to be a cock-and-bull story, that goes extremely tits-up, a detective is wounded, and Waits makes his escape. I saw that coming a mile off – why didn’t the LAPD?

Bosch2

The show thankfully wastes little time dragging the action or over-embracing the main plots strands. Even after a couple of surprisingly premature confessions, the dead body case is pretty much nailed midway through, if not quite wrapped up. And with those unresolved elements of the case comes further fall-out, including a paradoxical decision by Bosch that favors the potential progress of the case and police ethics over the support of his new woman. In this business you get by without rules, whereas integrity and honesty only damage relations it seems. The drama juggles all social, criminal, personal activity nicely, not allowing a shred of tediousness.

There are some truly painful to watch moments too, prolonging the agony of justice getting it’s rightful place. But the bad guys, primarily here the deeply disturbed Waits, are prepared to make unbelievable sacrifices and perform despicable actions to clear the path for their freedom. This is a killer you love to hate, and long for his downfall.

Titus Welliver begs the question as to whether or not he has what it takes to be a leading man. He was terrific in support in Gone Baby Gone, but was lazily under-used in Sons of Anarchy. His hound-dog exterior here, accompanied by the odd disapproving gnarl or pondering smugness, suits a protagonist with such a calm, brooding demeanor. Welliver’s casting is not about star appeal or bringing in the ladies (though that is not for me to say), but rather showcasing the gritty charisma of a wise old owl and a wily bruised wolf in Bosch. It’s a solid, compelling performance throughout, his hard-edged personal perfect for a crime drama of this discourse and caliber.

Bosch is captivating in its bleak moments. There’s a frank discussion on the state of the world, yet the commanding tone somehow shows the characters craving for hope that there is a better place, a better world than this. Even Bosch at one point actually says he wants to have faith and make things right. The burden and weight of family guilt and dissatisfaction of unresolved crimes are on his shoulders – “It must be hard being you” he is told. But we are invested. His deceivingly lackluster, casual exterior suggests a lack of passion with Bosch, but that is definitely not the case. His actions are subtle, he is a thinker, he’s a clever, calculating detective . “Too old a cat to be fucked by a kitten,” he tells a crook.

It is inevitable that with the vast array of detective shows available on TV that they, no matter the quality of the show, can blend into one another. Sometimes a formula works fine. Some for decades. Sometimes we, and the harsh American ratings system, require something fresh, a different angle – if just to shake the hornet’s nest. Bosch provides us with a healthily paced detective tale, one that never runs out of juice. A little rough around the edges not being one of its flaws. By the final episode (there are just 10 to the season) quite a bit of air has been deflated from the balloon, but it never near bursts. Having energetically dragged us through the mud of horrible crimes and unflattering police work, it is reassuring to have many of the loose ends tied up so richly, while we take a well-earned breather.

X-Files Flashback: ‘Redux Part Two’

Season 5, Episode 2
Director: Kim Manners
Writer: Chris Carter

“Redux” concludes with an episode that serves many purposes and touches on almost all aspects of the overall mythology storyline. When judged as a complete whole (“Gethsemane,” “Redux Part One,” and “Redux Part Two”), the overall story arc is well realized, compelling, and ultimately does exactly what I have long asked mythology stories to do – drive the plot forward. Is this my favorite X-Files series? Not by a long shot. But as a mythology story, the combined three episodes are definitely high ranking indeed.

“Redux Part Two” continues with Mulder barging into the hospital after hearing that Scully had collapsed. He is intercepted by Agent Skinner who demands to know why Scully lied for him in the FBI hearing, and Mulder tells him that someone in the FBI specifically gave Scully her terminal disease. Meanwhile, the Smoking Man meets with colleagues and (in his best mustache-twisting way) decrees Mulder a better asset alive than dead. He then arranges a meeting with Mulder, revealing to him that the vial Mulder took from Scully’s box did indeed contain her cure – a microchip. Mulder confers with Scully and her resentful family (mainly her brother), but Scully agrees to move forward with the experimental treatment. Later, after receiving the treatment, Scully calls her mother and apologizes for abandoning her faith. The treatment has, thus far, not reduced the cancer.

Doubting that Mulder is fully on board, the Smoking Man arranges for a surprise meeting between Mulder and his long-lost sister Samantha. Emotional and fragile, Samantha breaks down with Mulder and, after a few minutes, claims she cannot continue the meeting or meet her mother because it’s too much to take. Later, the Smoking Man meets with Mulder and asks him to come work for him and quit the FBI while both men are being targeted by a sniper. Mulder is then called into the office Agent Blevins (the man conducting the hearing in which Scully lied to protect Mulder), and Blevins confronts Mulder with evidence tying Mulder to the death of the DOD employee. Blevins wants Mulder to name Agent Skinner as the traitor within the FBI, but Mulder later tells Scully that he will not follow through with it.

Under testimony, Mulder ultimately names Blevins himself as the traitor within the FBI. During this hearing, the Smoking Man is shot and presumed dead, and Blevins is also killed, his death staged to look like a suicide. When Mulder returns to the hospital, Skinner tells Mulder the Smoking Man is dead (although the body is missing) and confirms that Blevins was on the payroll for a biotech company called Roush. Mulder then reveals to Skinner that Scully’s cancer has gone into remission, the cause of which is never fully realized.

Overall, the three episode run has been an enjoyable experience. Here in “Redux Part Two,” the story is swift moving and thematically rich, particularly in Scully re-embracing of her religious past. It is either clever or cliched (depending on your vantage point) that Scully’s cancer is cured by either her faith or by the presumed alien technology chip – the answer to which we will never know because this is The X-Files. Just like it will probably be a while before we know if that woman really was the real Samantha or if it was another clone. They’re not really about answering questions here – it’s all about the asking and the exploration. Finally, the best sequence of the episode are the final ten minutes in which nearly everything happens all at once, events overlaid on one another in a Coppola-esqe Godfather montage. It’s an effective ending that brings excitement and emotion where it perhaps had not existed before.

And, for now, I’m eager to put the mythology behind me for a bit and explore more X-files. Asking for more coherent mythology storylines may be pushing it after this minor success.

Review: ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ or ‘Stalkers: A Love Story’

There’s always a bit of tragedy in musicals. After all, South Pacific, the musical Rebecca Bunch (Rachel Bloom) performs in the opening moments of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, is about an American nurse who struggles to accept the mixed-race children of the man she loves. We may all remember songs like “I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy” but forget the sadness behind it.

As enjoyable as the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend pilot “Josh Just Happens to Live Here!” is – especially with its mid-point “Get Ready” hip-hop montage that so perfectly pinpoints the feeling of getting dressed for a date (her face breaking into tears after smoothing her Spanx-ed stomach nails it) – at times, it’s hard to watch.

Rebecca has been a miserable human being for the past 10 years. The audience is never let in on what has gradually made her so miserable (maybe it’s just adulthood in general), but her jadedness stems from the breakup of her high school boyfriend, Josh Chan (Vincent Rodriguez III). When she runs into him in New York City and her heart feels like exploding glitter, she decides to blow off her new partner promotion at the law firm she works at and move all the way to West Covina, California, which is two hours from the beach (or four with traffic).

In addition to a somber tone, there’s also a twinge of darkness that I hope the show explores further. Our first glimpse of Rebecca in her new West Covina digs shows her dumping prescription pills upon pills down the sink with a smile on her face. While we learn little about our heroine in 45 minutes, other than, you know, moving to West Covina where Josh just happens to live, this moment is so telling and interesting that I hope we see more of it in the future. Showtime passed on this show, but I hope that doesn’t prevent the series from exploring controversial themes even with a CW gloss.

Review: Is ‘Fargo’ Season Two Any Count? You Betcha!

Let me start by saying that I enjoyed the hell out of the second season premiere of FX’s Fargo. This is the kind of television that you want to luxuriate in. This is the kind of television that you want to watch multiple times: first for the story and the characters and then once more for all the nuances and stylistic choices made by the creative team. I was completely dazzled by its confident direction, gorgeous cinematography, and intriguing performances. My only reservation with the premiere is that it dances a very thin line between being reverential to the original film and to the first season and being thematically repetitive of it.

After a bizarre prologue set during the early MGM days about a Native American actor waiting for Ronald Reagan to prepare himself for filming (I’m sure this will bear fruit later in the series), the main action is quickly established as taking place during the late 70s – the era of Jimmy Carter and lines at the gas station. We are introduced to the Gerhardt clan – father Otto (Michael Hogan), mother Floyd (Jean Smart), and brothers Dodd (Jeffrey Donovan), Bear (Angus Sampson), and Rye (Kieran Culkin). During a discussion about a light take in their illegal trucking activities, Otto suffers a stroke, leaving Floyd to grieve over her husband’s plight. Their son, Rye (Culkin), appears to be the source of the missing funds and struggles to make up the funds through a deal with an IBM Selectric outfit that is somehow blocked by a court ruling handed down by a local judge.

Thinking he can convince the judge to change her mind on the case and free up an avenue of funds, Rye tracks her down to a Waffle Hut, a local roadside diner, where he ends up shooting her, the waitress, and the cook. Failing to kill either the judge or the waitress on first attempt, Rye is stabbed in the back by the judge before shooting her multiple times, finally killing her. The waitress stumbles outside into the snow to escape Rye, and he quickly follows suit and kills her as well. When brilliant lights in the sky (what appears to be a UFO) distract him, he is struck by an oncoming car which then slowly drives off into the dark. Later, the driver of the car is revealed to be Peggy Blomquist (Kirsten Dunst) who drives all the way home with Rye’s body sticking out of her front windshield. When her butcher’s apprentice husband Ed (Jesse Plemons) comes home, he hears a banging in the garage that turns out to be the still-alive Rye. After a struggle, Ed kills him with a garden spade, and the two decide to hide the body out of fear and, let’s just say, ignorance. More on this later.

The entire Waffle Hut murder scene is investigated by State Trooper Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson, picking up the role played by Keith Carradine in the first season) and his father-in-law Sheriff Hank Larson (Ted Danson). Lou’s wife is apparently suffering from cancer, and there are even a handful of scenes where Lou reads to his little daughter Molly who figures so prominently in the first season. These sequences are less integrated with the crime story and deal more with the Solverson family dynamics.

That’s a great deal of material to cover within the hour-long pilot, but the creative team somehow manages to pull it all off flawlessly. Fargo Season Two is immediately confident in what it wants to say and how it wants to present its characters. There is time for local flavor (the usual “Okay, then” and other local phrases that people remember about the Fargo brand – who would have ever imagined we’d be saying “the Fargo brand?”), but it doesn’t feel unnecessary or overindulgent. Yes, perhaps, there are a few too many scenes of the quirky things those from Minnesota allegedly say, but that’s the hallmark of the series. I’m willing to cut them a little slack for it.

What I am concerned about with Fargo Season Two is how thematically similar it is to the original series run. Immediately, we’re dealing with dim-witted people looking to make quick bucks / escape from their suffocating surroundings, yet they make bad choices at every turn – namely, Rye’s decision to shoot the judge in the Waffle Hut, and the Blomquist couple’s decision to hide Rye’s body and cover up the hit and run. These are events that will undoubtedly unfold into greater and more dangerous choices down the road, and, as such, they’re a little predictable. I’m really anticipating that the second season will course-correct and give us a new spin on this same thematic territory we’ve already encountered twice now in the Fargo universe. Revisiting the same bad choices and moralistic outcomes won’t necessarily give us enough thematic content to carry us through another season.

Other than that, the Season Two premiere was really very strong, in my opinion. I am already heavily invested in the characters and in the overall story, despite its minor predictability, and I like the performances thus far with a minor turn by Parks and Recreation‘s Nick Offerman as the paranoid Karl Weathers as my very favorite (please somebody give this brilliant man something to do). Overall, thanks to the strong writing by Noah Hawley and excellent direction by Michael Uppendahl and Randall Einhorn, I’m locked and loaded for the entirety of the second season. Here’s hoping they continue to find new avenues and themes to explore with this story. Being a well-executed retread will only get them so far.

X-Files Flashback: ‘Redux Part One’

Season 5, Episode 1
Director: R.W. Goodwin
Writer: Chris Carter

As I’ve mentioned before, I have a very hard time reviewing episodes that aired separately but were effectively conceived as a complete episode. “Redux Part One” kicked off Season Five of The X-Files and was followed by “Redux Part Two.” The episode is largely dedicated to Mulder gaining entrance into the Department of Defense in order to find a cure for Scully’s terminal cancer. The avenues he uses to get there, however, are hard to believe and even more difficult to follow. Ultimately, this one feels like a bit of a mess, but I’m reserving full judgment until I see its second half.

We flash back in the beginning to Mulder sitting alone in his apartment. Now, this is “pre suicide” Mulder, so we will see exactly what happened to Mulder and whose body that actually was that Scully positively identified. Mulder receives a phone call from Kritschgau who tells him he cannot talk over the phone – “they” are watching. Mulder glances up at the ceiling and sees a small hole next to a light fixture. He rushes upstairs and discovers someone watching. Threatened, Mulder shoots the man and uses the body as a delaying tactic that will be corroborated by Scully. As Scully is called to testify in front of the FBI investigative committee (the events of which we saw in “Gethsemane“), she investigates calls made from the surveillance into the FBI and determines they have been made to Agent Skinner.

Mulder manages to use the dead agent’s credentials to (impossibly) sneak into the Department of Defense undetected. There, he manages to wind his way into the Pentagon where he discovers a room full of either real or fake alien bodies (it’s never really confirmed) and a room where humans are apparently being experimented on. Then, he finds the elaborate and extensive filing room The Smoking Man used at the end of “Pilot” to store evidence. He finds a box labeled with Scully’s name and removes a vial that he believes will contain the cure for her illness. When he asks the Lone Gunmen to investigate, they tell him the vial is nothing but deionized water. Meanwhile, Scully becomes agitated in the interrogation and passes out after bleeding profusely from the nose.

The ultimate problem with “Redux Part One” is that it bases all of its plot on convenience and unbelievable circumstances. In no way do I actually believe Mulder was able to gain access so easily into the Department of Defense using a missing agent’s credentials. There are protocols for this kind of thing, and that access would have been turned off. Also, the episode never clarifies whether or not the experiments and alien bodies are real or faked for Mulder’s benefit. If they’re faked, then how did they even know he would see them? Are they just depositing these things all over the globe, an impressive feat given how many times we’ve seen these alien carcasses over the course of the series.

One nice touch of the episode is the small moment when the Smoking Man breaks into Mulder’s apartment and sheds a tear over a photograph of Mulder and Samantha. Why is he crying? Is it for the dead Mulder? Is it for the long-lost Samantha? We aren’t specifically told, and, in this case, it’s okay with me. That is one of the aspects of the Mulder / Smoking Man backstory that I’m satisfied with having a little mystery around.

Apart from that, “Redux Part One” is a bridge episode, so it doesn’t really have a clearly defined beginning or end. And it’s not supposed to have one. It’s better served when watched as a part of the complete whole, so I’m hoping the events raised here will be satisfactorily resolved in “Redux Part Two.” Guess I’ll find out very soon.

Water Cooler Podcast: Episode 45 – Do You Like Scary Television?

In honor of the Halloween season, the Water Cooler Podcast gang ask the question, “Are horror television shows as scary as their cinematic cousins?” Trying to eschew the more obvious examples of The Walking Dead or Penny Dreadful, we discuss examples of the television horror genre including the Season Five premiere of horror aficionado Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story: Hotel. We also discuss what we find scary and what television shows feed that obsession. Some of us (ahem, Megan) are lightweights and brought up non-horror Halloween favorites like It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and Modern Family‘s annual Halloween episodes.

What television do you find scary? Post your favorite choices in the comments section!

Next week, we’ll continue the topic by focusing on perhaps one of the most famous television Halloween traditions in history: The Simpsons‘s “Treehouse of Horror.” So make sure you’re all caught up on your scary television as we prep ourselves for Halloween.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

In Lukewarm Memoriam: CBS Cancels ‘Extant’

Extant, CBS’s pricey space/alien drama, died on Friday, October 9, 2015. It was two seasons old. Even though the promise of Halle Berry running around confused for an entire 13 episodes seemed like a great idea (what’s better than seeing a beloved Oscar-winner getting some hysterical cardio?), the show never fully formed an identity. Well, it formed one, and then scrapped it after the first season. It is survived by every CSI incarnation that ever was.

The idea of Extant must have seemed really great on paper. It had Steven Spielberg’s stamp on it, and Berry, an actress in dire need of a good role, landed the lead as an astronaut who may or may not have brought something back with her from her mission from space. This future promised us more than hover boards from Back to the Future II. It had android kids. It had sleek production design. It had Camryn Manheim in an actual speaking role. Camryn Manheim, people!

Oh, the plot? Um…well, it was a bit trickier. Berry’s Molly Sims couldn’t have a baby, but she found herself unexpectedly pregnant when she returned from orbit (thanks a lot, NuvaRing!). The space program, led by Michael O’Neill, was trying to cover up the conspiracy and thwarted Molly at every turn. Someone needs to cut O’Neill a break, by the way. First he shot up Seattle Grace, and then he was tasked from keeping Berry from learning the truth. He did so much mustache twirling that you thought he was trying out for Snidely Whiplash biopic.

The first season of Extant ended with an alien baby running amok (I sure hope the working title was Not Without My Alien Baby!), and her android son being used in an anti-robot uprising. Really. When the second season started, all that mattered was her husband, played by Goran Visnjic, was nowhere to be found. What happened to him? I can’t remember. What I do remember is that Berry had more chemistry with that carton of ice cream at the end of Monster’s Ball than she did with Visnjic. What was worse: the title of this series or the notion of spending another torturous 44 minutes watching them act their way through a marriage? It’s a toss up.

So, who survives this Extant demise? Berry will no doubt find a project, and Pierce Gagnon (who played her son) will easily find something else to fill his schedule. When it comes to outer space dramas, we should look no further than our local movie theater. Never fear, everyone! CBS does have some quality shows coming back soon. You know, like Zoo.

There will be no viewings for Extant, because, you know, no one watched it in the first place.

Review: The Art of the ‘Dead’

The Walking Dead returns with an episode – “First Time Again” – that is much more creatively realized than most previous episodes have been. The structure throws viewers into the thick of the action first with Rick and a mixture of his original crew and Alexandria residents executing a plan to remove a collection of a few thousand zombies which are trapped in a quarry by four tractor trailers. These sequences are in the typical vibrant color the series offers, but we shift into stark black and white to fill the gap between the Season Five finale and the initiation of the plan.

By shifting back and forth, the creative team rather ingeniously reinforces the mundane planning and execution the survivors undergo to deal with the zombie horde while eliminating the mundanity of the situation. As a result, the season premiere is most likely one of the better ones the series has offered.

The trapped zombies have been effectively keeping the threat away from Alexandria for a while now, yet the trucks are starting to give way. If the horde breaks free, then it will most certainly overrun the Alexandria safe zone. Rick and team engineer a plan to draw them away from the living and down a highway about 20 miles away, even going so far as to construct a massive wall to help the walkers make a sharp right turn. As they execute the plane, we flash back in black and white to the aftermath of the Season Five deaths with most characters able to reinforce their current social and mental state. Most importantly, Rick’s emotional and near blood-thirsty attitude is gradually tempered by the quieter resolve of the recently arrived Morgan (Lennie James, joining the main cast for the first time in the series). Lest you think all of the tension exists within the color segments, the black and white backstory is filled with interpersonal dread and a lack of trust between the survivors, including Ethan Embry’s Carter who would rather kill Rick than follow through with his plan.

The Walking Dead needed something like the parallel time structures to chop up the action and give the audience the information and suspense it needs to stay integrated with the series without being bored by an overabundance of either side at any given time. Plus, it’s very nice to see the black and white cinematography used in the past sections. At times, I thought it felt flat and undercooked, but there were absolutely moments of sheer beauty that color cinematography probably would never have captured, particularly when multiple characters filled the screen giving the proceedings a near-3D sense of depth and perspective.

The acting in “First Time Again” is on par with the series. Ethan Embry has a few very strong moments as he genuinely fears for his safety given his inexperience with the zombie apocalypse. Rick warned them last season that they were too soft – that safety within the walls of Alexandria had made them incapable of dealing with the harsh new world. Embry’s Carter becomes the living embodiment of Rick’s philosophy, and, without spoiling anything, let’s just say that Rick was unfortunately right. I still think the series is underusing Melissa McBride’s Carol, but I’m holding out hope she has bigger and better things brewing in the future.

Overall, the sixth season premiere felt at once massive and intimate. The sheer scale of some scene felt almost Game of Thrones level, and some sequences felt appropriately suffocating and claustrophobic. Director Greg Nicotero has clearly learned how to steer this ship in the right direction, and his steady hand is felt all over this great episode. By the end, there is an unexpected flaw in Rick’s plan – something he perhaps should have expected – that seems to have redirected the zombie horde directly toward the Alexandria Safe Zone.

Chances are, next week’s episode is going to be a doozy. Can’t wait.

 

X-Files Flashback: ‘Gethsemane’

Season 4, Episode 24
Director: R.W. Goodwin
Writer: Chris Carter

“Gethsemane” was ranked in the late 90s as one of the best mythology episodes along with its two follow ups “Redux” and “Redux II.” And it’s hard to argue with that given the exciting plot mechanics, the expansive locales, and the (finally) forward momentum in the overall series mythology. While I’m still not sure how the bees are tying in with the aliens on Earth, it certainly gives the audience more to ponder than recent mythology non-starters. If only it hadn’t been horribly marred by an unrealistic cliffhanger that, while still suspenseful, completely falls apart under analysis.

“Gethsemane” begins with Scully being called to Mulder’s apartment to identify a dead body. The agent working the case pulls back a sheet, and Scully blanches, positively identifying the body. Later, appearing before a hearing at the FBI, she dramatically reveals that Fox Mulder shot himself. The events of the episode flash back to the events that lead up to Mulder’s supposed suicide. In Canada, a team of researchers have discovered what appears to be an alien frozen in ice. After taking samples from the location, a Professor Arlinsky (Matthew Walker) brings the samples to Mulder and Scully to prove his case. Scully volunteers to test the samples, refusing to travel to Canada because (unknown to Mulder) her cancer has started to spread through her body. As she begins her analysis, Scully is attacked by Michael Kritschgau (John Finn) a Defense Department employee who steals one of her samples and knocks her down a flight of stairs.

Mulder, meanwhile, journeys back to the snow-capped Canadian mountains to the camp site where the frozen alien resides. There, he and Arlinsky discover that the on-site crew have been murdered save one person, Babcock, who claims to have buried and hidden the alien to save it. The three men smuggle the alien back into the U.S. where Arlinsky and Mulder begin to perform an autopsy on it. Scully contacts Mulder after having captured Kritschgau and tells Mulder he needs to hear Kritschgau’s story. He tells Mulder that everything known about aliens from Samantha’s kidnapping to the recently discovered alien corpse is a lie designed to hide secret military operations. Also, Kritschgau claims that Scully’s illness was given to her to help Mulder believe the overall lie. When he returns to the alien autopsy, the body has been removed, and Arlinsky and Babcock (a double agent) are dead. Mulder returns home, deeply disturbed with the thought that he may have inadvertently caused Scully’s cancer, and cries while watching an old press conference about the exploration for alien life. The narrative then cuts back to Scully’s interrogation as she tells the assembled that Mulder shot himself, and she positively identified the body.

As I have mentioned before, I really don’t mind the mythology episodes when they have a point. “Gethsemane” is designed to blow the lid off the conspiracy and drive doubt into those (like Mulder) who have bought into it completely. Now, how realistic is this lie given what we have seen and been privy to? Very unlikely. Particularly when we’ve seen actual aliens on multiple occasions from even Scully’s perspective. But having the lie out there shakes things up a bit and at least makes for a fun intervention. The real star of the episode is the fantastic set design employed for the ice cave in which the alien’s body resides. I particularly loved the cinematography within the ice cave scenes where the amber hues of the lanterns lighting each tent from within gives the proceedings a true “other worldly” look and feel.

That said, having “Gethsemane” and season end with a thinly veiled Mulder suicide threat was a dumb idea. There was literally no way that Fox Mulder would ever kill himself over this revelation, which he clearly doesn’t believe. Maybe he feels guilt over Scully’s illness, but it’s not in his character to kill himself. Instead, he’s going to spend every waking moment trying to find a cure for Scully’s illness. But that’s how Chris Carter chose to end the season, and that’s how it ended. It’s a shame, too, because it definitely ended an otherwise very strong episode on a false and rather artificial note.