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New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 9, Episode 2 (“Nothing Important Happened Today II”)

Posted on February 25, 2023 by Darren

The X-Cast is covering the ninth season of The X-Files, which is – to put it generously – an interesting and uneven season of television in which the show seems uncertain of its own identity and purpose. The second half of the season premiere, Nothing Important Happened Today II, is an exemplar of that, and I was delighted to joing Carl Sweeney to talk about it on the podcast.

By all accounts, The X-Files probably should have ended with Existence, if not Requiem. However, the logic of television production made it very difficult for a network show at that time to gracefully bow out. The eight season had been a success, even though it felt like an ending. So a ninth season was commissioned, arriving into a world that had radically changed before the premiere was broadcast and without any clear sense of purpose or meaning. The results are uninspiring, but often fun to unpack.

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

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Filed under: The X-Files | Tagged: doggett, mulder, nothing important happened today, nothing important happened today ii, scully, season nine, super soldiers, the x-cast, the x-files, william | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 8, Episode 2 (“Without”)

Posted on April 19, 2022 by Darren

The X-Cast is covering the eighth season of The X-Files. This is one of my favourite seasons of television ever, in large part because it’s a season that manages to build a convincing narrative and character arc around a very challenging production reality, and in doing so forced the show itself to evolve and change. I’m thrilled to join Sarah L. Blair for a discussion of the second half of the season premiere.

Without is a very meditative piece of television, which is a bold and interesting choice for the second half of a season premiere. It is essentially an episode about absences, about the lack of resolution or even meaningful linear progress. It’s an episode that is about confronting the reality that The X-Files no longer has one of its two leading characters available to it. What does that version of The X-Files look like? Without is essentially a story about wandering through the desert.

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

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: Arc, doggett, Fox, mulder, Robert Patrick, sarah blair, scully, season, the x-cast, the x-files, without | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast X-Files Podwatch – Episode #96 (Trust no 1/John Doe)

Posted on December 24, 2017 by Darren

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 in the final season of the original series.

My final collaboration with the wonderful Baz Greenland finds us discussing the highs and lows of the season, the mythology-heavy Trust no 1 and the Doggett-driven John Doe. No points for guessing which is the high and which is the low.

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: baz greenland, doggett, john doe, mythology, Robert Patrick, terry o'quinn, the x-cast, the x-files, trust no 1 | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast X-Files Podwatch – Episode #84 (Patience/Roadrunners)

Posted on December 17, 2017 by Darren

The eight season of The X-Files had a two-part season premiere, so why shouldn’t the eighth season of The X-Cast X-Files Podwatch? Reteaming with the wonderful and gracious Tony Black, I’m taking a look at the third and fourth episodes of the eighth season, Patience and Roadrunners. One of them is very efficient and very well-made, while one of them is a genuine late-X-Files masterpiece.

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: bat boy, doggett, jesus slug, scully, slug, the x-cast, the x-files, tony black | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast X-Files Podwatch – Episode #83 (Within/Without)

Posted on December 16, 2017 by Darren

You’ll be seeing a lot of me in these final two seasons. I’ve made no secret of my deep abiding love for the eighth season of the show. So I was thrilled to get to discuss the season premier with Tony Black himself, the two-part Within and Without. The eighth season might just be my second-favourite season of the show, and it was a thrill to get to talk so much about it.

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: doggett, mulder, the x-cast, the x-files, tony black, within, without | Leave a comment »

The X-Files – Scary Monsters (Review)

Posted on December 24, 2015 by Darren

This December, we’re taking a trip back in time to review the ninth season of The X-Files.

Scary Monsters is the episode that was in production when The X-Files was cancelled.

Due to the fact that news broke to the public at roughly the same time that it broke to the production team and that the ninth season was fond of shuffling episodes up and down the broadcast order, Scary Monsters aired almost three months after the cancellation was announced to the public. However, the production team were informed while they were working on the episode. Given the low ratings and muted reaction to the ninth season, the cancellation seemed inevitable. Nevertheless, it was quite a blow.

Doggett’s burning down the house.

That is perhaps the most notable fact about Scary Monsters, which is a disappointingly bland episode of television. As with Underneath before it, this is not an embarrassing episode by any measure. It just lacks any real energy or verve. Watching Scary Monsters, there is a sense that the production team were going through the motions, that the reserve of energy that drove the show through its finest seasons had been depleted. The show was running on empty, the production team’s imaginations all but empty.

It feels like the show should have something smart or ironic to say about a kid who can conjure monsters from his own limited imagination. Sadly, it is just a rote monster of the week.

“Now I know how Mulder felt during the season eight credits…”

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Filed under: The X-Files | Tagged: doggett, fandom, imagination, it's a good life, kim manners, reyes, scary monsters, the x-files, tom schnauz | 7 Comments »

The X-Files – Audrey Pauley (Review)

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Darren

This December, we’re taking a trip back in time to review the ninth season of The X-Files.

One of the surprising aspects of the ninth season is just how strong the episodes centring on Doggett and Reyes are.

True, there are not necessarily too many “all-time classic” episodes to be found across the length and breadth of the ninth season; that is arguably true of every season since the sixth. The strongest episodes of the ninth season tend to be those focusing on the two new lead characters actually doing their jobs and navigating the weird world around them. 4-D, John Doe, Hellbound and Audrey Pauley rank among the very best that the ninth season has to offer. The biggest problem with the ninth season is the difficulty that the show has maintaining that level of quality.

Into the void…

The ninth season never manages any real consistency. It never commits to one vision of the show or the other. While the stronger episodes suggest that The X-Files might be ready to move on past Mulder and Scully to embrace Doggett and Reyes, the show always returns to insisting that Mulder is still the most important character on the show despite David Duchnovny’s reluctance to return. Nothing Important Happened Today I featured David Duchovny’s stunt butt before Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick or Annabeth Gish. That is the show’s priority.

This becomes particularly troublesome in the second half of the season. Steven Maeda seems to have a great deal of luck in his ninth season writing assignment, tackling episodes that wind up taking on a larger symbolic importance. 4-D was the first episode to be both produced and broadcast after the events of 9/11, due to scheduling choices that pushed Hellbound later into the season. Although Nothing Important Happened Today I was broadcast nearly two months after the attacks, the production team were actually working on Dæmonicus when news broke.

“Woops. Sorry. Wrong wall.”

Audrey Pauley winds up being the first episode to be produced and broadcast after the cancellation of The X-Files had been announced. The public had been informed of the cancellation between the broadcast of John Doe and Hellbound. The production team had found out while working on Scary Monsters. Due to scheduling choices, Scary Monsters had been pushed back later into the season and Audrey Pauley was aired first. Although it is quite likely Maeda was working on Audrey Pauley long before the cancellation, it still echoes through the work.

Audrey Pauley plays into some of Maeda’s core themes, suggesting alternate and pocket realities that navigate the void between life and death. As with 4-D, Audrey Pauley is very much a post-9/11 episode of The X-Files. However, it is also very much a post-cancellation episode of The X-Files.

Now, where have I seen this before?

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Filed under: The X-Files | Tagged: 9/11, cancellation, continuity, death, doggett, forgotten, limbo, reality, reyes, steven maeda, the x-files, undeath, x-files | 4 Comments »

The X-Files 104: Ten “Monster of the Week” Episodes (Seasons 6-9)

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Darren

Next week sees the release of The X-Files on blu ray for the first time, just over a month before the new six-episode series premieres on Fox in January. We’re running daily reviews of the show (and its spin-offs) between now and the end of the year, but we thought it might be worth compiling some guides for newer viewers who are looking to experience the length and breadth of what The X-Files has to offer. Every day this week, we’ll be publishing one quick list of recommended episodes every day, that should offer a good place to start for those looking to dive into the show.

Everything changed between the fifth and sixth seasons of The X-Files. The release of The X-Files: Fight the Future perhaps represented the peak of the show’s popularity, but the summer of 1998 saw the show moving its production from Vancouver to Los Angeles. This had a tremendous impact on how the show was produced; working in Los Angeles meant higher budgets, bigger guest stars and a completely different environment. Gone was the rainy atmosphere of Canada, replace with California sun. It was almost a new show.

xfiles-millennium37a

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Filed under: The X-Files | Tagged: doggett, mulder, scully, the x-files | Leave a comment »

The X-Files – 4-D (Review)

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Darren

This December, we’re taking a trip back in time to review the ninth season of The X-Files.

In many ways, the ninth season begins with 4-D.

This is perhaps the perfect point for an “alternate reality” episode. After all, The X-Files has undergone a transformation; the reality of the show has been fundamentally and impossibly altered. It might have the same title, it might have an opening sequence that somewhat resembles the old opening sequence, it might even have continuity of characters like Scully and Skinner. However, something has changed. This is not Mulder and Scully, but this is still The X-Files. The show has transitioned. The world has changed around it.

A close shave…

The first three episodes of the season – Nothing Important Happened Today I, Nothing Important Happened Today II, and Dæmonicus – were all produced before 9/11, even though they were broadcast two months after the attacks. (9/11 actually fell during the production of Dæmonicus, with shooting stopping for a day.) The fourth episode of the season, Hellbound, was pushed back deeper into the broadcast order. As such, 4-D was the first episode to be both produced and aired after 9/11.

Appropriately enough, that means that 4-D exists in a different world than the episodes directly preceding it. It has been remarked that the events of 9/11 represented a break in cultural continuity, a line by which history might (relatively cleanly) be divided. There was the world “before 9/11” and “after 9/11.” Although the worlds might look quite similar – and even identical, in many cases – they should not be confused. The world is not as it was. Reality has come undone.

Well, Doggett could always make it as a stand-up comedian.

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Filed under: The X-Files | Tagged: 4-d, 4d, 9/11, doggett, image, mediated reality, parallel universe, reality, reyes, serial killer, steven maeda, the x-files, x-files | 8 Comments »

The X-Files – Dæmonicus (Review)

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Darren

This December, we’re taking a trip back in time to review the ninth season of The X-Files.

Dæmonicus is the first “monster of the week” episode of the ninth season.

This is important, particularly following on from two particularly limp introductory mythology episodes. After all, The X-Files amounts to more than just its mythology; problems with the mythology are less of a problem when they are surrounded by strong standalone episodes. Tunguska and Terma arrived as messy mythology episodes at the peak of the show’s popularity, but nobody was too bothered because they were surrounded by standalone episodes like Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man or Paper Hearts.

The devil inside…

So the show can probably withstand the hit of Nothing Important Happened Today I and Nothing Important Happened Today II. After all, the third season opened with The Blessing Way and the fifth season opened with Redux I, with both of those seasons standing among the best seasons that the show ever produced. (That said, it helps that the second episodes of those seasons – Paper Clip and Redux II – were much stronger.) There is still a chance to salvage things here. The ninth season is down, but don’t count it out yet.

Dæmonicus could really turn things around, right?