The X-Files: Sunshine Days   Rewatch 
September 14, 2020 8:21 PM - Season 9, Episode 18 - Subscribe

After two guys sneak into a house with an interior that is exactly like that of The Brady Bunch house, one of them winds up crash landing on the roof of his car across the street, and Doggett, Reyes, and Scully begin to investigate the man who lives in the house.
posted by orange swan (4 comments total)
 
Poor thread, there's still no comments! I disliked this one the first time around--I watched The Brady Bunch, like most kids my age, but I never liked it much, and the episode seemed absurd at the time. So color me a bit surprised that I enjoyed this so much more this time around. Monica was cute, slinging around facts of where the real exterior shots were filmed (because you can see that house is not the split-level the original was), and the way she kept examining things inside the house.

I've always found Michael Emerson kind of creepy, and I wonder if it might be because of this episode. John Aylward was a longtime Seattle Rep actor who I'd seen in quite a number of plays before he became kind of a fixture on TV.

I did find it a bit of a stretch that no one seemed to see how great the potential for harm was, either because as Doggett pointed out, he could dangerous, or as they all seemed oblivious to, Anthony could be hurting himself. It was hard to buy that they were all so blinded by having proof, selfish, though I did love the scene where Skinner was floating and how giddy he was.

They did the thing I hate so much, when Scully mentions who Oliver was and mumbles that she may have watched a few episodes and everyone boggles. Oh, how shocking, a person watched a super popular TV show from their youth and remembered some characters, how amusing and embarrassing. Then they piled on Doggett's grumpiness about anyone being a fan. Like, ffs, it's the early aughts, fans are everywhere (though they're always losers like TLG), Scully liked an old TV show that was on when she was young, hilarious. Ugh.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 12:01 PM on September 16, 2020


David Faustino (Bud Bundy, 'Married... with Children) was only 28 in 2002. !?

Michael Emerson ('Lost,' 'Person of Interest') with a guest star. He does have some range in appearance.

I guess this counts as a jokey episode. Snappy dialogue all around.

Yes, Reyes got to be silly and goofy (looking up the name on a fansite when everyone was thinking national records and such). She's such a happy-go-lucky character, it's kind of weird that she's into Satanic ritual abuse and then the X Files.

I guess they had a bunch of money sloshing around - they rebuilt the Brady set from scratch. Nice but simple bit of camera work for upside-down Doggett, and Patrick got to be a bit goofy too even within the constrains of the character.

lol, video conferencing in 2002. Surprised that in a joke episode that they didn't insert any video conferencing gags, or maybe it was new enough that tropes haven't yet been formed.

This is the most accurate depiction of lock picking yet on the show. The angle and the motions are wrong though. But this scene is probably why I've historically made the locking comments since.

Everyone sitting around being goofidley amused, when Oliver is obviously in distress was really jarring, but I guess that's what they were aiming for.

Also jarring was that they found evidence of the paranormal again, but can't/ won't pursue it. The dude talking about Nobel prizes "next year" was pretty unbelievable.
posted by porpoise at 1:54 PM on September 16, 2020


Never have Bobby and Cindy Brady looked so terrifying. I mean, they were right up there with the kid in the sack mask in The Orphanage.

Reyes took a picture of the actual Brady Bunch house once, because of course she did.

This episode is the only episode in the entire run of the show in which Skinner laughs.

It is distasteful that Scully saw both Fogelman and Gibson Praise primarily in terms of what she could learn from them.

Poor Fogelman has some very serious issues. He can create any reality he wants, and he chooses to live with the fucking Bradys in their house -- as one of the kids? I hope Dr. Rietz plans on giving him some intensive therapy to help him mature into something resembling a functional adult, but even then I think there's something neurologically wrong with him. And how was he making a living?

The "real" interior of his home was so sad and depressing.

And how does Fogelman escape murder charges? I suppose it helped that the two guys had unlawfully entered his home, but even so I don't think he could argue reasonable force.
posted by orange swan at 5:09 PM on September 16, 2020 [1 favorite]


Depending on which State, the Castle doctrine is fairly regularly upheld.

But yeah, the whole thing's improbable. I wonder if Fogelman expecting the bills to be paid - just happened to end up being paid on time or if the utilities blanked out on that property because Fogelman hadn't considered it?
posted by porpoise at 11:11 PM on September 16, 2020


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