This February and March, we’re taking a trip back in time to review the fourth season of The X-Files and the first season of Millennium.
Leonard Betts is a big one. In fact, it may just be the biggest one.
Leonard Betts attracted the largest audience in the history of The X-Files, with almost thirty million people tuning in to watch the episode. This audience was largely carried over from Superbowl XXXI, but it arrived at a fortuitous moment for the series. The X-Files was exploding into the mainstream. Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz had spent Christmas 1996 in Hawaii plotting The X-Files: Fight the Future, a blockbuster movie based on the series. The week before, Mulder and Scully had paid a visit to Springfield in The Springfield Files.
What a waste…
The show’s moment had arrived. Leonard Betts makes for quite the moment. It might not be the best episode in the history of the show; it might not even be the best episode of the season. However, it ranks with Pusher as one of the great archetypal episodes of The X-Files. The show captures so much of what makes The X-Files great, almost perfectly distilling the appeal of the show into a tight forty-odd minute package. It is a beautifully-crafted piece of television that checks all of the right boxes. This is a pretty fantastic introduction to the show and its world.
Leonard Betts is an episode that has been put together with incredible skill, one that demonstrates why The X-Files had such an impact on the popular consciousness.
Comfortable in his skin…
Filed under: The X-Files | Tagged: cancer, cancer arc, frank spotnitz, john shiban, kim manners, leonard betts, memento mori, motherhood, never again, Paul McCrane, scully, the x-files, vince gilligan, x-files | Leave a comment »
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