The X-Files 3x19: Hell Money
Jul. 24th, 2019 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsThe X-Files 3x19: Hell Money
You know, it’s actually frustrating when you get an episode like Pusher that proves that case of the week stories can still be interesting and character focused and dramatic; it makes going back to episodes that just occupy space extra frustrating. This is sort of refining my long held belief that I prefer the mytharc episodes, since that’s been proven kind of inaccurate this season; but the disparity between good case episodes and bad ones is so large. This isn’t even the worst of the case episodes by a long shot, it’s not even the worst recent example, but it’s just nothing.
This is another episode where I don’t believe it was written to be an X-Files episode, just tweaked slightly when TXF picked up the script. I definitely don’t understand how Mulder and Scully would have been called on, unless maybe Mulder was already tracking the other cases, and even then why? There is nothing that looks supernatural about this case, and there ends up being anything supernatural about it. Aside from one or two passing mentions to Mulder potentially suspecting ghosts and more emphasis put on spirits than would be in any other investigative drama there is nothing X-Files about this.
Mulder and Scully are complete cardboard characters, slotted into a story I don’t believe was written was for them initially. It’s not that they feel out of character, it’s that there’s no character to them to be out of character.
In that way, it’s sort of interesting this comes right after the previous episode. That episode may have been among the most generic TXF scripts you could do, but it did at least feel like a generic X-Files script. This feels like a generic script of any other show that happens to take place in TXF.
However, I’m not even sure I’m mad about this episode being so nothing; I’m just...nothing about it. I could have stared at the wall for those 45 minutes and gotten just about as much out of it, but I might have been staring at the wall if I hadn’t been watching it, so I guess I don’t mind that I watched it. It’s definitely another episode I’m not going to feel any need to rewatch ever; at least some of the ones that kind of piss me off I come away feeling like they’re interesting, or the version in my head was something to think about, or at least there was a moment or two of the characters I care about or sometimes even think that if I give it another go I’ll find something better in it. This is just nothing. It’s not good at all, nor is it bad in an interesting way.
About the only thing I can sort of talk about is that Mulder and Scully do seem a bit more racist than usual, but the show doesn’t really engage with that (plus the writing is just kind of racist since it keeps talking about writing/speaking Chinese rather than Mandarin or Cantonese). And cop man’s one speech to address the idea ends up kind of buried since he is in on things. I don’t know what I would have had them do, but it creates a somewhat uncomfortable undertone that doesn’t go anywhere.
Also, even the slightly open ending with the old guy not going down for what happened doesn’t feel like it’s that way because that’s an X-Files thing, it just feels cynical about people and the justice system; again, more generic cop show than TXF.
I don’t often preemptively comment on the upcoming episode, but at least it should be anything but bland. I think I remember liking it the one time I saw it when I was younger, but we’ll see if that’s the case now; I just feel confident in it not being boring.
Previous status
Never seen before, don’t expect to again
When are we?
I think we’re supposed to be in the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, which I think puts up sometime in September, but don’t quote me on that. Also I may have misunderstood the rambling.
Who’s driving?
Mulder does the driving, why does this seem to be more a thing *after* the big rant on the subject than it was before?
Are we saying it’s aliens?
We’re not saying it’s anything supernatural, at least I don’t think so
Wow that’s uncomfortable in hindsight
So, immigration problems and health care problems, times don’t really change that much it seems.
You know, it’s actually frustrating when you get an episode like Pusher that proves that case of the week stories can still be interesting and character focused and dramatic; it makes going back to episodes that just occupy space extra frustrating. This is sort of refining my long held belief that I prefer the mytharc episodes, since that’s been proven kind of inaccurate this season; but the disparity between good case episodes and bad ones is so large. This isn’t even the worst of the case episodes by a long shot, it’s not even the worst recent example, but it’s just nothing.
This is another episode where I don’t believe it was written to be an X-Files episode, just tweaked slightly when TXF picked up the script. I definitely don’t understand how Mulder and Scully would have been called on, unless maybe Mulder was already tracking the other cases, and even then why? There is nothing that looks supernatural about this case, and there ends up being anything supernatural about it. Aside from one or two passing mentions to Mulder potentially suspecting ghosts and more emphasis put on spirits than would be in any other investigative drama there is nothing X-Files about this.
Mulder and Scully are complete cardboard characters, slotted into a story I don’t believe was written was for them initially. It’s not that they feel out of character, it’s that there’s no character to them to be out of character.
In that way, it’s sort of interesting this comes right after the previous episode. That episode may have been among the most generic TXF scripts you could do, but it did at least feel like a generic X-Files script. This feels like a generic script of any other show that happens to take place in TXF.
However, I’m not even sure I’m mad about this episode being so nothing; I’m just...nothing about it. I could have stared at the wall for those 45 minutes and gotten just about as much out of it, but I might have been staring at the wall if I hadn’t been watching it, so I guess I don’t mind that I watched it. It’s definitely another episode I’m not going to feel any need to rewatch ever; at least some of the ones that kind of piss me off I come away feeling like they’re interesting, or the version in my head was something to think about, or at least there was a moment or two of the characters I care about or sometimes even think that if I give it another go I’ll find something better in it. This is just nothing. It’s not good at all, nor is it bad in an interesting way.
About the only thing I can sort of talk about is that Mulder and Scully do seem a bit more racist than usual, but the show doesn’t really engage with that (plus the writing is just kind of racist since it keeps talking about writing/speaking Chinese rather than Mandarin or Cantonese). And cop man’s one speech to address the idea ends up kind of buried since he is in on things. I don’t know what I would have had them do, but it creates a somewhat uncomfortable undertone that doesn’t go anywhere.
Also, even the slightly open ending with the old guy not going down for what happened doesn’t feel like it’s that way because that’s an X-Files thing, it just feels cynical about people and the justice system; again, more generic cop show than TXF.
I don’t often preemptively comment on the upcoming episode, but at least it should be anything but bland. I think I remember liking it the one time I saw it when I was younger, but we’ll see if that’s the case now; I just feel confident in it not being boring.
Previous status
Never seen before, don’t expect to again
When are we?
I think we’re supposed to be in the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, which I think puts up sometime in September, but don’t quote me on that. Also I may have misunderstood the rambling.
Who’s driving?
Mulder does the driving, why does this seem to be more a thing *after* the big rant on the subject than it was before?
Are we saying it’s aliens?
We’re not saying it’s anything supernatural, at least I don’t think so
Wow that’s uncomfortable in hindsight
So, immigration problems and health care problems, times don’t really change that much it seems.
