The X-Files: Hollywood A.D.   Rewatch 
August 3, 2020 8:23 PM - Season 7, Episode 19 - Subscribe

Mulder and Scully are assigned to investigate a bombing in the crypt of Christ Church Cathedral in Washington, and Skinner informs them that a old college friend of his, who is now a Hollywood writer/producer, will be tagging along with them in order to research a movie he's writing about the X-Files.
posted by orange swan (15 comments total)
 
i love the wacky x-files episodes, but i seem to recall this episode as being the one where they crawled entirely up their own ass like a copraphiliac ouroboros

(the split screen with skinner in the tub was pretty lol tho)
posted by entropicamericana at 8:58 PM on August 3, 2020


Wasn't this one of the eps written by Duchovny? The fascinating if gross mental picture of a coprophiliac ouroboros aside, I thought that it was pretty nifty and mostly poked fun at the show's own self-seriousness, and the high concept of the Lazarus Bowl was also pretty keen. Imagine the recording getting onto YouTube...
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:57 PM on August 3, 2020


This was indeed written by Duchovny. That's how they got Tea Leoni and Garry Shandling to be in it.

I admit that I kinda liked Mulder's theory on zombies towards the end - that we assume zombies all only want to eat because we see them just after they wake up and they're hungry, and if we just left them alone they'd eventually get on to wanting to drink and dance and party a little. It's a strangely sweet perspective.

Also, there's the scene where Mulder and Garry Shandling are having a deep conversation about "which side" Mulder dresses on while Scully is racing back and forth in the background showing Tea Leoni how she runs in high heels.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:30 AM on August 4, 2020 [1 favorite]


showing Tea Leoni how she runs in high heels, and the icing on the cake of *that* is Tea Leoni losing interest and taking out her cellphone while Scully continues to run back and forth.
posted by Mogur at 7:24 AM on August 4, 2020 [2 favorites]


This one was pure agony.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:02 PM on August 5, 2020 [1 favorite]


I wasn't expecting to enjoy the rewatch, as I remembered this episode as having very broad, cheesy humour, which is not my kind of humour, but I enjoyed it much more than I expected. There are groan-inducing moments, but also some fun ones.

I could have done without the whole movie subplot thing -- Wayne Federman was so annoying -- and just had a usual monster of the week episode with the subversive gospel and the counterculture forger and the conservative bishop -- that idea had some promise, and deserved a better treatment than the jokey one it got. The Lazarus bowl was cool.

I remember the first time I watched the split screen of Mulder and Scully taking their bubble baths, and how I cackled when it became a tri-split and added a shot of Skinner. Perfect use of his deadpan humour. I did wonder why Mulder and Scully wouldn't just be honest with each other about how they're taking baths, though. They've had sex.

Mulder's "Téa Leoni would never have a crush on me" line was a groaner -- so self-indulgent.

The episodes David Duchovny wrote are the only ones in which we ever hear Scully laugh, which makes me think he personally enjoys Gillian Anderson's laugh a lot.

Mulder tends to think Skinner's punishing him for something when he sends him on a case he doesn't think is an X-file, and that's never once been the case.
posted by orange swan at 2:33 PM on August 5, 2020


David Duchovny made his own wife make out with Garry Shandling in this episode. Not cool, dude.
posted by orange swan at 3:14 PM on August 5, 2020


ngl gillian anderson has a great laugh
posted by entropicamericana at 5:32 PM on August 5, 2020


Odd, I expected more pushback against this episode. I liked 'The Unnatural' better than this, Duchovny's second foray. Indeed, the self indulgence definitely needed editing down.

Yeah, the movie bit is cheeseball as heck, but the rest is fun.

Been waiting all rewatch to see that Scully running gag! Was disappointed to notice it was Anderson's double.

Who doesn't enjoy a good bubble bath?

The Lazarus Bowl is cute, but silly. Not only the breakage pattern, and distortion after firing, but the first wax cylinders worth bothering with can take far higher resolution impressions than pottery and aren't very good.

I'm sure there are other cases that aren't depicted in-show, there must be all the other times that Skinner sends Mulder out on a punishment (boring) case?
posted by porpoise at 8:42 PM on August 5, 2020


Who doesn't enjoy a good bubble bath?

I don't. I hate baths. I feel like a trapped walrus, and it grosses me out that I'm sitting in what is essentially a soup of my own off-scourings.
posted by orange swan at 5:33 PM on August 13, 2020


I did wonder why Mulder and Scully wouldn't just be honest with each other about how they're taking baths, though. They've had sex.

They have not, not yet at this point, you take that back.

< / noromo >
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:16 PM on August 13, 2020


Ah, I see. I appreciate the shower afterwards.

But yeah, communal hot tubs = human pathogen soup.


'& l t ;' (A mperand L esser T han) without the spaces makes a hard '<'
Likewise, '& g t ;' (A mpersand G reater T han) without the spaces makes a hard '>'

It should show up in the 'Live Preview' box at the bottom of the screen.

< is used to start a html formatting thing, and > is used to end them here.

posted by porpoise at 11:27 PM on August 13, 2020


'& l t ;' (A mperand L esser T han) without the spaces makes a hard '<>
Likewise, '& g t ;' (A mpersand G reater T han) without the spaces makes a hard '>'

It should show up in the 'Live Preview' box at the bottom of the screen.

< is used to start a html formatting thing, and > is used to end them here.



I know, I was using it in the HTML sense as a jokey way to indicate the end of my being in "noromo mode" but since there is no actual "noromo" HTML tag I put in the extra spaces so it didn't run the risk of making the server go kerflooey.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:38 AM on August 14, 2020


Yeah, the hard > avoids triggering the board trying to parse the html.
posted by porpoise at 9:46 AM on August 14, 2020


You're in denial, Empress Callipygos.
posted by orange swan at 7:27 PM on August 17, 2020 [1 favorite]


« Older Critical Role: The Ruined Sliv...   |  Podcast: My Brother, My Brothe... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments

poster