X-Files: S.R. 819

Written by John Shiban

Directed by Daniel Sackheim

In addition to the lighter tone that the series has been taking the last few weeks, we've also scarcely seen many of the regulars associated  with the conspiracy. To get a combination of the two is rather refreshing, and considering the source of this episode, kind of remarkable.

John Shiban has been a writer more comfortable with more traditional type dramas than the paranormal that we usually get. In last season's Pine Bluff Variant, we got an episode that would've more suited to the world of 24 than the traditional X-Files, and in S.R. 819, we get an episode with a similar vein -- a character whose life will be over within 24 hours if his killer is not stopped. This wouldn't work if the victim was Mulder or Scully, but by threatening Skinner, who has practically been an absentee so far this season, it reaches a level of genius -- after all, killing off a series semi-regular is something that the writers would do without a moments thought. It also has the habit of united Mulder and Scully in a way they truly haven't been for much of Season 6,  even if it does tend to separate them much the way that the mytharc episodes often did. Admittedly, we don't realize that its a mytharc episode until its almost over - but we'll get to that.

Even separated from Mulder and Scully,  Skinner has still been suffering as head of the X-Files. It's now clear that his marriage has ended, and he seems even more rudderless than he did throughout much of the last two years. It's something of a stretch to say that Skinner almost seems to welcome the threat on his life - the way he reacts by thinking that the death threat is somehow all about Mulder puts the agent in his place- but this episode does give Mitch Pileggi a chance to stretch his acting muscles in a way that he hasn't in nearly a year and a half. His determination to figure out why he has become a target for death is rather strong - and the way he tries to ignore his worsening condition is something that plays right out of Mulder's handbook - but it's still good to finally see an episode where he finds himself considering the end. It's not something he's unfamiliar with - he was in the hospital at the hands of the conspiracy back in Season 3 - but it seems to have brought him to a level of reflection that frankly, you'd think he'd have considered before this point. The scene where he confesses to Scully that he realizes that he could've been a better ally to them is by far the most poignant moment his character has had in nearly five years on the series. Which is one of the reasons, it seems like such a step backwards at the end of the episode when he eventually returns to the position he's held. He has a reason, but its not as satisfying.

The episode also gives both Duchovny and Anderson something else to act off other  than each other, which has been a habit of much of Season 6 so far. Duchovny is by far as his angriest when he pursues what is happened to Skinner -  when he refers to him as a friend, you get the feeling this may be the first time in his life that he's acknowledging as much. It no doubts hurts a lot more that in order to do this, he has to go after a man whose been one of his strongest allies - Senator Matheson, making his first appearance since Nisei. Unfortunately, this is actually one of the weaker moments of the episode. It's never made entirely clear why the bill that Skinner is part of moving forward is so important to the conspiracy, so much so that Matheson is willing to cut off his relationship with Mulder in order to stop it. This is actually one of the more painful parts of the episode. Matheson may not have been the most consistent ally Mulder had, but he was a far more interesting character who could've been used more effectively. Instead, this is his last appearance on the series, and the writers never feel like he has to be visited again

Anderson's work is much better. Having to work as a medical doctor to try and save a life for a change, as always, brings out the bets in her. And for once, her scientific approach is almost merited. She seems more determined to work in almost every capacity, and the scene where she becomes Skinner's confidant and reassures him that he's done everything he can do is almost as moving as Skinner's mea culpa.

This episode moves very effectively, and works visually and the dialogue is unusually crisps. (Event the voiceover from Skinner at the top of the episode seems a lot less purple than the kind of monologue we get, but that's what we've come to expect from Skinner by now) It only stumbles in the last couple of minutes, when Skinner considering all the threat to his lifer, turns his back on the two people who have been trying to help all episode. When we learn that the man who has been controlling the nanobots that effectively killed Skinner was in fact Alex Krycek, it's obviously meant to come as a shock, as once again, the producers kept his name off the guest star list/ And yes, Shiban has been clever at making it less than obvious that Krycek was the man behind the curtain. But since we no longer seem to know what side Krycek is really on, the moment loses a lot of oomph, considering that all of this was apparently a move to get him back in the Syndicate's pawn. (And considering what's about to happen, one wonders what the point was.) Regardless, Skinner will be in Krycek's thrall until the series is almost over, but one wonders why go through all these shenanigans in the first place?

Despite that, S.R. 819 is one of the more suspenseful bits in a season that will be remarkably free of them. If it does seem to be more of a step back when it comes to Skinner, one can only be relieved by the fact that Walter will get there eventually -- and those nanobots won't be a factor in his decision at all.

My score: 3.75 stars.

X-Files Episode Guide: The Rain King

Written by Jeffrey Bell

Directed by Kim Manners

One wants to give this episode props for finally daring to say what has been simmering under Season 6 - and indeed almost the entire past five years of The X-Files- about the obvious chemistry between the two leads of the show. To finally realize what has been going on between Mulder and Scully, put it into metaphor, and then demonstrate just how utterly unfit our poor heroes are to deal with even the concept of romance - that deserves points, especially considering it's coming from a man writing his first script for the series. But the sad truth of the matter is, The Rain King suffers from two big problems: it is a first time script, and Jeffrey Bell is one of the weakest writers that will ever end up writing for the show in its entire run.

There are some interesting ideas floating in The Rain King.  The idea that the weather can be controlled by a person's emotions is an interesting one. The trouble is, we are led down one tow many blind alley. First it seems that Daryl Mootz is causing the drought in Kansas to make money for his rainmaking abilities. Then it seems that his ex-fiancée Sheila is causing the weird weather, due to emotional problems in her life. And then we are finally told that the problems are being caused by Holman Hardt, a meteorologist who has been dealing with unrequited love for Sheila basically his entire life. The problem is, if you believe the final theory, the two earlier incidents - Darryl's causing it to rain at a farm, and the mini-twister that causes a cow to break the ceiling of Mulder's motel room don't make any logical sense. Why would Holman want to help Daryl? And because Sheila hasn't admitted any kind of crush on Mulder, why would he want to attack the FBI agent? I'll admit the cow coming in through the ceiling is the high point of the episode, but it still doesn't hold up even to the often bizarre logic the series follows.

One could almost forgive Bell for overlooking that plothole - he is a first-time writer, and the episode, let's be honest, isn't really about that. It's about Mulder and Scully, finally find themselves called upon to solve an X-File by resolving a romantic  relationship. It's a fine joke, considering just how utterly unsuited our heroes are to task. The problem is, it keeps getting hammered over and over again, from when they are introduced to the mayor as husband and wife, to the way the motel manager forced them to share a room by assuming that Mulder is Scully's boyfriend, until Sheila admits that she's fallen in love with Mulder. A joke is only funny if it isn't  done to death. Now I'll admit it's amusing that it takes two complete strangers to realize just how ridiculous it is that these two very attractive people haven't been on any dates, or even considering looking at each other. But a joke like this only works if there's a payoff, and unfortunately, the Holman-Sheila romance just isn't worthy of it. And the longer the climax goes on, the less amusing it gets, because the audience knows they're not going to get a response from the characters we want it to happen to. By the time Holman and Sheila's kiss makes everybody but Mulder and Scully do the same thing, the joke has lost any pretense at being realistic.

Not to mention the fact that there are so many other problems with Rain King. For starters, when the heck is it taking place? We know Mulder and Scully aren't investigating X-Files any more, but this episode doesn't even offer a fake pretense for our heroes to come out here. And most of the acting in this episode isn't worth the energy. Though Clayton Rohner does a pretty good hammy job as the fake rainmaker, he's the only member of the cast who seems to understand that the material needs to be played a certain way David Manis is such a milquetoast as Holman that's its easy to believe Sheila wouldn't notice him - the audience certainly never does. And poor Victoria Jackson just plays the same ditzy blonde she played on Saturday Night Live for six season, without even really trying to come up with an original character.

There are some sweet and humorous moments in the Rain King, but they're few and far between. It's not a bad episode, per se - it's just terribly bland. And its probably the best example of X-Files lite that so many of the fans of the earlier episodes could probably point out as Exhibit A of how detrimental the shift to Hollywood has been for the series. It clearly hasn't been - episodes prior and after will testify to this - but it's the first one in awhile that demonstrates that if the series is going to head in this direction, they damn well better follow through. And the sad truth is, they never really will.

My score: 2 stars.

X-Files Episode Guide: Terms of Endearment

Written by David Amann

Directed by Rob Bowman

                                                                                

This is one of the odder episodes in the sixth season, which makes a certain amount of sense seeing as it comes from yet another first time writer for the series. Amann will be one of the more solid contributors in X-Files move to Hollywood, but right now, he seems to be trying a mix between the old guard and the new.

Tonally, Terms of Endearment fits in with what has been an ongoing theme in Season 6: that of the paranormal trying to live an average life. Wayne is a demon apparently interested in nothing more than living a normal life, migrating out to the suburbs and having a normal baby. You can see the genuine torment on his face in the teaser when he realizes from the sonogram that his child has the same deformities that he does, and the almost resigned frustration he shows near the end when he realizes he's going to have to go through his devil act. It fits in with what we saw in the last episode where Ghosts consider tormenting their guests part of their routine, and the Dreamland two parter where even Men In Black have lives that there are so mundane they'll jump at the chance to swap bodies. It's very amusing and fits in with themes that were visited in Season 3 and 4 about little men using supernatural powers to somehow become even more normal. But with each succeeding episode, it seems to be becoming a little less subtle and more ridiculous, and these writers don't have the same gift for comedy that Gilligan and Morgan did.

The bigger problems with the episode is that the lead role kind of overwhelms it. This is to take nothing away from Bruce Campbell's superb performance as Wayne. Considering that his typical mode of performance seems to be over-the-top, its rather surprising - and pleasing- that his performance is so restrained. The idea that the demon, at the end of the day, just wants to live a normal life is one that could've been easily spoiled if the usual hamminess of Campbell's oeuvre had intruded into the role. There's a subtlety to it, that makes the genuine emotion when we reach the end of the episode and realize just how Wayne seems to have been used by an evil worse than he. It lends a certain poignancy when he decides to sacrifice his life for the woman that he nearly killed.

All of this makes the episode work. The problem is, very little of the rest of it does. Considering that the entire point of our heroes being kept away from the X-Files to the point where Mulder fishes the report on it out of Spender's trash, one wishes that they had decided to give our hero something more to do. As it is, almost all of his detective work takes place either off screen or when he's on the phone with Scully. And if Mulder is given little to do, Scully is given even less. It's now becoming something of an irritant that our heroes are, even though they're no longer connected to the department, still solving an X-File every week.  This time, it may be more connected with Amann's first time out; God knows, we had problems like this all the time with first time writers.

 The biggest problem, though, is the denouement when we learn that Betsy, the woman that was Wayne's other wife, turned out to be a devil herself, and has been living in the suburbs killing and burying 'normal' babies, all the while waiting for another devil like Wayne to impregnate here. Even for the level of implausibility that we generally associate with the series, that just seems a little too hard to believe - that Wayne, who seems to have taken a job testing blood so that he can seek out women he can have a normal baby with, happens to find in the same county a female demon who is even worse than he is. Lisa Jane Persky gives a good performance as the lady demon, but its just not convincing enough.

On top of that, the technical aspects of this episode seem to be over the top. The hallucination for the teaser is good, but the idea of the devil is established there, we don't need to have The Omen playing when police storm Wayne's house. And while "I'm Only Happy When It Rains" is ideal theme music for Wayne, having it play as Betsy drives off into the sunset is the definition of overkill.

All in all, Terms of Endearment is basically little better than a run-of-the-mill episode. As a first time episode, its a lot better than many of the ones we have gotten and will get, but it's basically just pretty ordinary. It's the kind of television Wayne would have appreciated, but the X-philes like us, not so much.

My score: 2.5 stars.

X-Files Episode Guide: How The Ghosts Stole Christmas

Written & Directed by Chris Carter

There are X-Files episodes that are odd beasts, and that really don't fit into the canon. And while in the early seasons most of them were property of writers who were still trying to figure out their places in the lexicon (and many didn't), quite a few were the property of Chris Carter. Which is strange considering the series is his creation. Then again, considering that many of those episodes were mytharcs filled with prose so purple, you could see the actors struggling to say it, and the other half were bizarre experimentations that would've been odd fits in any series, maybe it's not such a surprise.

But the move to Hollywood seems to have unleashed a playful streak in Carter, and How the Ghosts Stole Christmas is another such joyous byproduct. Triangle was experimental and delightful because it unleashed the abilities of Carter doing camerawork. This episode is a bit more restrained, but no less different. Here we have an episode, that for all intents in purpose, is as close to a play as the X-Files will ever do. Almost all the episode is set in a single location, it takes place in almost real time, and only four actors appear in the entire piece. And while we've dealt with all kinds of supernatural events in the five plus years on the show, this is the first one to really take a shot at the ghost story.

And in what is rapidly becoming a common theme of Season 6, the ghosts in this story are no less concerned with human affairs even after shuffling off the mortal coil.  They seem to have gone from a blissful young couple on the cusp of World War I to a bitter elderly pair concerned with the mundane affairs of the living. Yes, they do seem determined to make Mulder and Scully die tonight, they don't seem much concerned with doing this for some great paranormal reason, but rather so they won't get left off the tourist literature.

This already has the material of what could be a delightful comedy. What makes this such an enjoyable episode is the fact that Mulder and Scully are right at the center of this. Maurice and Lydia are trying their damnedest to make them embrace the two have a lover's pact - and, as we can see, they just aren't up for it. So they try a more psychological approach, Maurice going after Mulder by profiling him as a deluded man determined to make everybody believe him, and Scully as a ridiculous harpy whose only joy in life comes in proving him wrong. In essence, they have tapped into the psyche of many of the viewers, but its far more enjoyable hearing it come from the source. It doesn't hurt matters that the ghost are played by legends Ed Asner and Lily Tomlin, both of whom deliver some of the more glorious acting moments in the entire X-Files guest actor canon. Together, they help create the episode from ever crossing the boundary into too pedantic, and so it plays delightfully. And this is an episode, mind you, that has our two heroes pulling their bleeding, dying bodies across the decrepit floors of a haunted house while "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" plays out.

 Duchovny and Anderson have to carry the first act of this story with nobody but themselves to play off, and in many ways, that adds to part of the joy of the moment. There's a bit too much of the purple even here - Mulder's monologue where he relays the story of the ghosts he hopes to find, Scully and her long speech on how ghosts say more about the living then they do about the dead. But the way the two manage to undercut each other at just the right moments help to puncture any balloons that we might think when the episode seems to be getting too overblown. What is more concerning is how Mulder and Scully's relationship is being put at the central of the story, and much like the mythology, seems unable to be leading anywhere conclusive. It's done so gently here that one doesn't object, but its going to become an issue in later episodes.

It's not altogether a perfect episode - Mark Snow's score can add a layer of interference the longer it goes - but by and large, Ghosts is one of the most enjoyable comedies the X-Files would put together. One would not consider this to be a series to do Christmas episodes well at all - and considering what we got last year, maybe that's a good thing - but it stands tall as one of the better holiday themed episodes I've ever seen. It even has what comes as close to a happy ending as the series gets, with Mulder and Scully gleefully unwrapping the presents they promised not to get each other for Christmas. There could be no clearer sign as to the direction that our heroes are heading in, even if they themselves haven't realized it yet.

My score: 5 stars.

My Top 10 for 2016, Part 2

5.Mr. Robot (USA)

I was really slow to jump on board one of the greatest series on TV. Maybe it was because it comes from a network mostly known for playful, lowbrow stuff. But watching the repercussions of the 7/9 hack that laid devastation to the financial structure was actually second tier to watch the struggles that were going on within the mind of the ultimate unreliable narrator Eliot (Rami Malek). There were more twists and turns in this series that kept one critical character from last year offscreen almost all season. Add in some of the best opening teasers since the days of The Good Wife and you have the latest masterpiece from the golden age of TV.

4. This is Us (NBC)

Exhausted from watching police procedurals and costumed crimefighters? Here's the ultimate exhibit to show that the network television hit is far from dead. This is a series about a family that is far from typical and yet more human than anything you see anywhere. This is a show that features some of the most brilliant use of flashbacks than maybe any drama in history. This is a show that has some of the most qualified understated acting from undervalued and unknown performers. This is a show with Emmy nominations in its future. When it comes back in January, watch, and feel hope again.

3.The Americans (FX)

Proof that the Emmys is finally starting to redeem itself after years of ignoring FX.  As the Jennings' long cons start to fall apart, you'd think the series was running out of steam. Instead, seeing how great the cost has become to Philip and Elizabeth, and watching the body count pile up in away that Game of Thrones would be shocked at, we are witnessing a series that, as it begins to reach its endgame, has revealed itself one of the greatest series on TV since the passing of Breaking Bad. The fact that we are now living in an age where its becoming increasingly clear that Russia still has undercurrents in the very same areas that Jennings were trying to exploit during the Cold War just shows how much relevant it is. Come for the intrigue. Stay for the brilliant acting from (I'm so glad I can say this) Emmy nominees Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell. And like everything else in this series, they're just the tip of the iceberg.

2. The People Vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story  (FX)

Even with Fargo out of service til next year, this was a great season for FX. But even having witnessed their work for over a decade could not have prepared you for the towering majesty of their latest anthology series. Never in my life could I have expected Ryan Murphy to create a show completely devoid of his exploitative nature. Nor could I have expected that an event the entire world seemed to be glued to twenty years ago, could still reveal anything new. I've never been so glad to be proven wrong. This was a triumph from practically beginning to end. Watching some of the greatest actors I've ever seen (Courtney B. Vance and John Travolta) and some I'd never heard of (man, has Sterling Brown had a great year), they created a show about the original media circus. And from the beginning it drew new pictures about the people at the center of the trial who, we the unfeeling viewing public, had reduced to caricatures.  The only flaw this series had was not making us care about the victims enough. In a way, though, that's only just - that's what happened in the real trial too.

1.American Crime (ABC)

Sophomore slump, my ass. This series is only ahead of People V. O.J Simpson for one reason: it looks at the world of a criminal act, and sees nothing but victims. Not just the people who suffered, but the people accused, the people responsible, the people who try to fix it, and even the people who try to cover it up. Some of the greatest actors in any medium have gathered in this anthology play some greatly flawed characters dealing with issues that have become far too timely: rape, racial problems, internet shaming, school shootings, and just the problem of being a teenager. From Felicity Huffman to Regina King, this series harkens back to the origins of the anthology series, and delivers them in a way that few TV shows would dare to try, even now, and especially not on network television. It is perhaps the closest any network show will come to The Wire, when it comes to measuring acting, writing, and scope. Series like this give me hope, not only as a TV critic, but as a human being.

My Top Ten for 2016, Part 1

Let's be brutally honest - 2016 stank. With the most controversial election in our nations history, blood and violence at home and abroad, and a string of celebrity deaths that began with the year and kept on picking, cruelly until the end,. 2016 was one of the worst years probably since man has begun chronicling time

. But whenever darkness is at our door, we often turn to artistic mediums for relief, and in that sense, 2016 provided  us with some truly riveting and brilliant entertainment. Having to choose between some series remains difficult so, just as I did last year, I will be listing several series and actors deserving of a jury prize. But for now, here is this critics humble picks for the best series of the year.

10. The Good Place (NBC)

For the last couple of years, NBC had pretty much abandoned the intelligent satires that had made it a fine network. The Good Place is the first series that shows might be getting their spark back. Taking place in an afterlife whose perfection is falling apart due to someone who really doesn't belong (Kirsten Bell), this series combines flashbacks, ethical dilemmas (when did any series name check Socrates?) and hysterical throwaway lines, this is one of the most enjoyable and original comedies, I've seen in quite some time. Given some of its others shows, NBC is on the road to brilliance again.

9. Transparent (Season 2 Amazon)

I know, most watchers have moved on to Season 3 by now, but the fact remains this show remains the flourishing centerpiece of a brilliant original studio. Maura Pfefferman (the incredible Jeffrey Tambor) paradoxically now finds himself, even as changes gender, the most centered of his confused, and often selfish family. Like the show's protagonist, this series defies easy categorization - heartbreak and comedy are often present in the space of the same minutes. But with one of the best casts assembled, and some of the more fascinating storylines, this is quickly becoming one of the best series ever put together on any service.

8. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (CW)

As a TV critic, one of the pure pleasures is coming upon a show that isn't like anything else in the medium. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend fits that description. Rachel Bloom plays Rebecca, one of the most bizarre characters in all of TV, trying to pursue romance, while not acknowledging what a self-absorbed narcissist she is.  She would be as isolating a character as there is on TV, except her particular version makes everything into a musical. And all of the songs, written by her, would be delightful accomplishment for Broadway or a Mel Brooks movie. This delirious, Emmy-winning romp defines the term 'original series'. Now if we could just get more people than every TV critic to watch this charmer of a show.

7. black-ish (ABC)

This series has become brilliant at creating shows around families that are completely different from anything we see in traditional sitcoms from The Middle to Speechless. But what makes this series particularly engaging is how it manages to match timely subjects with incredible humor. "Hope", an episode that took the issue of race and crime in America and put a face on it in a way that a thousand rallies couldn't, was one of the signature achievements of this past year. Anthony Anderson has been without peer in demonstrating great talent in some of the best drama on TV. Now he goes back to his comedy roots, all the while demonstrating he hasn't forgotten anything he's learned.

6. Better Call Saul (AMC)

It's still not at the level of Breaking Bad, but with each new episode it becomes clear that it has that potential for greatness still in it. Bob Odenkirk continues to show how wise a decision it was to make a spinoff about Jimmy McGill (not quite Saul Goodman yet), but his supporting cast has gotten even better, particularly Michael McKean as his elder brother Chuck, still dealing with issues of health, but demonstrating (particularly in the finale) he is as crafty as his con-man brother. And just to remind us where we're going, the storylines with Mike bring us Easter egg after easter egg without seeming like they're superfluous. Here's hoping a certain fried chicken magnate makes his appearance in Season 3.

Suggestions for the Kennedy Center, Part 2

2021: Donald Bellisario, for giving the most complete look at the inside of the world of military justice in series such as JAG and the NCIS franchise, and for adding heart into the brainy world of time travel with Quantum Leap.

Scott Bakula, for creating the everyman in almost every level of his work, whether a time traveler trying to put right what once went wrong, an aging actor still trying to find his big break after twenty years of trying (Men of A Certain Age), or the head of a task force trying to solve crime in the Big Easy.

Juliana Marguiles, for playing with intricate care of the most complicated and professional women in the last twenty years: Carol Hathaway (ER) and Alicia Florrick (The Good Wife)

2022: David Simon, for redefining what a police drama could do in Homicide, and paining the most indelible picture of 21st Century America in The Wire.

Bryan Cranston, for creating one of the most indelible and unforgettable antiheroes in TV history in Breaking Bad, a fitting climax to a career of brilliant comic and dramatic performances.

Edie Falco, for creating two of the most unforgettable antiheroines of all time: Carmela Soprano (The Sopranos) and Jackie Peyton (Nurse Jackie) women with nothing in common but their determination to prevail.

2023: Joss Whedon: for creating worlds of fantasy with ambitious, relentless heroes and heroines, for wearing the label 'geek' and making it a badge of honor.

Larry David, for creating great comedy out of small situations, for creating great laughs out of the smallest of people.

Allison Janney, for creating some of the most memorable and unforgettable tall women in the history of the medium, whatever the era, whatever the situation a woman in equal comfort in drama (The West Wing; Masters of Sex) and comedy (Mom)

2024: David Milch, for creating some of the most distinctive and unforgettable and quotable heroes, for reinventing the police drama (Hill Street Blues) and the western (Deadwood).

Peter Krause, for reinventing the everyman in a series of brilliant and well-sketched character based dramas that rank among some of the most unique series of all time (Sports Night, Six Feet Under, Parenthood)

 Timothy Olyphant, for creating in Deadwood and Justified, two of the most memorable and reckless lawmen in the history of television, whether they fit their era (Deadwood) or not (Justified)

2025: J.J. Abrams, for redefining what it is to be fantastic in the world of television, creating indelible characters in worlds gone mad (Alias, Lost, Fringe) and making us believe love can conquer all.

Michael C. Hall for turning repression and suppression in two of the most complicated characters of the 21st century (David Fisher, Six Feet Under) and  Dexter Morgan (Dexter) and making us see humanity where not even they think it exists.

Lauren Graham, for creating two of the most fully realized, warmest, and funniest characters in the history of the medium, Lorelai Gilmore  in Gilmore Girls and Sarah Braverman in Parenthood.

2026: Howard Gordon, for establishing dramatic heroes for the turbulent times of the new millennium, and creating new series to establish realpolitik in the War on Terrpr.

Claire Danes, for creating the new reality for the teenage girl in My So-Called Life, and the professional hunter of evil in Homeland

Rob Lowe, for reinventing new and life-affirming versions of the political animal, whether in drama (The West Wing, Brothers and Sisters) or comedy (Parks & Recreation)

2028: Ryan Murphy, for creating revolutionary new pictures of life for the truly different in the world and reinventing the musical (Glee) and the horror story (American Horror Story) for the next generation, as well as reinventing the anthology for years to come.

Katey Segal, for creating some of the most out-of-the world female characters in the history of the medium, whether they be in satire (Married: With Children) animation (Futurama) or tragedy (Sons of Anarchy)

Michael Chiklis for creating some of the most memorably authority figures in the history of the medium, whether they obey the law (The Commish) or completely reinvent it (The Shield)

2029: Greg Berlanti, for reinventing the world of the comic book hero (Arrow, Flash) the teen drama, (Everwood), or the family drama (Brothers & Sisters)

Calista Flockhart, for the reimagining of the portrait of the professional and sexual woman in the twenty-first century no matter which side of the political divide she's on

Steve Carell, for reinventing awkward and satire in the workplace comedy The Office or for pure TV journalism (The Daily Show)

2030: Vince Gilligan, for creating some of the most human monsters in the history of the medium, whether they be supernatural (The X-Files) or far closer to home (Breaking Bad)

Connie Britton, for creating some of the most indelible creations of the career woman, whether in  politics (Spin City) education (Friday Night Lights) or music (Nashville)

Amy Poehler, for her portrait of the new female comedienne in political scenarios whether they be pure satire (Saturday Night Live) or workplace farce (Parks & Recreation)

2031: Ann Bidermann, for creating some of the most memorable characters in the darker side of Los Angeles, whether they be on the side of the law (Southland) or against it (Ray Donovan)

Marg Helgenberger, for creating some of the most memorable portraits of professional women trying to live, whether in the alleys of Vietnam (China Beach) or the mean streets of Vegas (CSI)

Kyle Chandler, for creating some of the most memorable leading man and modest heroes on the small screen, particularly as the lead in Friday Night Lights.

Suggestions for the Kennedy Center, Part 1

In Britain, for more than a century, those who work in the film industry or the stage, either in front of or behind the camera, have been given the ultimate honor of nobility. Given the trends of the world, I have no doubt one day we will hear of Sir Kenneth Brannagh, Dame Kate Winslet and Sir Jude Law.

Of course, in America, despite our supposedly treating our celebrities like royalty, we stop short of giving them actual titles. The closest we ever really come to recognizing our creative forces in the performing arts are the Kennedy Center Honors, when they are commemorated by their peers and politicians in private and televised ceremonies. This is a tradition that has been carried for more than forty years under both Democratic and Republican President, so there seems little chance that it will end. This year, among the honorees were Al Pacion and The Eagles. Viewers will be able to see it December 30.

Now while I am a little disappointed that the nation's highest artistic honors are limited to a single broadcast generally aired during a period that has the lowest audience viewers, I also realize that it probably means the world to the men and women who are recognized. But I have noticed a trend--- generally the actors/directors who are recognized work in the fields of film and theater. There have been, as of yet, no recognition for artists (including writers and musicians) who have worked almost entirely in the field of television.

This strikes me as particularly curious, considering that particularly in the last ten years, TV has reached a level of creative excellence that all but the films hardly reach anymore. Furthermore, there has been next to no recognition for some of the legends who created some of the best television in the last couple of decades, and while it's stronger recently, there have been some great showrunners who have gone unrecognized. (The exception is the Mark Twain Prize, which has commemorating many performers who've worked mainly in TV). Now I have little doubt that British actors and writers on the other side of the pond will get recognized soon enough (I await with particular anticipation the knighthoods of Benedict Cumberbatch and Dominic West), but unless the Kennedy Center starts soon, some of them may not be around long enough to take their bows.

So, bearing this IN mind, I have some helpful suggestions for the Kennedy Center to take into account for, say the next fifteen  years. Since the tradition of the awards is to recognize no more than two performers and one creative force, I'll keep the list of honorees to three. I'll even offer a brief suggestion as to how to commemorate them, though I know you've got better writers than me on hand for that.

(Note: I will not include performers who are likely to be recognized for their work in film and the stage as well as TV. This includes such gifted talents as Glenn Close, Sally Field, Kevin Spacey, and Woody Harrelson.)

2016: Steven Bochco, "for his groundbreaking portrayals of the complicated men and women who work in such series as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law and NYPD Blue.

Jimmy Smits, for demonstrating that the heroics and evils of man can often exist within the same character in series such as L.A. Law, NYPD Blue, Dexter and Sons of Anarchy."

Betty White, for redefining what a comedy legend can be even after nearly six decades in the profession.

2017: David E. Kelley for creating some of the most memorable legal professionals dealing with some of the most newsworthy cases of the day in series such as LA Law, Ally McBeal, The Practice, and Boston Legal.

Sela Ward, for creating some of the most original and complicated female characters who redefined what a woman could be in the last century.

David Duchovny, for creating some of the most mesmerizing and eclectic characters in such series as Twin Peaks, The X-Files and Californication. (I'm pushing it a little on the last one, but he's one of my favorites.

2018: Dick Wolf, for reinventing the police procedural and the legal procedural in the same series and keeping that franchise alive longer than any other series in history.

Chris Noth, for demonstrating leading man qualities and dark peerless depths in the Law and Order franchise, for being the obscure object of desire on Sex and the City, and for melding the ethics of both on The Good Wife.

Candice Bergen, for creating two of the most memorable and groundbreaking female characters, Murphy Brown and Shirley Schmidt, and for never accepting that the glass ceiling existed in any profession.

2019: Tom Fontana, for fearlessly purveying the dark corners of the bleakest parts of our society, whether it be a run-down hospital on St. Elsewhere, the Baltimore police on Homicide: Life on The Street or the walls of prison in Oz.

Andre Braugher, for his measured portrayal of African-American police figures in series as diverse as Homicide and Brooklyn Nine-Nine  and demonstrating what it's like to age gracefully in Men of A Certain Age.

Gillian Anderson, for successfully reinvented what a professional woman could due in the 21st century, in such series as The X-Files, Hannibal, and The Fall.

2020: Aaron Sorkin, for reinventing the workplace drama, creating the walk-and-talk series in Sports Night, and proving that an entertaining shows in the world of politics could be possible in The West Wing.

Ted Danson, for creating one of the most indelible comic creations in television history on Cheers, and demonstrating his edging and more dramatic side on series as diverse as Damages and CSI.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, for becoming the twentieth-first century's equivalent of Lucille Ball and creating some of the most indelible and memorable female comic creations in Seinfeld, The New Adventures of Old Christine, and Veep.

Homicide Episode Guide: A Model Citizen

Written by Noel Behn; story by Tom Fontana and Jorge Zamacona

Directed by John McNaughton

                           As part of ‘Homicide’s  return to the airwaves, NBC insisted on sexier storylines and more life-affirming events. They got the sex that they anted in ‘A  Model Citizen’ but the pleas for more life-affirming stories was something that they would not give. In fact, one can consider the Emma Zoole episodes as perhaps a tongue-in-cheek response to this. The story is racier, but it is filled with morbid humor.

                           For my own part I never much cared for the character of Emma Zoole. She never seemed like a real character to me. Rather she seemed a caricature of what the NBC executives want. Not only that, it is hard for me to  see what exactly Bayliss and Lewis saw in her.  Yes, she was attractive but she was also grim, ill-tempered and had fetishes that I don’t think anyone  really has. Indeed it is almost impossible to believe that Bayliss with his repressed personality would be attracted to someone so dark. Her visits to a museum where the art of killers is displayed seems like exactly the kind of thing that he would avoid. And I cannot imagine anyone being so hormone driven that they would willingly have sex in a coffin.

                           Also rather uncharacteristic was Lewis’ unrequited love, but I have never been able to understand why he considered Bayliss a traitor for sleeping  with Emma. If they had been going out, that would have been one thing but Emma turned him down. Bayliss wasn’t cheating on  him no matter what he wants to believe. It’s even harder to believe  that Lewis would be so upset over what happened that he would pull out of buying the Waterfront rather than be partners with him. I can believe Bayliss doing it out of guilt but not Meldrick.

                           Though the story tends to focus on this triangle, the other characters are going through more interesting endeavor. When a non-existent complaint about a gun is lodged, Munch is annoyed and seems more focused on attending a  seminar dealing with how to sell liquor responsibly. However, he and Howard eventually follow up add learn that a young man accidentally shooting his brother. This stirs some anger in the usually calm detective but neither attitude that he takes helps him. The detectives never get the gun out of the house, mainly because the family doesn’t seem to care.

This leads to a moment of introspection for both detectives when they consider  Crosetti’s suicide and the possibility of getting shot (which is eerily prescient of what will happen to Howard before the end of the season) In a rare act of symmetry we see a similar unsuccessful attempt by reporter-activist Sam Thorne who tries to get the detectives to help him with a Toys for Guns swap. Gee tries to tell Thorne that the detectives are already overworked but Thorne is not impressed, saying that they can do more. Thorne has problems with the cops and  crime, both of which will lead to his death in the next episode.

                           Simultaneously, Pembleton is going through even more problems. Annabella Wilgis has decided to sue the city for  the supposed violations of her civil rights in the interrogation room. This would strike almost anyone as unmitigated gall  to sue someone for that. But the department and the city walk on eggshells a lot of the time. It doesn’t help matters that one of the people subpoenaed is Megan Ruseert (on the hook because she was in command at the time) If Giardello had been called, he would have doubtless stood behind Frank but Russert blinks, saying that she thinks Pembleton went to far.

                           When the city settles rather than deal with it, Pembleton, understandably pissed already, is angered and then depressed how his reputation would be effected he thought that he had done what he needed to get the truth. He is equally upset at how Wilgis manipulated him and how he has lost faith. He even tries to go back to church but his faith has been shattered.

                           But by far the man who will be dealing with something wit ramifications that will last long past this episode is Beau Felton. Though he had vowed to try and work out his marriage whatever tightness Beth had has now snapped.  Felton returns to his home to find it is literally gone.His wife  has not just taken his family but  also his furniture and possessions leaving empty rooms. Her only word on the subject is a message written on the mirror in lipstick ‘Goodbye’.  (The scene where Felton breaks own while Nine Inch Nails plays ‘Hurt’ is one of Daniel Baldwin’s finest moments on the series) For the next third of the season, he will spend almost all his free time and some work  trying to find his family. Simultaneously, he will begin a downward spiral that will have almost completely destroyed him by the end of the season.

                           In many ways, ‘A Model Citizen’ is a raspberry to  NBC demands for a different Homicide. True, there are no murders involved and one of the stories features a certain amount of sex, but the show has not really changed. It’s still dealing with deep emotional issues and problems that can’t be solved in a single episode. Even Tim s affair with Emma gets ridiculed by the squad (the result of Bayliss confessing his indiscretion to Felton). It’s not great TV and it does tend to wear on you after a few viewings but its not that bad.

My score: 3.25 stars.

X-Files Episode Guide: Dreamland II

Written by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban & Frank Spotnitz

Directed by Kim Manners

The second part of this story should be disappointing; after all, that's what X-Files two-parters are.  All the toys gets put away at the end, and this time, our heroes don't even get the benefit of knowing that anything in this entire series of events even happened (let's do the time warp again). But because this is a comedy, and sadly the only one of its kind in the entire X-Files oeuvre, we don't feel nearly as disappointed by the ends of results. Mainly because the entire Dreamland story arc is about taking the mytharc and doing some much needed deflation to it.

The opening voiceover is absent the normal purple prose, partly because it isn't Carter writing it for once, but mostly because it views Mulder's entire back-story with an outsiders POV, and we can see just how sad Mulder has made his life and career with the FBI. Michael McKean's portrayal of Fletcher was delightfully sleazy in the last episode; here, he has to do something much harder, and try and introduce a note of humility into his performance at times. At times, he succeeds a little (the bit where he enters the bar where 'he' and his wife are drinking together speaks volumes) but mainly he spends much of the episode staying on the dry weasel-like tone that he managed in the episode.

 For most of the Dreamland II, it holds up remarkably well. The scene when he recognizes the mole in Area 51 as his immediate supervisor General Wegman is fairly funny, as well as a little satisfying. Of far more enjoyment is the scene where he identifies himself to the Lone Gunmen, and tells them that all the truth searching that they have been doing since they started their newspaper is nothing but another level of coverup, and that he enjoys adding this layer of deception to the lives of conspiracy buffs like Mulder, and it's frankly a bit that probably holds up far better considering that its really an additional add-on to the level of conspiracy that the series hinted at in Season 3. Arguably, it's the best sequence that the Lone Gunmen would ever be a part of.

Curiously, the bit that by far is the most enjoyable is when Mulder/Fletcher approaches  Wegman in his office, and asks him point blank why he sabotaged the aircraft that led to the time warp that has caused the entire problems, and we find out that he did this not to give information to Mulder, but to get it. Apparently, the government conspiracy is so compartmentalized that not even the men in charge of running know just how deep it goes. Wegman isn't some old man of the consortium, or even part of the military we usually see on the series, he's just a working stiff, who at the end of the day, wants to know if his life had any meaning. There's something very poignant  about the way he asks Mulder: "Do aliens really exist?", and one can almost wish Mulder could enlighten him.

One of the things that is better about this episode is the way that Scully finally finds herself accepting the unbelievable, at least to a degree. The way she turns her gun on Morris during the supposed seduction is rather surprising, and seems like such a breakthrough for her, its a little frustrating that she'll have no memory of it by the end of the episode.  That's nearly as frustrating as the fact that she tells Mulder that she'd kiss him, if he weren't so ugly. Paradoxically, Duchovny has a little less to do in this episode, considering how central it is to him, but it is interesting to watch how he tries to adapt as well as possible (and the scene where he confronts 'himself' in the bar bathroom is very funny as well.) Unfortunately, the episode also tries a little too hard to poke at the heartstrings with the scene between the Fletchers at the ends. Considering how much Fletcher seemed to enjoy being Mulder, it's a little unbelievable, even for this series, that he would try to win back the wife who was throwing him out on the street. And after being so shrill for the last hour, as well as unbelieving, its kind of hard to believe Joanne would change perspectives that quickly even with the evidence. (Later episodes would reveal that it didn't last very long either.)

But overall, the writers of this episode didn't drop the ball. If we're wondering at the end why there are some residuals from time snapping back like a rubber band - well, this is the X-Files after all. And considering how much better Dreamland fit that so many of the other conspiracy arcs, its rather disappointing that they wouldn't try it again (especially considering what was about to happen to the Conspiracy). It's entertaining enough to make you think the move to Hollywood has done some good to a series that was starting to get stale for the last year.

My score: 3.5 stars.

X-Files Episode Guide: Dreamland

Written by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban & Frank Spotnitz

Directed by Kim Manners

The mythology by this point in the series has become so convoluted that one is amazed the writers hadn't tried to satirize it more often. Darin Morgan came closest to doing so in Season 3, and his brother Glen managed something of the same approach in his episode Musings of A Cigarette-Smoking Man, but basically every writer has kept to the same old tried and true house style when it came to mythos.  One can't know for certain, but I'd be willing to bet Gilligan, the most playful of the writers  may have convinced Spotnitz, the man who besides Carter has written the most of the mytharc, to try and combine the two. One gets a sense of it in the teaser of Dreamland, when Mulder and Scully, on their way to visit Area 51, meet along with the usual cadre of military men, a man smoking a Morley who is not William B. Davis, but rather a MIB who is the consummate bureaucrat. And that's the man who Mulder ends up doing a body swap with when a UFO crashes and burns over their heads.

There's a great deal of fun to see Mulder, finally given a chance to see inside a portion of the conspiracy, to find out that along with meeting shady figures like Newt Gingrich and Saddam Hussein, Area 51 is not that different from any of the other government offices. There are the friendships among the older fellows, there are the brownnoses who are trying to do their jobs well, and the basic pattern of the day seems to be crisis management, although this isn't disaster relief but rather a warp in the spacetime continuum. And keeping in with Gilligan's pattern of having villains with  relatable problems, a man who has all the power and influence that Mulder could ever dream of is so dissatisfied with his wife, kids and mortgage that he practically jumps at the chance to end up switched bodies with a handsome, single FBI agent.

 Michael McKean gives one of the more delightful guest star performances in the series history as Morris Fletcher as a man who finally seems to realize all the potential that Mulder has in his life. One could make the argument that this is, in a sense, little more than a continuation of the idea that Gilligan floated in his classic Small Potatoes But this one takes the potential hinted at in the episode, and takes it to a fairly intriguing conclusion. Morris may not be doing a great job when it comes to solving X-Files, but the fact of the matter is, he's a far better FBI agent than Mulder ever was, at least from the perspective of Kersh. (I would've killed to see a closeup of Kersh's face, when Fletcher profusely apologizes to him for going off the reservation.

It's also very interesting the way that it paints a picture of Scully as someone who, as much as she may have railed in the teaser about wanting a normal life, is so used to dealing with the X-Files that she can't accept a Mulder who does everything by the book. Seeing the usually restrained Gillian Anderson get progressively more frustrated as her partner becomes a womanizing, by-the-book, chauvinist who keeps calling her 'Dana' is one of the more enjoyable moments, and demonstrates her flare for exasperated comedy.

The episode also has some of the more playful bits that the series would put forth. Fans of the series would later complain how the series would become increasingly 'X-Files lite' over the next two years, but the fact is, when the X-Files wanted to, it could comedy extremely well. Seeing poor Mulder trying to fit into a family life shows just how unsuited he is for a live like the one Scully has been crying out for. And the bit of camera work where Duchovny and McKean parody a classic sequence from the Marx Brothers is very imaginative. It's even more interesting than by now the conspiracy chooses to show not a bunch of old men trying to rule the world, but a bunch of middle-aged guys just trying to do their jobs and not understanding what the tech support guys are talking about, even when it ends up with a 75-year old Native American woman talking like a military pilot or a lizard with its head in a rock.

It's not a perfect episode, but for once it has nothing to do with the convolutions of the plot. Nora Dunn's performance of Fletcher's wife is so shrill and henpecked that's impossible to feel anything but irritation with her. (Although it was very funny when Scully shows up at her door)  And the end sequence where Mulder is eventually led off by guards and black suits is something we've seen so often, even though its happening to Fletcher, we tend to wave it off as yet another silly cliffhanger. But overall Dreamland is a very entertaining episode that more or less makes you wonder why the heck Gilligan wasn't allowed a crack at the mythos more often. Who knows? Maybe in addition to making it funny, he could've made it comprehensible.

My score: 4 stars.

X-Files Episode Guide: Triangle

Written & Directed by Chris Carter

This episode is a masterpiece. Granted, it's primarily a triumph of style over substance, but the style is so impressive that one can hardly object. The episode that had never been tried before in the history of television, and even allowing for the amount of innovation that has followed over the last twenty years, has almost never been tried since. In Triangle, Carter takes each act of the episode and has each one of them done in a single shot. Its an act of pure cleverness, but its done with such subtlety that its very likely many of the viewers didn't even notice it. It's all so well executed that it would probably be enough for this episode if that was all their was to it. But there's a quite a bit more.

Last week, "The X-Files" did its own homage to Speed.  This week, its a tribute to Wizard of Oz, with a nice touch of Indiana Jones thrown. After five years in which Fox Mulder has essentially become an iconic character, fending off aliens, fluke monsters and an endlessly winding mytharc, now he gets to take a swing at the Nazis. And just to make sure it's not too serious, it's not the Nazis we met during Season 3, but every fictional construct we met, starting with Raiders of the Lost Ark. We also get to see that no matter what time period Mulder is in, nobody will take him seriously. (Granted, how much better do you think you'd do if you were hauled aboard a British ship trapped in the Bermuda Triangle?).

There are lots of little subtle jokes to remind us of what movie were satirizing, but what is an added bonus is the way that X-Files takes the  characters we've become familiar with and turns them on their head in  a World War II setting. Here's Jeffrey Spender, freed from having to sulk and skulk about the Bureau, and actually demonstrate some of the menace he showed he was playing the young CSM, William B. Davis demonstrating his villainy in a costume that fully supports what the viewing world thinks he is, and Mitch Pileggi cheerfully spoofing on the duality his character has been working off the last four years as an American loving SS who tells our heroes "Get your asses out of here." One doesn't quite see it working as well by having Kersh playing a Jamaican stoker, but its more than made up for by Gillian Anderson playing Scully as an OSS agent who talks like a 1930s "it girl".  It's very delightful, and one that you can believe must have been a joy to perform.

So far, the episode only seems to demonstrates Carter's skills as a writer, who once again demonstrates just how good he can be when he lays off the purple prose that we've become familiar with. What makes this episode work as well as it does is the handle of Carter as director, in what may be his finest work since his debut in Duane Barry. There, everything was stripped down for pure minimalism, here the writing is combined with the director to reveal pure masterstroke. One can imagine all the delightful moments that could have been flown had Carter faltered, including the wonderful bit when 1990s Scully literally crosses paths with her 1930s counterpart. The moment that crosses both their faces is great timing. The sequences on board the Queen Anne are incredible bits that seem to sum up what we have come to learn of the X-Files so far, yet everything is so subtly done that we barely seem to notice it when it happens.

Yet for all the brilliant moments through the episode, perhaps the most engaging is the second act when the Lone Gunmen come to Scully, and asks for satellite data in order to find out where the hell Mulder is. The ten minute sequence in which Scully stalks the Bureau halls, looking for help is a masterpiece. It plays like the suspenseful drama the series has made its money at, it plays like the perfectly tuned comedy Darin Morgan and Vince Gilligan have demonstrated it to be, and it seems to be everything that the series is all about in the long run. Which is particularly remarkable because all it is Scully walking up and down the halls and slamming doors. (And did anyone else get a chill with Scully practically tore Spender a new one? That was nearly as delightful as when she planted one on Skinner.)

And of course, there's the bit that probably had all the shippers watching going hurray: when Mulder about to try and return to the future, turns to Scully and tries to convince his one in five billion of what she has to do to save the world, then plants a 1930s style smooch on her. Which she promptly reacts to by socking him in the eye. In a way, its fitting that the first Duchovny/Anderson kiss doesn't involve the real Mulder and Scully. However, what will become a recurring theme as Season 6 gets underway is beginning to slowly peel back the personal and romantic undertones that have been bubbling up for the last five years. In a way, they're summed up in the final scene, where Mulder in his hospital bed finally tells Scully that he loves her... and she dismisses it with an eyeroll and an "oh, brother." As frustrating as that must of been to fans, its the first real dent in the armor that Scully has been developing. If only the writers had the heart to follow through with it.

Triangle is one of the more brilliant episodes the series would ever put together. If you ever tried to stick a pin in  it, the bubble would burst, but its such a pretty thing to see that you find yourself not wanting to touch. Its one of the most brilliant episodes of television the medium has ever tried, and yet for this series, it was just another day at the office.

My score: 5 stars.

X-Files Episode Guide: Drive

Written by Vince Gilligan

Directed by Rob Bowman

This may be the most important episode the X-Files ever did. When writer Vince Gilligan  was looking to cast the role of Patrick Crump, the seemingly deranged hostage taker in this episode, he would eventually choose an actor known almost entirely for his comic roles (most significantly to that moment dentist Tim Watley on "Seinfeld.). Bryan Cranston's work would be memorable enough to stick in Gilligan's head. So much so, that nearly a decade later, when trying to cast the lead role for a pilot on AMC about a chemistry teacher afflicted with cancer who begins to manufacture crystal meth to support his family, he would reject more prominent actors such as Matthew Broderick and John Cusack in favor of  Cranston. The series, of course, was "Breaking Bad", and because of this brilliant combination of actor and subject, the series would eventually win fifteen Emmys (including four for Cranston) and currently ranks on the shortlist of the greatest television series ever made.

This flashpoint in TV history makes this episode critical. But it shouldn't diminish the fact that Drive is, in its own right, one of the more suspenseful and daring episodes of Season 6. Starting out with a teaser that might lead the casual viewer to think his Sunday night entertainment has been postponed, the episode hits the ground running and, much like Mulder for most of the episode, never slows down. Admittedly, its a pretty blatant rip-off of Speed (even Mulder admits as much), but it works on several levels that that particular blockbuster never did.

For one thing, the idea is far more interesting. There's a bomb in the car, alright, but it's nothing that can be defused by Keanu Reeves - it's in the inner ear, and we see the effects of it so vividly - that we are very aware of the consequences should Mulder slow down. But what makes the episode work on a more human level is that of the relationship of Patrick Crump and Mulder. At first Mulder, in typical fashion, takes what he sees on TV as an excuse just to get away from the horrible scutwork that he and Scully have been assigned to. (Hell, this makes the wiretapping that he was dealing with in his first exile in Season 2 seem positively riveting by comparison) But then he finds himself being held hostage by Crump, and then finds out that despite that, he literally holds the fate of another human being in his hands, albeit one who thinks he just another corrupt Jew who might be responsible for what happened to him. Gilligan continues with his tradition of making his monsters of the week seem more human, gradually making his character try to beg for dignity by being called "Mr. Crump" We slowly find ourselves feeling sympathy for this man who never asked for all this craziness to happy to him, but now seems in a monstrous situation.

The other part of the script that works just as well is the fact that it gives Scully something to do. Despite the wide range she managed to portray over the past two years, it's been quite some time since we've seen her as something other than a victim of a fatal disease, or a grieving mother. Here she demonstrates once again why we became so enraptured of her character in the first place, as she basically has to handle the entire investigative process of this episode herself, figuring out the cause that is killing people and animals, making the connection as to what is happening to Crump, and finally trying to stand up to some government officials. And if that wasn't enough to make us relish, there's her attitude towards her new boss, Kersh, which is just as disdainful as Mulder, but far subtler. Gillian Anderson gives one of her best performances in awhile, simply because is lacks the mawkishness that we've come to expect of her work over the last year and a half.

Indeed, all of the actors in this episode are particularly good. The byplay between Mulder and Patrick Crump is reminiscent of the similar situation that we saw in Duane Barry, but it plays far better because there's such initial hatred in it at first. Mulder knows that he's being held in contempt, but as the episode goes on, he, like the audience, undergoes a sea change when he learns what is going on to him There is never quite the level of a bond as there was in that episode, but that's too be expect, and in their next to last scene together, when Mulder tells Crump his only chance for salvation will lead in him becoming deaf, the hope that appears in Crump's eyes is remarkable. Both Duchovny and Cranston give great performances.

This is a superb episode, held back from perfection by a few key problems at the end. When Crump succumbs to his condition at the end of the episode, we can not help but feel that Gilligan simply ran out of nerve to carry it out to conclusion -  Crump surviving would have come as a reward rather than a cheat. And the way that the new acting head of Mulder and Scully, Kersh, treats them both with disdain that just doesn't seem believable shows that even now they really never knew what to do with this character. But otherwise Drive is a fine episode. Had all of the Los Angeles based episodes been made with such cracking energy, the series could've continued in this vein for quite some time.

My score: 4.5 stars

X-Files Episode Guide: The Beginning

Written by Chris Carter

Directed by Kim Manners

By now, we are reaching the point that, even when the series tries to reinvent itself, the season premieres of The X-Files are giving us the distinct sensation of deja vu. One would think that an episode titled The Beginning would be one that might actually have the promise of a fresh start. But there's so much baggage attached to the series that one wonders why we're even going through the motions.

And the problem is compounded by Chris Carter. No doubt he believed that the success of the movie would prove a boost to the series audience, when considering that this is the sixth season, one expected that there would be an inevitable drop off. Nevertheless, Carter tries to please the old fans from the last five years, and the new ones from the movies. And he pretty much creates a season premiere guaranteed to alienate - pardon the pun - all of them.

Considering that the last thing we saw in 'Fight the Future' was knowledge that the X-Files had been reinstated as a division, one wonders why we are going through the dreck of having another internal review meeting so that Mulder and Scully can be reassigned to it. One can understand Mulder's frustration as he tries to present his argument, and maybe Carter was trying to channel the fans as well. But it takes a huge step backward when he calls on Scully to back his play - and Scully, who spent the better part of Season 5 gradually becoming a believer, seemingly goes all the way back to Season 2, at least. It's insulting to the audience, its insulting to the character, and it really doesn't seem like Carter is taking anybody seriously. When Mulder finally snaps at Scully for not believing in aliens after everything that she's seen, it should come as a huge moment. Instead, it plays like Carter is just voicing the audience's frustration.

But one can hardly say Mulder comes away much better from the experience. When the X-Files are reassigned to Agents Spender and Fowley (and we'll get to that in a minute, believe me), he is understandably and deserved outraged.. He goes to Arizona to investigate an alien attack with Scully, and Diana seems to go to great lengths to block him. Then she seems to help him later, and spends about half of the episode trying to persuade Mulder that she's on his side. But when they finally seems to encounter an alien and basically have it cornered, she turns on him so quickly, that we're not sure what happened. Then we learned that when Fowley reports to OPR, she does everything in her power to bury him and Scully with the FBI. And yet when the whole thing is finished, he still somehow seems to be on his side. Mulder may be able to justify it at first as frustration with Scully, but it will turn into one of the bigger plot holes for Season 6. And frankly, it's nearly as aggravating as Scully's return to skepticism.

All of this in itself is bad enough, but what makes it even more degrading is the so called X-File. There is nothing in the alien threat that bears any connection to anything we've seen on the series so far.  There's even less linking it to what we see in the movie. So what basically we get is a new twist on the alien, except there's nothing new about. It bursts out of people's chest, it has giant claws, its figure makes it look like something out of a James Cameron movie. And there's nothing remotely resembling a link to anything that we will see again for the remainder of the series.

Right now, the only thing about the whole mess that seems remotely engaging is the return of Gibson Praise. Horribly butchered from brain surgery, we now see that the Conspiracy's grand plan for him is to... have him try and read the alien's mind. When he finally manages to sneak into Mulder and Scully's car, it actually seems like we're getting somewhere at last, and its particularly interesting that Gibson points out how similar Scully and the Consortium's concern for his well-being seem to be - they want to use him just for different reasons. There are even more intriguing elements when it's revealed that Gibson may have DNA similar to that of an alien, and that by extension, every one else's. But once again, the show drops the ball. We don't see Gibson for another two years, which is hardly unusual, except that for some reason the Consortium doesn't ever get around to picking him off, even though he doesn't do a decent job of hiding.

In the end, the X-Files get reassigned to Spender & Fowley, which would be fine, except we've seen something like this happen before back in  Season 2. Even then this might be interesting, if we ever saw them in connection with the department, but the entire first half of the season will be spent with Mulder and Scully getting involved in an X-File every week. In which case, why bother separating them from the department at all? Both Chris Owens and Mimi Rogers do their level best with what they've been given, but the fact is by this point, we're going to hate their characters no matter how noble their pursuits, and we've got not reason to trust them. Even the scenes of Jeffrey Spender with his father don't add a great deal to the show, as CSM seems determined to make his son just another pawn on his chessboard.

About the only positive thing you can say about The Beginning is that it's a better start to the season than Redux was last year. God knows there's none of that pretentious voice over But frankly, the improvement is so marginal, and so overwhelmingly confusing that one wonders if the whole move has just lead to stagnation. Fortunately, unlike Season 5, things will get much better really quickly.

My Score: 1.75 stars.

Homicide Episode Guide: The Last of the Watermen

Written by Henry Bromell and Tom Fontana

Directed by Richard Pearce

                           As Homicide  went into its third season, the show would begin to make some experiments with the format. Sometimes they would show the episode from the point of view of the less important characters, sometimes we would see things from another characters point of view. One of the latter experiments occurs in ‘Last Of The Watermen’ which explores the personal life of Kay Howard--- unfortunately, not very well.

                           It is not difficult to believe that Howard--- or any of the detectives--- would become overwhelmed with some of the grimmer aspects of the job. The murder of Audrey Resnick--- a sweet old woman who was killed and had her tongue cut out and stuffed back into her mouth--- finally pushes her too far and she goes on vacation to her family’s home on the eastern shore of Baltimore  in order to find some peace. But, as Thomas Wolfe said, you can’t go home again. The town has changed immensely--- her father has retired from his job, the oyster business in which he and so many of his colleagues worked is in decline due to economics and ecological changes, and a former flame of hers has gotten married and divorced. Now this could all be dramatically interesting or effective if it weren’t for the fact  that about halfway through the episode, one of the men in charge of conservation is murdered and Howard is asked to help with the investigation (since this is the fist murder in several years).

                           The overall effect is to turn this episode into a retread of ‘Murder, She Wrote’ particularly since all the suspects are friends of hers. About the only thing that saves this  from falling into cliché is the fact that the trademark realism that we see on ‘Homicide’ in present here. There are no plot twists, no grand motives no trick to capture the killer. The person that we first suspect is the murderer and the reasons are no more arcane than what were plainly obvious.  There is nothing sinister underneath it all, just a man who got upset at how his life was falling apart.

                           While all of this exploration is different, unfortunately it is not very interesting--- particularly because the episode keeps cutting back to the murder of Audrey Resnick which Felton is investigating. And adding to the fun is the fact that Gee has enlisted the reluctant Pembleton to help him investigate this murder. The two have always shown sparks before, but there is more energy to their sparring. The two of them have a brilliant dialogue when Felton explains his standards for whether a death is a ‘killing’ or a ‘murder’--- something which insults Frank because he believes that every life has meaning and therefore every death does to. The two of them put some of their testosterone to work when  while looking for the victims grandson who they suspect is the killer they take opposing sides in a basketball game and end up going one on one.  They eventually do catch the killer and find out his motives are about as straightforward as we usually get on Homicide ; he killed his grandmother because he was sick of hearing her degrade him.

                           Given what happened to Kay in this episode it is kind of hard to believe that she would return to her job feeling reenergized as she seems to be. However, maybe her feeling is one of relief of realizing that for all the ugliness that Charm City can muster up at times it’s more comfortable dealing with murder there than in a place that you once called sacred.

            ‘Last of the Waterman’ ironically only works as an episode whenever it goes away from its main story. Maybe it’s because Baldwin and Braugher have a much more energetic interaction than Leo’s interactions with her family or maybe it’s because of the differences with the story. Whatever the case, this kind of exploration into the detectives lives would be tried again but never quite like this. The creators would learn their lessons well
My score: 2.5 stars

X-Files Episode Guide: The End

Written by Chris Carter

Directed by R.W. Goodwin

By now, the series has gotten to the point where it seems to be playing to the whims of its fanbase. The episode opens with an assassination of a Russian grandmaster playing a chess match in Vancouver, which only makes sense when we realize that the city where the series has been shot in for the last five years is playing itself for the first time. The title of The End only makes sense when you consider that it is meant to be a reference to the end of 'The X-Files' time filming in Canada. (It's also the end of a couple of other key bits of business, but we'll get to that in a minute.)

As is the case with these season finales, we're back in the mytharc. However, as with so many things forced upon us by a shorter fifth season, the impact is somewhat minimized. The CSM is officially back from the dead, and by the end of this episode, has resumed his place in the conspiracy hierarchy. One wonders what the point of killing him off was, if only to produce the moments of awkwardness among the Elders. Krycek is back, now apparently working as an assassin and messenger to the Well-Manicured Man, thus completely throwing out the window any chance we might have had for his character to make sense in this story. And there are some new elements as well: Jeffrey Spender seems to be building a career in the Bureau with the help of Smoking Man, which comes as a shock to him.  He's called into investigate a case, which centers around a twelve-year old chess prodigy named Gibson Praise, whose telepathic abilities would seem to make him - all together now-  "the key to everything in the X-Files". And just to make things even more interesting, there's a new face and an old face with the arrival of Diana Fowley, that utter rarity, someone who supported Mulder's work way back when he was getting started with the X-Files seven years ago. She's played at sympathetic for this episode, but by this point, we've come to distrust anyone  who might be on Mulder and Scully's side. (Then again, maybe it's just because she calls him "Fox".)

\And just to make things perfectly clear that this is a climax to something, once again the X-Files are put in jeopardy. We're not entirely sure why the Attorney General needed to be informed of this threat, nor why, when everything inevitably goes to hell in the final act, this is strictly Mulder's fault. In any case, it happens so quickly, that we, much like our heroes, have almost no time to process. What finally registers in a way that just hasn't for the series is the threat is finally made physical when the Smoking Man comes down to the basement and sets it on fire. It's something so shocking and final that one almost forgets that this will somehow be fixed by next season. (We think.)

All in all, this is so much of a mish-mash that you'd be astonished that any of it would be effective at all. And yet, there are several elements of 'The End' that play very well indeed. There's the fact that the CSM seems to emerge from his hiatus, crackling with anger. He no longer tries to toady to his bosses, particular the Well-Manicured Man, and is blatantly hostile and no longer engaging in euphemisms when it comes to what he does. William B. Davis plays the role with a certain amount of relish that has, frankly, been missing from his character for the last couple of years. And yet there seems a rare humanity to his behavior, when he finally lets down his guard enough to expose himself to Spender in the next-to-last scene and say he's his father.

Then there's the interplay between Mulder and Scully. For much of the season, they've been at odds, mainly because of the differing paths that they have been traveling for much of the year. It takes the joint arrival of Diana Fowley and Gibson Praise to really put this into focus however. Up until now, the fans have been holding on to Carter's assurances that Mulder and Scully will never, ever get together. The End is the first sign that the characters maybe wobbling. Seeing an agent as attractive as the one Mimi Rogers plays maybe a ham-handed way of introducing a threat to Scully and Mulder 's relationship; what makes it work is the fact that Fowley is intellectually closer to Mulder's wavelength. The fact that Scully has been working herself closer to Mulder's way of thinking is an irony not lost on the viewer - as well as the fact that her determination to prove herself may be what puts the X-Files in danger in the first place.

But it takes Gibson to really put into focus. Frankly, he's a comparative cypher as characters go, but what makes him work- at least in this episode- is the fact that he seems determined to lay bare to the audience, as well as our heroes, the way that they may feel to each other. It almost makes him seem less like a deux ex machina, and more like a boy who just wants to tell the truth, and honestly not want to hear these thoughts.

Most of the performances in the episodes are good, even if the story is something of a hodgepodge. But 'The End' is an appropriate title for this episode. This is a transition not only from Vancouver to Hollywood, but an end to the traditional structure. From this point on, 'The X-Files' will take on a significant change in tone and production. It's not entirely unwelcome, and it will keep the series going for awhile. But it will also be an end of even the attempt of a sensible narrative for the mytharc, and that will be a blow from which the series will never completely recover from.

My score: 3 stars.

Season 5: 3.25 stars.