Well if I'm not mistaken, this episode of The X-Files has more fan reviews posted for it on IMDb than any other, which is saying something since the very first season ones are already more than a couple decades old. The interesting thing is that they go both ways, with viewers loving the humor or hating what is perceived as a variation from a traditional X-Files story. Put me on the plus side of the ledger, I thought this was a brilliantly written story by Darin Morgan, and is the only one EVER that I watched two times in a row, a testament to what an entertaining program it was.
For starters, I loved Mulder's rambling on to Scully in which he takes both his own and her side of the argument about paranormal phenomena, to which Scully's eye rolls and double takes eventually give way to "You're bat crap crazy!" That was just great. There's also the back handed compliment paid to the series most prolific director with fifty two episodes, Kim Manners, who passed away in 2009. I loved the quote attributed to him on the mock gravestone - "Let's Kick It In The Ass". Another prominent headstone honored Jack Hardy, a first assistant director on the 'Millennium' and 'Lone Gunmen' series. He's still alive, so I wonder if he should start worrying.
As for the actor Rhys Darby, who portrays the man-into-lizard, lizard-into-Guy Mann - what a hoot! He handled his role with perfect dead-pan sensibility, playing off Mulder's statements and questions with dead-on precision. And say, did you notice the Oregon license plate on the car Mulder was driving? It read '213 - XTC'; could the letters have stood for 'ecstasy'? You have to wonder, that's what I felt at the end of the story.
Now it pains me to mention this, but I have to get it out of my system. You remember that seventh season episode 'Hollywood A.D.', in which Mulder opined that Richard Gere would have been an appropriate actor to portray him in a movie? Instead, the story line cast Garry Shandling in the movie role of Fox Mulder. Well, take a good look at David Duchovny as this story progresses, and if I'm not totally out of left field on this, he looks like he's turning into Garry Shandling! Whoever made the casting decision back in 2000 when that story aired didn't know how prescient he or she was!
For starters, I loved Mulder's rambling on to Scully in which he takes both his own and her side of the argument about paranormal phenomena, to which Scully's eye rolls and double takes eventually give way to "You're bat crap crazy!" That was just great. There's also the back handed compliment paid to the series most prolific director with fifty two episodes, Kim Manners, who passed away in 2009. I loved the quote attributed to him on the mock gravestone - "Let's Kick It In The Ass". Another prominent headstone honored Jack Hardy, a first assistant director on the 'Millennium' and 'Lone Gunmen' series. He's still alive, so I wonder if he should start worrying.
As for the actor Rhys Darby, who portrays the man-into-lizard, lizard-into-Guy Mann - what a hoot! He handled his role with perfect dead-pan sensibility, playing off Mulder's statements and questions with dead-on precision. And say, did you notice the Oregon license plate on the car Mulder was driving? It read '213 - XTC'; could the letters have stood for 'ecstasy'? You have to wonder, that's what I felt at the end of the story.
Now it pains me to mention this, but I have to get it out of my system. You remember that seventh season episode 'Hollywood A.D.', in which Mulder opined that Richard Gere would have been an appropriate actor to portray him in a movie? Instead, the story line cast Garry Shandling in the movie role of Fox Mulder. Well, take a good look at David Duchovny as this story progresses, and if I'm not totally out of left field on this, he looks like he's turning into Garry Shandling! Whoever made the casting decision back in 2000 when that story aired didn't know how prescient he or she was!