Tuesday, May 15, 2012

X-Files Rerun "Genderbender"

"The Addams Family finds religion."
Originally Aired 1/21/94

What's the quickest route out of this!
Did I have to watch this episode? I don't even think I can find anything positive to say about "Genderbender", except I cheered at the "Executive Producer Chris Carter" credit because it means I don't have to watch this again. It's a bad episode that might even be worse than "Space." Perhaps not, it just feels like its the worst episode because it followed the best episode. Anything is going to feel less after watching "Beyond the Sea".

I don't know the circumstances but it seems to me like the writers of "Genderbender" had one idea of what the series is, while the other writers had a different vision. Writers like Howard Gordon, Morgan & Wong, and Chris Carter felt that the series could stretch beyond the weekly limitations of aliens abductions. Other writers (even writers of the comic book series) seemed to think that everything needed some type of "not-what-it-seems" undercurrent. I guess a person who can change sexes wasn't enough, because they also had to be from a cult, which then wasn't even from this world. The script just seemed to be over-complicated, though it did have a few funny quips from Mulder; but don't they all?

3 comments:

  1. I will defend this episode, but for one thing only. It marks the debut on the show of Rob Bowman and it's his direction that makes this a lot better than the script deserves. I think it has a great visual atmosphere. The script however is not the best and I get the impression that they must not have the final pages for the script and promptly had to make the worst crop circle in the world in order to come up with something to conclude it.

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    1. I think I was a lot harsher this time than I was a few years ago, especially saying it could be worse than "Space."

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  2. Haha yes you seem to dislike this one more strongly than I do, but that's only because I found strange funny bits and enjoyed how the barn/cave and alley scenes were shot. But the script is a hot mess which kind of ruins it.

    And I agree, that is by far the worst crop circle I have ever seen. Thank goodness it's the last one we'll see on this show!

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