The X-Files | the m0vie blog

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Todd VanDerWerff and Zack Handlen on “Monsters of the Week”

Posted on November 6, 2018 by Darren

This was fun.

I occasionally guest on The X-Cast with Tony Black, discussing The X-Files. I’ve been very proud to be part of the show’s discussion of individual episodes and also to participate in its ambitious beginning-to-end podwatch. However, this episode is particularly exciting for me, because it’s an interview that I managed to organise with critics Todd VanDerWerff and Zack Handlen on their new book Monsters of the Week.

Todd and Zack wrote about The X-Files at The A.V. Club over the past decade, and their reviews are some of the most engaging and insightful examinations of the series ever written. They were hugely influential on my own work, and are still a joy to read. Indeed, I had access to an early review copy of Monsters of the Week for the interview, and it is a joy to read.

The interview itself is broad. We cover everything from Todd and Zack’s early history with the show, through to debating its place in the television canon and even discussing a little bit about the current state of television criticism as a whole. Along the way, we discuss the show’s legacy, the challenges in approaching it in the current era, and how the Trump administration as made a surprisingly convincing case for the show’s status as an enduring television classic.

I’m very happy with the interview, and very thankful for Todd and Zack’s generosity with their time. You can check it out here, click the link below, or just play it from this post.

Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: monsters of the week, the x-files, todd vanderwerff, x-cast, x-files, zack handlen | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 3, Episode 19 (“Hell Money”)

Posted on October 12, 2018 by Darren

I’m back on The X-Cast this week, covering Hell Money with the great Carl Sweeney.

This is an interesting one. Everybody has their own personal underrated favourites, whether in film or on television or in any other media. Pieces of art on which we feel much more strongly than the consensus, and in which we see a bit more than our fellow audience members. In my case, this is true of quiet a few episodes of The X-Files, typically episodes that meet with a shrug from the collective audience, but with which I’ve fallen head-over-heels in love. Hell Money is one of those episodes.

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: bd wong, China, hell money, immigration, James Hong, Lucy Liu, the, x-files | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 3, Episode 17 (“Pusher”)

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Darren

I’m back on The X-Cast this week, to cover a very special episode. Pusher is host Tony Black’s favourite episode, and we recorded this close to his birthday. So no pressure, then.

Pusher has long been a favourite of mine as well, a crackerjack suspense-filled episode from the powerhouse team of writer Vince Gilligan and director Rob Bowman. It’s an episode that works very well both within the confines of The X-Files itself and beyond. Even more than Soft Light, it is an episode that informs a lot of Gilligan’s core themes and ideas going forward. There is a surprising amount of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul to be found in the episode, for example.

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: masculinity, pusher, Rob Bowman, robert patrick modell, the x-cast, the x-files, tony black, vince gilligan, x-cast | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 3, Episode 16 (“Apocrypha”)

Posted on September 21, 2018 by Darren

I’m back on The X-Cast this week, to cover the second-part of the late third-season mythology two-parter Apocrypha.

Picking up where Piper Maru left off, this conclusion finds Mulder and Scully continuing their separate investigations. Mulder is chasing down the missing tape from Anasazi, The Blessing Way and Paper Clip while Scully is dealing with the fallout from the assassination attempt on Assistant Director Walter Skinner that brings her face-to-face with the man who killed her sister. Justice, legacy and guilt are all major preoccupations, tying into the broader themes of the season as a whole.

Once again, a pleasure to substitute in for Tony Black as host of The X-Cast for an episode, and absolutely thrilled to be joined by the great Christopher Irish from The X-Files Lexicon.

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: apocrypha, christopher irish, conspiracy, Guilt, justic, legacy, mythology, the x-cast, the x-files, the x-files lexicon | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 3, Episode 15 (“Piper Maru”)

Posted on September 14, 2018 by Darren

Having recovered from the madness that was The X-Cast Live, The X-Cast is back to its regular schedule.

I’m subbing in for Tony this week to discuss the third season mythology episode Piper Maru, the first part of a late-season two-parter largely dealing with the fallout from the Anasazi, The Blessing Way and Paper Clip trilogy while also introducing the black oil into the mythology. I’m lucky enough to be joined by Christopher Irish from The X-Files Lexicon.

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: christopher irish, mythology, piper maru, the x-files, the x-files lexicon, x-files | Leave a comment »

Listen In To The X-Cast Live! All Day Saturday!

Posted on August 31, 2018 by Darren

That mad man Tony Black over at The X-Cast has done something completely crazy.

He is doing a twenty-four hour live X-Files podcast. However, it’s okay. He’s doing it for charity, to raise money and awareness for Alzheimer’s Society. You can still donate to the cause, which is very worthy of your support.

I’m thrilled to be joining Tony at a couple of points during the day. The full schedule is below, and Tony’s put together a fantastic line-up for a great cause. In the meantime, you can listen to the podcast at Mixlr. It will be kicking off at 9am BST and running straight through for twenty-four hours.

https://mixlr.com/the-x-cast/embedThe X-Cast is on Mixlr

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: charity, live, the x-cast, the x-files | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Stefan Petrucha on The X-Files Topps Comics (Season 2 & 3)

Posted on July 17, 2018 by Darren

This was fun.

Petrucha was the first writer to work on the X-Files tie-in comic books published by Topps, and he wrote the book through the second half of the second season and through most of the third, before departing the book. Working with artist Charles Adlard, Petrucha crafted some of the most ambitious and most exciting tie-in comics ever. Highlights include A Dismembrance of Things Past, Silent Cities of the Mind, Feelings of Unreality, Falling and Home of the Brave.

These were stories that were very much in the mould of what was being published by writers like Grant Morrison and Neil Gaiman over at the Vertigo imprint at DC comics around the same time, bold and ambitious narratives tackling big existential ideas within a genre framework. In some ways, the comic seemed to signal where the series would go in its fourth year; trepanning, militias, existential questions about overlapping realities.

I’m very happy with the interview, and very thankful for Stefan’s generosity with his time. You can check it out here, click the link below, or just play it from this post.

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Filed under: The X-Files | Tagged: comic books, Comics, gnosticism, Stefan Petrucha, the x-cast, Topps, vertigo | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 3, Episode 2 (“Paper Clip”)

Posted on June 8, 2018 by Darren

A real pleasure to re-team with Tony Black to round out our coverage of “the unopened file” on The X-Cast, following on from our discussions of Anasazi and The Blessing Way. And this time, it’s an even stronger line-up. The wonderful Chris Knowles is joins us for the discussion of the final part of the season-bridging trilogy.

As ever, a huge thrill to be a part of this. Anasazi, The Blessing Way and Paper Clip represent a landmark moment for The X-Files as a television show, and it’s been an honour to talk through those changes with Tony. However, Paper Clip is something special because it’s clear how much Chris loves this episode. There are few pleasures in life quite as satisfying as sitting down with somebody to talk about something they love.

I’ll be back on The X-Cast later in the season, to the point that I think the members of the Patreon may already have access to one of my own smaller side projects as part of the podcast. However, it was a delight to get to talk about three episodes that are so close to the core of what The X-Files is for a combined runtime of close to four hours.

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: america, anasazi, chris knowles, conspiracy, freudian, history, mytholgoy, nazis, paper clip, podcast, second world war, the unopened file, the x-files, tony black | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 3, Episode 1 (“The Blessing Way”)

Posted on June 1, 2018 by Darren

I was thrilled to join Tony Black to launch the third season of The X-Cast, a podcast taking a tour through Chris Carter’s The X-Files.

I’ve been lucky enough to guest on a number of episodes, including the one covering the second season finale, Anasazi. After finishing up the second season, Tony took a bit of a break to rush through a podwatch of the entire series; I was thrilled to be invited to take part in that, commenting on episodes from Aubrey to Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man to Never Again to The Post-Modern Prometheus to The Unnatural and beyond. It was a real pleasure to be a part of that. And to contribute to Tony’s coverage of the eleventh season, including the final two episodes, maybe forever, Nothing Lasts Forever and My Struggle IV.

However, with Tony having covered all of that, we jumped right back into the regularly scheduled coverage. It was an absolute pleasure to talk about The Blessing Way, which is the third season premiere. I’ve gone on record in the past as both being a tremendous fan of the third season as a whole, which I think is one of the best twenty-odd episode seasons of television ever produced. I’ve also been a bit skeptical of The Blessing Way at the same time. I hope I’m fair to it here, where I confess why it’s both one of my least favourite episodes of the season and something that I’m very glad exists in this form.

As even, Tony was a fantastic host, and we had a fun and wide-ranging discussion about everything from abstract concepts of “truth” to why we love the Well-Manicured Man so much to the recurring theme of mirroring and doubling that plays through this three-parter in particular and the X-Files in general. Check it out the episode here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: mythology, the blessing way, the unopened file, the x-cast, the x-files, tony black | Leave a comment »

May the Fourth Be With You! 25% “Opening The X-Files” at McFarland Books, May 4-11!

Posted on May 4, 2018 by Darren

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.

It has been described as “an informative and engrossing critical history of the series”, “one of the most confident, assured and enlightening reads on Chris Carter’s seminal show ever produced”, and “one of its essential texts.” To quote the great Jose Chung, I’m going to call those an unqualified rave!

You can visit the company’s website here. You can view all the books included in the offer here. You can order my book, Opening the X-Files, here.

All you need to need to do is just enter the code PopCulture25 when you reach the check-out. No muss, no fuss.

May the fourth be with you!