Clarence joins an episode of The X-Cast to discuss the great ‘Beyond the Sea’
One of the more pleasant side benefits of writing for AwardsDaily TV are the people you tend to meet along the way. In addition to my co-writers and fellow Water Cooler Podcasters, I’ve interacted with a few kind and thoughtful fans who share common interests. An added bonus? The internet actually contains decent people, not just trolls. Who knew? But anyway, on to “Beyond the Sea.”
Last summer, I entered into an intensive experiment, the “201 Days of The X-Files” marathon. One episode a day for 201 days leading up to the admittedly underwhelming series return last January. It was as close to a marathon of any type that I’ll ever get, but I finished it. The results are here. Please continue to be kind. Bingeing The X-Files one a day didn’t give me the opportunity to be as thoughtful and cautious about my thoughts on each episode. I’m proud of more than a few of them. Others… Well, not every episode warrants deep analysis.
Through it all, I managed to strike up a Twitter friendship with Tony Black, an intelligent chap from the United Kingdom who hosts a weekly podcast called The X-Cast. If you’re an X-Files fan, then you should look into Tony’s work. His podcasts are thoughtful in their deep dives into the episodes. He spends time on each episode’s scene, pulling even the smallest nuance from the material. It’s also a great listen as he tends to torture his guests with quizzes drawn from the episode’s content. Let me tell you, it’s harder than it sounds. I speak from personal experience.
That said, Tony invited me to join him for an analysis of season one’s “Beyond the Sea,” Gillian Anderson’s first great series episode and a fond throwback to the Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs. Tony and I had a nice chat about the performances of Anderson and Oscar-nominee Brad Dourif, the evolving relationship between Mulder and Scully, and the impact of Scully’s father’s passing on the episode and the series on the whole. And, yes, I did poorly on the quiz, so you can go ahead and laugh at that.
Thanks to Tony Black for having me on the show. I hope to return very soon.
Check out The X-Cast (iTunes, Streaming) and the episode dedicated to “Beyond the Sea” (iTunes, Streaming).
