70 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
70 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
Review of "Blood"
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Bloody Good Show
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by Sarah Stegall
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mynchkyn@netcom.com
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Well, Friday night's episode of "The X-Files" brought us
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back to the high standards set by the opening episode: creepy
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camera angles, good writing, tight pacing, and eerie music.
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Through this whole episode I felt that I was being forced to
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the edge of a cliff. By the last scene, where Mulder's phone
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is sending him messages, I was standing with my toes hanging
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over the edge.
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The pacing of this episode was excellent. Having pulled
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the pin out of the grenade in the teaser, writers Morgan and
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Wong make us wait and wait for it to go off. William
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Sanderson ("Ed Funch") is one of my favorite oddballs; like
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Tracey Walters, he can sweat on cue. His excellent "mad
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scene" in the tower reminded me of Brad Dourif's master turn
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in last season's "Beyond the Sea"--it's hard to laugh and cry
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at the same time. And the irony was delicious: unlike the
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other killers, the "messages" are telling Funch to commit an
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act--bloodshed--which will bring forth his deepest fears, not
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allay them.
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The Lone Gunmen are back! [Though now I am really
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worried: does Frohike really have Scully's phone number?
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Because I think she's gonna need more firepower...] The muscle
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shirt is back! The TIES are back! Unfortunately, so is
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Mulder's lousy buzz cut. Yet all is forgiven for lines like
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"Pardon my rubber", "It's men like you who give perversion a
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bad name", and "He's probably one of those people who thinks
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Elvis is dead". I loved it when Mulder got angry over yet
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another bonehead calling him "Spooky". I loved it that Mulder
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had an ally to help him (Sheriff Spencer, a very good
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performance) instead of continually fighting the bureaucrats.
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We finally get to see Mulder acting like a behavioral
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scientist; it's been a long wait to see his famous reputation
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justified.
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The absolute best scene, for me, was the one where Mrs.
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McRoberts (Kimberly Ashlyn Gere) was in the garage. The
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lighting, the angles, the pacing, and the acting had me on the
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edge of my seat. I was right there with her, afraid to be
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alone in the dark with a stranger, trying to tell herself that
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it was all right, and not believing it.
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The show played into the paranoia generated by government
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blunders like Thalidomide and DDT very well, while linking
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David Koresh, Charles Manson, and OJ Simpson into an up-to-the-
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second mix. I didn't know if I was watching "The X-Files" or
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the ten o'clock news. I was afraid, right up to the last
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scene, that the writers were not going to be able to make the
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tenuous connection between pesticide poisoning and subliminal
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messages work. And of course, Morgan and Wong managed to wrap
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up all the loose ends in the final seconds and STILL leave us
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hanging!! Scully gets her rational explanation--a neurotoxin,
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and Mulder gets his--a conspiracy. Maybe Scully doesn't have
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all the facts, or maybe Mulder is still suffering neurological
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effects from pesticide poisoning. Who's right? Either,
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neither--or both. Great stuff. This is why I watch this
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show.
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Five sunflower seeds out of five.
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Sarah Stegall
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munchkyn@netcom.com
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