Also announced that Mr. Robot will be wrapping with the upcoming 4th season.

Sept 1, 2018 12:50:56 GMT RagnarokMike said:

Also announced that Mr. Robot will be wrapping with the upcoming 4th season.

Interesting and good. I love when good TV shows don't go too, too long. I think I've only seen the first two seasons. Need to catch up on the third still. But it's hard for me to imagine where else they could go with many more seasons.

Yeah, I find 4-6 seasons to really be the sweet spot for TV, some manage the long haul, but even the best of 'em struggle to make it to 5 despite great beginnings. Then you have something like Supernatural, which, while I do enjoy, and we'd be missing countless great episodes...really has felt aimless after a 5 season run that could have been essentially perfect (after a rocky start) had it ended on a shot of Dean and his family. Better to burn out, than fade away, and all that.

Mayans M.C., the spinoff to Sons of Anarchy, premieres tonight.

Finished Goliath, which spins a good web but then left both seasons on a fairly lame note Season 2 was especiallynot enjoyable

Season 2 of Atypical on Netflix. The best show on Netflix.

Finally working my way through Ken Burns' Vietnam War.

Wrapped up X Files Season 3 today. Lots of thoughts and controversial takes incoming. shinobimusashi is going to love hate this.

Season 3 was a step up from Seasons 1 & 2. I'd say the average episode from the first two seasons was a 4/10. Season 3 was up to a 5/10 due to fewer duds.

I wish I had Mulder's job security. Hell, I wish I had Mulder's job. More often than not he gets to pick and choose cases on a whim with little to no supervision. This despite the fact that he is Public Enemy #1 with much of the Deep State. I also think Mulder has been playing us this entire time since he clearly seems to have access to alien technology himself. The best was the time he flew from Hong Kong to DC seemingly in seconds. Steve Austin also has nothing on "Stone Cold" Fox Mulder. The dude either punches or pulls a gun on one of his bosses in practically every other episode. At some point I just turned off my brain and began to embrace the absurdity of it all. For this reason eye rolling was down approximately 80% in Season 3.

Controversial Opinion #1 of Many: I remembered preferring the Monster of the Week episodes to the Mythology eps growing up. I feel like you had to be a super duper hardcore X Files fan to really know what was going on in a lot of the mythology eps. As if 15 year old me was going to remember seeing Suit #3 for ten seconds in some episode two seasons earlier once he returns a few years down the line. The X Files wasn't WWF! Plus you can only keep your audience dangling for so long before they get bored and move on. Eventually you need to give them SOMETHING. The X Files rarely did. And I eventually grew tired of it and moved on.

Hell, even most of the individual episodes suffer from this same problem. I'm not a plot fetishist. Some of my favorite works have no plot at all. But if you are going to have a plot you should probably try to resolve it. 

Anyway, I still prefer the Monster of the Week episodes, but the Mythology episodes are slightly better in binge format.  I mean, they still kind of suck. But at least I remembered Suit #3 this time around!

Best Episodes

Syzygy- Two bitchy teenagers masquerading as good girls have supernatural powers brought on by a rare planetary alignment. They kill a lot of people.

Probably my favorite episode yet. I usually dislike the comedic episodes but this one was hilarious. The two girls were great. Mulder & Scully were even better. They were so catty towards one another! Occasionally I will chuckle during an X Files episode. This one got me to legit LOL several times.

*Most of the reviews I've read are lukewarm but I don't think those people got it. Lots of complaints about Mulder & Scully 'acting out of character' but, like, that was the whole point! It's in the stars, people! 9.5/10

D.P.O.- Homicidal teenager uses lightning powers to kill people. 

This one just worked for me and it's hard to explain why. Giovanni Ribisi as D.P.O. was among the better one off villains. Maybe I just have a thing for homicidal teenagers using their freak powers to kill people? I dunno.

Quagmire- Mulder & Scully investigate a lake monster.

Not gonna lie. I had been waiting a long time for the mandatory sea serpent episode. I just knew there had to be one. I was so pumped when Piper Maru started out in the Ocean because I thought I was finally getting my sea serpent episode. Swerve! Turned out to be a Black Oil episode. Major bummer. Anyway, this ep was already in my good books because sea serpent(!), but what really puts it over the top is Mulder & Scully having a deep conversation while stranded on a tiny rock island in the lake. Great stuff. One of the best scenes yet. The climax was a bit too Ann Radcliffe for my liking what with Big Blue being an alligator....and I saw the predictable final scene coming from a mile away....but I liked this one.

Worst Episodes

Jose Chung's From Outer Space- Umm...a bunch of nonsense happens. It's complicated. But in a mind-numbingly bad way.

0/10. No stars. I hated this episode so much. Like if I were sober and hadn't written a bunch already with more still to come I'd just go on for thousands of words about what a dumpster fire this episode was. In fact, it is my least favorite to date. Sure, other episodes sucked. But those episodes did not take a dump on the entire premise of the show like this one did. It's 40 minutes of terribly unfunny 'comedy' undermining the entire concept of The X Files with some Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey-level nonsense tacked on at the end which could have come from the diary of any semi-literate teenage girl. I cannot be 100% certain about this but I would not be surprised if this was the episode where The X Files ceased to be must see tv for me in real time. Because I do remember watching, and hating, this episode back in the day. Plus this episode aired April 12, 1996. I was already drifting away from the show by then due to other interests. This wasn't just another nail in the coffin. It was more like 9 or 10 nails and the lid thrown down.

*So of course this episode is heralded as a classic with many calling it the greatest X Files episode    While it's writer Darin Morgan is widely considered the greatest X Files writer. So once again I find myself on the complete opposite side of an entire fandom. Darin Morgan wrote 4 episodes. This is my absolute least favorite and Humbug is probably my 3rd least favorite episode so far. Oddly enough, I enjoyed his other two episodes. Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose (about an unwilling psychic) was a solid 7/10 and War of the Corporphages (about a metallic cockroach invasion because....reasons?) was a solid 6/10. Sure, the plot was daft, but it was actually funny. Hmm...Starting to think I just get a kick out of seeing Scully & Mulder bicker whenever one of them has a potential love interest....

Teso Dos Bichos- A museum acquires a cursed Indian artifact. Deaths ensue.

This didn't have the worst premise. Sure, the cursed artifact trope is literally thousands of years old, but things endure for a reason. Jaguar spirits and other stuff along those lines were rumored to be responsible for all the deaths. Turns out it was just a bunch of feral cats and (possibly) rats. Wtf?

*Hooray! I am in agreement with the masses for once. Fans don't like this episode. Even the creators hated this episode. Teso Dos Bichos' Survivor shirts were handed out to the unfortunate souls who worked on this mess. My only question is "If it's bad, and everybody knows it's bad, why put it out in the first place?"

Hell Money- People lose body parts in a (rigged) lottery.

This was bad, boring, and not even supernatural. It was basically a bad episode of The Commish. 

*Season 4: Coming Soon

I also really enjoyed DPO on my last watch through, love all the Virtua Fighter cameos and Filter Hey Man Nice Shot was nicely used. It's an extremely 90's episode. 

@bake I actually just found the X-Files "Songs In The Key Of X" soundtrack CD at Books A Million a few weekends ago. It came out around the time of season 3, the best part about it is the sleeve that unfolds to a mini-poster with X-Files themed artwork montage done by what appears to be whoever did the artwork for Slayer albums in the 80's(Reign In Blood, Seasons). The album itself ain't that hot but it definitely has a 90's alternative vibe about it that is very cool, Kilgore would probably like it a little more than me, it has Foo Fighters version of Down In The Park but I think I like Manson's version a little better. Red Right Hand was a really cool song though, I believe that was used in one of the episodes from season 3. Also the extended full version of the theme song is pretty dope.

Also I'm the same as you on a few episodes as far as being opposite of what the consensus opinion is, El Mundo Gira is one of my favorite episodes and it's widely regarded as one of if not THE worst episode by everybody else, to me that episode is great and I feel like the tongue in cheekness of it completely flies over everyone's head(the story is being told through the eyes of one of the middle aged mexican women at the migrant camp), it's a brilliant and hilarious episode, you're coming up on it in season 4.

Sept 8, 2018 3:50:58 GMT shinobimusashi said:

I also really enjoyed DPO on my last watch through, love all the Virtua Fighter cameos and Filter Hey Man Nice Shot was nicely used. It's an extremely 90's episode. 

@bake I actually just found the X-Files "Songs In The Key Of X" soundtrack CD at Books A Million a few weekends ago. It came out around the time of season 3, the best part about it is the sleeve that unfolds to a mini-poster with X-Files themed artwork montage done by what appears to be whoever did the artwork for Slayer albums in the 80's(Reign In Blood, Seasons). The album itself ain't that hot but it definitely has a 90's alternative vibe about it that is very cool, Kilgore would probably like it a little more than me, it has Foo Fighters version of Down In The Park but I think I like Manson's version a little better. Red Right Hand was a really cool song though, I believe that was used in one of the episodes from season 3. Also the extended full version of the theme song is pretty dope.

I remember the Key of X was kind of a flop. The Down in the Park cover was the only song that got any airplay around my way. I was a huge Foo Fighters skeptic in those days (although I loved the song Exhausted), but The Down in the Park cover made me loosen up a bit. Funny enough, after it started getting covered like crazy in the 90s, Gary Numan did a remix of his own song that is my favorite version. 

Red Right Hand was fucking everywhere in the mid-90s. The Scream movies, Dumb and Dumber and also in a somewhat forgotten movie called Box of Moonlight that I really liked back in the day. 

Mayans is a solid continuation for the Sons universe, so far done enough to not just be the same thing, have to see how long that lasts. Prado's definitely improved since his Revolution days, though Ez doesn't quite have that Jax Teller charisma. Also, Coco is trying his damnedest to be Tig.

Sept 8, 2018 3:50:58 GMT shinobimusashi said:

I also really enjoyed DPO on my last watch through, love all the Virtua Fighter cameos and Filter Hey Man Nice Shot was nicely used. It's an extremely 90's episode. 

Good observation. This is so true. X Files is an extremely 90s show to begin with and I think DPO is the most purely 90s episode so far.

Picked up Season 4. Gonna start watching in a few minutes. I wish I hadn't done any research though. Something tells me Home will be spoiled a bit after reading about how controversial it was. I imagine I'd have been better off going in cold.

Home is probably the most overrated episode imo, I didn't like it at all and don't get why it's so loved.

Sept 8, 2018 17:16:08 GMT Baker said:

Sept 8, 2018 3:50:58 GMT shinobimusashi said:

I was so wrong about this. shinobimusashi and I will have to disagree once again. Home is the best episode so far and it's not even close. The closest thing yet to X Files doing a straight up horror movie. 9.9/10

I'm already a third of the way through Season 4. I have to admit the first two seasons were a major letdown. I was thinking The X Files aged terribly and  was extremely overrated. Season 3 was an improvement. Not a major improvement, but definitely an improvement. And Season 4 is blowing Season 3 out of the water so far. First episode was a bit weak but everything since has been at least a 6/10.

Also forgot X Files switched from Friday nights to Sunday nights at the start of Season 4. That definitely bought the show a few more years with me. By the time Season 3 rolled around I was doing other things on Friday nights. And after that awful Jose Chung's From Outer Space episode, which was one of the few I actually remembered, I thought I was done with the show in real time......

And I'm sure I would have been had it remained on Friday nights. But the switch to Sundays meant I'd still be watching so long as there was no WWF pay per view that evening.

Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man is another one of only a handful episodes I remembered from back in the day. Definitely marked out for it in real time, and it was perhaps the episode I was most looking forward to rewatching. Don't love it so much anymore though. Making CSM a somewhat sympathetic character was a strange decision. Turning him into a failed writer is even stranger. Parts of it felt like another one of those weird/terrible episodes where they take the piss out of their own show. I still can't hate on it too much since we finally get some (possibly false?) backstory on CSM. So we'll go 6/10.

Musings of a cigarette smoking man is one of my favs:

Ill tell you one thing i dont want and thats the Buffalo Bills winning the Super Bowl. That cant happen.

I dont know sir thats going to be tough, they want it real bad.

So did the Soviets in 80.

Wait... Youre saying...

Whats the matter? Dont you believe in miracles?





Season 4 is a good time, i think i was just a little burned out by that point on my last watchthrough. Paper Hearts is a great episode.

Sept 10, 2018 13:34:55 GMT shinobimusashi said:

Musings of a cigarette smoking man is one of my favs:

Ill tell you one thing i dont want and thats the Buffalo Bills winning the Super Bowl. That cant happen.

I dont know sir thats going to be tough, they want it real bad.

So did the Soviets in 80.

Wait... Youre saying...

Whats the matter? Dont you believe in miracles?

Then there's this gem...

"Life is like a box of chocolates. A cheap, thoughtless, perfunctory gift that nobody ever asks for. Unreturnable because all you get back is another box of chocolates. So you're stuck with this undefinable whipped mint crap that you mindlessly wolf down when there's nothing else left to eat. Sure, once in a while there's a peanut butter cup or an English toffee. But they're gone too fast and the taste is... fleeting. So, you end up with nothing but broken bits filled with hardened jelly and teeth-shattering nuts. And if you're desperate enough to eat those, all you got left is an empty box filled with useless brown paper wrappers."

Now I'm thinking 6/10 was harsh for that episode. Let's bump it up to 7/10

The Deuce returned last night. I won't spoil anything, but I'll just say this.

This season's taking a time jump to the late 70s.

Sept 11, 2018 0:06:13 GMT CM Punk'd said:

The Deuce returned last night. I won't spoil anything, but I'll just say this.

This season's taking a time jump to the late 70s.

Yeah I posted that a long while back. The writers have been pretty clear they picked older actors that they can age through the decades. Season 3 will be even more into the future.

I didn’t watch episode one, may wait a few to start working on them as it’s better binged.

Wrapped up Season 4 of the X Files yesterday. First half of this season was the best yet. Things tailed off a bit during the 2nd half with most of the episodes being just there. Agree with shinobimusashi on El Mundo Gira & Paper Hearts. Those were good/great episodes.

But the best episode of this season was Home and it's not even close. There were a bunch of other solid ones. Can't think of any that were offensively bad this season, though a handful were rather dull.

Another thing that differed about this season is the 2nd parts of the two parters tended to actually be good. Better than the 1st part in many cases. That was most certainly not the case during the first three seasons.

They haven't handled Scully's cancer storyline very well so far. Hell, half the time I forgot she even had cancer since she just plowed through her job same as always 90% of the time. Felt like the writers didn't really know what to do with that storyline. Either that or they strung it out for too long.

I'm X Filed out at the moment so I'm gonna take a little break before I get back to Season 5.

Picked up Detectorists Series 3 instead....finally. I probably watched the 1st & 2nd Series' a dozen times a piece. Series 3 hasn't missed a beat. Hilarious as ever. This seriously might be my favourite show of all time. Top 3, for sure.

I agree with that assessment. I think the Scully cancer saga should have been written into the Monster of the Week episodes. You'd have a single show storyline, mingling with a much bigger story arc, and I think it would've worked for the best.

I watched the premiere of Mayans MC and thought it absolutely sucked. Everything about it was terrible.

Every actor except Edward James Olmos sucks.
The gratuitous SOA cameo was fucking stupid.
The actual SOA showing up was laaaaaaaaaaaame.
So was the gunfight.
Half the episode was dudes jerking off to motorcycles.
The other half was Romeo and Juliet with a twist I predicted 20 minutes before it happened.
The dude's brother working behind the other guy's back was just enough to keep me watching but the rest of the show was so bad I know I won't continue with it. I think my wife might try to keep watching it because she loved SOA far more than I did but even she was massively let down and hasn't watched the second episode yet. Total garbage.

I think the only show currently active we've been watching is Better Call Saul. We started Peaky Blinders on Netflix because we've never watched it but have only seen two episodes. We've also been catching up on BoJack Horseman because we never watched Season 4 and 5 just started. And of course, It's Always Sunny now that it's back.

One of the best BCS episodes yet this week in my opinion! The letter scam was Saul at his absolute finest 😅 and I think we got our first real hint at what's going to happen to Kim. 😔

And the website really exists!

Great to have the Good Place back, reinvented itself again, as funny as ever.

Sept 26, 2018 7:17:21 GMT @admin said:

One of the best BCS episodes yet this week in my opinion! The letter scam was Saul at his absolute finest 😅 and I think we got our first real hint at what's going to happen to Kim. 😔

And the website really exists!

The number even directs you to become a member of the flock. Too bad it cuts out before you can leave a message.

Sept 20, 2018 0:43:44 GMT Baker said:

Wrapped up Season 4 of the X Files yesterday. First half of this season was the best yet. Things tailed off a bit during the 2nd half with most of the episodes being just there. Agree with shinobimusashi on El Mundo Gira & Paper Hearts. Those were good/great episodes.

But the best episode of this season was Home and it's not even close. There were a bunch of other solid ones. Can't think of any that were offensively bad this season, though a handful were rather dull.

Another thing that differed about this season is the 2nd parts of the two parters tended to actually be good. Better than the 1st part in many cases. That was most certainly not the case during the first three seasons.

They haven't handled Scully's cancer storyline very well so far. Hell, half the time I forgot she even had cancer since she just plowed through her job same as always 90% of the time. Felt like the writers didn't really know what to do with that storyline. Either that or they strung it out for too long.

I'm X Filed out at the moment so I'm gonna take a little break before I get back to Season 5.

Man I felt the same way after season 4, it's a fucking grind, probably over 100 episode in those first 4 seasons. Inspired by your posts I was in an X-Files mood over the last few weeks so I decided to jump back into season 8, which I've never properly watched from start to finish(seen a few select episodes though). Season 7 is where the show really falls off, hated where they went with Mulder's sister storyline, hated how they developed Mulder and Scully's relationship, also it was like they had no idea where to go after the main storyline arc climaxed(can't remember if that was season 5 or 6 but it all comes to a head in one episode and a lot of major players get killed off, I enjoyed the main storyline arc more on the second go around). 

But season 7 has two of my favorite episodes, X-Cops IS my favorite episode of X-Files so be sure to check that one out if you never watch another episode. The other episode is the one with Will Sasso about the Jeanie in a bottle that grants 3 wishes, hilarious. 

But they recover nicely with the season 7 finale, it's really good, it takes the show back to the locale of the very first pilot episode and picks up on that story, the way they run it into the opening episodes of season 8 is really good stuff. There are also some really good monster of the week episodes in season 8, I actually really like John Doggett played by the guy that played the T-1000 in T2. But then they get back into the main storyline arc for season 8 and it's pretty awful stuff, it kinda goes off the rails. Season 8 still starts out really strong and has some very cool episodes, I'd say it's definitely better than season 7 maybe even 6 too. 

At the moment, I'm not watching much, just the second season of The Gifted, while waiting for the other comic book shows to return. I guess season fifteen of Grey's Anatomy as well, though I've yet to watch the premier episode.

I'm really looking to this year's Arrowverse crossover event.

Enjoying Mr. Inbetween so far, something about the completely apathetic violence of Ray is captivating. Fun dark comedy.

Sept 28, 2018 5:02:25 GMT RagnarokMike said:

Great to have the Good Place back, reinvented itself again, as funny as ever.

Watched the first episode a few days ago , was weirdly my most anticipated return but the show is just so fucking good. I didn't think the first episode was as LOL funny as others but I like where it's going and have faith in the writers and actors. Nice seeing Mike O'Malley from Yes,Dear fame get a gig too. 


Also watching The Voice for the first time ever this year , only because one of the contestants is from down the road only a couple miles from me and I want to show the hometime boy some love. If any of you guys watch it , root for Chris Kroeze #TEAMBLAKE - I'd love for him to go far. 

Sept 29, 2018 1:40:47 GMT Lony said:

I'm really looking to this year's Arrowverse crossover event.

Gotham is in it's last season but having a Bat in the verse is a nice substitute. Although Arrow has been more or less a version of Bat but hey stupid sexy Ruby Rose ftw.