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Tag Archives: John Neville

Separate Lies

10 Friday Feb 2017

Posted by vinnieh in Movie Reviews

≈ 33 Comments

Tags

2000's, Drama, Emily Watson, John Neville, Julian Fellowes, Linda Bassett, Rupert Everett, Separate Lies, Tom Wilkinson

Film Title

Separate Lies

Director

Julian Fellowes

Starring

  • Tom Wilkinson as James Manning
  • Emily Watson as Anne Manning
  • Rupert Everett as Bill Bule
  • Linda Bassett as Maggie
  • John Neville as Lord Rawston

A refined and yet thorny examination of love, infidelity and loyalty, Separate Lies is quite an engaging drama, with a good script from Julian Fellowes, who debuts as director and the work from the main principal actors.

James and Anne Manning are a well-off married couple who divide their time between London( where James works as a top barrister) and a house in Buckinghamshire.separate-lies-poster James likes to think of himself as an honest man who believes in the truth, though he can often be compulsively needy in having things in order and chastising those who don’t meet his standards. Anne loves her husband, but has grown tired of the boredom of life when he’s always away and also the repetitive nature of doing most things for him. It isn’t quite the idyllic life that from the outside it appears to be. Into their lives comes Bill Bule, the son of a local Lord. He is a devil-may-care man who catches the attentions of Anne, without James realising. Around this time, the husband of the couple’s cleaner, is struck by a speeding car that fails to stop. The man dies shortly after due to the injuries sustained. Anne takes an interest in helping Maggie deal with her grief and James is bewildered as to why. There is some talk that the car that hit Maggie’s husband was similar to the one owned by Bill, which sets the suspicions of James running wild. Things come to a head when Anne reveals bluntly that she has been having an affair with Bill, as well as the fact that it was her who was driving when was hit. Shattered by these twin revelations, James is sent into a tailspin. Even though Anne wants to tell the police of her involvement in the death of Maggie’s husband, James, thinking of his own reputation and the wife he still loves, persuades her not to. Keeping this dark secret on the down low is soon proving hard for everyone, even the usually cavalier Bill. Everyone in the damaged picture finds themselves doing battle with their feelings, especially James, who is caught between helping his unfaithful wife and thinking of his own back.

Julian Fellowes does quite an excellent job at directing this cool yet quietly piercing story. His strongest suit is exploring the aftermath of lies and the desire to keep things secret. If there’s q fault in his work, it’s that he sometimes doesn’t scratch the surface enough. He does have an acute eye for the minute details of behaviour, but some of Separate Lies may have gone on to be more substantial if it hadn’t been so polite. Emily Watson and Tom WilkinsonIt does border more than a little on the overly genteel side and could have been a bit more forthcoming, and yet the subtleties of a lot of it did manage to make their bright presence felt. Separate Lies often feels a bit cold at points, but the largely dispassionate view it takes of the characters is still an interesting one that doesn’t fall into melodrama. It presents the characters as ones with many faults and whose choices are ultimately what changes and shapes them in ways that will have fatalistic consequences. There is no character to easily identify with because your loyalty, much like James and Anne’s actions, are ultimately conflicted and go between different people and extremes. It’s commendable that the script allows the roles to be flawed as it avoids the trap of getting us to side with one person more than the other. We are left to make our own minds up about the people who populate Separate Lies and what they all register in terms of emotion from us. The trickling sadness of the score is used sparsely but very efficiently, making certain scenes really stand out.

Tom Wilkinson, who for my money can always be relied upon for a stellar performance,  does it once again here. He gets the right amount of selfishness and critical thinking mixed with a desolation that lies below the buttoned up existence of barrister James. anne-separate-liesThis is a man whose life is all about order and being in control, so when it spins off course, he is galvanized into making a difficult choice after being left to flounder. The dilemma he faces is beautifully and strongly performed by Wilkinson, who suggests a lot about the hurt and how he must let his emotions come out after being under wraps for so long. No less his equal as the seemingly dutiful wife is Emily Watson, who houses desire and bitterness within her being. Watson deftly plays Anne as a woman of many contradictions; in me breath she is regretful and destroyed by her actions and then almost ambivalent and apathetic about her indiscretions. It’s a difficult task to accomplish, but Emily Watson does it with a depth and surprise that makes it very believable and real. The moral quagmire of James and Anne is simply marvellous to witness with Wilkinson and Watson at the top of their game in the acting stakes. Rupert Everett features as the rich cad and provides the catalyst that has a severely deep and shattering impact on all. The role doesn’t really call for much in the way of development, though Everett still makes it watchable. In supporting roles, Linda Bassett as the cleaner with a possible hidden agenda and John Neville as Bill’s stately father, do pretty good stuff in their respective parts.

A bit more oomph may have benefited Separate Lies, but the outcome of it is a largely arresting and melancholy movie that deserves attention for the way the characters are written and the strong performances from the cast, in particular the fascinating leads of Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson.

Urban Legend

01 Tuesday Nov 2016

Posted by vinnieh in Movie Reviews

≈ 34 Comments

Tags

1990's, Alicia Witt, Horror, Jamie Blanks, Jared Leto, John Neville, Joshua Jackson, Michael Rosenbaum, Rebecca Gayheart, Robert Englund, Tara Reid, Urban Legend

Film Title

Urban Legend

Director

Jamie Blanks

Starring

  • Alicia Witt as Natalie Simon
  • Jared Leto as Paul Gardner
  • Rebecca Gayheart as Brenda Bates
  • Michael Rosenbaum as Parker Riley
  • Joshua Jackson as Damon Brooks
  • Tara Reid as Sasha Thomas
  • John Neville as Dean Adams
  • Robert Englund as Professor Wexler

It is a largely derivative of the success of Scream and it does show, but Urban Legend has enough good touches and competent cast to make it stop have a scare factor and fun.

A young girl from Pendleton University is brutally killed by a hooded man carrying an axe in her car, while heading back to campus. urban-legend-movie-posterThe campus is rocked by the murder, especially the studious Natalie Simon, who knew the girl killed and had significant events occur with her in the past. As another body turns up and the students get increasingly concerned about their safety, Natalie starts to form a link between the murders and the urban legends she has heard about in one of her classes, taught by the menacing Professor Wexler. Her classmates, in particular best friend Brenda and ambitious journalist for the paper Paul( who is always looking for a story) discredit her claims as just a matter of grisly coincidence. But Natalie has stumbled on to something indeed and it may just link to an alleged slaying that happened at the university decades before, but was never proven. As the killer continues the violent deaths based around urban legends, it is up to Natalie, who aided by Paul, must unmask the violent psychopath before anyone else dies in this ritualistic way. But with all the panic and so many people who it could be, is Natalie really going to be able to do this without getting herself killed in the process?

Jamie Blanks, who later went on to direct the better than expected Valentine, does some pretty good work in cloaking the movie in a spooky vibe. This is especially true of the muted colour scheme that renders the nighttime sequences in a blue haze that is very creepy as the killer prowls. urban-legend-openingAnd the opening scene of the film where the first victim is killed during a thunderstorm and sets in motion further death is a good way to start this kind of film. The script however is pretty problematic in many areas, not least the fact that the aforementioned Scream hangs over the film and shows this up as something of a copy. It does have some very suspenseful scenes in it and some of the humour is employed with spark, but it just starts to feel a bit inferior after a while. And later on in the film, the humour becomes a little bit much and doesn’t hit that jackpot due to the feeling of being stale. Don’t mistake this as that I didn’t like Urban Legend, in fact I enjoyed quite a lot of it, I merely found it to be a little too reliant on jump scares and the fact that it couldn’t measure up to Scream. urban-legend-castFor all the flaws it has, Urban Legend still has entertainment value and some of the story, in particular the gory methods of dispatch and how they link to stories that people dismiss as made up is realised with a good degree of inventiveness. An impressive score from Christopher Young boosts Urban Legend up a few notches with how effective it revels in the terror on show.

The characters in Urban Legend are nothing really new and are pretty much the people you expect in a generic slasher film. Still, the cast works well with what they are given. Alicia Witt is well cast as the main focal point that is Natalie, who becomes the first to piece the links between the urban legends and murders together. alicia-witt-urban-legendWitt hits the right notes of worry, strength and concealed pain, that plays an important role in how her character acts as she has something that she hides behind her smile. She may not be such an innocent girl, but she is the most accessible character which suits the acting of Alicia Witt very well. The charms of Jared Leto are displayed in his performance as the journalist guy who isn’t quite as cynical, hard-nosed or sneaky as he at first seems to be. Rebecca Gayheart is sparky as the flirting best friend, while Joshua Jackson and Michael Rosenbaum rise above the lack of material for them by playing the practical joker and jerks of campus in a good manner. Tara Reid suffers from a one note part( and performance) that gives her scant to do but be overtly sexy and then die horrifically. John Neville and horror icon Robert Englund add dashes of maturity and creepy experience as respectively the dean and the teacher who speaks of the urban legends that the killer seems to enact.

So so it isn’t original and not quite as hip as it looks to think, yet Urban Legend is far from a bad movie because it does have significant entertainment to be gleaned from the clichéd story.

The X-Files: Fight the Future

02 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by vinnieh in Movie Reviews

≈ 31 Comments

Tags

1990's, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Blythe Danner, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, John Neville, Martin Landau, Mitch Pileggi, Rob Bowman, Science Fiction, The X-Files: Fight the Future, Thriller, William B. Davis

Film Title

The X-Files: Fight the Future

Director

Rob Bowman

Starring

  • David Duchovny as Fox Mulder
  • Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully
  • Martin Landau as Dr. Alvin Kurtzweil
  • William B. Davis as Cigarette Smoking Man
  • John Neville as Well-Manicured Man
  • Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner
  • Armin Mueller-Stahl as Strughold
  • Blythe Danner as Jana Cassidy

A cinematic outing for the hit television show, The X-Files: Fight the Future is a very successful transfer to the big screen filled with action, unusual moments and credible atmosphere, with a larger scope and budget than television can provide It proves that not all television transfers to the cinema screen are unsuccessful.

Mulder and Scully have both been reassigned since the closure of The X-Files at the end of Season 5. They are now working on a case involving a bomb threat to a federal building in Dallas.The X Files Movie Poster Although they manage to locate the explosive, it still goes off due to a mysterious insider. The duo is then used as scapegoats for the explosion, as it is revealed that at least five people perished. With the agency breathing down their necks and the possibility of the two being separated from working together, Mulder and Scully are in a real quandary of what to do. Meanwhile, a mysterious doctor named Kurtzweil, who claims to have known Mulder’s father gives him information that the dead bodies that were found in the explosion where in fact dead before the event. The bodies, as Mulder and Scully discover belong to a young boy and a number of firemen who encountered the Black Oil deep in Texas, which completely takes over the body and will eventually become known. Kurtzweil explains that The Syndicate covered up these deaths by staging the explosion that would make Mulder and Scully accountable. Although they aren’t supposed to be investigating, Mulder drags Scully onto this mission and what they uncover is massive. The X-FilesAs the conspiracy builds, all the evidence begins to fall into place as the colonization plan of the nefarious Syndicate, containing the Cigarette Smoking Man, that has been unfolding becomes subtly known and more dangerously deadly than both Mulder and Scully imagined it ever would. It is something that could in essence bring about a new Armageddon. With the duo getting ever closer, the clock is ticking to discover the full extent of the conspiracy as they travel from the heat of Texas to the snowy depths of Antarctica.

There was always going to be a worry that a show as successful as The X-Files wouldn’t make the transition to the silver screen. But Rob Bowman, who has directed a number of episodes on the show, makes Fight the Future a tense, action-packed spectacle that alleviates any worries about whether the show could do it. The answer is a resounding yes as Bowman’s direction rewards the fans with some answers but makes it still a thrilling movie that non-fans can appreciate. Given a larger scope and canvas, the results are astounding and blend what is so successful about the show and gives them a healthy dose of action with the cinematic treatment. Fight the FutureVisually, Fight the Future is a sheer winner, with production design and cinematography capturing the sense of danger, mystique and grandeur that the film requires. From an attack of infected killer bees swarming to Mulder and Scully being chased through a crop field and a cool climax within the confines of an icy Antarctica lab, Fight the Future delivers all this in spades. Now I would say that a bit of prior knowledge may be useful when watching the film as the plot is complex and convoluted. But it isn’t to an extent where people who haven’t seen the show can’t enjoy it, it can easily be seen as a well-constructed conspiracy thriller. Black OilThanks to creator Chris Carter’s script that is filled with trademark banter between the agents, unusual events, grotesque horror and a deep sense of tangible danger, Fight the Future never loses you for a second. Composer Mark Snow contributes an eerie score, complete with the signature theme tune played in various parts in different ways that compliments the strange atmosphere of the film and gives it immense tension to burn.

As the two main characters that everyone has come to love as a team, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are brilliant as ever. Mulder and Scully Fight the FutureDavid Duchovny strikes the right balance between Mulder’s wonderment and his charm, that isn’t afraid to go far beyond what he thinks he can do. Gillian Anderson fares just as well as Scully, the cool-headed but conflicted partner who tries to be rational but can’t always explain what she encounters. The chemistry is still very palpable and probably more so on the big screen as it adds yet more depth and care to the bond that they share with each other, that is under threat but as strong as ever. They are truly one of the best teams on television and now movies. KurtzweilMartin Landau is excellently cast as the paranoid informant Kurtzweil who puts Mulder and Scully on the tail of the conspiracy with his twitchy knowledge and mysterious appearance. Reprising his role from the show and onto the big screen is the creepy and villainous presence of William B. Davis as Cigarette Smoking Man. Just like on the show, he is a shady character who you will just love to hate. Also returning is John Neville as the now weary Well-Manicured Man, who has had a crisis of conscience at his part in the scheme and attempts to put a stop to it and make amends via Mulder. Mitch Pileggi is back as Skinner, who is trying his best to keep his agents confident in what is a dire situation for all involved. In small but memorable roles as both a questioning government official and a sinister member of The Syndicate, Blythe Danner and Armin Mueller-Stahl are well-suited to the parts.

A well-constructed cinematic venture for Mulder and Scully, The X-Files: Fight the Future is an excellent film that keeps the winning essence of the show and gives it plentiful doses of cinematic magic and spectacle.

The X-Files Season 5

02 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by vinnieh in Television Reviews

≈ 32 Comments

Tags

1990's, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, John Neville, Laurie Holden, Mitch Pileggi, Nicholas Lea, The X-Files, The X-Files Season 5, Veronica Cartwright, William B. Davis

Season 4 of The X-Files was stellar television and Season 5 continues in that vein, containing fantastic episodes, good switches in tone and mixture of genres. Season 5 finds the show at probably its most popular and most creative and I am so grateful to it for that. Mystery, humour, tension and emotional drama collide in what promises to be an eventful and extremely memorable season. Warning, some spoilers will follow during the review.

We begin where Season 4 left off with it appearing that Mulder(David Duchovny) had committed suicide after he was given evidence that everything he believed was true about aliens and conspiracy was fake and as a cover for something else. The X Files Season 5 PosterMulder does not kill himself when he realises that there is a mole in the FBI who has been orchestrating cover ups and passing covert information to The Syndicate. Faking his death with the help of loyal Scully(Gillian Anderson) who puts her job and health on the line, Mulder manages to uncover the traitor as the man who initially assigned Scully to The X-Files and discover a chip, thanks to the unlikely help of Cigarette Smoking Man(William B. Davis) that could help Scully’s cancer. After getting the chip to Scully, her cancer goes into remission and she returns to work. Also, Cigarette Smoking Man is having his own disruptions within The Syndicate due to his difference of opinion and he appears to be shot, but somehow vanishes yet survives in the most peculiar fashion. There are more hints dropped at a closeness between Mulder and CSM that prove most interesting. Mulder’s faith in something out there is now at a nadir. Scully attempts to break through to Mulder after discovering that there is some truth in extraterrestrial life forms, but in seems in vain. Thankfully, Mulder eventually returns to his old self later on as the strange cases mount up again. And the cases and conspiracy that is in fact very much true continue to unravel once Mulder gets his groove back and he and Scully venture into darker and more complicated terrain than ever before. Mulder and Scully Season 5Scully discovers that during her abduction she was impregnated and finds the child born as a result of it. Tragically the girl named Emily dies due to sickness. Meanwhile, a group of alien rebels who are against the plans for colonization begin to target former abductees and fight back in an attempt to destroy the nefarious plans the Syndicate and the other aliens has for the Earth. A woman named Cassandra Spender(an excellent guest star in Veronica Cartwright) says she was abducted and Scully becomes curious as she is starting to believe in the idea of something out there, which culminates in Cassandra eventually being abducted again. Mulder finds some way of getting Scully to remember parts of  the abduction through hypnosis as a war begins brewing. Also throw in the re-emergence of Black Oil,  The Syndicate’s attempts to control it with a vaccine and returning of slippery Krycek(Nicholas Lea), and you have an inventive and intriguing season.

In terms of quality, Season 5 is up there with the best. Everything has the feeling of expansion to it, as more mysteries open up and questions slowly get answered in cryptic fashion. And the visuals are once more a high point within the season, seriously they are absolutely marvellous. Credit to the effects department too who have created some terrifying evils that Mulder and Scully encounter, many of which will induce nightmares. Season 5 is shorter in comparison to other seasons( mainly due to the face that filming of the feature film was in production) but this doesn’t hamper proceedings. It in turn brings a striking immediacy to the fold and lets the writers explore the mythology as well as the personal dramas that affect both Mulder and Scully, whether together or apart. Scully Season 5The arc of Mulder becoming disillusioned with the belief in extraterrestrials is fascinating as it really flips the formula. It gives the chance to see Scully becoming more convinced in alien life where as she is normally the one to think of something scientific to discredit it. The arc thankfully doesn’t go on for a long time, because if it did I think people would be getting annoyed because it is Mulder we are talking about here. And you got to hand to everyone involved for throwing in curve balls that add significantly to the mystery of the show.

There are many episodes within Season 5 that deserve a whole lot of praise for the themes they present and visual style. The two-part opener of Redux and Redux II is extremely tense and filled with drama as Mulder unearths the mole, and before this we are led to believe that it could be Skinner(Mitch Pileggi) and then manages to save Scully from a certain death. The atmospheric Detour features the duo stumbling on a seemingly unusual entity that appears to have been once human but has adapted to become part of the woods it lives in. I must say this episode is very well done and the theme of survival is observed with style. The Post Modern PrometheusOne showstopper of Season 5 is The Post-Modern Prometheus; a wonderfully done episode filmed in black and white and serves as an homage to old horror movies. In the episode, Mulder and Scully investigate claims that a creature impregnated a woman. It transpires that the creature is actually the result of an experiment who wanted to have someone to love. The being is in reality a very gentle person who the townspeople think is a freak, but in the end he is probably more human than any of them. The themes of acceptance and what makes a person human come into play in touching fashion as everyone comes to see that the deformed creature is actually just a lonely soul in want of company. There is Chinga, penned by Stephen King that is somewhat of a point of contention with fans but an episode I found supremely creepy as a china doll influences those around it to mutilate themselves. And a big favourite of mine and so far one of the best episodes in the history of the show is the humour and horror of Bad Blood. Bad BloodIn this episode, Mulder kills what he believes to be a vampire, but then seems to be just a young man, or is it? The humour from this episode is derived from watching Mulder and Scully’s differing view points on what actually transpired and the way they both in turn observe each other. The blend of witty writing, dark humour and horror results in a classic episode. And when the alien rebels arc arrives and the two-part saga of ‘Patient X’ and ‘The Red and the Black’ comes around, a whole lot of action and mystery is to be found as it builds nearer to the climax.

Once more, the principal stars of the show David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are on hand to deliver outstanding work as the duo of Mulder and Scully. Duchovny brings a level of weariness to Mulder this time around as he feels betrayed and his beliefs are conflicted.Mulder and Scully Dance I liked how Duchovny brought out this side to Mulder, and then eventually showcased his immersion back into the role of believer once more. As the audience, as we know ourselves that he has been lied to and that there is something out there, we all feel something of a relief when Mulder regains his old determined mojo. Gillian Anderson is on stellar form as Scully, who is at her most emotional and less skeptical this season, as she grows closer to fully believing after rejecting other possibilities for so long. Anderson imbues Scully with a level of personal detachment that withers as everything around her gets more intense and personal. Anderson really showcases both Scully’s strengths and weaknesses this season to marvellous effect. The growing relationship between the pair is of a fine quality with it being one of trust and care. There are hints of possibly more to their relationship, but these are subtle and never in your face. Mitch Pileggi is suitably authoritative as Skinner, who finds himself drawn into more unusual cases than before. William B. Davis continues his impressive run as Cigarette Smoking Man, who this time around is manipulating from the sidelines after his skirmish with The Syndicate. John Neville is featured a bit more than usual as Well Manicured Man whose gentlemanly charm and seeming niceness mask the fact that he’s a very dark person indeed. Nicholas Lea is back once more as Krycek, who sides with anyone who can be of use and Laurie Holden is used a lot better as Marita, who pays the price for going against her nefarious colleagues. Plus, special mention has to go to the wonderful Veronica Cartwright in her role as the alien abductee Cassandra.

  1. Redux – A
  2. Redux II – A+
  3. Unusual Suspects – B+
  4. Detour – A
  5. The Post-Modern Prometheus – A+
  6. Christmas Carol – C+
  7. Emily – B+
  8. Kitsunegari – B+
  9. Shizogeny – D-
  10. Chinga – A
  11. Kill Switch – A+
  12. Bad Blood – A+
  13. Patient X – A
  14. The Red and the Black – A+
  15. Travelers – B
  16. Mind’s Eye – B
  17. All Souls – B+
  18. The Pine Bluff Variant – A
  19. Folie à Deux – A
  20. The End – A

All I have left to say is that Season 5 is a thrilling ride if ever there was one in The X-Files. It is the show at the height of its powers and has me very excited for what will arrive next.

The X-Files Season 3

14 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by vinnieh in Television Reviews

≈ 50 Comments

Tags

1990's, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, John Neville, Mitch Pileggi, Nicholas Lea, Peter Boyle, Steven Williams, The X-Files, The X-Files Season 3, William B. Davis

The stellar Season 2 of The X-Files upped the stakes and continued to impress right up until its major cliffhanger. Now with Season 3, the success continues and emerges as possibly the best season so far. Crammed with mystery, superb writing and a genuinely outstanding visual palette, Season 3 is a pivotal entry into The X Files canon. Be warned, spoilers will follow.

Mulder(David Duchovny) is presumed dead after he found a crate full of alien bodies and incriminating documents in New Mexico and The Smoking Man(William B. Davis) tracked him down, before setting the place on fire. The X Files Season 3 PosterMulder in fact survived and is nursed back to health by a Navajo guide. Meanwhile, Scully(Gillian Anderson) is questioned about her knowledge of the tape, but denies what she knows. With parts of the government trying to silence both agents from spilling what they know about shady alien experiments, it is a dangerous time for both. Thankfully, Skinner(Mitch Pileggi) helps them out and finally confronts the Smoking Man, ensuring a deal that could for the time being keep them safe from any attempts on their lives. Once reunited, Mulder and Scully also have to deal with personal grief due to Mulder’s fathers murder after he revealed he was at one point involved with the organisation known as The Syndicate. Scully’s sister is killed in a case of mistaken identity, which causes Scully to go on a quest for answers and justice. X Files SpaceshipBoth Mulder and Scully bury themselves in the unusual cases they investigate, but sure enough the presence of the Syndicate looms large and they grow ever closer to unearthing more shocking truths. Mulder is having to confront the fact that his father held so many secrets from him and was part of The Syndicate. While Scully battles grief and the discovery of a strange metal chip in the back of her neck, she attempts to locate her sister’s killer and an explanation for her abduction, which she can barely remember. With the traitorous Alex Krycek(Nicholas Lea) switching allegiances and being wanted by everyone, mysterious informant X(Steven Williams) returning , many more members of the nefarious syndicate introduced such as The Well-Manicured Man( John Neville), plus a lethal substance called Black Oil that jumps from host to host, it’s only a matter of time before events will become a lot more deadly and unusual than ever before.

Now the first thing I have to mention is the visuals of this season. In the past two seasons, the visual style has been on fine form. But here, the visuals are just out of this world. From shadowy lighting to the blinding sun, everything looks so cinematic and it in turn adds another dimension to Mulder and Scully’s dangerous journeys. It’s impossible to escape the evocative cinematography on display during Season 3. The writing this season is sublime, carefully managing to balance mystery, personal drama and tinges of sarcastic humour. The continuing mystery and delving into what the shady part of the government called The Syndicate is up to is given a clearer focus, yet still knows how to tease the audience and not reveal too much too soon. Scully Season 3Mystery has always been so key to The X-Files and here it is no exception as slithering conspiracies lie under the surface, waiting to be discovered, yet what they mean is kept enigmatic.

There are some major standout episodes present in Season. The intriguing ‘Paper Clip’, explores Mulder and Scully’s digging into a national experiment designed by the syndicate to create alien-human hybrids. Just from this episode, you can see them both edging closer towards the truth in typically inventive style. ‘Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose’ is The X-Files at its finest, with an intriguing blend of mystery, drama and humour. In the episode, Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate the murders of fortune tellers. Clyde BruckmanThey are aided by the reluctant but gifted Clyde Bruckman, who can through psychic abilities see how people are going to die. The character of Clyde Bruckman is excellently written and the casting of Peter Boyle as him was a stroke of genius. He dominates the scenes he is in with a mixture of understatement, humour and overall sadness that is hard to forget once you’ve seen it. It is just a fantastic episode that showcases the greatness of the show and how it has grown. Mulder TrainThe tense two parts of ‘Nisei’ and ‘731’ are chock full of surprises( an excellent scene of Mulder jumping on to a moving train is a real action highlight) and more building conspiracies as Mulder investigates an alleged alien autopsy and Scully discovers more about her abduction. The intriguing Black Oil forms a very exceptional arc brimming with possibilities. I think I’ll stop waxing lyrical now about specific episodes because I know that if I continue, this post will go on forever as there are too many to discuss.

Once more, there is some really excellent work from the cast. David Duchovny delves deeper into Mulder and shows his obsessive streak and never say die attitude. There is so much determination and pain within Mulder, who is dealing with the secrets about his father and his connection to everything going on. Duchovny exudes an enthusiasm for the truth, but at the same time a deep wounded side that reveals a cauldron of hurt emotions.Mulder and Scully Season 3 Gillian Anderson is equally as good as the skeptical and cautious Scully, who is beginning to open up more and discover some not so pleasant reminders of her abduction and a resolute search for her sister’s killer. We see how Scully tries to keep a cool head when faced with everything in her path and attempts to relate everything to scientific realms, but underneath is feeling the burden of personal responsibility and sadness. As was present in the past two seasons, the chemistry between the two characters is still of a stellar quality. And it only deepens more as the season progresses. They may be complete opposites but they have grown to appreciate the other and completely have each others back as they cut through conspiracy. The main thing I’ve loved is the way that the relationship is written, it just feels so real and relatable. X files SkinnerMitch Pileggi is on hand to deliver solid work as Skinner, who regularly puts himself on the line for Mulder and Scully. I like the part of Skinner because it reveals this time a real depth and care that he has for the two agents and how dedicated he is to his job. As played by Pileggi, Skinner has become one of my favourite characters in The X-Files universe. The sinister presence of William B. Davis is once more apparent as The Smoking Man, who orchestrates many nefarious acts through his connections in government and his own agenda. Steven Williams continues to play the mysterious X, but this time he endears himself to the audience when he saves Mulder from a tight spot. John Neville is introduced as another Syndicate member known as Well Manicured Man, and he brings a certain genteel politeness to the role that belies the dark presence of the baddie. Nicholas Lea is sliminess personified as the allegiance switching Krycek, who everyone seems to be after this season.

  1. The Blessing Way – A
  2. Paper Clip – A+
  3. D.P.O – B
  4. Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose – A+
  5. The List – C –
  6. 2 Shy – B+
  7. The Walk – B
  8. Oubliette – B+
  9. Nisei – A
  10. 731 – A+
  11. Revelations – B-
  12. War of the Coprophages – A
  13. Syzygy – B
  14. Grotesque – B+
  15. Piper Maru – A+
  16. Apocrypha – A+
  17. Pusher – A+
  18. Teso Dos Bichos – D-
  19. Hell Money – B
  20. Jose Chung’s From Outer Space – A
  21. Avatar – C+
  22. Quagmire – B+
  23. Wetwired – B+
  24. Talitha Cumi – A

I think it’s safe to say that Season 3 of The X-Files is addictive and inventive television at its best.

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