found_drama

Take Philip K. Dick
mix well with ice cream and nuts
top with saccharine.

Coming off the heels of Season Three, the fourth season of The X-Files is a bit of a strange animal.  Whereas Season Three took a lot of chances with the narrative and let itself unpredictably intersperse humor throughout, Season Four seemed a return to the the otherwise dark and heavy subject matter that was more characteristic of Season Two.

Which is not to say that this season was without its humorous moments¹ but it did not let its hair down in the same way the Season Three did.

That being said, Season Four is arguably a definitive one for the Series, perhaps more so than even the landmark first season.  Many of the plot threads from the past 73 episodes come together in these twenty-four.  And while most go unresolved in a fashion that characterizes the Series, the writer perform well overall, striving — and almost managing — to make every minute count.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Intentional or otherwise.[↩]

After the thrilling, cliffhanger ending to Season Two, A. and I were more than ready to get to the next developments in the series.  Too bad we had a “Very Long Wait” ahead of us in the rental queue¹.  It was worth the wait though.  The writers for Season Three have found their stride and the actors are thoroughly in character, delivering strong performances all around.  If there was a central theme in Season Two², I am not finding the same centralized scaffolding for Season Three.  That said, for as bleak and dark as Season Two got, Season Three seems to respond with a reprieve — an equal mix of “serious” episodes balanced by vaguely self-parodic episodes. Read the rest of this entry »

1. Not to mention the “tease” when we had Disc One of Season Four shipped to us well ahead of time…[↩]
2. Recall my write-up of Season Two and how nearly every episode somehow dealt with “the frontiers of life and death”.[↩]

As I mentioned in my discussion of Season One, it has been about ten years since I have seen The X-Files; and as I mentioned there, the series seems to have held up well over time. Happy coincidences seem to have us re-watching these almost as if in preparation for a coming film sequel.

Settling in to watch Season Two, it’s easy to find yourself tempted to skip entire episodes (e.g., “The Host”) and just focus on that central “Mythology” plot. However, it’s worth noting that there is a great deal of character development and exegesis on the milieu that takes place outside of those “core” episodes. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what to discard and what to keep. But part of you will no doubt know; and part of you will squirm through it.

One thing is for certain, Season Two opens without missing a beat. Read the rest of this entry »

About 10 years has elapsed since the last time I saw an X-Files episode. While I would not say that I watched it religiously during high school, it was certainly a favorite. Who but Chris Carter was doing anything interesting on TV during the 1990s? It was somewhat amazing to me that Fox — the same network that had killed Profit and would later kill Firefly — could have such a winner on its hands and not screw it up. A. & I recently grabbed the DVDs of the first season to watch some X-Files — partly out of nostalgia and partly out of a sense of “we seem to have run out of TV series DVDs to watch”. Some comments, notes, remarks, and thoughts about the first season:¹ Read the rest of this entry »

1. The intro and the reviews of the first three episodes first appeared on this site on Feb. 9, 2008; the reviews of episodes four through eight appeared here on Feb. 23, 2008. Midway through this process, I changed my mind and decided to do one big post with all of the reviews instead of breaking them. The courteous thing to do seemed to be to re-publish those reviews here.[↩]

Script was a project
with Gondry at film school, right?
Oddly Hindu close.

Kind of an art house
“Office Space”; Plebeian coup!
But not as funny.

I wanted to like this one. I really did. The opening scene was so strong — it was such a great setup that seemed a bit… Wasted? The film seemed a bit unfocused to me; like it could have been a really strong short film if it had focused entirely on Tom. Instead it seemed to veer all over the place, trying to pull in meaningful side-stories from some of the supporting characters. But I just wasn’t feeling it.

Which (contrary to what I’m suggesting) is not to say that I didn’t like Waydowntown. Like I mentioned, the opening narration is a great setup¹ with a clever monologue and some interesting images. There are also a few other scenes that work really well — all of them centered around Tom (the central character). The way it weaved in/out of his reality and hallucinated fantasy worlds had a lot unrealized potential and this really could have been improved in one of two ways: (1) cutting out some of the other, clumsier scenes to focus on “Tom’s world”; or (2) expanding the film’s scope a bit to tie things together a bit more effectively.

In summary? It came close to being “great” but will have to settle for being “good”.

BONUS ROUND: Compare/contrast with Haiku Tunnel:

Film: “Office Space” meets
“Curb Your Enthusiasm”;
good, funny, “at times”.

1. …for the movie we didn’t actually get…[↩]

“That’s not how it starts!”
A faithful adaptation.
“That’s not how it ends!”

Shark attack! Panic!
We depend on summer beach
tourism, jack ass.

I think I was probably nine years old the last time I saw Jaws. Certainly, I was far too young to appreciate the fascinating sub-text of “hard science” (Richard Dreyfuss’ Dr. Matt Hooper) versus “conventional wisdom” (Robert Shaw’s Quint). The struggle is an intense one that I never caught before and have never really heard anyone else discuss¹. This whole conflict seems to start with Quint’s introduction and plays out mostly through Chief Brody’s attempts to come to terms with how best to handle the town’s situation vis a vis The Shark. But man does that clash really come to light when the Hooper and Quint compare scars on the boat. We have a nice build with respect to the tension between them but it really pops to the surface with Quint’s rambling about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis:

June the 29th, 1945. 1100 men go into the water, 335 come out. Sharks took the rest. But we delivered the bomb.²

Wow. That’s pretty intense. If you break it down in a scene-by-scene manner, you can see the macho bravado shining through. Even our sensible and sane and scientific Hooper goes to great lengths to impress Quint with his strength and seamanship. Naturally, Quint is unimpressed; after all, it’s not what you know or what you claim to be capable of, it’s what I’ve seen you do. (But this is strictly between Hooper and Quint.) But when they’re comparing scars and this nugget comes out about the Indianapolis and how “we delivered the bomb” — well, that just sums it all up.

1. Not that I’ve really discussed Jaws with anyone in… Well… Probably ever.[↩]
2. I’ve come to discover (however) that this is a paraphrasing of a passage from Doug Stanton’s In Harm’s Way.[↩]

Doom! Doom! No children
born in twenty years; of course
despair will follow.

I feel like the last person on Earth to have seen this but:

Terrifying film.  Gut wrenchingly emotional and suspenseful.  Had trouble sleeping last night; really, really got to me.  Adam hit it on the head when we chatted about it this afternoon: “They really nailed it — what the world would break down into if there was a 20 year plague of infertility.”  And that was what was most interesting and clever here; it wasn’t 28 Days Later style rampant zombie-ism or the other sci-fi plagues we expect where everyone is dying.  Nope — it’s “just” that no one can be born.  And so everyone gives up, eh?  The utter nihilistic despair that follows is overwhelming, crushing.

The film was incredibly powerful.  This definitely goes on one of those “best ever” lists.  Just awesome.

If you haven’t seen it:  What is wrong with you?

currently playing: Breeder “Carnival XIII”