Writer's Block: The X-Files Birthday

[jack_babalon]

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My absolute favorite episode would have to be Jose Chung's "From Outer Space" - the alien gray smoking a cigarette in a cage, a Jesse "The Body" Ventura cameo as a Man-In-Black, the odd little multi-person narrative that frames both the absurdity as well as the sheer wonder of conspiracy culture in general and to top it off the image of Agent Mulder, laying in bed at the end of the day, casually watching the Patterson-Gimlin Sasquatch film the way most folks would watch the Tonight Show sums up the character perfectly for me.

Second Place: "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" - what can I say? I just love a good villain origin story (this one done as a sort of evil version of Forrest Gump). That and the fact that we see how the X-Files-verse crosses over with some of the more pressing conspiracies of our real world (JFK, MLK and even the Gulf War) lent the series a certain gravity, adding to the illusion that the show could be happening somewhere in the shadows of the 'real world'.

Favorite X-Files Scene: The one where we see the zombies come out of their graves at the end of the episode and they begin dancing with each other. I'm pretty sure it was a sort of 'Dream Sequence' but it still makes me laugh to this day.

Worst episode: The one where they have to deal with a Genii. Am I remembering this episode right, Mulder gets three wishes and one of them wipes out all life on earth, the second wish restores all life on earth and on the third he free's the genii/spirit? Three wishes and not once does he say "Hey, I have a wish - tell me what the fuck really happened to my sister?"

Favorite Freak(s): I can't find the specific reference but there was this one episode with a family of inbred hillbillies (who at the time struck me as a kind of Faulkner version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre clan). I remember they kept their decrepit, withered, limbless(?) mother underneath a bed in this old house and at the end some of the clan escape in an old cadillac or something to terrorize rural America on the road. Sure the Fluke-Man and the pyrokinetic guy were fun, but the hillbillies from hell just creeped the fuck out of me. If I recall the episode was originally banned(?).

My actual experiences in the Paranormal would be too extensive to list as an addendum here. Some other time perhaps?

Comments

[animeoni.livejournal.com]

I am right with you on the hillbilly episode. That was hands down the creepiest one ever.
Don't remember the genii one although i am sure i have seen them all. maybe it sucked so bad i forgot about it.

[hellblazer.livejournal.com]

The hillbilly episode is "Home" from Season 4. According to Wikipedia it's the only X-Files ep to ever garner a TV-MA rating. Wikipedia also says it's been banned from American network television, but I doubt that's true.

Also: I've never seen "Jose Chung's From Outer Space". Not deliberately, mind you; I'm a fan, and =many= people have told me it's their favorite episode. I've just, y'know, never seen it.

Edited to slightly clarify my Jose Chung qualifier.

[halfass-johnny.livejournal.com]

"Home" has to be my favorite episode (of the ones I've seen -- I stopped watching before Mulder left the show and never did see all the episodes from every season). I think what got to me the most in "Home" was the odd juxtaposition of using Johnny Mathis' song "Wonderful! Wonderful!" as the backdrop for horrific violence. It was extremely effective.

There was a he said/she said episode that involved a community of vampires . . . I remember being amused by that one.

In general, I preferred the stand alone episodes to the conspiracy shows, particularly during the later seasons. The conspiracy became so ridiculously complex and nonsensical that it sapped away any entertainment value for me.

And while I wouldn't call it the worst episode, the show dealing with "Big Blue," a supposed lake monster living in North Georgia, really irritated me. Mostly because during their investigation they discover an abnormally large gator living in the lake. Throughout the whole episode, everyone is wearing heavy jackets and it's obviously cold. Too cold for an alligator to be able to survive. Stupid Vancouver film locations.

[catwalk.livejournal.com]

my life used to revolve around this show. seriously.
i can't even begin to narrow down faves and non-faves.
i will say that i must have been the only person watching
this show that did NOT get the chemistry between mulder
and scully. i never saw it. never believed it.

i did get to meet some of the cast at an expo in roswell, ga.
krycek, skinner, the blond 'lone gunman', mr. x...
they were all pretty cool in person. i got them to sign
an 'x-files' ballcap. i bought a copy of the script for 'home'.

so weird..(another good paranormal show)

[domestikgodess.livejournal.com]

I have had that hillbilly episdode running through my head for the past couple months...I was telling my kids we should buy the X-Files series (we don't have cable or anything) and I just kept seeing that episode in my head...it was really creepy...and possibly because it could be true, and somewhere prolly is.