(WARNING: This is being written by a fan that has slowly become disillusioned with what THE X-FILES has become today. Some nostalgia for the old days may creep in.)
What THE X-FILES used to be was a remarkably well-written show, with an intricate and mysterious plot and fascinating characters. While today, a bad X-FILES episode still beats a good episode of BAYWATCH, if all you've seen are episodes from recent seasons, you owe it to yourself to see earlier shows -- they beat the current seasons into the ground.
This tape pairs the second season finale -- a cliffhanger that shocked a friend of mine so much she actually began hyperventilating -- with HUMBUG, the show's first "comedic" episode, and the first foray by Darin Morgan. ANASAZI was an early breakthrough in the now well-known "mythology" of the show -- an early revelation in the unfolding mystery of exactly how much the government knew about aliens and whether they had ever attacked. The show has made many such revelations before -- but the challenge the writers have always faced is striking the balance between how much information to give away to move the show forward, and how much to keep secret to keep the audience wanting more. In ANASAZI they struck this balance dead on; we learn that the government was doing SOMETHING with boxcars buried in the desert, but we don't know quite what. ...The only problem with ANASAZI on this one tape, however, is that it's the first part of a three-part series; you need to purchase another tape altogether to get the end of this story.
However, on this particular tape you also get HUMBUG and an introduction to Darin Morgan, one of the finest television writers I have ever seen. This was a little standalone episode about a series of murders at a town populated by circus freaks; Morgan reportedly had to talk Chris Carter into letting the show take on a comedic tone. Fortunately Carter agreed; Morgan is an EXCEPTIONAL screenwriter, who always manages to write about odd characters without ever forgetting that at their core they are HUMAN. Another writer may have simply thrown Mulder and Scully into the midst of the episode's collection of dwarves, contortionists, and conjoined twins and let us laugh at the freaks. Morgan, however, takes a different approach; to him, Jim-Jim isn't just the Dog-faced Boy, he's just a guy who needs a shave particularly badly. In one fantastic moment from the show, he also pokes fun at the human fascination with the unusual; the agents have been staying in a couple trailers in this circus town maintained by a man with an underdeveloped twin brother attached to his side. The man comes to wake up Agent Scully one morning after another murder has been discovered; as they talk, he finds himself stealing looks at her cleavage. However, at the same time Scully is stealing looks at his "brother." After a moment of looking, each catches the other, and both draw their bathrobes closed more tightly.
Morgan went on to write three more of the best-known and beloved episodes, including CLYDE BRUCKMAN'S FINAL REPOSE, which guest-starred Peter Boyle and won an Emmy for best writing; while CLYDE BRUCKMAN is arguably Morgan's masterpiece, HUMBUG was the episode which introduced him to the world and convinced everyone that Mulder and Scully actually could be funny.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.