The X-Files | the m0vie blog

New Podcast! The Time is Now – Season 2, Episode 9 (“Jose Chung’s Doomsday Defense”)

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Darren

With Christmas coming up, The Time is Now is firing up again. This week, I finally got to talk about a Darin Morgan episode, joining I was flattered to join Paige Schector and Kurt North to discuss Jose Chung’s “Doomsday Defense.” It remains one of my favourite episodes of television ever, in one of my favourite seasons of seasons of television ever.

If you have never watched Millennium, this is actually the perfect opportunity to dip your toe in the waters. Jose Chung’s “Doomsday Defense” is an episode of Millennium through and through, suitably “millenniumistic” and concerned with the themes of the show around it, but it is also an accessible Darin Morgan script feature Charles Nelson Reilly reprising his iconic role from Jose Chung’s “From Outer Space.” It is playful, funny and deeply moving. It is all that one could want from an episode of television.

As ever, you can listen directly to the episode here, subscribe to the podcast here, or click the link below. I really hope you enjoy.

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Filed under: Millennium, Podcasts! | Tagged: Darin Morgan, jose chung, Jose Chung's "Doomsday Defense", jose chung's "from outer space", millennium, millenniumistic | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 5, Episode 2 (“Redux II”)

Posted on December 6, 2019 by Darren

It’s a bit of a change up on The X-Cast this week. Last week, I joined Tony Black to discuss the first part of the fifth season premiere Redux I. This week, Tony swapped out with Russell Hugo, whom I joined to discuss Redux II.

Redux II is an interesting beast. I am actually appreciably fonder of Redux II than I am of Redux I. I think the second part of the premiere does a lot of the stuff that the first half attempts, but in a much more interesting and compelling manner. It’s not quite as good as Gethsemane at the end of the fourth season, but it’s still a surprisingly ambitious and adventurous story for The X-Files to tell at this point in its run – the moment at which the series is at the peak of its popularity and The X-Files: Fight the Future is looming large in the horizon. I hope this was a fun and interesting discussion.

You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: cigarette-smoking man, conspiracy, mulder, mythology, redux ii, scully, the x-files | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 5, Episode 1 (“Redux I”)

Posted on November 22, 2019 by Darren

The X-Cast just kicked off its season coverage, and I’m back with Tony Black to discuss the first part of the fifth season premiere Redux I.

Redux I was famously the second-most watched episode of The X-Files, behind Leonard Betts. It’s easy to see why. Not only was the episode following on from an edge-of-the-seat cliffhanger involving the supposed suicide of the male lead on one of the buzziest shows of the decade, but it was also the launch of the season that would lead into the feature film adaptation, The X-Files: Fight the Future. As such, it was a pretty daring move on the part of Chris Carter to devote so much of the premiere to purple prose monologues playing over Mulder walking down grey corridors.

I think this is a pretty fun and interesting discussion. Redux I is always an episode that I’ve have complicated and conflicted feelings about, and the podcast was a nice opportunity to work through some of those strange emotions. Anyway, I hope there’s something worthwhile in here.

You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: belief, chris carter, conspiracy, faith, mythology, oliver stone, redux, redux i, the x-cast, the x-files, tony black | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The Time is Now – Season 2, Episode 6 (“The Curse of Frank Black”)

Posted on October 31, 2019 by Darren

Because it’s Halloween, The Time is Now has a special treat. I was flattered to talk about The Curse of Frank Black with the one and only Tony Black. A perfect piece of Halloween viewing, it is one of my favourite episodes of Millennium, and so was a huge honour to be asked to sit in on this one.

I’ve gone on record about this before. The second season of Millennium is one of my favourite twenty-odd-episode seasons of television ever produced. It is hard to pick a single favourite from a season that features episodes like Jose Chung’s “Doomsday Defense”, Owls and Roosters, and The Fourth Horseman and The Time is Now. Nevertheless, The Curse of Frank Black is one of those episodes of television that has really stayed with me over the years. I have lost track of how many times I have watched it, and every time I still find something new. So this was a delight.

As ever, you can listen directly to the episode here, subscribe to the podcast here, or click the link below. I really hope you enjoy.

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Filed under: Millennium, Podcasts! | Tagged: discussion, frank black, halloween, Lance Henriksen, millennium, podcast, review, the curse of frank black, the time is now | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The Time is Now – Season 1, Episode 22 (“Paper Dove”)

Posted on October 9, 2019 by Darren

Recently, I had the pleasure of stopping by the first season of The Time is Now to talk about Millennium, joining the great Kurt North to discuss Paper Dove. It was a delight to be asked back, particularly because it’s the first season finale.

Paper Dove is a fascinating episode. Because every season of Millennium essentially reboots and reinvents itself, each season finale also becomes a sort of series finale. Each season-ender essentially bids farewell to a certain vision of what Millennium was or could be. This is very much the case in Paper Dove, which stands as one of the series’ most compelling and engaging “serial killer of the week” episodes right before the second season makes a conscious effort to move away from that approach to storytelling. It’s a wonderful illustration of how far Millennium has come since those early episodes, and a fantastic piece of television.

As ever, you can listen to the episode here, subscribe to the podcast here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Millennium, Podcasts! | Tagged: kurt north, millennium, paper dove, serial killers, the time is now | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 4, Episode 24 (“Gethsemane”)

Posted on October 4, 2019 by Darren

So The X-Cast has reached the end of its fourth season coverage, and I’m delighted to be joining Tony Black to discuss the fourth season finale Gethsemane.

Gethsemane is an interesting season finale, and a defining episode of The X-Files. It opens with what appears to be the suicide of Fox Mulder, and then builds to that as a season-bridging cliffhanger. Of course, the audience knows from the outset that the cliffhanger will be Mulder’s death, and the audience also understands that Duchovny is going to spend the summer shooting The X-Files: Fight the Future. So there’s an incredible tension there, right at the moment when the series had become one of the most popular television shows of the decade.

More than that, though, there’s something very lyrical and poetic about Gethsemane, which eschews the sort of action and adventure beats that defined a lot of The Erlenmeyer Flask or Anasazi or Talitha Cumi. There is a sense that writer Chris Carter (working without partner Frank Spotnitz) is meditating upon some of the internal contradictions of the show, and trying to work through some of the tensions that simmered through a complicated and scattershot fourth season as a whole.

The truth is in here. You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: finale, gethsemane, podcast, the x-files | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The Time is Now – Season 1, Episode 19 (“Powers, Principalities, Thrones and Dominions”)

Posted on September 2, 2019 by Darren

Wrapping up a late-first-season exploration of Millennium with the incomparable Christopher Knowles, I was thrilled to pop onto The Time is Now to discuss Powers, Principalities, Thrones and Dominions.

In case the title doesn’t give the game away, Powers, Principalities, Thrones and Dominions is a delightfully weird episode of television. It finds Frank Black confronting the loss of his best friend Bob Bletcher by becoming embroiled in an epic and existential conflict that exists at the very limits of his understanding. It might involve a ritualistic killer and a corrupt lawyer, but it may also involve renegade angels and the forces of hell operating on the mortal plane. The beauty of Powers, Principalities, Thrones and Dominions lies in the ambiguity.

Indeed, that ambiguity was a huge part of the fun in discussing the episode with Chris. I think we both had slightly different reads on what the episode was about and where it was coming from, which speaks to its strength as an episode of television. It’s a staggering piece of work, one that obviously lays the groundwork for Patient X and The Red and the Black in the fifth season of The X-Files.

As ever, you can listen to the episode here, subscribe to the podcast here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Millennium, Podcasts! | Tagged: angels, chris knowles, demons, epic, frank black, millennium, war in heaven | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! Not Another X-Files Podcast Podcast #717 – “all things”

Posted on September 2, 2019 by Darren

Last year, I stopped by Not Another X-Files Podcast Podcast to discuss Vince Gilligan and Rob Bowman’s all-time classic, Drive. So I was thrilled to be invited to join Carolyn and Vanessa to discuss all things.

Positioned towards the tail end of the awkward seventh season of The X-Files, all things is an interesting beast. It is written and directed by series star Gillian Anderson. Unlike Duchovny, Anderson had never really expressed an interest in writing and directing beforehand and hasn’t really embraced that career subsequently. As such, all things is a very strange piece of television, primarily a way for Anderson to explore themes and ideas that were clearly of interest to her.

I’ve always had an awkward relationship with all things. It is not, on its own terms, an especially strong episode. However, it has a strong central vision and an interesting approach to its material, produced with an energy that is largely lacking from the season around it. It’s an oddity in many ways. It is not entirely successful, but it is interesting. It was great to get a chance to hammer it out with Carolyn and Vanessa.

You can check out the podcast here, and past episodes here. Or click the link below.

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: all things, buddhism, gillian anderson, moby, new age, scully, x-files | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The Time is Now – Season 1, Episode 18 (“Lamentation”)

Posted on August 26, 2019 by Darren

As ever, a delight to stop by The Time is Now to talk about Millennium, this week as part of triptych with the great Kurt North and the wonderful Christopher Knowles.

An interesting installment this week. Kicking off a loose two-parter that effectively serves as Millennium‘s version of a mythology episode, Lamentation offers a clear escalation in the stakes of the first season. It’s a fascinating episode that seems to mark a clear transition in what Millennium is about, a strong signalling of creative intent from the production team. It’s a weird and eccentric episode of television, a real showcase of what Millennium could do when it set its mind to it.

I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of opinion on here, with each of the three of us having very different takes on the episode’s strengths and weaknesses. As ever, you can listen to the episode here, subscribe to the podcast here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Millennium, Podcasts! | Tagged: evil, frank black, hannibal lecter, home, house, lamentation, legion, lucy butler, millennium, serial killer | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The Time is Now – Season 1, Episode 17 (“Walkabout”)

Posted on August 26, 2019 by Darren

As ever, a delight to stop by The Time is Now to talk about Millennium, this week reteaming with the fantastic Christopher Knowles.

As the show moves through the second half of its first season, it becomes progressively more adventurous and ambitious. While complaints about the “serial killer of the week” format might be a little unfair to the first fourteen or so episodes, the final stretch of the season embraces a more experimental aesthetic. Walkabout centres on a drug trial, one in which Frank appears to have been a participant. His memory foggy, Frank struggles to figure out what he might have been doing there. As tensions rise with both Catherine and Peter, Frank becomes convinced there’s more to the situation than meets the eye.

It was a joy to discuss the episode with Chris. As ever, you can listen to the episode here, subscribe to the podcast here, or click the link below.