I remember being all about this show as a kid. It was pretty cool and different. And it was approved by the household parental advisory committee: My mother. She loved it way more than me, to be honest. And I guess I had thing for Mulder that my pre-adolecent brain kinda dug, so something about his voice (I think) made me record an episode of this to a cassette tape. Reason being, while we had the means to record these episodes to VCR, sometimes I'd commit them to cassette tape too, so I could at least listen to the episode later. I also did it for movies I couldn't get copies of at the time. So I have a lot of this shit in my brain by sound alone. It's stupid, but a lot of people will tell you they can recite movies purely by the script alone. I'm one of those people.
The episode I happened to record was Eve. I did start to watch the show on SBS for free a while back. Until I saw an ad. And not just any old ad but an ad for my fucking job. And that was all it took. I cancelled my account, which actually involved sending a stroppy email to SBS to get it cancelled since there was no manual cancellation option.
Then I got Amazon Prime for reasons, and I might cancel later I don't know. But they happen to have it, and I only suffer through a preliminary ad for another Amazon show I can at least skip. I got a bit impatient trying to do a proper binge to get to this particular episode, I did record it off TV about ten or more years ago. But I haven't forgotten anything of the dialogue at all. Fun fact: I made myself look like the most obnoxious smart ass during a science lesson, where I paid no attention to the hot teacher asking the class how many chromosomes we have. So, people were guessing random numbers, and a not so particularly bright friend of mine said when asked, "I dunno, 1000?" I was reading a book or some shit so I didn't hear the question, but that was when I confirmed what we were guessing and said "46". Not only did the teacher look bummed out I had guessed her supposedly unguessable question, I actually went back to reading a book and not paying attention. One of the thousands of reasons I was hated at school, for just knowing random ass trivia that got me by as an average student. It probably pissed my teachers way more, especially considering I wasn't a top science student despite my dad being an actual science teacher, and I sucked at maths despite mother being a maths teacher.
Anyway, I thought X-Files was better than what I remembered, so watching the first eps I was like, wait wasn't this show far more brilliant? But watching this episode, I think this was when show found its stride. I'll go back and watch the other two I didn't finish after this, and I think I could keep going for a while. I really lost the thread by the end of high school, I can't remember specifically what happened other than I just wasn't into it. This episode is particularly good. The twin child actresses managed to pull off the diabolical looks and ingenue tricks without being to irritating. I have a lot of nostalgia for the music too, I would listen to this a lot on trips to Perth or driving around the city since I knew it'd kill time. But I see a nitpick of sorts. The agents agree to getting soda after Scully mentions the sweet flavor of the poison the girls use. Minor gripe. Plus Mulder could've shot the tires out when Cindy's kidnapped but whatever. The leads had that chemistry that really made the show popular and made them an iconic onscreen couple. I never fully agreed with them being romantically involved, even when the show creator was saying they loved one another I just wasn't buying it. And while I may have bought the movie soundtrack for that one Foo Fighters song (again, CDs were my only option if I wanted a song at the time), I didn't love the movie at all. I did later watch the episode where Mulder technically finds his sister, and another episode way after Robert Patrick was on and nobody (I can't verify that) was watching. The show did a good blend scientifically believable outcomes and "what if" open-ended plots. Since it all pivots around government conspiracies that turn out to be true it wouldn't gel for it not to have that element.
This show's definitely another victim of fan adoration overkill. The movies and subsequent six episode "return" weren't worth it, to me anyway. At least Kumail Nanjiani got a chance to be in an episode, which was fun but stuck out more in the new episodes since the previous two were heavy in the content around Mulder and Scully reuniting. We got shorter seasons out of it but I don't think they rated well enough. I think I had a copy of the comic first edition around somewhere, it was okay. I think being a hardcore fan would've sucked but any time there was a mention of a reboot I had to roll my eyes like I do with most shows, even the ones I either never liked or loved too much. (I'll save my Red Dwarf rant for another post).
I want to keep going with the thought it'll shake off its early 90s hokey feel. I got some momentary Goosebumps vibes. The tension's there but the special effects and some goofball acting. I do not remember any of these episodes, so now I'm thinking I wasn't that into it or I genuinely only saw them once. I'm sure this was scary in the way Twilight Zone was super scary back in the day, as that element isn't holding up. I think once the production improves and the scripts get more interesting it'll get better. I don't know if the first season didn't maintain a deliberate serial format until there was a clear run for the show. I'll stick it out since I wasn't committed to anything.
I forgot I never posted this. I couldn't make it past the gender bending episode. I haven't been back since, even when I considered skipping to later seasons. Nope. Done with this nonsense.
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