Quick post to announce that my publisher McFarland Books are having a massive sale on their pop culture books to mark the week of May 4th. Using the coupon PopCulture25, readers can get a discount of one quarter off the retail price of a wide range of books covering film, television and pop culture. If you’ve been waiting for an excuse to pick up a book, this is a good one.
I have a bit of a vested interest in the sale, given that McFarland published my book. Opening the X-Files offers a critical history of the original run of The X-Files, all the way from The Pilot through to I Want to Believe. I’m very proud of the book, and very grateful of the opportunity that McFarland gave me. And the reviews have been quite kind.
I was delighted to be invited to join Carolyn and Vanessa for the latest episode of Not Another X-Files Podcast Podcast, discussing Mulder’s impromptu roadtrip.
The guys had just finished coverage of The Lone Gunmen and the eleventh season of The X-Files, so I joined them to talk about the second episode of the sixth season, Drive. Any long-time reader of the blog will know that Drive is probably my favourite episode of the sixth season, and probably the last of my top ten X-Files episodes chronologically speaking. (I’m still sleeping on Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster and The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat.)
It was an absolute pleasure to do a guest slot with the guys, to talk about everything from the O.J. Simpson car chase to the American frontier to the amount of highway in California. You can check out the podcast here, and past episodes here. Or click the link below.
In what is likely my final appearance of The X-Cast‘s coverage of the eleventh (and possibly final) season of The X-Files, I sit down with Tony Black to discuss the legacy and role of series creator and showrunner Chris Carter. I hope it’s an interesting discussion of what has been a controversial season overseen by a controversial showrunner.
It has been an absolute pleasure to discuss these episodes with Tony and Carl, and I’m thrilled to have been part of the coverage of the revival. With a bit of luck, I should be back when The X-Cast jumps back in to its regular coverage; the rewatch of the series will be hitting the third season shortly.
Returning to The X-Cast this morning to continue my discussion of the eleventh season finale of The X-Files.
In this installment, we’re discussing the various supporting characters of My Struggle IV, from William (or Jackson) through to Monica Reyes through to creepy possibly-child-abusing car-driving guy! It’s a packed instalment, befitting a packed episode. Thrilled to be joining Tony to discuss the episode in question.
Click here, or check it out below. The final part of our discussion, talking about Chris Carter, will be landing tomorrow morning.
Guesting on The X-Cast to cover the season (and possibly series) finale of The X-Files with Tony Black.
With Gillian Anderson adamant that this is the end of the line for her involvement in the show, there is every possibility that My Struggle IV might be the last ever episode of The X-Files. And what an episode it is, with a lot to unpack. We broke our wide-ranging discussion of this episode written and directed by Chris Carter down into three parts covering various aspects of the episode, so they’ll be released over the next few days.
The first of the three episodes covers the episode in general and its focus on the Mulder and Scully dynamic (or perhaps even lack-thereof), along with some general thoughts on the tone and content of the episode. Click here, or check it out below. The next part will be landing tomorrow.
The final of three podcasts looking at the penultimate episode of what might be the final season of The X-Files, Nothing Lasts Forever.
I’m joining the great Carl Sweeney to discuss the writer and director combo on Nothing Lasts Forever. The episode pairs a relatively new writer with a veteran director. Karen Neilsen worked with Glen Morgan on Intruders, and had her short Grace included on the season ten release, but this is her first script for The X-Files. In contrast, James Wong is a veteran director; he was nominated for an Emmy of Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man and this is the second episode that he has directed this season.
We also discuss our hopes (and fears) leading into My Struggle IV. I’ll be returning next week to discuss the season finale. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the episode. Click here, or check it out below.
The second of three podcasts looking at the penultimate episode of what might be the final season of The X-Files, Nothing Lasts Forever.
Once again chatting with Carl Sweeney, this time we discuss the “monster of the week”, washed up immortal sixties starlet Barbara Beaumont and the cult that she has built around herself. Along the way, we discuss other supporting characters like Juliet and Doctor Luvenis, along with constructing a twenty-first century vampire story.
We’ll be back tomorrow talking about the combination of writer Karen Neilsen and director James Wong. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the episode. Click here, or check it out below.
Thrilled to be popping by The X-Cast to discuss the new season of The X-Files with the wonderful Carl Sweeney.
We discussed the penultimate episode of what could be the final season, the twenty-first century vampire story Nothing Lasts Forever. We broke our wide-ranging discussion down into three parts covering various aspects of the episode, so they’ll be released over the next few days.
The first of the three episodes covers the episode in general and its focus on the Mulder and Scully dynamic (including what Carl terms “the Conversation on the Pew”), along with some general thoughts about the eleventh season as a whole. Click here, or check it out below. The next part will be landing tomorrow.
I had the pleasure making a guest appearance on Filibuster with the great Lee Hutchinson, who very kindly invited me on to talk about my book, Opening the X-Files. Always a pleasure to talk about the X-Files, especially with Lee. I also talk a little bit about the origin of the book, the processes that I used when writing it, and the differences between doing a blog project over several years as opposed to filtering that down for a book.
I’m thrilled to be a part of The X-Cast X-Files Podwatch, a daily snippet podcast rewatching the entirety of The X-Files between now and the launch of the new season. It is something of a spin-off of The X-Cast, a great X-Files podcast run by the charming Tony Black. Tony has assembled a fantastic array of guests and hosts to go through The X-Files episode-by-episodes. With the new season announced to be starting in early January, Tony’s doing two episodes of the podcast per day, so buckle up. And we’re at the end of the final season of the original series.
This is my last appearance on the podwatch, although hopefully I’ll be back before long on another X-Cast activity. It’s a pleasure to be joining Tony to discuss the last two episodes of the final season of the original run, Sunshine Days and The Truth. The X-Cast will be continuing beyond this to look at The X-Files: I Want to Believe and the revival, but this is the end of the line for me, at least for the moment.
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