Archived from the Eat The Corn Facebook page.
Nov 23, 2017 22:37
#46DaysOfMythX D-42: 2X01: Little Green Men
EatTheCorn is 12 years old! Almost to the day of the anniversary of watching this, my first #TheXFiles episode! Morgan & Wong return to the same paranoid mood from “E.B.E.”, in an episode the deepens the character development of Mulder & Scully, but also Skinner and the CSM. Imagine if the story had involved Mulder travelling to Moscow, as initially planned by Carter…
Nov 23, 2017 23:33
#46DaysOfMythX D-42 Part2: 2X04: Sleepless
The cinematography has become much more impressive compared to season 1, excellent guest star Tony Todd, a conspiracy thriller script, memorable Mark Snow music, all great elements — but this episode is particularly remembered for introducing Mr.X (and not Ms. X as was momentarily cast) and Agent (at that time) Krycek, who fails to shake hands with both Mulder and Scully here!
Nov 24, 2017 18:55
#46DaysOfMythX D-40 2X05: Duane Barry / 2X06: Ascension
The series’ first real two-parter, Carter’s first try at directing an episode, and the result is so impressive that it is with a big screen projection of Duane Barry that Ten Thirteen started really thinking of making a movie out of #TheXFiles! The mythology is really launched here, but see how carefully ambiguous it all remains, not just about who is doing the abductions, but one could argue ambiguous about the very existence of aliens!
Also of interest: by this stage, my reviews have started to become less cringe-worthy and much more verbose!
Nov 25, 2017 10:23
#46DaysOfMythX D-39 2X08: One Breath
An episode so important it reverberates all the way to season 10! An excellent balance between lyrical and horrific, of mythology with character development (X’s intensity, Skinner’s Vietnam story, Melissa…). Iconic scenes that will be repeated in the show’s history: Mulder with the CSM at gunpoint, Scully in the hospital. Too bad Morgan & Wong didn’t contribute more to the mythology beyond this.
Nov 25, 2017 10:50
#46DaysOfMythX D-39 Part 2: 2X10: Red Museum
An often-underappreciated episode! The thickness of the mystery might be a side-effect of this originally being planned as a cross-over with a series nobody remembers now, but the mix of stand-alone and mythology works to its favor. It’s a very 1990s episode with its small community wary of vegetarians and its millennial cults and its cow growth hormones or mind-altering alien DNA — but essentially the basic scientific principle of the control group is quite elegantly presented, derived from one line of dialogue from “The Erlenmeyer Flask”.
Nov 26, 2017 9:08
#46DaysOfMythX D-38 2X16: Colony / 2X17: End Game
The mythology enters that sweet spot where each double-parter becomes a big event and the writers/directors try to outdo themselves. Interesting here: the titular colony is a colony of what are most definitely hybrids, not aliens, however they are considered like a different race. The Terminator-like Alien Bounty Hunter is concerned with the “purity” of his own race, a recurring theme. He “lands” by crashing his UFO, definitely coming from outer space: all of this are very difficultly reconcilable with the My Struggle “conspiracy of men” theory.
Nov 27, 2017 19:11
#46DaysOfMythX D-37 2X22: F. Emasculata
One of those great semi-myth/stand-alone episodes that, when viewed with posterior knowledge, gain new significance. In this case, in the light of Zero Sum, this could be another Syndicate test for studying the release and spread of a virus. Some quite disgusting scenes and a race against the clock featuring Dean Norris, a future “Breaking Bad” star!
Nov 28, 2017 22:59
#46DaysOfMythX D-36 Anasazi/The Blessing Way/Paper Clip – the mythic ABC trilogy, a.k.a. “The Unopened File” for those following the VHSs!
It doesn’t get any better than this, a lot could be written about these! Universe expanded with the Syndicate-as-post-WW2-World-Order parable, many real-world-like events (from Navajo code-talkers to Paperclip Nazi scientists in the US), Carter’s passion for mystic Native American rituals, and a deep dive into the perils of the conspiracy for our characters! See how Cancer Man is belittled by his colleagues and is frustrated with having to micromanage Skinner and Krycek: surely this is not somebody who can have the entire Syndicate manipulated into believing there is a fake alien colonization plan afoot, as My Struggle seems to suggest, no?
Nov 29, 2017 18:33
#46DaysOfMythX D-35: 3X09: Nisei / 3X10: 731, a.k.a. “82517”
Originally planned as a single episode, the writing team realizes they have struck gold! The series continues on an amazing string of mythology installments by adding elements to threads introduced in Anasazi: experiments by Axis Japanese scientists, train cars as a symbol of state power and Western expansion. The alien/human hybrid is explicitly linked with the creation of a superior soldier, one more variation of the “supersoldier” version of the truth. Also: Pendrell is introduced; and many locations used here would be revisited in the XF video game.
Nov 30, 2017 18:38
#46DaysOfMythX D-34 3X15: Piper Maru / 3X16: Apocrypha
The string of excellent multi-parters continues with the introduction of the Black Oil and the search for Scully’s sister’s assassin (which won Anderson an Emmy nomination!). The Talapus, the DAT tape: s3 is very tightly knit together. The Black Oil behavior here is a mix between Fallen Angel (radioactivity) and the virus-like black liquid possessing people we will see again — different oil strains, or writers just figuring things out?
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