Sep. 17th, 2015 09:41 pm
We bury our dead alive.
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chicafrom3Alternate post titles: I've heard the truth, Mulder. Now what I want are the answers. or, It's not yet the finely detailed insanity that you've come to expect from me, it's just a theory. This is a very quotable season.
Season three, and the writers are getting more comfortable with What The X-Files Is.
The Blessing Way and Paper Clip don't quite live up to the promise of Anasazi, but they're still good episodes. Mulder's family is completely screwed up and it's confirmed that they've been that way since well before they lost a kid. (To William Mulder's conspiracy. Because if there's one thing more guaranteed to rip a family apart than losing a kid, it's losing a kid because a guy had to sacrifice one for his job and when his wife refused to choose between her children he picked one instead.) Meanwhile, Scully's family is starting to pay the cost of her involvement; Maggie Scully did not sign up for this, okay. And Krycek rips himself loose of the conspiracy and threatens the Cigarette-Smoking Man in what is one of my favorite scenes ever. "I'll make you a very, very famous man."
In general, season three is when the writers become comfortable enough with the formula to start shaking it up and poking at it, resulting in four of the series's best and most bizarre episodes: Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, War Of The Coprophages, Syzygy, and Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'. It also gives us several solid, classic X-Files that don't poke at the formula but embrace it -- Grotesque is a personal favorite, Oubliette, Pusher, and Wetwired are all fab. Even though Wetwired is basically a Blood retread. WHO CARES IT'S GREAT SCULLY TRIES TO SHOOT MULDER.
Although as great as War Of The Coprophages is (and it is REALLY REALLY GREAT, it's an episode that looks at what makes an X-Files episode and deliberately subverts it all, even subverting its own subversion) it's a really difficult episode for me to watch. Urgh, cockroaches. Bambi's pretty great though, which you maybe wouldn't expect from an entomologist named Bambi who flirts with Mulder.
Season three also has a pretty good selection of conspiracy/mytharc episodes. Okay, Piper Maru is kind of a mess but Apocrypha gets it back under control, and meanwhile you've got The Blessing Way/Paper Clip, Nisei/731, and Talitha Cumi.
On the other hand, the lows are incredibly low: 2Shy, Teso Dos Bichos, Hell Money...
On to season four!
Season three, and the writers are getting more comfortable with What The X-Files Is.
The Blessing Way and Paper Clip don't quite live up to the promise of Anasazi, but they're still good episodes. Mulder's family is completely screwed up and it's confirmed that they've been that way since well before they lost a kid. (To William Mulder's conspiracy. Because if there's one thing more guaranteed to rip a family apart than losing a kid, it's losing a kid because a guy had to sacrifice one for his job and when his wife refused to choose between her children he picked one instead.) Meanwhile, Scully's family is starting to pay the cost of her involvement; Maggie Scully did not sign up for this, okay. And Krycek rips himself loose of the conspiracy and threatens the Cigarette-Smoking Man in what is one of my favorite scenes ever. "I'll make you a very, very famous man."
In general, season three is when the writers become comfortable enough with the formula to start shaking it up and poking at it, resulting in four of the series's best and most bizarre episodes: Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, War Of The Coprophages, Syzygy, and Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'. It also gives us several solid, classic X-Files that don't poke at the formula but embrace it -- Grotesque is a personal favorite, Oubliette, Pusher, and Wetwired are all fab. Even though Wetwired is basically a Blood retread. WHO CARES IT'S GREAT SCULLY TRIES TO SHOOT MULDER.
Although as great as War Of The Coprophages is (and it is REALLY REALLY GREAT, it's an episode that looks at what makes an X-Files episode and deliberately subverts it all, even subverting its own subversion) it's a really difficult episode for me to watch. Urgh, cockroaches. Bambi's pretty great though, which you maybe wouldn't expect from an entomologist named Bambi who flirts with Mulder.
Season three also has a pretty good selection of conspiracy/mytharc episodes. Okay, Piper Maru is kind of a mess but Apocrypha gets it back under control, and meanwhile you've got The Blessing Way/Paper Clip, Nisei/731, and Talitha Cumi.
On the other hand, the lows are incredibly low: 2Shy, Teso Dos Bichos, Hell Money...
On to season four!
