Autumn Tysko's X-Files Reviews

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Invocation

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"It's medically impossible."
"So what's the punch line?"

There is no punch line, sorry. Not lately. While certainly being a dark and creepy outing and perhaps the best episode produced from a David Amann script, in the end "Invocation" can best be summed up in the words of Ronnie - "You're not making sense, dude."

Rather than explaining this X-File, Amann falls back on simply having Scully tell Doggett and the audience that the whole thing is "impossible." Perhaps this is meant to be some sort of lesson for Doggett about the X-Files when coupled with her little been there, done that, got the T-shirt speech at the end. Problem is the audience doesn't need to be told. Scully uses the word impossible no less than four times often interspersing it with plenty of "not normal" and "strange" just to make sure we all get the point. Guess what? A seven-year-old boy disappearing for 10 years and coming back still age 7 is impossible. Who knew? Wow, something "strange" on the X-Files... what a shocker.

What this episode was missing was the smart banter. Back in the day when Scully was the skeptic she did that. All Doggett ever does is talk about good police work and finding the bad guy. We've already learned that big words scare him. At this rate Scully will be so starved for intellectual stimulation she'll start talking to herself. When Doggett does try to croak out some sort of rational explanation (which used to be the territory of Scully - who can forget classics like calcium deposits causing fangs or swamp gas) it's something like "failure to thrive" and he looks like it hurts for him to even think that hard. It's much easier to just call Scully "lazy" for offering a paranormal explanation.

Banter is what we miss without Mulder in the equation. Arguing could be fun with two whip smart minds. Now Scully struggles with being the believer and Doggett is just not the brightest bulb so the many arguments in this episode boiled down to "do you not somehow recognize how strange this is" versus "I just want to find the guy." Frankly, it's not as fun. I can't blame Patrick or Anderson for this either. Both actors are clearly bringing their all to their scenes together. Robert Patrick does do a good job of showing us a troubled Doggett from the start. Anderson does do a good job of showing Scully's continual struggle with offering the paranormal explanation in the way she wrings her hands and uncomfortably offers up alien abductions. Their arguments are the testy exchanges of two people still talking at rather than to each other. That works for where the characters are at in this uneasy partnership.

However, one of the things that always made the X-Files unique was that even in the darkest episodes before there was usually some fun. Some entertaining verbal sparring between two highly intelligent characters or a small bit of humor in the dark lifted an episode. If 1013 is to make this reconfigured show work they need to find a way to bring that element back into play.

However, what concerned me most about "Invocation" was that it was clearly to be used as a vehicle to tell us something about Doggett. However, as is the tendency these days, it really tells us nothing. We are given hints instead of a story. Back in the day Mulder told us very plainly his sister was missing and what he believed happened to her. Now, in the 1013 era of aren't we clever by not ever telling the audience ANYTHING about major characters or events, we are meant to piece something together from a psychic making claims about some force coming from Doggett who has "lost someone," a longing stare at the picture of a little boy, and the determination with which Doggett handles the case. To be honest my reaction was "oh no, not again." By being so vague and so close to Mulder and his missing sister quest the writer's attempt to personalize the story instead trivialized it into X-Files formula. It insults the audience. I can only hope that picture represents something normal like a child lost in a custody battle rather than Doggett's own deep dark missing quest.

Luckily, the X-File itself is scary. It became the most interesting thing about the episode. Director Richard Compton has been around a long time even if this was his first outing on The X-Files, and his experience shows. I liked the way he had the camera swoop down in the teaser showing the audience what would become a familiar logo of the pony ride with Cal stalking around it before moving in on the swinging boy. There was fluidity to the camera even in what could have been simple talking heads conversations by using the actor's movements to draw the camera into a swinging motion. Compton and Director of Photography Bill Roe did a good job with using the lighting - especially when the camera was on Billy. His face was almost always hidden half in shadow adding to the menacing feel that came from that stare. Mark Snow added to the uneasy nature of the episode by interweaving the "All the Pretty Horses" theme throughout the episode starting in the teaser. Why singing this particular song in a mournful nature would calm a kid down I have no idea. I found the whole thing, especially Ronnie singing it to be unsettling.

Compton did a good job of drawing performances out of the younger actors. I really thought that Colton James did a great job of the haunted "younger" brother Josh who seemed to be the only person who got just how creepy Billy was. Rodney Eastman as Ronnie was also well cast and did a nice job with the part of the troubled teen. The only thing that irritated me was the occasional hysterics that Kim Greist used in playing the mother that just didn't ring true. Well, that and the ridiculous pregnancy mock up they did with her complete with her hands always on her bloated belly.

The bottom line with "Invocation" is that it succeeds in being a dark episode. All dark. Yes, it was unnerving and scary, but child abuse and abduction always is. That's an easy given. Too much of this episode was formula. Some might call that lazy.

Random Musings

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-The tag line tells us we are at a carnival for Webster Elementary, yet the sign behind the swinging boy reads "Bethune Elementary."

-While we're talking about carnivals that was quite the budget that school had to put on their event. They had rides and everything. I don't know about you folks, but back when I was in school we were lucky to have a cake walk and the ever popular sponge toss. There were no ponies, let alone Ferris Wheels and the like.

-Frank's Fashion Spot: In this episode Scully wears that same blue blouse and black jacket she seems to wear every week anymore (well, except when she's in the desert in which case she wears her only other outfit). Apparently everything else she's ever owned for the last 8 years is at the dry cleaners and the costumer for the show now officially has ZERO imagination. She's no doubt spending all her time fretting over just what exact shade of grey t-shirt she'll have Duchovny wear when he returns.

-While the time stamp on the screen during Doggett and Scully's first meeting with Billy reads 11:02 the clock on the wall behind Doggett a few minutes later tells us it is 2:38.

-I have to say I was amused by Scully's indignant frustration with Doggett breaking the law by getting into juvenile records. A little bit hypocritical given all that she and Mulder have done over the years. Plus there's that little incident of her shooting an unarmed man in her apartment.

-Scully's "Mulder leap o the week": Spontaneously deciding to play a tape backwards on a whim. Where in the world did that one come from? And then she decides to sing along! Well, it was funny if nothing else.

-What I can't figure out is how after ten years one nonverbal kid on a swing would automatically make everyone think that it was the same kid that had disappeared before. Those school folks are pretty good at leaps themselves.

-You know, one would think that after having a child abducted the parents would let their other child know in no uncertain terms that it was not OK to go out strolling after dark calling out "pony, hey pony."

-Manly Man Meter: I bring to your attention the following statement: "As big and tough as I am I can't do it alone." Then there was all that gruffness hiding his man pain over a wallet picture. Tsk, tsk. I am forced to bring the numinous nuts number down to a 4.

Autumn
"This isn't just a horror story, this is a biological impossibility."

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