The new season of The X-Files is best summed up by its title sequence. At first glance, it’s identical to what was used in the original series, with the same cheesy effects, season 1 footage, and iconic music that long-time fans (such as myself) can appreciate. And yet, it’s not quite the same. They’ve added Mitch Pilleggi (Walter Skinner) to the credits (which admittedly should have happened during the original run), and significantly shortened it. On its face, the changes don’t matter; it’s still most of the same footage with the same music. And yet, it’s still tweaked, with any padding or room for breathing removed to appeal to modern attention spans and sensibilities.

Like the title sequence, the episodes themselves attempt to stoke the fires of nostalgia by bringing back everything that The X-Files was about on the surface, while missing the tone and pacing which made the original series so great. The new season wastes no time in getting the story started, with Mulder and Scully re-uniting in the opening moments and immediately getting whisked away to learn about a new conspiracy. It turns out that the original series’ conspiracy was all a cover for the REAL conspiracy, in which the government was pulling the strings behind the “alien invasion,” planning to take over the world with a staged invasion using reverse-engineered alien technology.

Continue reading The X-Files 2016 Review – Episodes 1 and 2 →

When placed next to Marvel’s other Netflix series, Daredevil, Jessica Jones is a bit messy. Multiple major plotlines lead to dead ends, it’s structurally unbalanced, and characters seem to come and go on a whim. Like Jessica herself, the series doesn’t always seem to know what it’s doing, but it’s always trying to find its way.

But also unlike Daredevil, which treads a fairly well-trodden “dark super-hero” path, Jessica Jones takes on several controversial subjects in its examination on how people control each other. The key relationship in this first season is between Jessica and her ex-boyfriend, Kilgrave, who is kept in the shadows for most of the first half. Kilgrave can, and often does, control others with his voice. During Jessica’s time with him, she only had a few moments of full, conscious control over herself.

Continue reading Jessica Jones Review →

(This review contains mild spoilers. Few specifics are given, but events are alluded to)

After True Detective completely squandered all of its good will from year one, all eyes were on Fargo, the second of last year’s extremely successful one-off seasons. Instead of shifting locations like True Detective, Fargo took an arguably more drastic turn by setting its second season in a different time period altogether. By transplanting to 1979, the series was able to introduce a whole new cast, visual style, story, and soundtrack. And yet, the whole thing still felt like a Fargo story should.

But what, exactly, is a “Fargo” story? That such a description can exist at all is credit to the work of showrunner Noah Hawley. Despite the lack of any actual input from the Coen Brothers, Hawley has absorbed and internalized all things Coen and managed to create a series overflowing with the essence of their storytelling. At this point, Fargo is defined by happenstance, misunderstandings, and human error. It always involves well-meaning people who get in over their heads, but beyond these criteria, the rest is free to shift and change.

Continue reading Fargo Season 2 Review →

The narrative around South Park this year is that it has had a resurgence, finally creating something hilarious and relevant after a few years of obsolescence. I have to assume that many of the people saying this did not bother to watch the previous season, which was arguably stronger than this year and also flirted with season-long continuity. In either case, it’s nice to see a show like South Park, which was once dangerous enough to inspire religious protests but has since become an American establishment, finally making headlines again.

Really, though, South Park succeeded so strongly this season by leaning into a subject that appears to have been irritating many people who have been too afraid to speak up about it: politically correct culture and it’s current adoption by the self-righteous. In the age of Twitter, when everybody is self-branding by what they decide to say online and tweet out, there’s a seriously negative trend toward co-opting the discrimination and abuse of minorities as a way of showing off one’s own worldliness. That’s not to say that social justice is bad; it’s important to try to step out of one’s own shoes and consider the viewpoints and treatment of others that are often invisible to us. But when that cause is used to insult and belittle people who are unwittingly un-PC, or attack comedians and writers for using un-PC subject matter to get across well-meaning points, it stifles necessary dialogues and creates a schism.

Continue reading South Park Season 19 Review →

What is reality television? The genre that started life on MTV with The Real World and grew insanely popular with Survivor has morphed into shows like Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Duck Dynasty, and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. These latter shows star “real” people, in that the leads are playing themselves, but feature scripted scenarios with improvisation rather than true real-life stories most of the time.

One of the most fascinating things about Nathan For You, Nathan Fielder’s brilliant comedy/social experiment/magic trick, is the way that the show is always aware of it’s reality, as well as its artificiality. The fact that there is a camera crew present in each scene is never lost, and explains why so many of Nathan’s subjects are willing to go along with his patently absurd ideas. But the subjects themselves are absolutely real, and the way that they react to Nathan’s plans with attempts at optimism (for the cameras) makes for a lot of the show’s humor.

Continue reading Nathan For You Season 3 Review →