The X-Files is one of the most iconic, and terrifying shows to ever hit the mainstream. From it's iconic theme song to the fascinating relationship between Mulder and Scully, it's an excellent show. So here I'll be reviewing a few of it's episodes of my choosing. Today we're looking at the 4th episode of the 1st season, "Conduit". Directed by Daniel Sackheim, a prolific TV director behind episodes of The Walking Dead, and written by consistent X-Files writers Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, Conduit would end up being the third so-called "mythology" episode of the series. Half of the series episodes were based on an overarching storyline involving basic alien invasion stuff, while the other half were monster of the week episodes. These monster of the week episodes dealt with various monsters that change in every episode.
This episode was entertaining, but felt more like a chain of ideas and images than a coherent episode. The direction is strong here, the episode looks and is shot well. The score is excellent, as usual, but it's mostly in the fragmented writing that this episode falters. Gordon and Ganza seem to be intent on providing the episode with cool imagery and iconic moments rather than stringing them into a well-written episode. The episode concerns a mother whos teenage daughter went missing during a camping trip, most likely due to aliens. The mother's young son Kevin obsessively writes down binary code while watching static on the TV. Mulder and Scully go to a moody biker bar, always a setting I like, after getting a tip from the missing girl's friend. They eventually find the body of the girl's boyfriend in the woods, surrounded in a grave by white wolves. Going back to the mother's house, they find that the binary code forms the face of the missing girl. They find the mother and young child to be missing from the house, so they go into the woods and discover the mother has found the daughter. The son is nowhere to be found, and is approaching a glowing orange light, Close Encounters style. the light turns out to be a band of bikers in the woods. Overall, while the individual moments are great, such as the binary code-writing kid staring at TV static, or the bikers coming through the woods, the episodes plot does a poor job of stringing them together, leaving the viewer little idea of how they connect, if at all. I like the X-Files so far, but this is one episode I had sorely mixed feelings about. Stay tuned for more X-Files reviews soon.
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AuthorI'm Spoon Goon. I like movies and video games and occasionally a good TV show. Archives
April 2020
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