X-Files Episode Guide: The Amazing Maleeni

Written by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban & Frank Spotnitz

Directed by Thomas J. Wright

All right, let's be upfront. This is not an episode that really belongs in the series canon. There is nothing supernatural or paranormal about it. One could make the argument that anything involving magic has a chance of being part of that group, but this isn't the kind of magic we associate with Harry Potter, it's barely at the level of the kind that David Copperfield had been known to do. It's about slight of hand and trickery, not the kind of thing that the X-Files deals with at all, and it even acknowledges as much near the end of the episode.

But despite all that, I have a soft spot in my heart for The Amazing Maleeni. It's nowhere near the level of a classic in the sense that some of the episodes in the early comedies are. It's not even really at the level of some of the more X-Files light episode we got last season. But it has a rhythm and charm to it that I find really appealing. It plays with the smoothness and alacrity of a David Mamet story, though admittedly the dialogue is nowhere near the level of that man. (Then again, what do you expect of an episode that's effectively been handed off to three writers?) The Mametesque portion of the script mainly comes from the work of the lead, played by magician-thespian Ricky Jay, who appeared in several Mamet films. The episode plays like one of the capers that you get from him - its fairly light-hearted and charming, which is kind of remarkable considering it starts with an episode where a man's head falls off, and has quite a few grim setpieces as it reveals.

What makes the story work as well as it does is that Maleeni is all about misdirection. Now, at this point in the series run, the viewer is so used to being misled and pulled in so many ways by Mulder and Scully's approach that to do an entire episode where the whole point is misdirection might be considered somewhat offensive. What makes it work is the general level of the performances, particularly Jay, who is a master of understatement and Jonathan Levit, who does a very good job as LaBonge, play at manipulating the world around them, like good magicians should. More importantly is the way that Duchovny and Anderson perform. At this point in the series, it was really becoming clear that a lot of the times they were just going through the motions. But in this episode, practically from beginning to end, they clearly seem to be enjoying themselves, and their bonhomie is rather infectious. One gets the feeling that is more how the actors feel than the characters would - by this time, Mulder and Scully have been through so many machinations of various conspiracies that being played by a couple of magicians would probably be offensive to them - but the fact of the matter is, this is so light-hearted a story, the slightest hint of dismay from our heroes would cause it to collapse. That it doesn't makes it more enjoyable, and fun to watch.

And really, that makes Amazing Maleeni play much better than it should. Because in all honestly, the story that its built on is a house of cards. Had their been one minor miscalculation in the plans of Maleeni and LaBonge, the whole story just wouldn't work. Had the armored heist been played wrong, had their manipulation with Alvarez to frame him not work, had Mulder and Scully not been called in at all - well, let's be honest, this whole structure would collapse. It's one thing to do a series of misdirection to try and frame an 'innocent' man for bank robbery, its quite another to reveal that all of that was part of another plan to pull off an electronic bank robbery to dwarf everything else. It's such a convoluted premise that you can tell even Scully is having trouble believing it all near the end.

Despite these flaws, and in  a strange way, because of them, Amazing Maleeni still works remarkably well. Perhaps the story would've had more of a punch to it had the producers managed to pull of their second stunt cast, and got David Blaine to play LaBonge. I actually thinking having more of an unknown actor in the lead works better, as a result the whole episode isn't worn down by the kind of stunt casting the series has spent most of its run trying to avoid. And there are so many charming little gags - the way the bank manager is more horrified not by the way Maleeni has been impersonating his twin brother, but by the fact he has given the man handicapped parking is one of the more amusing 'sick jokes' the series would do.

So yes, Amazing Maleeni isn't a perfect episode or even a very good one. But in a season that has been largely disappointing so far, mainly because it doesn't seem to want to try that hard, one has to admire an episode where the writers are putting in such an effort just to make us laugh. One wishes however, that they could've taken the advice that Maleeni gives when he realizes that they've been 'caught': "The great ones always know when to leave the stage." But that's a story we'll be dealing with soon enough.

My score: 3.5 stars.