S11.E08: Familiar

[FormerMod-a1]

Quote

Mulder and Scully investigate the brutal animal attack of a little boy in Connecticut, while suspecting darker forces are at play.

[chitowngirl]

That clown was creepy, as all clowns are.

[AimingforYoko]

Here's one question our heroes didn't answer: What psychopath decided that Mr. Chuckleteeth was an appropriate character for little kids? That thing was pure nightmare fuel.

[janeta]

Had technical difficulties—who was in the clown mask at the end?

[Batgirl]

Well, that was a really creepy episode. The part with the mob where the cop shot the “pedophile” was so disturbing. 

I found this episode much more interesting than last week’s, though.

Did Mulder call Scully his homey?

[theredhead77]

I pretty much just came here to wonder why the heck they thought Mr. Chuckleteeth and the faux-Teletubbies with their creepy faces were appropriate for children, or adults.

[WritinMan]

6 minutes ago, janeta said:

who was in the clown mask at the end?

"Evil" apparently.

[uoflfan]

The real Teletubbies and that baby in the sun freaked me out when my son was a toddler.  This episode is the stuff of nightmares for me.

[Batgirl]

7 minutes ago, janeta said:

Had technical difficulties—who was in the clown mask at the end?

I understood it to be just one of the manifestations of the curse/Satan/evil. It showed up as the characters to lure the kids, as Joann to lure the head cop, etc. 

[SparklesBitch]

Now THIS was the kind of old-school creepy X-Files I’ve missed. That clown guy was incredibly creepy. Holy crap. 

I didn’t see the gunshot to the head coming. I thought they’d successfully talked the cop down. I literally jumped out of my chair. The mob justice thing was so disturbing. Kudos to the one good cop for trying to protect the guy. 

Two random things: 

- What is it with specifying that Scully’s a medical doctor? What other kind of doctor are people going to assume she is under the circumstances? 

- Cracked up at Scully’s comment about their guy sitting in his car at the park “stirring something other than his cauldron”. Lol! 

[Pippin]

I always knew the teletubbies were evil.

[AntiBeeSpray]

This ep is a slog for me to get through. The acting between M and S... is a part of the problem. >_<

[AmeliaBedelia]

There were strong glimmers of old school X-Files, and I liked it a lot. Scully felt like Scully, and Mulder felt like Mulder especially when talking about hellhounds. I had a hard time telling the chief and the cop apart. The mob beating up the sex-offender was uncomfortable to watch. So glad I was too old to watch the teletubbies as they would haunt me in my dreams.

[phalange]

Very old-school episode. We had dark forests, clowns, dolls, creepy children's music, hellhounds, dark magic, and spontaneous human combustion. Plus, Mulder licking evidence and reminding everyone that Scully's a "medical doctor." I liked the knock-off Teletubby characters, though these were far creepier than the originals. The worst thing about Mr. Chuckleteeth is that I have that damn song stuck in my head now.

When the woman asked Mulder if he had kids and he said, "I have a son. He's grown now, though," my heart shattered into a million pieces. 

[MissL]

Well Mr Chuckleteeth was terrifying. I thought the dialogue was stiff and awkward. The story...a little weak. Man what I wouldn't have given for some truly talented writers to have a stab at this show, you can't tell me there weren't some fans back in the day who are kickass writers now.  Oh Vince G why hast thou foresaken us?

 Most of the weakest episodes of the XF can be saved for me by a good M/S moment and I don't think we got that either. Although my heart broke a little at "yes I have a son". So sad Mulder hasn't been able to show his pain much on that this time around. 

Other thoughts: Why would Scully dismiss salt on the body? That seemed unlike her. Why would she continually yell (well as much as she can yell..oh Gilly what did you do to your wonderful voice?) at  Mulder for disturbing the crime scene? 1) she knows him and 2)he seemed to be finding something relevant, a salt circle doesn't happen naturally. 

Oh Mulder sticking his fingers in evidence...or tasting it....don't ever change babe.... don't ever change. 

[TheOtherOne]

So basically "Chimera" from Season 7, moved from Vermont to Connecticut, right down to the sheriff's wife trying to get revenge on her cheating husband being the culprit. Familiar indeed.

[AntiBeeSpray]

Finally finished the ep a bit ago. Glad it got better as it went along. Mr. Chuckleteeth scared the crap out of me at one point O_O.

 

1 hour ago, MissL said:

Well Mr Chuckleteeth was terrifying. I thought the dialogue was stiff and awkward. The story...a little weak. Man what I wouldn't have given for some truly talented writers to have a stab at this show, you can't tell me there weren't some fans back in the day who are kickass writers now.  Oh Vince G why hast thou foresaken us?

 Most of the weakest episodes of the XF can be saved for me by a good M/S moment and I don't think we got that either. Although my heart broke a little at "yes I have a son". So sad Mulder hasn't been able to show his pain much on that this time around. 

Other thoughts: Why would Scully dismiss salt on the body? That seemed unlike her. Why would she continually yell (well as much as she can yell..oh Gilly what did you do to your wonderful voice?) at  Mulder for disturbing the crime scene? 1) she knows him and 2)he seemed to be finding something relevant, a salt circle doesn't happen naturally. 

Oh Mulder sticking his fingers in evidence...or tasting it....don't ever change babe.... don't ever change. 

Yea that dialogue made me cringe at parts. Especially towards the beginning. Glad it got a bit better as it went along, but probably won't be one I'll be re watching. 

Good question. It doesn't make sense for her to do so. Writers and their ignoring of any character growth or continuity. /facepalm  Yea that made no sense. Maybe for s1-s5 Scully, but not now. It didn't fit.

Lmao. I loved that part.

And that court scene reminded me of this:

 

Edited March 8, 2018 by AntiBeeSpray

[Bastet]

“I’m Chucky, and I’ll be your friend to the end.  Hidey-ho.”

Oh, wait; wrong creepy doll.  But how the hell would Mr. Chucklewhatever (Chuckleteeth?  I can’t understand kids, but I’m going with that due to the smile) have ever become a children’s TV show character in the first place?  Yeah, the Teletubbies and such are freaky in their own way to adults, but Mr. Chuckleteeth is just creepy, period, so who’d have greenlit that, and what demonic little children would be into it rather than running away in fear?

At any rate, as soon as I got a look at the doll, I knew we were in for a good one – when that freakshow appeared larger size in the trees, and then the kid disappeared?  Hell, yeah.  In the grand scheme of MOTW episodes, this doesn’t register, but as a MOTW of the revival, it’s good.

Thank the universe for GA publicly shaming CC into adding a female director; good job, Holly Dale.  And to the D.P. – the cinematography in this episode was fabulous.

So many allusions, intentional or otherwise, again – the screeching monkey in a cage made me think of The Erlenmeyer Flask (“If this is monkey pee, you’re on your own”), the funeral made me think of Syzygy, the witchcraft stuff brings to mind several episodes, the law enforcement affair reminds me of Chimera, the dead kid in the road seems reminiscent of something I’m forgetting, the book catching fire makes me think of Kaddish, spontaneous human combustion reminds me of whatever episode that was, and where Mulder stepped over a log to revisit the scene where they found the body, that particular little clearing looked so familiar, I swear it was used in an old episode (Conduit?  I really don’t know, but it looked SO familiar).

Mulder dismissing the obvious suspect based on nothing but a belief everything is paranormal, check, but I appreciate any time the sex offender witch hunt – and small-town “justice” - is called out for what it is.  The mob just standing around as the dad beat the shit out of the sex offender, and then joining in, was chilling.

Hee at a “medical doctor” reference; we haven’t heard that in a while, have we?  They bugged the shit out of me back in the day, and now it makes me laugh.

Mulder’s knowledge and sharing of a local legend is wonderfully old-school, too.

Why is Scully not in scrubs as she examines the kid’s body?  Unlike Mulder jamming his fingers into (and later licking) evidence, that is not typical.

The cop dad was played by the actor who played Randy, the idiot cop on Monk, so I kept expecting him to say something stupid.

Um, if the kid won’t pay attention to the guy trying to solve a murder because the faux-Teletubbies are on TV, how about you turn off the fucking TV, parent fail?

Nice to see one of the series’ few black characters alive at the end of the episode – not to mention being the good cop.  Bless.

This had a regular “The Truth is Out There” tagline, and nothing later to change it, right? (unlike when The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat seemed to be the first with the normal tagline, but then with Reggie’s tale we got an altered version).  I've no idea what that means in the grand scheme of this "did any of it really happen?" season, but it's notable.

[Ghost of TWOP Past]

Hot damn. First really good, creepy episode since the original series ended. Some funny lines, mob violence, murders, kids getting eaten... Old school. 

So much nostalgia: nice to see Mulder still hasn't learned better than to stick his bare hands into mysterious substances, the black officer was an actor making his 5th appearance on X Files (I don't remember them all but I recognized him from Pusher), and nothing good ever happens in the woods. EVER. 

GA's voice is raspy again. I hope she's alright. 

One thing that bugged the hell out of me, though, was the cliche of stepping into a dark room and flipping the light switch, only to find that nothing happens. And the reason that bugs me so much is that usually, as in this instance, there's no explanation for it. It's just stuck in there for the sake of making the scene scarier. 

[Bastet]

17 minutes ago, Ghost of TWOP Past said:

the black officer was an actor making his 5th appearance on X Files (I don't remember them all but I recognized him from Pusher),

I can't place him in any of his other episodes, either.  Outfitting Mulder with his A/V gear as Mulder heads in to confront Modell in Pusher (and has that great moment with Scully when he gives her his gun), I can see clear as day, but the rest (E.B.E., Fresh Bones, and Folie a Deux) don't trigger any memories.

[bilgistic]

Mr. Chuckleteeth looked like a mashup of Shoney's Big Boy and Twisty the Clown. Terrifying!

[WritinMan]

3 hours ago, TheOtherOne said:

So basically "Chimera" from Season 7, moved from Vermont to Connecticut, right down to the sheriff's wife trying to get revenge on her cheating husband being the culprit. Familiar indeed.

"Chimera" was one of my favorites from the original run of the series. Never really gets enough attention, in my opinion.

[GaT]

4 hours ago, SparklesBitch said:

Now THIS was the kind of old-school creepy X-Files I’ve missed. That clown guy was incredibly creepy. Holy crap. 

 

Exactly what I was thinking, this was definitely an old school episode.

[luna1122]

Mr. Chuckleteeth was the stuff of nightmares. I'm not kidding, I literally jumped every time he showed up. the demonic teletubby was terrifying too.

I liked it. as others have said, it was all very old school and creepy. The town mob going after the pedophile, and the cop shooting him point blank...was really disturbing. Also, I'm now worried about that poor little caged monkey.

The cheating chief kept reminding me of a better looking Donnie Pfaster. I recognized the woman who played his wife from Veronica Mars and General Hospital...I thought she was pretty impressively good.

"You're my homie.". Mulder, you beautiful dork.   

[Lithogirl]

This episode was my favorite, by far.  Very old school, and very creepy. Loved it!

[MissL]

1 hour ago, luna1122 said:

 I recognized the woman who played his wife from Veronica Mars and General Hospital...I thought she was pretty impressively good.

Wait! I didnt watch GH much during that timeframe was that Lucky's wife Siobhan?!  She didn't seem familiar to me at all until you said that.  I would have thought she would have done the hysterical crying a bit better then. 

[luna1122]

4 minutes ago, MissL said:

Wait! I didnt watch GH much during that timeframe was that Lucky's wife Siobhan?!  She didn't seem familiar to me at all until you said that.  I would have thought she would have done the hysterical crying a bit better then. 

That was her! I guess I was more impressed with her hysterical crying...I thought she was quite good.

[100Proof]

I'm not sure if the dialog in this episode was written by a two year old's idea of x-file dialog should sound like or that it's being done on purpose as a parody of a parody of a parody of the X Files itself.  It almost seems like it might be the latter because of the facial expressions and general acting by M&S towards each other while reciting the dialogue

Edited March 8, 2018 by 100Proof

[Writing Wrongs]

It must be exhausting for Mulder after all these years to still have Scully shit over his theories at every turn. It is for me. You'd think she'd learned by now. She basically got that guy murdered for her profile even though she's not a criminal profiler. She's down with aliens, but not supernatural stuff even though she's had experience with that too?

[mledawn]

I do enjoy how the new seasons are reminiscent of old-school X-Files in their H!ITG Canada! characters. I couldn't figure out why the dad cop was so familiar - he was a semi-regular in a season of Republic of Doyle.

This felt like a first season ep of old-school X-File all around, really.

[Taryn74]

Classic X-Files right here, baby!  Loved it.  Creeped out as hell by it, but loved it just the same.

I was suspicious of the chief's wife as soon as we saw her sitting on the park bench, she just seemed . . . off for some reason, but I began to second-guess myself that it was actually her daughter once they showed her watching the creepy Not!Teletubbies.  I wouldn't put it past them to have the creepy "kid's shows" actually be subliminally teaching the kiddos how to perform witchcraft.  Heh.

 

10 hours ago, Bastet said:

I can't place him in any of his other episodes, either.  Outfitting Mulder with his A/V gear as Mulder heads in to confront Modell in Pusher (and has that great moment with Scully when he gives her his gun), I can see clear as day, but the rest (E.B.E., Fresh Bones, and Folie a Deux) don't trigger any memories.

Same!  "Why do we keep giving this guy exactly what he wants?" will forever be etched in my brain, he did such a great job with that brief scene, but I never realized he was in any other episode.  He's been on several other shows I watch, though.  Love the actor.

[AntiBeeSpray]

10 hours ago, bilgistic said:

Mr. Chuckleteeth looked like a mashup of Shoney's Big Boy and Twisty the Clown. Terrifying!

He seemed like Pee Wee Herman to me in a way.

[MrWhyt]

Agree with others that this felt very old school X-Files. However I had read that this was "The Scary!!!! One" of this season and aside from Mr. Chuckleteeth's appearance I didn't really get that. My favorite Scary!!! one was the (season 2?) episode with the young boy possessed by his dead twin and we got a jewish exorcism, and this one really didn't come close.

[pagooey]

I dunno, I found this one stilted and too self-referential/congratulatory.  Running around in the woods! Creepy clowns! Creepy kids! Devil worshippy witchcraft stuff!  Hey, hiya, Officer Agent Roger Cross, the hardest working actor in Canada! And yet...nothing seemed to hang together. We had horrifying vigilante mob justice. We had two slaughtered kindergarteners. I should feel something stronger than "meh" about this. And usually, Mulder and Scully's reactions to and processing of the MOTW nightmare helps me to connect to that. This one didn't. It felt like an old-school X-file, but they didn't feel like themselves, or didn't have time enough to talk to each other like themselves, what with all the other scares and references crammed in. I wasn't convinced.

• Mulder referencing his grown son was a tiny glimmer of the emotion I expected. I was surprised that Scully seemed far less affected, especially by the brutal death of a little girl named Emily, for chrissake. 
• So the sex offender failed to register with the police when he moved to town, which the angry cop discovered by...looking him up...in a sex offender registry...for their town. Wait. What?
• Show me a child who would not run SCUH-REAMING from that Mister Chuckleteeth nightmare monstrosity, because HELL NO. 

[ohjoy]

16 minutes ago, pagooey said:

• Show me a child who would not run SCUH-REAMING from that Mister Chuckleteeth nightmare monstrosity, because HELL NO. 

MTE. Maybe because I don't do scary stuff at all (I know I know, why do I watch this show), but even the name -- Mr.ChuckleTEETH?!! -- had me NOPE-ing out of this episode so hard. Glad to know most everybody enjoyed it though, dodgy dialogue notwithstanding. I just won't be able to actually sit through it. I like my nights mare-free.

[MissL]

51 minutes ago, pagooey said:

 

• Mulder referencing his grown son was a tiny glimmer of the emotion I expected. I was surprised that Scully seemed far less affected, especially by the brutal death of a little girl named Emily, for chrissake.

Well based on a twitter exchange between the writer and a fan the little girl having the same name as Scully's daughter was a "happy accident". So either he forgot she had a daughter or forgot her name was Emily. Either option is fantastic (sarcasm).  So Scully had no reaction because the genius writer Didn't know she needed to have one so he didn't write it.  And apparently everyone else who makes the damn show didn't catch it either.  Again a writers room, a show bible, or I don't know...some decent writers would have made all the difference.

I sound so bitter! For real though this season has reawakened my old love. I've fallen down the rabbit hole of fanfic and a from the beginning rewatch of the show so I can't be hating it as much as it sounds like I do. I'm already heading into a depression thinking Gillian might really mean it this time and no more files ever. Plus they really truly might get too old for this stuff. I mean in real life Mulder should be close to retirement age for FBI .....and shouldn't the aliens have killed us all by now? 

Edited March 8, 2018 by MissL
I can spell

[festivus]

16 hours ago, Bastet said:

17 hours ago, Ghost of TWOP Past said:

the black officer was an actor making his 5th appearance on X Files (I don't remember them all but I recognized him from Pusher),

I can't place him in any of his other episodes, either.  Outfitting Mulder with his A/V gear as Mulder heads in to confront Modell in Pusher (and has that great moment with Scully when he gives her his gun), I can see clear as day, but the rest (E.B.E., Fresh Bones, and Folie a Deux) don't trigger any memories.

That's Roger Cross. He's in everything. Everything I watch anyway. I think he ends up in pretty much everything that's shot in Vancouver. I'm glad he was the good guy in this story.

 

I was kinda bored by this episode, I spent my time thinking about where I'd seen all the actors before.

[Sharna Pax]

Well, I guess the streak had to end sometime. I've been loving this season so far, but not this one. That dialogue was labored even by X-Files standards, and I think I'm going to have bruises from all the anvils. OMG witch hunts! With a literal witch! There's no way we could put that one together on our own - good thing we had Mulder there to monologue about it for like twenty minutes.

A few thoughts:

Yup, that was "Chimera." Except that I found "Chimera" genuinely terrifying, with all those ravens and shattered mirrors, and also very funny. This was neither. Even Anna asking Mulder if he had kids was basically the same as the scene in "Chimera" where he's asked if he has a significant other. I half expected him to say, "Not in the traditionally understood definition of the term."

Someone actually said, "You've unleashed something, something that you can't control!"

Mulder and Scully just watch Anna burn to death and don't try to do anything about it. I know that realistically there's no saving her, but shouldn't they at least try?

As many people here have pointed out, no one in a million years would let their kids watch Mister Chuckleteeth, and no kid would want to watch it. It's hard not to make comparisons to the Angel episode "Smile Time," but what was brilliant about that episode was the care they put into crafting a kids' show that seemed like it would actually be popular. Like, there's a puppet called Ratio Hornblower who has a horn for a mouth and does math! I'd plunk a kid down in front of that without a moment's hesitation. Mister Chuckleteeth and the haunted Teletubbies, not so much.

Things I liked:

Mulder calling Scully his homie.

The way Duchovny delivers, "I have a son. He's grown now." There's a hesitation after "He's," where you can see Mulder trying to figure out what he can possibly say about William.

Mulder and Scully whispering about hellhounds in the courtroom, and the amused look on Mulder's face as he's trying to explain the hellhound - like he knows there's no way Scully will believe him but he's going to try anyway. Now that I think about it, all the things I liked were Mulder-related, and they were mostly the acting, not the script. Scully seemed off to me, but I couldn't tell if that was the writing, Gillian Anderson's voice, or some combination of the two. 

[Ghost of TWOP Past]

I'm not convinced that kids would inherently abhor the cartoon figure. A lot of fears are learned, and children who have not absorbed the current pop culture hatred of clowns wouldn't necessarily see if through the preconditioning of so many horror movie portrayals. 

[Rushmoras]

Hmmm... probably the best episode since the revival, but... falls into more Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Supernatural, Tru Calling etc. domain, but not the X-Files domain.

P.S. This episode for me just raised the rating of this season from 4 to 5 (out of 10) lol.

Edited March 9, 2018 by Rushmoras

[CrashTextDummie]

I LOVED this episode. Sure it was derivative, but I thought it blended familiar tropes and themes really well, moved at a brisk pace and above all else was genuinely creepy. I don't get scared by movies and TV anymore (not like I used to, my family made fun of me because I always took a bathroom break at the scariest part of original-run X-Files episodes as a kid) but this one actually managed to get a jolt out of me.

For those who think no way would a children's show as depicted in this episode ever run on TV or that children would never want to watch it, I'm afraid you are only half right. Young kids these days watch way creepier stuff than this, just not on TV. There are thousands of videos on Youtube marketed to children that are truly fucked up demonic shit and they get literally tens of millions of views from toddlers. Venture at your own peril (EDIT: actually, just rechecked the article and most of the videos it cites have been removed since the original publication. The descriptions should still freak you out). I wouldn't be surprised if that stuff partially inspired this episode, it actually makes your skin crawl.

[Sharna Pax]

On 3/7/2018 at 6:34 PM, MissL said:

Well Mr Chuckleteeth was terrifying. I thought the dialogue was stiff and awkward. The story...a little weak. Man what I wouldn't have given for some truly talented writers to have a stab at this show, you can't tell me there weren't some fans back in the day who are kickass writers now.  Oh Vince G why hast thou foresaken us?

 Most of the weakest episodes of the XF can be saved for me by a good M/S moment and I don't think we got that either. Although my heart broke a little at "yes I have a son". So sad Mulder hasn't been able to show his pain much on that this time around. 

Other thoughts: Why would Scully dismiss salt on the body? That seemed unlike her. Why would she continually yell (well as much as she can yell..oh Gilly what did you do to your wonderful voice?) at  Mulder for disturbing the crime scene? 1) she knows him and 2)he seemed to be finding something relevant, a salt circle doesn't happen naturally. 

Oh Mulder sticking his fingers in evidence...or tasting it....don't ever change babe.... don't ever change. 

"I have a son" was my favorite moment. Duchovny is killing it this season.

Yeah, why would Scully ignore the salt? It's pretty obviously evidence - not a weird Mulder thing like "THIS MAN'S SHOES ARE UNTIED," which she could reasonably dismiss. You'd think she'd at least add it to her list of evidence that a human being was involved. And the crime scene thing was weird too. I don't think Scully has gotten mad at Mulder for disturbing a crime scene since "Conduit," when she barely knew him.

Mulder tasting the evidence: yup, loved that. Classic Mulder. He's basically a dog in human form. Droopy triangular eyes, wrinkles his forehead like a Shar-Pei when he's worried, tends to run off without warning, and can't see something gross on the ground without getting into it. And he sometimes has the exact same obstinate, "I'm not going to listen to you" look on his face that my sled dog gives me when he thinks he hasn't been walked enough.

[Taryn74]

16 minutes ago, Sharna Pax said:

Mulder tasting the evidence: yup, loved that. Classic Mulder.

I'm just glad he didn't taste the salt off the poor dead kid's foot lol.  I was scared there for a minute.

[eleanorofaquitaine]

On 3/8/2018 at 4:44 PM, MissL said:

Well based on a twitter exchange between the writer and a fan the little girl having the same name as Scully's daughter was a "happy accident". So either he forgot she had a daughter or forgot her name was Emily. Either option is fantastic (sarcasm).  So Scully had no reaction because the genius writer Didn't know she needed to have one so he didn't write it.  And apparently everyone else who makes the damn show didn't catch it either.  Again a writers room, a show bible, or I don't know...some decent writers would have made all the difference.

I sound so bitter! For real though this season has reawakened my old love. I've fallen down the rabbit hole of fanfic and a from the beginning rewatch of the show so I can't be hating it as much as it sounds like I do. I'm already heading into a depression thinking Gillian might really mean it this time and no more files ever. Plus they really truly might get too old for this stuff. I mean in real life Mulder should be close to retirement age for FBI .....and shouldn't the aliens have killed us all by now? 

I mean, not every episode needs to be about Mulder and Scully's deepest, darkest pain.  Sure, I loved the subtlety of Mulder saying, "I have a son, he's grown now." But I mostly loved it because it was subtle, because it showed that he's carried this pain for a long time, too, but learned to live with it (just as Scully did). I don't need every single episode to have deep intense moments of suffering for them.

Anyway, I liked this episode, but didn't love it. Mostly because I thought that there was too much in it - too many metaphors, too many ideas.  But it did feel like a throwback, in a good way, to some of the earliest seasons (most notably, of course, Die Hand Die Verletzt), and I thought that was deliberate. I also thought it was likely an homage to Stephen King's stories, giving the setting, the creepy clown doll, and the sheer amount of stuff that was going on. 

[MissL]

6 hours ago, eleanorofaquitaine said:

I mean, not every episode needs to be about Mulder and Scully's deepest, darkest pain.  Sure, I loved the subtlety of Mulder saying, "I have a son, he's grown now." But I mostly loved it because it was subtle, because it showed that he's carried this pain for a long time, too, but learned to live with it (just as Scully did). I don't need every single episode to have deep intense moments of suffering for them.

Anyway, I liked this episode, but didn't love it. Mostly because I thought that there was too much in it - too many metaphors, too many ideas.  But it did feel like a throwback, in a good way, to some of the earliest seasons (most notably, of course, Die Hand Die Verletzt), and I thought that was deliberate. I also thought it was likely an homage to Stephen King's stories, giving the setting, the creepy clown doll, and the sheer amount of stuff that was going on. 

Agreed I don't want it to be about the pain ...what I'm saying, and not well apparently,  is that he probably shouldn't have named the kid Emily or at least given Scully a moments hesitation when she died. I'm just frustrated that someone writing the show knows less about the history than the fans.

[eleanorofaquitaine]

8 minutes ago, MissL said:

Agreed I don't want it to be about the pain ...what I'm saying, and not well apparently,  is that he probably shouldn't have named the kid Emily or at least given Scully a moments hesitation when she died. I'm just frustrated that someone writing the show knows less about the history than the fans.

There's a trade off in bringing in new blood, though.  New writers aren't necessarily going to be as well-versed in the show as the fans who have been obsessing about it for 25 years.  (Granted, some of the older writers aren't great at continuity, either - they can't all be Vince Gilligan). Overall, I think bringing in some new writers and directors has been good for the show this season, and if the trade off is sometimes an iffy sense of the show's history, then oh well.  (And honestly, Emily's name was only mentioned in one other episode after the Christmas Carol/Emily arc, so I can't blame the writers for not making a big deal of something that Scully herself doesn't :) ). 

[AntiBeeSpray]

Exactly. But it wouldn't have hurt for the newbies to take some time to learn a bit about the show and its history.

[supposebly]

19 hours ago, MissL said:

I'm just frustrated that someone writing the show knows less about the history than the fans.

I have to comment on this one. I haven't watched this season yet since I was rather bored and disappointed with the last one and decided to read the reactions here before I decide to spend time and money on something that might influence my enjoyment of earlier seasons negatively (Supernatural, I'm looking at you).

Anyway, I don't mind writers not knowing each little detail but I do expect them in an age of readily available information ready at the drop of a google search to check whether the names you choose for a character have significance in the show's history. If you write for a show you KNOW has a large and dedicated fanbase and was around for quite a long time, then this should be part of your writing process. It's not that hard to do.

Edited March 11, 2018 by supposebly

[FormerMod-a1]

I enjoyed this episode a lot.  It held my attention all the way through, unlike the last few which just played on the TV while I ended up doing something else because they weren't as good or compelling or something.

I like the concept of "familiars" not always being animals.  Agree with others that this was very classic X-Files.  

[Mystery]

On 3/7/2018 at 6:43 PM, AntiBeeSpray said:

This ep is a slog for me to get through. The acting between M and S... is a part of the problem. >_<

This is how I felt. When Mulder defended Scully as "a medical doctor, a damn good one," he was so laconic that it sounded like he was making fun of her (or of the writing). This season seems so dark (like, underlit) and lifeless to me. 

Edited March 12, 2018 by Mystery