A Review of "The X-Files" (season 2)

Welcome back. Well we reviewed the first season of The X-Files last weekend and I'm happy (and sad) to say that in that week's time, I've finished the second season. The second season of The X-Files saw more mythological development, and more emphasis was put on introducing its side characters and future "plot twist" characters than it was its typical "Monster of the Week" setting.

The mythology arc continues in season two with the X-Files having been closed at the very end of the first season. Mulder and Scully are now working different projects and the two barely see each other in the FBI offices. Once spooky happenings start again, Mulder springs his paranoid behind into action and starts making his way to these crime scenes to investigate them. This includes getting assigned a new partner in the mysterious but determine Alex Krycek, Mulder moves to prove the truth of alien existence on planet Earth with Krycek's help. But this "Alex Krycek" is not all that he seems, eventually betraying Mulder and disappearing from the Bureau after a few episodes.

The Flukeman in "The Host"

Season two also sees the introduction of perhaps my second-favorite character on the show, after Mulder. FBI Assistant (or Deputy) Director Walter Skinner. Skinner is a fucking badass in every scene he's in. He's cool because you see him become an ally to Scully and especially to Mulder in their crusade to prove the truth. He is shown to have conversations with the Cigarette Smoking Man, but is also shown in a couple episodes to be very distrusting of him and his agenda. He allies himself with Mulder in a few episodes, one by even providing the CSM's home address so Mulder can interrogate him as to Scully's whereabouts. Skinner also is noted for just how many times in one given scene he utters "Agent Mulder" under his breath. There were episodes in season two where Skinner was in it for about three minutes and must've said "Agent Mulder" seven times. Still though, Skinner is cool. You get to really love Walter Skinner and his presence as a confidant to Mulder and Scully and that they can have such a high-ranking friend in the Bureau to aid them in their cause.

To replace Mulder's informant Deep Throat, there's a new character who was introduced in season two that seemed pretty wishy-washy in terms of quality. Simply called "X", he's a man who appears to Mulder in strange and unforeseen circumstances to present Mulder with insider information as to the secretive hi-jinks going on in the government. The difference between Deep Throat and X is that X hardly does provide Mulder with any hard evidence or insider knowledge. X moreso speaks with vague speeches that somehow lead Mulder and Scully to the right path and get them closer than ever to learning the truth.

There's also a mythology episode where Mulder's long-lost sister, Samantha Mulder, whose disappearance provoked Mulder to join the Bureau in the first place, returns home and just sort of rejoins her old home life. Alas, it was just another trick. Samantha was just a clone of a number of Samantha's that were made in a laboratory. Mulder's trust and determination in finding the truth waivers as he debates with himself over whether or not it was his real sister Samantha, or if the clones of Samantha are being made, where she might be held. Someone assures Mulder that she is "alive", which is the closest thus far we know of Samantha's whereabouts.

One of the vampires in "3"

As for the "Monster of the Week" episodes, the ones that take a break from the Mythology arc, they're pretty tame and not very memorable, as a whole. There's a few this season that are pretty good. My favorite is "Die Hand Die Verletzt", an episode that sees Mulder and Scully investigate a homicide where they find that the school's faculty are devil worshippers who commit atrocities with one of the worshipper's daughter. There even is a creepy older woman who's more evil than all of them and commits horrific acts through the use of voodoo. There's a particularly creepy scene where she's controlling a python that's crawling down some stairs. The music goes quiet and all you can hear is the sound effect of a man whimpering as a python inches closer to him as it comes down the stairs. Pretty intense stuff, especially for it being a TV show. Other "Monster of the Week" episodes from season two that were pretty good were:

• Humbug: Mulder and Scully investigate a series of vicious killings in a Florida town filled with circus sideshow freak performers
• 3: Mulder, alone, investigates the attacks and murders seemingly done by a group of vampires.
• Excelsis Dei: Mulder and Scully investigate a rape and attack on a nurse in a nursing home that the elderly residents say was done by ghosts of deceased residents.
• Død Kalm: Mulder and Scully find a missing Naval destroyer in the midst of the Norwegian Sea. There Mulder and Scully, like the men who were rescued from it, begin to age rapidly in a matter of a couple days.
• The Host: Mulder alone investigates the killings in the sewer done by a man-sized fluke fish who deposits eggs in its victims that erupt from their victims.
• Our Town: Mulder and Scully investigate two deaths in an Arkansas town where the inhabitants appear to be cannibals, killing each other for food.

The Alligator man enjoys a fish in "Humbug"

One last thing to note is how much the middle of the season is fixated on Mulder. Scully gets abducted by a homicidal madman that Mulder tries to reason with in the episode "Duane Barry", called (surprise) Duane Barry. Duane takes Scully away and she actually disappears for one or two episodes, in which Mulder tries to either find her location or go on a "monster of the week" hunt. She returns in the Mythology episode "One Breath" where she mysteriously is dropped off at a hospital and put on a respirator. Much of this was because of Gillian Anderson's pregnancy, but the solo Mulder stuff is always good. It's why the first X-Files movie, appropriately titled The X-Files, is so good. The stuff where it's just Mulder is so much fun and intense. This is of course not to harp on Scully's presence in the series, I'm just saying Mulder's determination and will to take risks is unmatched by anyone. David Duchovny has quite a grasp on this character, truly.

Overall, season two of The X-Files is pretty solid, though it isn't has memorable as season one, in my opinion. The mythology episodes raise the stakes and push the limits to what Mulder and Scully will and won't do to find the truth. The bar for them goes up as the search becomes more intense, the risks greater and the Lone Gunmen even get involved on a few of them. Also some of my favorite characters. Where the season kind of loses traction is its 'Monster of the week' episodes, which while most of them are at least decent, they just don't have the same memorable sparks that the first season's did. The plots were spooky enough and the characters were well-acted, however they just weren't as memorable as the first season classics, such as "Ice", "Squeeze", "Shapes" and "Born Again". Still, it's a pretty stellar season. We'll see what season three has to offer once I start it.

A Review of "The Walking Dead" (season 1)

Bonjour. Welcome back to my funhouse of pain. Or painhouse of fun. One of the two, anyway.

Today, I'm going to take a look at the first season of the hit AMC TV show The Walking Dead. Now this is a show that's been on the air since I was a senior in high school, aka "what feels like a long time ago, but really wasn't". It debuted Halloween of 2010 with a short, six-episode first season that was pretty much stellar, and I'm here to take you through each episode briefly and provide feedback, plus a whole season review, plus my own two cents...as usual.

The Walking Dead is based off of a popular comic book series that debuted all the way back in 2003. It follows Rick Grimes as he suffers a near-fatal gunshot wound, falls into a coma, only to wake up in a post-apocalyptic world surrounded by zombies. His family's missing and so begins the quest to find them and reunite. Both the show and the comic start off with basically the same premise, only they both take it in different, similar-feeling directions. I can remember hearing about the premiere episode from my peers and hearing nothing but insanely good things, so I did the only logical thing I could think of...I ignored the show and waited until it was about three seasons in to start watching it for myself. Smart, right? Anywho, let's dive in.

Episode 1: "Days Gone By". Rick Grimes, our protagonist, finds a random zombie girl whilst searching for gasoline. She chases him, but he kills her. Interesting enough to keep me entertained. Come back from opening, we see Rick and his buddy Shane Walsh chase two guys down on the highway and corner them with guns. A man springs out of the car and shoots Rick while he's not looking, sending Rick into an injury-induced coma. Rick awakens and finds that the world is radically different, and that everyone's a flesh-eating monster with rotting flesh, bad dental hygiene, smelly clothes and ugly faces. Rick is captured by two living beings, Morgan and his son Duane. Rick takes them to the police station, let's them take showers and have guns. While Morgan struggles to shoot his undead wife, Rick ventures into Atlanta and finds that city completely overrun with the undead. He corners himself in a tank (like a goof) and a voice calls to him on the radio asking if "he's comfortable in there".

Episode 2: "Guts". The voice on the radio is revealed to be Glenn, a pizza delivery boy with an attitude. He navigates Rick out of the herd of "walkers" (get used to that word) and leads him to regroup with his other friends, with so many colorful characters (that is of course a notion of personality diversity, not ethnic appearance). Andrea, the blonde bitch. Morales is the good guy who turns evil by season eight. The most colorful one of them all is Merle Dixon, played by "Rowdy Burns" from Days of Thunder. Merle tough talks everyone and basically votes himself leader because he's the one with a gun, but Rick overpowers him and literally handcuffs him to the roof. With Merle detained and walkers bearing down on them since Rick loves to fire guns and cause chaos, Rick and the others hatch a hair-brained scheme to dress themselves up in guts and sneak toward a truck big enough to carry them all out of town. The plan works and they leave Merle to die on the roof because T-Dog, who had beef with Merle earlier, hastily trip and drops the key down a pipe on the roof...

Episode 3: "Tell it to the Frogs". Rick is taken by the others to their camp, found to house his wife Lori, his son Carl (or "Coral" if you ask Andrew Lincoln's British accent) and his partner and best friend Shane. Shane has mixed feelings after this, as it now means he can no longer pork Lori thinking that Rick is dead. After the reunion, Rick tells Shane that he left a bag of guns in Atlanta that could prove useful. Plus, they find Daryl Dixon, Merle's little brother, and inform him that they left Merle on the roof. Daryl, along with Rick, T-Dog and Glenn, lead an expedition back into Atlanta to find Merle and Rick's bag of guns. There, they find Merle's sawn off hand and Merle missing. Daryl descends into weird wailing on the roof in angry tears.

Episode 4: "Vatos". Rick and company follows Merle's trail into a building and through a street where they find Rick's bag of guns. They decide to go after it, but a group of Latinos intervene and take Glenn in the confusion. Rick manages to make off with his guns and a member of the Latino gang, which Daryl interrogates. Rick decides to have a prisoner exchange, the Latino kid for Glenn. When talks break down over the bag of guns, Rick saddles up, locks n' loads, and returns to shoot up the gang and take Glenn back. Just before chaos and bloodshed break out, an elderly woman intervenes and breaks up the violence. Rick and them learn that the Latino gang is really a group of nurses who take care of abandoned retirees. Rick leaves them the bag of guns and ventures back to the group, finding a walker horde attacking.

Episode 5: "Wildfire". Rick and the others help defend from the camp, but at a heavy loss. Carol's husband Ed is killed, as is Andrea's sister Amy. Jim is found to be bitten, but doesn't fess up to it right away. The group debates what to do about both Jim and the grieving Andrea. As Amy reanimates, Andrea puts a bullet in her head to put her out of her misery. The group, against Shane's wishes, sets out for the CDC, seeing their current location as no longer safe. With Jim dying, they leave him on the side of the road and continue onward. They arrive at the CDC and demand entry as walkers bear down on them. At the last possible second, the door opens to the CDC and Rick and his group enter. There, they find a bewildered and exhausted Edwin Jenner, the last doctor inside.

Episode 6: "TS-19". Inside the CDC, Jenner introduces them to some inside intel as to what the sickness is and what it does to the human brain. He also provides them with a feast and alcohol, both of which they haven't had in a long time, as well as hot showers and rooms to sleep in. As life continues, the group thinks they can remain safe inside the CDC forever. However, Vi (the control computer) starts shutting down systems and prioritizing its power usage. Jenner explains that Vi will soon set the air on fire to decontaminate the entire building (basically explode). Rick and company then spend the next ten minutes fighting with Jenner to let them out and let them have a fighting chance. Jenner concedes, but Andrea refuses to go. Dale stays behind with her, so she agrees to leave with him so that he doesn't die. The group escapes the CDC as it explodes.

As far as my favorite characters go, I prefer Shane for his no-holds-barred attitude on the whole outbreak. Regardless of his crazy nature and how dangerous he was with certain things (or how dangerous he was going to be) Shane Walsh is a guy you would want on your zombie apocalypse survival team. The guy who knows hot to put a walker down with no remorse, no matter what. Rick is a tad overrated. He would, in later seasons, turn into a Shane-esque vengeful killer that took no prisoners, but even then he showed remorse for some of the things he did. Shane was just all balls, all fury, no rules. He almost even shot Rick behind his back when Rick came back, as Shane and Lori (Rick's wife) were sleeping together while they thought Rick was dead. So that must've been pretty awkward. I would also have to say Glenn is up there for me. I was genuinely sad to see Glenn go in season seven when Negan bashed his head in, but this first season Glenn was a pretty funny guy to have around. He was fast, agile and knew his way around town so that he made a very valiant cohort for Rick and the gang.

I've found the joy behind Daryl to be pretty well-earned. I used to think he was overrated, but I've lightened up on it. Daryl's pretty cool. Not a whole lot more to say that hasn't already been said. I find Lori to be pretty useless, but she's not exactly a 'damsel in distress' type either, she's somewhere in the middle. Dale, the older man with the RV, is pretty cool. In the first season he's that way, but in season two he loses traction with his constant whining. I enjoyed Morales, and even though he would later return as a bad guy in season eight, here he's a cool guy to have around.

See that? Short but sweet. The first season of The Walking Dead, in my opinion, is the one that feels the most "zombie apocalypse", as later seasons would develop more into a human-versus-human aspect and kind of lose sight of the whole "let's fight walkers" thing. It turns into a human warfare with zombies being the background ambience characters. As George Romero, aka "Mr. Zombie" used to say: "It's just a soap opera with an occasional zombie thrown in". Plus the later seasons get confusing with their usage of gasoline even though gasoline should be bad and unusable by that point, but hey its just a TV show. I like how this started a whole "zombie apocalypse" craze where people actually wanted this to happen. People were so fascinated by the aspect of bouncing from place to place fighting zombies and staying alive through extreme measures. It was a weird time to be alive. As for the first season though, it's still got a lot of rewatch value. Give it a try if you haven't. You're guaranteed to at least enjoy the first season.

A Review of "The X-Files" (season 1)

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