Episode of the Week
Standout episodes of television deserve to be highlighted. It’s the Episode of the Week!
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The X-Files’ “Ghost in the Machine” Is a Solid ’90s Cyber Thriller
Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa return for The X-Files S1E7, “Ghost in the Machine.” It’s their first thriller, and the first in a series of cyber thriller episodes of The X-Files—a tradition which will stretch all the way to Season 11 in 2018. “Ghost in the Machine” is a smart piece of work which explores […] More
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The X-Files’ “Conduit” Digs Deep into Mulder’s Motivation
The X-Files digs into Mulder as a character with its fourth episode, “Conduit,” teasing out some of the various threads established before and turning them into searing human drama. The episode serves as our introduction to the writing duo of Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, though this one has significant uncredited help from Chris Carter. […] More
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The X-Files Broadens Its Horizons with “Squeeze”
The third episode of The X-Files, “Squeeze,” completes our introduction to the show. It’s our first standalone episode—termed “Monster-of-the-Week” episodes by fans—our first episode to focus on something other than extraterrestrials, and the first episode written by Glen Morgan and James Wong. Morgan and Wong set the template for standalone episodes, envisioning The X-Files as […] More
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The Truth of “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” — How the Hell Should I Know?
This piece on The X-Files, “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space,” is available in audiovisual form on YouTube Usually, when you’re watching TV, you can trust that what you’re seeing is real within the world of the show. If there’s a mismatch between how someone is recounting an event and how it is portrayed, we’re prone […] More
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The X-Files: “War of the Coprophages” Grins at Us the Whole Time
“The X-Files: ‘War of the Coprophages’ Grins at Us the Whole Time” is available in audiovisual form on YouTube In its premise, “War of the Coprophages” is perhaps the most terrifying episode of The X-Files of all: What if cockroaches killed people? The episode opens with a man praising the heartiness of the insects—their evolutionary […] More
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Life, Death, and “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose”
This piece on The X-Files episode “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” is available in audiovisual form on YouTube Given that it’s an episode of The X-Files, one of the most striking things about “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” is the lack of ambiguity it presents with regard to Bruckman’s (Peter Boyle) psychic abilities. Throughout the episode, he […] More
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The X-Files: “Humbug” Celebrates the Weird
“The X-Files: ‘Humbug’ Celebrates the Weird” is available in audiovisual form on YouTube. While he’s credited with the story for the earlier Season 2 episode “Blood,” Darin Morgan’s first official writer credit on The X-Files comes with S2E20, “Humbug.” At this point, it’s hard to imagine the show without his influence, though it was a […] More
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BoJack Horseman: “Fish Out of Water” Goes Deep Without Words
The following contains spoilers for BoJack Horseman S3E4, “Fish Out of Water” (written by Elijah Aron & Jordan Young and directed by Mike Hollingsworth) BoJack Horseman was always a show so permeated by visual gags I’d be impressed if anyone ever catalogued them all. So it makes sense that in its third season, the series […] More
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This Is Us: “The Train” Explores the Act of Dying in a Beautiful Way
The following contains spoilers for This is Us, “The Train” (written by Dan Fogelman, Jon Dorsey, & Danielle Bauman and directed by Ken Olin) When I was younger and would watch TV with my mom, she would cry for anything, and I mean anything. Toilet paper commercials could bring a tear to her eye, and […] More
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Pitfall of Your Chosen Occupation: A Deep Dive into The Leftovers’ “International Assassin”
“Pitfall of Your Chosen Occupation: A Deep Dive into The Leftovers’ ‘International Assassin’” is a guest article from Grant Piercy “In a universe suddenly divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger. His exile is without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home or the hope of […] More
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The Golden Girls: Picture It — Miami, Valentine’s Day…
Syndicated TV shows come and go, but The Golden Girls remain. I don’t think a show like this could ever be made again…certainly not by the same name. The Girls were in their 60s, and these days, no one in their 60s wants to be thought of as “golden”…at least, no one I know. I […] More
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With “Walkabout” Lost Beautifully Established the Essence of John Locke
The following contains spoilers for the whole series and the character arc of John Locke, particularly for the events of “Walkabout” Lost, S1E4, (written by David Fury and directed by Jack Bender) which first aired on ABC in the United States on October 13, 2004. “Walkabout” begins, as so many episodes of Lost do, with […] More
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