Reviews

I can't quite bring myself to think of having 'favourites' from season nine (mainly because even in fun eps they still don't know what to do with the three-agents dynamic and usually end up with Scully as a third wheel). But this is OK.

The good:

• It's nice that D's ex-wife still seems to really care about him, but it's a bit random to tell his co-worker (who you've only just met) who he should date. I found this kind-of funny (in face I lmao).

• Closure for D.

• Thought RP's real-life wife was pretty good in this.

• Liked the character of the forensics/trainee agent. Would have enjoyed more of him in a better ep. Would have enjoyed him being in the rest of the ep.

• Cool that D was going to kill, but I'm glad he didn't.

• great acting when D is hoping his ex will make the ID.

The less good:

• On the D & R note: can't we go one ep without pushing their romance (why can't it just be about D's son?). If you have to keep having characters TELLING us, then it doesn't work.

• Didn't buy the Brad Follmer thing: it was out of the blue that he happened to be linked to Luke's disappearance, but I would have bought it if he was the meddling bad-ish guy were promised he would be at the start of season nine. This was something I looked forward to but it never materialised.

• Not enough Scully.

• Didn't believe forensics/trainee agent would have to gone to all that effort to get his lead heard. D might have believed him if he'd brought evidence about other cases, but if f/ta brought it to R she'd have believed him no question (she'd have had feelings about it).

• Follmer mob-money thing out of nowhere as hadn't previously had this impression of the type of 'bad-guy' he is.

An OK ep, but considering it brought closure to one of the characters, should have been one of the best.

This is another season eight ep I completely enjoyed.

-So happy when I saw the teaser and the return of the black oil.

-Love the way the M & D team-up is handled. Both characters'' behaviour is understandable and neither is the 'bad guy'. Easy to emphasise with both sides.

• Mulder's first thought is that they're sending a heavily pregnant woman. lol

• Ha: M got there first. Feel sorry for D.

• great bickering. Agree about earlier poster's comment about a 'buddy' dynamic

-Sad when M is leaving.

9/10 (would prefer to give 8.5: marks off for odd behaviour of black oil)

Overall I enjoyed this much more at the start of the episode where you have the mystery, than when it's solved and you know how they survive. The truck stuff and lack of thought behind the memory-vampire spoilt things a bit.

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Good:

• cinematography.

• Love the shoe. That shoe deserves a best supporting actor award (at least until they invent an award for best prop use).

• re: the shoe. It's moving that under the circumstances D would want to hold onto the only things he had. Shows his character.

• several great one-liners (already mentioned by others).

• Yay the acting of Robert Patrick.

• acting from everyone in Mexico very good.

• surprised D would back out of a deal.

• gun taking awesome

• good that because R can speak Spanish she actually does something in this ep. The scene with her and the lawyer makes her look like a capable useful agent.

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not so good:

• Would like a bit more Scully and a little less R. Mostly because I think the D-remembering-scene would have a more interesting dynamic with S(and R does spoil the moment by yelling at him). It'd be interesting to see how S would handle that moment, and we wouldn't have the R + D romance hanging over things.

• plot contrivances

• lack of detail on case D originally investigating.

This episode gets serious nostalgia points. Along with Squeeze and Ice, it's one of the few I remember from the one/two x-files seasons I watched when the show aired.

There's still a lot I really enjoyed, but I was stunned how bad some things were.

The good:

• fire power awesome. + like that he has to use an accelerent, makes things more difficult.

-Phoebe Green. Entertaining, but defiantly unprofessional to an extent that should get her fired.

• laced cough syrup genuinely disturbing + death.

• says something about M that he's initially interested in Phoebe even though she's clearly a manipulator.

The not so good:

• The Englishness. Oh, man. That gets me right in my stiff-upper-lip.

• confusing motives of killer.

• convenient fire phobia. would be fine with this if it ever came up again (although I can't remember M having to deal with fire at any later point- opportunity).

As for the faces-from-the-past-coming-back thing, I sort of like it. It's the kind of thing that could have added more to the show if it had been done better. If some of the people we saw in season one re-appeared later, we'd get an extra element to M and S the FBI outsiders: how friends think they should behave, cases from unusual sources, cases already considered solved or not considered x-files.

7/10

Looking at all four movies it's difficult to decide which is the most disappointing, but I think it's this.

Like the other three movies, Wild Green Yonder is confusing and more interested in cramming zany ideas into a rambling plot than being funny, but at least the others had an *actual* ending.

Presumably the main problems come from trying to make WGY (and the other movies) a story as both one movie and three episodes. Family guy did this better, and after the terrible first movies the writers should have looked there.

I was thrilled when I heard there was going to be more Futurama, now I'm hoping it's over.

It's really difficult to say why you don't find something funny, just that you don't. Maybe it's that the number theory (the way it's used in the show) doesn't have enough thought/detail behind it for me. Maybe it's that I find Burt R makes everything he's in feel over the top, and don't like this feel in x-files. Anyway, I was surprised Improbable is rated so high.

Stuff I did like:

• The numerology description of Doggett and his response (funny).

• S and R pairing. Nice dynamic + they work well together. Would have enjoyed more of this in season nine.

• Because of S and R pairing, there's no pushing the R and D romance because they're not together much. Pushing R and D has made enjoyable episodes less enjoyable. - interesting teaser. - numerologist realising it's her.

• liked dour task-force guy- good for them to have someone to play off.

• the basic theory is really interesting.

Stuff I have no idea if I love or hate:

• Burt.

• R embarrassing herself by telling her theory to the task-force. It was funny but would see throw away a career opportunity by telling in that way.

• reusing some of the numbers for different theories about the murderer (and his MO) i.e. 6 or 9 on the board.

Stuff that annoyed me:

• the music. The music set a tone that said you should find this episode hilariously light-hearted, and if you don't then it's quite annoying.

• Burt's motives. He helps R and S in the car park but not any other time. Why bother? Why do anything?

• Some events were too silly for me.

No doubt it's destiny that I'm giving this a 6.

******SPOILERS FOR THIS AND BADLAA******

I started liking Doggett from this episode because Scully was slightly (understandably) mean to him. The slow building of their dynamic is one of the best ways of introducing a new character i've ever seen.

The good:

• continuing the slow build on D and S. Not friendly too quickly. Very well handled.

• Love the look Scully gives *Doggett and friends* at the start.

• welcome return of the rest-of-the-FBI-thinks-your-department-is-crazy thing. I know most people didn't seem to like this much but I missed it when they stopped doing it after season two. I also missed Spooky references.

• Yay horror episode.

• 'Agent Doggett is recently assigned' LOL.

• lots of small funny moments.

• Good to see Doggett with the normal cops because that's what he is.

• Doggett sticking up for Scully even though he doesn't agree with her (but would have liked to hear what he actually said).

• liked the beginning of Scully trying to be the believer. If someone had told me Scully was going to be the believer of the show I wouldn't have thought it'd work, but she's clearly struggling and her motives for trying are believable. It helps that this comes up again later in the season (Badlaa) in a convincing way that shows it still bothers her, while not beating me over the head with it.

• Doggett laughs at 'terminal loneliness'. Nice moment for them.

• well crafted episode that brings us full circle back to Mulder's office.

other:

• Bat monster not as science-y as it could be (but this isn't actually a problem because the episode is really about D and S). Scully trying to convince D would have been a good excuse for more of this (and in season eight in general).

• Lynch mob a bit full-on: they are cops after all.

Would give 8.5/10 if possible.

the good:

• William story line concluded.

• episode warned us where it was going so I wasn't too upset when William was given away.

• clear overall thread. - poor Doggett: he's always ending up on the floor (and there's always other people making use of his office). - nice to see the Lone Gunmen and their situation.

the not so good:

• would have preferred Scully to keep William (I guess this is subjective but I didn't see why she couldn't, and, for characters I like, i don't want things to always get continually worst).

• the 'maybe it's Mulder' thing. When looking at that guy (especially considering what he'd done so far) 'maybe he's Mulder' is the absolute last theory I'd come up with. They don't have the same bone structure, walk, talk, knowledge etc.

• Maybe we don't have the make-up tech to convincingly make one person look like another and it would been more convincing if we did?

• agree with earlier review about 'trusting no one' but leaving an already violent mystery man unguarded.

• DNA reasoning. Surely, the lab looks at *all* your markers and makes a decision, they don't look at half then go 'sure, that's probably the guy'. This is what seemed to *convince* Skinner etc, and at various points they seemed too convinced.

The main problem is that the episode is so unclear about whether the kid is evil or not. And it's not just that I didn't know what I was *meant* to feel for the kid, it's the knock-on effect on other characters. Either way this would be a difficult case for Doggett given his son's history. If the kid had been consistent we might have gotten more from the characters and the story would have meant more as a whole.

The Good: - Seeing Harrison again (although it annoyed me when she went around Scully). Makes me feel the x-files' FBI is a fleshed-out world with people conducting their lives off-camera. - Teaser was good. Nice play on what you'd expect from a Dad. - Comedy bits best bits of episode. - Liked Harrison's potential boyfriend (if he'd willing to dig up a dead cat for her, she better watch herself). - Fall into darkness was very cool. Nothing to fight against + don't see very often.

The not so good: - Agree about Scully not eating joke. Maybe they could have done the joke the other way around i.e. Harrison really wanting to show the photos but doesn't want to gross Scully out of eating, and it turns out Scully's immune. - Overall not quite whole-ness of episode (wasn't left with any particular feeling or theme/revelation). Shame because I don't think it would have taken that much to make it an awesome scary episode (with funny moments).

The good: - clear focused story. - cool teaser. - like other early season eight episodes the writers don't foist Doggett onto us, esp as this episode is mostly from Scully's POV. - Like that Scully begs for her child: shows she puts it before herself. - idea of Scully trying to go off on her own is believable in the context (Mulder missing, previously repeatedly betrayed by players in the conspiracy, etc). Afterall she thought she was only going to look at a body. - Slug actually going into the body, as opposed to being stopped at the eleventh hour. - Doggett doesn't see the lamp fire but still knows where Scully is because he's an experienced cop (and has awesome gun-in-trousers noticing skills). - Scully not being deceived by the townsfolks' innocent attitude. This would have been too easy. - Doggett not letting Scully off with her apology. - Scully's reaction to this: good partner role reversal for her.

The not great: - religious Utah thing: there are other isolated areas this could be set. - Giving away the gun. This could have been made believable but wasn't.

Another effective episode on the road to humanising Doggett.

***Spoilers for this and Daemonica and general relationship arc***

Context of episode: On the progression of the D & R relationship, this is the first time I actually saw that D *might* have feelings for her. Before this we're only told but not shown, and we see R throwing herself at him and being all *thanks but no thanks*. For the speed of their relationship (up to this point) to work we should have been SHOWN this much earlier. By this point, i'd also like to know what R has that would make her a good partner for D: we see see Doggett's good qualities (loyal, dependable, honourable, honest, dog-like etc) and that he'd be better off emotionally with someone, but why R? Why is she better or worse than anyone else? Besides, I wasn't set up for a D & R romance because in Daemonicus there was confusing talk of unrequited Scully love (to which D reacted strongly).

The episode: The good: - Doggett was so well acted; he almost sold it to me. If it was someone worse in that role I doubt I'd believe at all. - The model hospital set thing looked great. - The idea of waking up there and thinking you might be in limbo (but i have no idea how this is supposed to have worked). - liked dog-cat exchange at start. More of this earlier in the season would have helped their relationship.

The not great: - no motive for doc and behaviour random. - why didn't the nurse go into the model if everyone was injected with the same stuff? - R doesn't seem *that* scared (or *that* anything). - Scully's out of character lack of care. - Too fast in D & R's relationship. - Wouldn't D at least try to tell Scully what he thinks is happening. She's believed crazier stuff before.

I thought the look Scully gives R when R wakes was hilarious. It's like she was thinking 'Damn! How am I going to explain to you: I've been actively encouraging them to pull the plug.'

***MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS for this episode and Small Potatoes***

After enjoying the x-files when I was very young I've recently revisited the show, and am working my way through all episodes. So far, I'd avoided commenting on episodes (even the truly amazing ones) but I was stunned to see this episode rated so high.

I usually like CC episodes they're often funny and play with M and S's relationship. However they can be uneven, and this is the worst example I've seen so far. The episode had several good moments, including coffee on M's lap and M + S dancing together, but in the end i didn't feel the way the episode clearly wanted me to.

Rather than "he's not a monster at all", the monster is a sex offender as he forced women to have non-consenting sex with him (worse: for the self-motivated purpose of making them pregnant). The fact that the women seemed OK with this doesn't make it any better, they could easily have had a different reaction, especially as the 'monster' didn't make any apparent effort to check they even wanted a child. In Small Potatoes (s4e20) the 'monster' has sex with women who haven't consented to have sex with the real him but provided most woman with babies they'd longed for. He's put on the sex offender's register (as he should be), what's so different in this episode?

Small side-note: The bland Cher version of Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore is an offence to sound and the ability to hear.

Firstly i resent what some of the other reviewers have said about people who don't like this movie; that the only reason we don't like it because we can't get over the 1970's film. Well i thought the original movie was OK but would have liked it to be darker, and therefore more like the book which i loved. I came to this film expecting to love it but instead i was extremely angry because...

A lot of Wonka's lines are completely out of character, there purely for cheap laughs. you'll notice them when he says something the contradicts his actions/motivations- something stupid that ISN'T IN THE BOOK.

of the cliché ending with Wonka's father and the back-story relating to this (also NOT IN THE BOOK). Which raises the the point of why Wonka would want Charlie not live or have contact with his family anymore (perhapse Charlie should have asked if Wonka also has the same policy on social services!). In the book Wonka has no problem with Charlie's family living in the factory and so provides the emotional resolution to Charlie's early life of poverty and want, even though he will clearly have weird dark adventures as a result of this (as it should be).

This film wasn't any darker than the original it just made less sense due to poor writing. The book was dark because the character of Wonka is dark; he finds it FUNNY when nasty things happen to nasty kids (a reaction most people wouldn't have; i.e. no empathy), he's done lots of dangerous previously unheard of things, he reacts and thinks like no one else (his reactions are actually similar to those of someone with a psychopathic personality disorder) not to mention that he is essentially auditioning these children (which is dark in itself). If Burton wanted this film to be darker than the 1970's one he should have emphasised Wonka's actual character not made up new stuff that doesn't make any sense!

Although there were a lot of things i didn't like about this film it is the poor handling of Wonka's character that annoyed me the most because it made the whole feel of the film different from that of the book. It is this LACK OF FAITHFULNESS to the book and not the re-inclusion of (1)dad working in a toothpaste factory (2)the squirrel room instead of the geese room that i think is important (although i would have liked to have seen the squirrel scene if it had been well executed). I also don't think you can claim faithfulness if you've added a badly written back-story to a main character who is supposed to be enigmatic! If Roald Dahl didn't explain him what gives these people the right to????

THIS FILM ISN'T Faithful TO THE BOOK

Make no mistake; Roald Dahl would have Hated this vapid sludge and if you want to watch rubbish, then you wont go wrong with this.

...is dreadful. After seeing some adverts that made the show look fun and interesting, i gladly tuned in; Big mistake. The writing is predictable and 1D. Ghosts always just want to move on, none of them are angry or confused about what's happened. None of them provide any kind of moral dilemma to the main characters e.g. in the second episode i saw (yes i did give it another try- never again) JLH's husband (through negligence) causes the death of a criminal, after grieving for the guy for most of the episode he finds out the guy was actually criminal and MIGHT have posed a threat to his ex-wife. Having learnt this everything is miraculously fine for him. No worry about his negligence (or any possible future mistakes he might make). No worry about anyone who might have loved the person whose death he caused; kids, mother, brothers etc Would he have been able to forgive his own negligence so easily if the person who died had been a young child? His attitude seemed to be that some people deserve to die.

This is an example of what is so wrong with this show; answers that are too neat and unimaginative.